Redacted Memories, Enduring Belonging
Riley Elias
Bachelor of Landscape Architecture (Honours) | University of Technology Sydney
“Home is found in the intangible: the taste of a dish, the cadence of a story, the fleeting yet enduring moments of cultural continuity.”
MATERIALS: paperbark + recycled paper+ middle eastern mixed spices + charcoal
Artist Statement
The question, “Where are you from?” has always felt difficult to answer. Born in Australia to Lebanese and Irish families, my Home is not easily mapped to a singular place. Any attempt to summarize it feels reductive - an oversimplification of a complex, hybrid identity. Instead, I find home in the people who share my blended culture, one shaped by the interweaving of traditions, cuisines, and histories. Family gatherings are characterised by both Middle Eastern and Western practices: cooking together, sharing intergenerational stories, and embracing the unlikeliness of our blended identity.
Yet, with this unique sense of home comes the desire to preserve it - especially the traditions of my Lebanese heritage. I don’t look Lebanese and I don’t speak Arabic, however sharing Middle Eastern food remains a pivotal act of cultural affirmation. Home, then, is found in these ephemeral moments—stories exchanged, meals shared, and the fleeting yet enduring moments of cultural continuity. Many will likely be lost as relatives pass away, however practices will be altered and appropriated to empower others to discover their own sense of belonging. My Home is uniquely mine, forever intertwined with those who came before and those who will follow.
Synopsis
My Living Belonging explores HOME: Country as Creative Process through a time-worn book, exploring the relationships between family heritage, traditions and storytelling, and loss of connection. The concept of my belonging is centred around the intergenerational sharing of traditions, rituals, and stories. Inspired by my family’s cookbooks, gathering together and sharing Middle Eastern dishes is how we engage with our family’s migrant history. These cookbooks act as tangible belongings which aid in the passing down of my family’s intangible cultural narratives. My Living Belonging explores the realities of these intergenerational stories - the efforts to preserve traditions for the future generations, and the loss of memories. Through redaction, my belonging engages with the heavy emotions associated with the loss of identity, and how a sense of homelessness can be developed beyond the physical dimensions associated with Country, place, and built form. The paper used to construct the book consists of a mix of recycled paper and a mix of spices, including cumin powder, cinamon, nutmeg, allspice, basil and oregano.
The recycled paper was previous projects and old sketchbooks, while the spices were selected because they are prominent in the Lebanese dishes my family cooks together. I made the decision to source recycled materials instead of sourcing from Country because I wanted to avoid displacing items found on Country. Recycled materials also provided new value to objects that would have otherwise been discarded. Prior to papermaking, the recycled paper was soaked in water with the spices to infuse the pages with scents of my family’s kitchen, triggering sensory memories of family gatherings. Charcoal is used to write in the book, engaging in the act of preserving one of our family’s fundamental dishes, and the memories associated with it. Water and olive oil are used to stain the pages and smudge the charcoal, demonstrating how our favourite recipes are typically found in the most weathered books.
The smudged charcoal also alludes to the concept of redaction, as the details of memories are lost with time. My Living Belonging is also connected to the broader themes of cultural homelessness. While my family endeavours to continue practicing the rituals performed by our previous relatives, our migration story means that carrying such a rich, intangible sense of belonging in delicate objects leaves the narratives associated vulnerable to deterioration. The delicate nature of my Living Belonging reflects the fragility of these histories and represents the wider practice of other migrant families preserving their own cultural identity.
