At Hour Detroit, they’ve long been proponents of dining as an art. Visuals are key — food, plates, glassware, utensils, tablecloth, and even the clothes worn by guests, all contribute to the aesthetic enjoyment of a meal. And that’s not to mention the sounds, tastes, and aromas as Jack Thomas reports.
The Art of Dining: Food Culture in the Islamic World, which is billed as the first major Islamic art exhibition to focus on food and dining, takes place from Sept. 22-Jan. 5. It’s entirely free for residents of Macomb, Oakland, and Wayne counties.
The approximately 230 pieces of art are sourced from present-day Iraq, Iran, Egypt, Syria, Turkey, Spain, India, Afghanistan, as well as Italy and China. While the exhibition is ultimately about art from the Islamic world — showcasing everything from vividly painted 800s Iraqi ceramics to intricately patterned brass basins from 1500s Egypt — visitors are invited to understand and visualize the context behind them through detailed descriptions that accompany each piece.
“So many works of Islamic art were made as functional artworks, and many have to do with serving and consuming food and drink,” says Katherine Kasdorf, the DIA’s Associate Curator of Arts of Asia and the Islamic World.
“They’re usually presented in museums as, ‘This was a particular type of artistic practice or a particular regional tradition.’ But this exhibition puts their function front and center, as amazing works of art that also function as tableware during communal meals. And we can relate to the practices that went on.”
Even the most practical pieces — lunchboxes from 1400s Syria and water jars (complete with filtration technology) from 900s Egypt — could be admired just for their beauty and painstaking detail. But being able to appreciate the function, somehow, makes them that much more of a sight to behold.
One room invites visitors to admire a sufra, which in Islamic culture refers to a cloth, or (in this case) a table for serving food. The low-to-the ground table is dressed in a floral tablecloth with red pillow chairs. On the menu are dishes like badhiajan mahshi (eggplant dressed in sauce) from 800s Iraq and halva-yi zardak (carrot pudding with dried fruits) from Mughal India.
An image of each dish is projected onto each plate — photographs of foods prepared by acclaimed Iranian American chef Najmieh Batmanglij, who adapted the recipes from ancient cookbooks. For an even more immersive experience, visitors can follow a QR code link to make the recipes at home.
Nearby, you can open a “smell box” to take in the fumes of rosewater and orange blossom — both of which perfumed the water that guests used to wash their hands before and after a meal.
Another section is dedicated to coffee, which was first cultivated in East Africa and then first consumed in Yemen in the 1400s. That was before Sufis brought it to Mecca in the early 1500s and went on to introduce it to Muslim pilgrims from all over the world. In this section, you can admire a coffee and tea set, outfitted with the stamp of Sultan Abdulhamid II himself, who reigned over the Ottoman empire through the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Beyond coffee, there’s quite a bit to learn about the consumption preferences of emperors and other elites throughout the exhibition. In one portrait, 1600s Mughal Emperor Jahangir is depicted with a cup in hand, which historians believe was used for wine.
As we learn from the description, he was also a fan of opium — often mixed with ingredients like honey, nuts, and cardamum to make a sweet treat called ma’jun. Other highlights include a section dedicated to musical instruments that were played for mealtime entertainment in present-day Iran, Turkey, North Africa, and Iraq.
The exhibition was developed by and initially premiered at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art last November under a different name — Dining with the Sultan: The Fine Art of Feasting. However, the new name and other tweaks to parts of the exhibition were a result of outreach that the DIA did in the months leading up to it.
The team conducted online surveys, in-person interviews at the museum, phone interviews, and a town hall meeting at Dearborn’s Arab American National Museum, to make the exhibition feel as relevant as possible to metro Detroit’s Muslim community.
“In all those conversations that we had with the communities, it was clear for everybody that The Art of Dining is a unique and exciting opportunity…” says DIA director Salvador Salort-Pons, “…to experience the rich culture of the Middle East, Asian and Pakistani communities, Yemeni, North African, Egyptian communities, and many others that we have the honor to serve here in Detroit.”
