Baoxian Zhong

This image is about picking up the Jiaozi(a type of dumpling), and reading the informations on the paper.

Baoxian Zhong is a visual narrator who is interested in making narrative through object and image.

Although there are many fantasy parts in the works, they are a kind of narrative method for me to pursue "authenticity". I have always been interested in topics related to food, culture, memory, and personal identity. My creations are born from life, social interaction and observation of the surrounding environment. I am very interesting in exploring how participant interact with my work, and we build the work together.

a self-portrait on sculpted Jiaozi created by Baoxian

When I study alone in a new place, I experience intense homesickness at first. However, this feeling gradually faded after I meet new people and cook and interact with them. I started to think 'was it the food that makes me joyful and secure, or was it the people? Was it the entire atmosphere? 'How can I preserve this lovely moment?'

Using hand crafted Jiaozi as a medium, through the one-on-one interaction between audiences and Jiaozi (one type of boiled dumpling in Chinese pronunciation, it is a symbol of reunion). I intended to create a 'space' with the audience. I aim to use recipes as way of documentation for this ‘conversation’. As both creator and participant, I want to immersive people to feel this meaningful moment of encounter brought by food.

The collected recipes will be open to the public as well as an online platform. Here, you might find a taste you're familiar with, or try something completely different. These were the dishes recommended by others, and each piece held a special memory.

Jiaozi Experimentations – The goal is trying to test out the better way to contain the recipes(and interactive note written on the paper and inserted in Jiaozi sculptures)

showing unique creation numbers on the dumplings

Dine Together

"Hello! Welcome to my 'house' for dinner!"

This project is an invitation to audience participation by exchanging participants' home recipes through one of my own. The initial goal was to create a space where people could come together and reminisce about their home. 'Dine Together' exhibited in the MA1 Public Event Show, I invited, collected, and organize a collection of recipes with multiple variations from participants. The collections of recipes from this event will be published to the public. The collections of recipes will change according to the time space and participants.

Jiaozi sculptures can be taken by participants after they share the recipes during the MA1 Public Event Show.

showing the Jiaozi is picking up by participants

Medium:

Mix Medium

The book is made by folding translucent paper. Through my personal descriptions of the recipes, combined with the sculptures of the dishes I created from memory, the book shows the blurred feeling of food in the memory.

Handcrafted dishes created based on the past memories. Top Left: Stir fry 'everything'/ Noodle with sesame paste/ Red braised pork belly/ Bottom Left: Chinese chives pockets/ Winter melon with mutton meatball soup/ Mung bean drink/

The Personal Recipes Book

This series of illustrations recipes book with simple descriptions from a personal perspective aim to inspire the audience responding to the content with their own previous experience of food, and also trying to leading the audience to enter the personal memories.

The nine dishes selected for this recipes book are some of the dishes that I misses from my hometown when I lived abroad. Although the taste of home cannot be completely recreated, recipes are the instructions that can be followed and recreate.

With selection of Jiaozi, there are nine different recipes with each of the dumplings containing one of the nine at random.

culture-heritage family-bond food-cultures memory

Baoxian Zhong

Dine Together

Medium:

The Personal Recipes Book

Social

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Royal College of Art