stephanie h. shih sculpts realistic food objects to reflect on asian migration

exploring cultural identity through food sculptures

Taiwanese-American ceramic artist Stephanie H. Shih crafts everyday food objects to reflect on Asian migration and diasporic nostalgia. From Spam meat cans and Heineken beer bottles to KitKat packs and Royal Dansk butter cookie tins, each sculpture is a realistic recreation of an everyday product that can be commonly found in an American supermarket as well as East and Southeast Asian stores. Through her clay artworks, Shih explores the ways in which cultural identities change in the wake of diasporic migration by sculpting various items that do not seem unfamiliar to Western viewers, yet are also recognized by Asian viewers as something of their own.

the sculptures depict everyday products that can be found in both American and Asian supermarkets | all images courtesy of Stephanie H. Shih

everyday pantry products with a deeper meaning

Stephanie H. Shih’s painted ceramic works focus on everyday objects found in many Asian American households. Although seemingly mundane, the selected pantry products have a deeper meaning, reflecting ‘traces of colonization, emigration, assimilation, and cultural exchange in the lives of Asian immigrants and their children’.

‘The cultural significance of some groceries—like sweetened condensed milk for Thai iced tea, the Laughing Cow cheese offered at banh mi carts in Vietnam, and the prevalence of Tang in the Philippines—is rooted in histories of colonization and Western military presence in Asia.’ explains the ceramic artist on an instagram post.

Stephanie H. Shih’s painted ceramic works focus on everyday objects found in many Asian American households

Shih’s realistic ceramic sculptures explore the symbolism of these objects, their transportation, and their integration into different cultures and relocated societies. The artist interweaves elements of her own heritage with her craft to address her mixed identity: Although she was born and raised in the United States, her parents are from Taiwan. In the resulting works, past emotions and memories are resurrected and honored in a ceramic form.

‘Shih’s food products speak to a seismic shift in America’s demographics that began to take place around the time of the Civil Rights movement… [The] work is both aesthetic and political, a commentary on assimilation as a process in which one’s national origin is not forgotten or erased.’ notes Asian-American poet and critic John Yau.

Shih’s realistic ceramic sculptures explore the symbolism of these objects, their transportation, and their integration into different cultures