Its striking that there is a direct correlation between health and ethnic identity here in the United States. Many studies have shown that non-white ethnic groups in America have a higher risk of developing diabetes, cancer, heart disease and a lot more preventable diseases. When people come to America and change their diets to accommodate the mainstream, something deep about them is lost. "Eco-Culturalism" is a term I invented based on some ideas I have been thinking about while taking this Art & Environment class. The act of being and living an ethnic identity is a wholistic embodied kind of experience, and to attain more wholistic health, people need to eat natural foods and home-prepared meals from their own ethic and cultural origins however this may be defined by them. The herbs, spices, fruits, vegetables and combination of ingredients that make up a traditional cultural recipe contain the wisdom of many generations. Being someone of multiple ethnic heritages, I often try to combine the flavors, smells, spices and ingredients of my various ethnic heritages into each meal as a way to celebrate who I am and to give my body what it needs since it is a combination of a variety of ethnicities. I think preparing and eating these meals is an “art”: “Environmental Art” because it is a kind of meal-preparing and eating that respects the wisdom of ancestral recipies, is conscious of the value of the cultural relationship between the eater and the food, and the need to be nourished everyday with foods originally from the ancestral lands. I chose to remix the original image of herbs and added the cultural and political message because food is not just food after all, it is much more.
Source: Unknown
Diem Dangers
Source: Unknown
Diem Dangers
