Cooking in South Auckland

8 May – 7 June 2015
Ōtara cube

Cooking in South Auckland is a collaborative artwork between Ashlin Frances, Phoenix Puleanga, Rebecca Ann Hobbs, and Samson Vaotuua. The work is based on musician Lil B’s (also known as the ‘BasedGod’) philosophical approach of drawing analogies from cooking to illustrate how one gets ahead in life generally and then extending these descriptors into a dance vocabulary, “Eat healthy make sure your diet is correct…anytime you eating, you making money”. This philosophy is illustrated with a dance move in the form of an arm movement that is an exaggerated eating gesture. Lil B has created a series of online instructional “cooking” videos that guide the viewer from head chef to top chef to master chef. This particular cooking video takes a leaf from Lil B’s cookbook however it uses local ingredients to add a South Auckland flavor.

Cooking in South Auckland is the second exhibition of the new curatorial programme at the Ōtara Cube, a public exhibition space at the Ōtara Town Centre, curated by Ane Tonga and supported by Fresh Gallery Ōtara with funding from the Ōtara-Papatoetoe Local Board.