Exposition

ideally, the biryani that brings us all together (2025)

Saniya Jafri
Saniya Jafri
open exposition

About this exposition

en
This Exposition is a brief ironic comment on the ongoing degradation, commodification, and colonisation of food and its many dimensions — recipes, ingredients, context — and a reflection on the territorial definitions that shape identity, in this case of South Asians and the Global South, once bound together as a people and still united in the brieftopian world of the Author’s Greatest Biryani: an amalgamative dish of political and cultural reproductions, drenched in time, where old and new contest identity. Through a conversational, autoethnographic lens, the exposition blends historical, colonial, and territorial reflections, using Biryani as both departure point and metaphor for shared identity and dislocation. Visual collages — archival, familial, and sourced — act as probes connecting memory, culture, and belonging. Ultimately, the work offers the Author’s Greatest Biryani as a living document of generational knowledge and a utopian gesture, inviting both insiders and outsiders to gather around a dish transcending borders and time.

sv
Denna exposition är en kort, ironisk kommentar om den pågående nedbrytningen, kommersialiseringen och koloniseringen av mat och dess många dimensioner – recept, ingredienser, sammanhang – samt en reflektion över de territoriella definitioner som formar identitet. I detta fall handlar det om sydasiater och det globala syd, en gång förenade som ett folk och fortfarande sammanlänkade i ’Authors Greatest Biryani’s brieftopiska värld: en sammansmältning av politiska och kulturella reproduktioner, genomdränkt av tid, där det gamla och det nya utmanar identitetens gränser. Genom en samtalsmässig, autoetnografisk lins väver expositionen samman historiska, koloniala och territoriella reflektioner, där biryani fungerar både som utgångspunkt och metafor för delad identitet och förflyttning. Visuella kollage – arkivmaterial, familjebilder och andra källor – agerar som länkar mellan minne, kultur och tillhörighet. Slutligen presenteras ’Authors Greatest Biryani’ som ett levande dokument av generationskunskap och en utopisk gest, som bjuder in både insatta och utomstående att samlas kring en maträtt som överskrider gränser och tid.
typeresearch exposition
keywordsfood, food studies, recipes, food as appropriation, food design, colonialism, colonial memory, memory practice, archives, Archival Research, Indian Subcontinent, Biryani
date27/05/2024
published17/03/2025
last modified17/03/2025
statuspublished
copyrightSaniya Jafri
licenseCC BY-NC-ND
languageEnglish
urlhttps://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/2837254/3349964
doihttps://doi.org/10.22501/vis.2837254
published inVIS - Nordic Journal for Artistic Research
portal issue13. VIS Issue 13
external linkhttps://saniyajafri.com/


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nameSiri what is the meaning of conjunction
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namewho is that there lunching on my lunch (woh kaun hai wahaan mera khana khaate huey)
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nameuski wajah se nahee, uske honey k nawajood, yaad hai? (not because, but inspite of it, remember?)
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namePre-Independance conservation notes Back Page
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nameGiven the confusion, I appreciate your understanding and respect for your preference not to engage with the content.
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namewe are all trying to juggle many parts and sometimes they get mixed up
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namewhat is all this about (yeh kesa silsila hai)
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namewe eat biryani with potatoes please (barahe mehrbani ham biryani aaloo k saath khatey hain)
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nameTitle: mother, is that your table or AI (Ami,kya yeh aapki maez hai, ya AI - in urdu), 2024
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nameMap of Karachi
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