We talk about food every day — what we’re having for lunch, the restaurant we tried last week, share a recipe, stream pictures of food on our table to the world even before we eat it. But what happens when you give the food on your plate, or on someone else’s for that matter, a second thought? Food can be multifaceted — it can tickle the palate of our thoughts on culture, identity, politics, economics, technology and so much more.
That was what set off seven friends in Bengaluru — a mix of artists, writers, teachers, lawyers — to start an online food journal — The Forager . The quarterly, launched in October 2014 by the Forager Collective, is gearing up for the release its third edition in April this year. “We were always concerned about food and its politics. We often discussed the issues around it. Every one of us had this interest to push this discussion on to a wider platform,” says Sunoj D., the magazine’s art editor. The Forager is a platform for multi-disciplinary food-related inquiry. And so they invite readers to “see the world through the prism of food”.
The journal is edited by Deepa Bhasthi and Aileen Blaney (from Ireland living in Bengaluru). Sunoj D is the Art Editor. Nanaiah Chettira and Pradeep Kambathalli are Contributing Art Editors, Aditya Kamath is Contributing Editor. It’s designed by UBIK. Four of the seven on board are artists. “So we thought it would be interesting to see a combination of visual and text. Even in our independent practices, we relate to these concerns,” says Sunoj. The title creates a caveman-like image in the mind. Explaining the name, Deepa says: “We are in a world where food is no longer only that which we grow, cook and eat. As a practice that lies at the very fabric of what builds human beings, food is, at once, both deeply personal and communal, frivolous and political, ritualistic and routine. As an idea, food lends itself to multiple narratives, as a political tool, an economic parameter, a personal memoir and an anthropological study aid, among others. We are foragers in a world of excesses! So we felt The Forager was an appropriate choice.”
The first issue had, among other interesting articles, one on ‘The Buddha’s Last Supper’. Just the blurb is a tantalising idea — “In May, 543 B.C., the Buddha ate his last meal. What was on the menu is still debated”. ‘The World in a Supermarket Aisle’ is an agri-economic take on a simple everyday chore like grocery shopping in Ljubljana (Slovenia). An artist writes, trying to figure out why apples from Chile were abundant and cheaper at the supermarket than ones grown (copiously) in her own country. In the second issue, ‘Symbols of tradition in the aesthetics of displaying meat’ discusses from a photographer’s point of view, if there is a reason why a butcher will display one cut of meat, not the other, looking at markets in Kampala, Uganda.
Sunoj admits that they took time to figure out what exactly they would feature in their journal. “It should be a well-researched piece, but should not be an academic paper,” elaborates Deepa. “We were clear that we will not carry lifestyle stories, recipes, and restaurant reviews. We don’t have anything against it…The idea is to push people to think about food in different contexts.”
“Earlier we did get a lot o people writing in personal food memoirs, what their grandma or mother cooked kind of stuff…It’s just that it doesn’t push a larger discourse,” shrugs Sunoj. Contributions are invited from all over the world. “We work with contributors right from the conception stage. Given that we have four in-house artists, they do the illustrations or we take it from suitable artists,” says Deepa. They don’t have any funding. “We’ve all contributed to build the site. It’s not a commercial venture. We don’t pay contributors,” says Deepa very simply. The magazine does not carry any advertising. It’s free to access. “We currently have people from around 72 countries reading the magazine online, according to Google analytics. After going live, we send out links to friends, and through people we know. We also have a considerable social media presence,” explains Deepa of how they get the journal across to people. Given that they all have full-time jobs and they are doing this for the love of the idea, and they live in a city like Bengaluru, they don’t meet very often. “But just before an issue we meet up to talk about it.”
The Collective also participates in experimental, cross-cultural and interdisciplinary collaborations with artists, scientists, activists, curators and arts and cultural organizations interested in creatively engaging the public with food’s various dimensions in both digital and physical spaces, says Deepa. The Forager Collective recently tied up with Chicago-based The Knowledge Project, to participate in the Kochi-Muziris Biennale Collaterals, Jew Town, at Fort Kochi. “Our entry was called the ‘Table of Contents: Genesis’. And it illustrated the relationship between money and agricultural activities — a complicated one.” Farming symbols from currency notes and coins were carved on to the table, exploring the influence of money in food structures and farming practices — a connection deeply pervasive and always visible, but scantly acknowledged. Viewers were encouraged to take an impression of the carvings, putting crayon and paper on the etchings.
The journal can be accessed at >www.theforagermagazine.com
