Veda takes Laura Wilson’s Trained on Veda – a malted loaf and evolving artwork connecting bakeries and galleries through veda bread – as a point of departure. The film explores and discusses collective memory, embodied knowledge and the passing on of traditions, recipes and gestures through the preparation of a recipe, punctuated by clips from video works and interviews with her collaborators.
Wilson is joined in the kitchen by chef Irem Aksu, where they discuss the word ‘veda’ and cook a collaborative dish – Trained on Veda Almond Tarator with Baked Hake and Samphire Tempura – inspired by veda bread and their respective heritages: Northern Irish and Turkish. Wilson is also joined via video call by former collaborators, choreographer Lucy Suggate and archaeologist Dr Melanie Giles, to discuss the traces left on our bodies and muscle memory.
Laura Wilson (b. Belfast, Northern Ireland, lives & works in London, UK) is interested in how history is carried and evolved through everyday materials, trades and craftsmanship. She works with specialists to develop sculptural and performative works that amplify the relationship between materiality, memory and tacit knowledge. Wilson’s interdisciplinary and research-based works have been exhibited widely, including at Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery, Norwich, UK (2020); V&A, London, UK (2019); The British Museum, London, with Block Universe (2018); Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge (2018); The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, London, (2018); SPACE, London (2017); Invisible Dust, Scarborough (2017); Delfina Foundation, London (2016 & 17); RIBA, London (2016); Site Gallery, Sheffield (2016) and Whitstable Biennial (2014).
Her ongoing project Trained on Veda, initiated during her residency at Delfina Foundation in 2016, is developed in partnership with TACO, Grand Union, Site Gallery and MIMA, supported by Arts Council England. She has recently been awarded the Jerwood New Work Fund and an A-N Bursary for new work in 2021, and has a forthcoming commission with Mansions of the Future and The Collection, Lincoln.
