YOU WILL ALWAYS HAVE A PLACE AT MY TABLE

Abstract

It's time to eat is a simple phrase that holds a privileged comfort for satisfying hunger and a time for bonding, gathering, and reflecting. I write these words as I make homemade cavatelli pasta in my parents' kitchen; the flour has specked the computer screen, my clothes, and floor. The enjoyment of rolling the dough to make these small, ribbed delights will last several meals as it is dried, then frozen, to be later taken out and enjoyed again. These same notions of blissful family memories enter my smithed objects. My art series, "You Will Always Have a Place at My Table" is a collection of one-of-a-kind, sensory-provoking cooking and serving tools inspired by my childhood memories of family dinner time. My thesis is influenced by Western 18th and 19th Century elaborate tableware that curate a landscape of personal identity rooted within objects, and traditions derived from rituals. Aristocratic dining slowed down the eating process to allow for establishing connections between the guests as the meal was intended to be long lasting with appreciation for the food and tradition. Like an event-filled dinner party from the past with consideration for etiquette and culture, a DelBrocco family dinner is filled with the sounds of vocal communication, the clattering of kitchen tools, and lively music in the background. Meanwhile, preparation is like a series of systematic gears operating in harmony as the meal unfolds. Like the many objects we assign a value, my art, while on display will absorb and collect the numerous fruitful memories spent at the table. Welcome to my table.