Produced by artist Paul Stanley & Doorstep Collective’s Lisa Beauchamp
Stanley and Beauchamp appropriate an image of a chicken tikka kekab, heavily associated with "South Asian" communities, for the surfaces of their cakes to confuse what might be the expected bodily sensation of such visual stimuli. The bodily sensation typically evoked by such an image is confounded by that of the sugary sweetness normally expected of the confectionary on which the image is found. The artists draw attention to the connection between visual and socially constructed knowledge embedded in the body, itself, by subverting how urban subjects habitually respond to visual stimuli, for instance, of perceived, “South Asian” or “gay” subjects in the city.
The artists also interrogate larger questions of what makes an image “South Asian” (its author, audience, geographical location, or content) and who can and cannot deploy such images. Further, they explore the centrality of generosity in re-working maligned or marginalized identities (the queer in South Asian and the South Asian in queer).
Cake will be given out around the end of Ramadan, the month of fasting and a Muslim religious holiday that encourages just this kind of generosity. The artist underscores the role of each citizen in creating, or re-shaping collective and individual urban identities.
