TAYA SHARAFUTDINOVA
FOOD UNDERFOOT
(RUSSIA)
In the House of Political Prisoners’ library, on a shelf for cookbooks, sits the book Robinson’s Cooking: Recipes for Dishes Made of Wild Plants and Flowers (1994). The book is a reference to Primary Edible Wild Plants of Leningrad Region (1942), which helped Leningrad residents during the siege.
The project Food Underfoot is a study of the wild flora of Posadsky District using recipes from the books above. At a time of alarming uncertainty about the future, recipes for boiled bellflower roots, fermented goutweed, stewed bittercress, baked burdock roots, duckweed salad, and fleawort cutlets become emergency survival instructions.
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Taya Sharafutdinova is an artist with a Bachelor’s degree in marine engineering. She also studied at the Galperin Photo Correspondents’ Department and the FotoDepartament Institute. She is currently a student at the Pro Arte School for Young Artists. Sharafutdinova’s work has been featured in the parallel program for the 5th Moscow Biennial of Young Art and at exhibits in St. Petersburg and Moscow.