à table
‘A Table’ offers a series of still life, well prepared, in soft, luminous and subtle colours. The table is the frame. The off beat perspectives invite the viewer to join in and evoke the multiplicity of guests around the space, as many tastes as points of view. Shapes and patterns fill the frame and offer a healthy and frugal opulence. An invitation to take care, to feed on raw, simple and cultivated ingredients. A journey towards others and towards oneself which can be done at the table, every day, with a few simple things to savor. The meal is a celebration, eating becomes political, democratic: these meals connect us and make our life gratifying.
sushi
It is my gift to you, your birthday meal most years. Sushi for dinner is not just dinner, it’s a celebration, a feast. These days you always help me. I roll the maki while you make the sushi, rolling the balls perfectly in the palm of your hand. You know how to cut the sashimi and lay it delicately on a well chosen plate, you take joy in the presentation. You mix the wasabi in that small bowl I love, you know to turn the bowl over so the wasabi can cure. I pass on these techniques to you, you become adept and I imagine you a man, in your own kitchen. The space and time between us grows into the future but this precious moment, creating in the kitchen is where I come back to. It is such a sacred place.
my fisherman
He came home in the early morning, when it still feels like night, smelling of sweat and sea water, cold, satisfied and tried from a night by the sea. He slid next to me under the warm covers of our bed. I found the fish the next morning, long before he awoke, a message that last night was a success. He has already descaled it and gutted it, a sweet gesture, a gentle gift. There is his joy in the sparkle of the fishes skin, his connection to the sea, his patience and calm. In the evening I will honor those things. I will run the fish under cool water, I will fill it with garlic and lemons from the garden, I will harvest lemon leaves and citronel and I will lay the silver fish on a bed of herbs, I will steam it perfectly and together we will rejoice in our luck and riches.
jo jo's last picnic
We could never have known, how precious those moments were, the sun on on our backs and the salty sea air. Early spring, one of those days you feel you are stealing summer before it has arrived. We found a secret cove, just the four of us, looking out at a sea the colour blue that made us all gasp. Like kids, in our underpants, sipping bubbly and nibbling on cured meat and fresh vegetables. Home made pâté and fresh bread. I jumped in the ice cold Mediterranean and reveled in the absolute joy of sharing this moment together. How can love feel so free. A fish on a hook, a giggle between you and I, sun kissed cheeks. I will never taste that sea with out feeling you. Imprinted like dots on a table clothe, like bubbles in our picnic glasses. You are always somehow a part of that joy.
