Kitchen Evolution: Screening and Panel discussion
November 12th 2022 at 7:00 PM

Kitchen Evolution thoughtfully represents the alarming cultural, social and contemporary biases baked into the design of our everyday life from South Asia to America. With sheer originality it breaks away from the present and dares to evolve a private domestic kitchen into an urban food oasis offering endless Manhattan recipes.

The screening of the short film will be followed by a panel discussion with the creator of Kitchen Evolution, Swati Jain, and anthropologist, Vyjayanthi Rao, architectural researcher Ben Goldner, co-founders of F-architecture Virginia Black and Rosana Elkhatib. Moderated by architectural scholar Maria A. Linares Trelles. Introductions by Monica Perez Ku.

Swati Vimal Jain (writer/director)

Swati Jain is an architectural designer, artist, and researcher based in New York City. She works at the intersection of art, design, and technology, and is currently researching gender studies and cultural practices in South Asian and Western architectural pedagogy. She has experience in urban design, exhibition design, preservation, and institutional projects in both the United States and India. Jain received a Master of Science in Advanced Architecture Design from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation; post-graduate degrees in Indian aesthetics and critical theory, aesthetics, and practice from Jnanapravaha Mumbai; and a Bachelor of Architecture from University of Mumbai.

Vyjayanthi Rao (panelist)

Vyjayanthi Rao is an anthropologist and writer studying architecture, infrastructure and social life.  Her work focuses on displacement, memory, heritage and imaginaries of the future, with particular attention to speculation as a genre of practice embedded in contemporary social life.  

She teaches at the Yale School of Architecture and is the co-curator of Multiplicity, an exhibition for the Lisbon Architecture Triennale 2022.

Ben Goldner (panelist)

Ben Goldner is an architectural researcher and writer based in New York. His work is focused on food products and their respective infrastructures, educational uses, and communal spaces. He holds a Master of Science in Critical, Curatorial, and Conceptual Practices in Architecture from Columbia University, GSAPP.

Rosana Elkhatib (panelist)

Rosana Elkhatib is a Palestinian designer, researcher, and curator whose work focuses on the mutual constitution of bodies and spaces across political, social, and religious environs. She is a co-founding principal of feminist architecture collaborative (f-architecture), has worked for multiple design firms including Henning Larsen, REX, and Selldorf Architects, and has taught at Columbia GSAPP. Currently, Rosana is researching the historic and contemporary implications of Palestinian imprisonment and martyrdom on constructs of womanhood, motherhood, and queerness, and on the collective resistance against the occupation and patriarchal hegemony.

Virginia Black (panelist)

Virginia Black (she/they) is an architect and visual ethnographer whose current work is sited at the intersection of feminism, queerness, disability and activism. She has taught at Columbia GSAPP, Pratt, Parsons, Barnard, Columbia, and NYCCT and has worked for a number of architecture firms, including Maison Édouard François (Paris) and AKOAKI (Detroit). She is a co-founding principal of feminist architecture collaborative (f-architecture), a three woman enterprise exploring issues surrounding the spatial politics and technologized relations of bodies and subjects. Their projects traverse theoretical and activist registers to locate new forms of architectural work through critical relationships with collaborators across the globe. Projects are located in New York City, on the US-Mexico border, in the Ecuadorian Amazon, in Jordan, and in Lebanon. Winners of the 2019 Architectural League of New York League Prize, their writing and work has appeared in Harvard Design Magazine, Ed, the Real Review, -NESS, and Girls Like Us, and at institutions including The FRAC Centre Val de Loire, VI PER Gallery, the Morgan Library and Museum, the New School, and UN-Habitat.

María Alejandra LinaresTrelles (moderator)

Maria A. Linares Trelles is an architect from Lima - Peru, currently based in the U.S. She works across design, research, writing, and curation to explore the sociopolitical forces that shape our built environment. Her projects address issues around ecology, visuality, and social justice. She holds a Professional Degree in Architecture from Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú and a Master of Science in Critical, Curatorial, and Conceptual Practices in Architecture from Columbia University, GSAPP. She has worked at Andrés Jaque / Office for Political Innovation (New York), Studio FIERRO (New York), and studio Llonazamora (Lima), and has been a Research Scholar at Columbia University. Currently, she is a professor of interior design and architecture at Pratt Institute (New York), The New School - Parsons (New York), and Universidad Andrés Bello (Chile).

*Please note that this performance will be presented at the Tank's in-person performance space at 312 W 36th St. All attendees and artists will be required to display proof of full covid vaccination before being admitted to the space, either by showing a vaccination record (vaccination card) at least two weeks out from the final dose of an approved vaccine, or by using New York's free Excelsior Pass service, available here. Patrons will also be required to wear masks while indoors at all times and for the time being, no food or beverage will be permitted to be consumed at the theater.