Immigration is a core element in the capitalist system. One of the effects of increased migration is the increase in demand for food and ingredients from the home country of incoming migrants. Susan Bright quotes in her book Feast for the Eyes, 'Food both fuels and shapes our physical bodies from the inside, as well as being an outward expression of our pleasures and our principles. It crosses and transgresses boundaries in every sense.'. Apart from being a fundamental source of energy, food is also a form of identity and memory. This identity and memory transgresses borders and serves as a connection between migrants and their native land. The need for immigrants to feel at home in a new country has become an economic and social commodity by way of food.

 

         ‘Rivers from Home’ is a body of work documenting my experience as an immigrant living in the UK while maintaining a connection to my home land through food and photography. The title takes inspiration from internationally acclaimed French chef, Jacques Pepin, who quotes ‘Recipes are like rivers, they are never the same from one moment to the next’. It symbolises the inevitable changes in food experience for immigrants while trying to feel at home in a new country. The work evidences the increase in diversity of food ingredients in relation to the increase of immigrants in the UK.  In addition to this, the work also utilises personal and archival content as a representation of memory and identity.

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