New Detroit Institute of Arts exhibit celebrates Islamic food culture
The new special exhibition at Detroit Institute of Arts has a surprising and unusual side effect for an art display: It will make you hungry.
Seriously ... plan for a good meal after you see it.
"The Art of Dining: Food Culture in the Islamic World" opened last week at the Midtown institution and brings together more than 200 works from the Middle East and beyond in a fun and flavorful exploration of the connections between art and cuisine from ancient times to the present day.
Paintings of elaborate feasts hang alongside beautiful and unique dishes, ewers and platters, and glimpses of recipes through historical cookbooks. There's a display featuring a sample menu and QR code link to some of the recipes. DIA visitors will also find historical recipes via QR code, including one for rice and lamb with chickpeas and eggplant dressing in sauce.
Throughout the exhibit are 16 pieces from the DIA's collection. One such piece is a tinned copper saltcellar from Mughal, India, that was purchased by the DIA in 1930, according to Katherine Kasdorf, an assistant curator at the DIA and curator of the "Art of Dining" exhibit.
"You can see at the very base there are Persian inscriptions, and those are poetic verses about salt, which is how we know that it's a saltcellar." said Kasdorf. "And then it also records the name of its owner. Mohammed Hussein ... he was a Mughal government official. And then the year it was made, which converts to 1664 to 65."
The saltcellar verses also reflect the importance of salt in culture and coming together.
"We often say 'breaking bread together' and, similarly, 'sharing salt' has a similar metaphor of kind of coming together for a peaceful meal and finding commonality with one another," Kasdorf said. "One of the verses on this saltcellar says a host brings a saltcellar to the table."
Displayed throughout the exhibit are booklets that offer more context than what's displayed on the labels posted throughout the exhibit. Kasdorf said the booklets came about because exhibit creators "wanted to say a little bit more than you can fit on one little label."
One booklet, for instance, reveals the wild and salacious story behind what appears to be a painting of a completely normal group meal.
DIA reached out for suggestions
For this exhibition, the DIA also collaborated with two local businesses. Hashem's Nuts and Coffee on West Warren in Dearborn is providing several retail items including Turkish coffee and candies.
"I am grateful to be an ambassador and represent the Middle East and U.S.," owner Adam Hashem said. "I am trying to show that through food we can share our cultures."
Masri Sweets, also in Dearborn, is providing Middle Eastern sweets to the Kresge Café. Since 1990, the family-owned dessert shop on Schaefer Road has been known for its variety of Middle Eastern sweets. For the exhibit, it's collaborating with the DIA's Kresge Café and providing baklava and other sweets.
"It's exciting that there is more diversity in downtown Detroit and welcoming to do more," said Kuzida Masri, daughter of Masri Sweets owner Khader Masri. "It was more of a compliment that they chose us. Being a museum event, we are very excited about it."
While planning the exhibit, Kasdorf said the DIA did quite a bit of engaging with Arab American communities and conducted surveys and phone calls with a broad demographic of museum visitors. The DIA also worked with the Arab American National Museum in Dearborn to conduct a town hall.
"The Arab American community here is multi-religions," Kasdorf said. "There are a lot of Christians in addition to Muslims, but we also engaged with people who come from communities that overlap with different regions represented in the show, including the Persian, Turkish, South Asian and other Arab communities."
Kasdorf said the feedback from the audience research influenced the title of the exhibit and influenced the writing of a lot of the display labels.
"We're hoping that we've presented it in a way that resonates with people," Kasdorf said. "It represents such a broad diversity of geographies and cultures, languages and time periods. ... we're hoping that people will find points of resonance throughout. And people who don't self-identify with one of these regions or cultures, we hope that they'll find points of resonance, too."
Diana Abouali, director of Dearborn's Arab American National Museum, said the town halls the DIA held were very important.
"I think many museums are now going towards engaging the community ... ensuring that the exhibits that they have speak directly to the community and take in their opinions and perspectives on certain things," Abouali said at the preview night.
The focus group hosted at the American National Museum, Abouali said, was an opportunity to talk about some of the aspect of the exhibit.
"It was really fruitful and very much appreciated that they had come to Dearborn, and they gathered some community members and they spoke very candidly and honestly about the reflections on what the DIA staff had brought and wanted to talk about."
"I think it's important and makes something as beautiful as this exhibit be more relevant to everybody."
DIA director Salvador Salort-Pons said the exhibition, most of which came from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, has a fresh relevance in Detroit.
"Metro Detroit is the home of a very vibrant Arab American community, as well as other communities with ties in the Middle East, in Central and South Asia and North Africa," he said. "This exhibition is really one of a kind, and celebrates Islamic art through the lenses of food and culinary culture — universal lenses. You're going to be seeing stories about food and also stories about how people dress, how they dine, what kind of music they listen to.
"You'll also find traditional recipes that are hundreds of years old that in many ways are still used today. This connects the visitor with our shared humanity and demonstrates that food transcends cultures, backgrounds and borders, bringing everyone together. At the DIA, we believe in the power of art to bring us together. Each exhibition, each work of art, not only provides for an opportunity to experience beauty, but also with an opportunity to spark dialogue and to learn something new about us, something new about our communities, something new about our world."
"The Art of Dining" runs through Jan. 5, and entry is free to DIA visitors. General museum admission can be reserved in advance and is always free for residents of Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties.
Contact Detroit Free Press food writer Susan Selasky and send food and restaurant news to: Follow on X (formerly Twitter.)
'The Art of Dining: Food Culture in the Islamic World'
Through Jan. 5
Detroit Institute of Arts
dia.org
