Chef and artist undergo a gestation, in different cities, through different mediums, as they birth the experience. In Mumbai, one creates a monumental textile artwork. Raw cloth evolves, physical and imperfect, in unanticipated directions. The other is a master of movement, bringing together Italian, Nordic and Asian influences. He, too, transforms raw materials through instinct, experimentation and craft.
The ingredients, colours and energy of Sebastiano’s menu become the starting point for Johnny’s textile art: a tightly edited palette extracted from the menu enters the cloth. As food becomes colour, and colour becomes cloth, the space emerges. A single vast textile work is the architecture. Guests dine on it, within it and surrounded by its creation. Techno, a shared love of chef and artist, merges the mechanical rhythms of repeated sewing, cutting and sizzling into a shared electronic pulse, bringing their labour into the room. Tools and machines are spotlit like gallery exhibits, acknowledging Mukesh Mills’ own labour history. Meanwhile, a film of the process enjoins guests to witness what it took to create it, as subtle shifts in light respond to the emotional register of Sebastiano’s food.
Two artists, two mediums, and for a fleeting moment, they create the same artwork.
Menu
01
Oyster Tom Yum*
raw/ spicy / citrus *vegetarian alternative available
02
Prawn Toast & Tomato Powder*
crispy / rich / umami *vegetarian alternative available
03
Aubergine & Aji Amarillo
burnt onion crispy / tangy / spicy
04
Ghee-confit Cabbage
smoked beurre blanc buttery / smoky / spicy
05
Duck, Black Garlic & Sichuan Pepper*
local berries rich / fruity / aromatic *vegetarian alternative available
06
Tomato, Olive Oil & Vanilla
fresh / fruity / creamy
Sebastiano Campanelli
Chef and Founder, Spectre
Sebastiano Campanelli’s food has no fixed address, and that’s the way he likes it. Trained in some of Northern Europe’s most influential kitchens, including Noma, Maaemo, The Man Behind The Curtain and Mana, he resists a single national label. Critics have called his cooking “maximalist” and “off-the-wall,” but control is apparent in his style: flavours are built in layers, then held in check by technique. The result is food with a restless imagination, built on flavour and a healthy disregard for convention.
Johnny Brophy
Artist and Designer
Johnny Brophy sees possibilities in cloth that most of us would never think to look for. Across textiles, sculpture and spatial design, he turns fabric into an architectural force, draping and suspending it to create environments that shift our sense of space. His materials carry the marks of weather, age and use, bringing the unpredictability of the natural world indoors.
His work challenges our idea of what a space can be, by turning it into something tactile, atmospheric and deeply felt.
India has a way of getting under your skin, and into your psyche. Its food & culture offer someone arriving from elsewhere a new way of looking at their own craft. For The Art Residency Table, an international chef and artist immerse themselves into everything the country has to offer and bring their own creative language into contact with local ingredients, techniques and traditions. Through this process of discovery they create an original body of work that is exclusive to The Gathering.