Hundred Daughters Hundred Patience Hundred Meals reconfigures Kevin WY Lee’s 2019 photobook of the same title within a home setting. The presentation features black and white photographs taken on a family road trip to his father’s home village in 2012, alongside pictures of 100 dishes prepared by the artist in memory of his late father.
The title of the work makes reference to the artist’s father – born in a rice-farming village in Kaiping, Southern China, Pak Nui (Hundred Daughters) would later change his name to Pak Noi (Hundred Patience) when he moved to Fiji in search of prosperity. In Fiji, Pak Noi opened his own Chinese restaurant, Poon’s Restaurant, which would come to define him as a restauranteur.
Amalgamating ideas of journeys and food, Hundred Daughters Hundred Patience Hundred Meals chronicles the artist’s own family history, while serving as broader metaphors for origins and identity, migration and diaspora. The work reframes cooking not merely as an activity generative of physical sustenance, but a balm for the soul.
Venue: 37 Emerald Hill
Block 2, Level 1
When: 13 Nov 2020 - 30 Jan 2021,
By: Singapore International Photography Festival (SIPF)
