chilibread for amherst
fluestergewuerz performance at umass/amherst
The bakers for this performance were:
Annemarie Rinnhofer, Monika Lenzer, Lisa Townley, Kirsten Kuccer, Thank you so much for your contributions! You will be at the performance in spirit and with your chilibread cookies.
performance on march 31
chilibread for starters
pass it on
flüstergewürz is a long-distance, collaborative project involving families and friends, neighbors and strangers, artists and non-artists, to contemplate concepts such as home, trust, memory, migration, and separation. below is my american version of my mom's recipe for nuremberg gingerbread. please use this as a basis to create your own cookies.
2.6 cups honey/bit of maple syrup
1.5 cups ground nuts (cashews, pecans/hickory, walnuts)
8 TS butter
2 eggs
zest of 1 orange and 1 lemon
2.6 cups cornmeal
½ tsp allspice
1 tsp vanilla
2 TS candied chili peppers
½ tsp dried chili peppers
½ tsp ground ancho chile pepper
¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
combine all ingredients and let stand on a warm place, covered, for eight days. use cookie cutters or other shapes to form cookies. preheat oven to 315°f and bake the cookies for 15-20 minutes.
for my version i substitute ingredients found in traditional nuremberg gingerbread, such as cinnamon, ginger, hazelnuts and almonds with ingredients indigenous to america. i call it chilibread.
ancient names for gingerbread are honey bread (egypt), pepper cake, and honey cake. gingerbread can be stored for many months and is said to only get better with time.
collaborate with me and make your version of chilibread. bring me some of your cookies as well as your recipe. participate in an international collaboration between american and german bakers. i would like to collect these recipes and publish them in a book.
contact: angelika.rinnhofer(at)gmail.com
a synopsis of sorts
nuremberg secrets
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she has established a community of collaborators for me to engage with. her role in this project is crucial as she is well known in her community. people trust her and thus it was easier for them to trust me, an outsider, an artist. most of my collaborators are of working and lower middle class background. contemporary art is not essential to their lives. nevertheless, i sensed a desire to communicate, to tell a story, to speak to someone about one's memories. i realized that the topic i asked about - the hauptmarkt and events relating to its history or purpose - was insignificant, like a topic in a casual conversation. often the narrators let themselves get carried away, recalling memories of war, far-away native countries, childhoods, and - lost pets.
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artist as listener, healer, therapist, counselor, adviser, victim (!) - most important though: artist as interpreter. people long for interpretations of their experience. risk: artist's interpretation not accepted by non-artists - precarious situation.
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most people invited us to their homes or their work place. my mom and i were guests, we were sometimes treated to lunch or dinner, and we tasted some amazing wines. others were surprised and confused by our visit, nervous about our intrusion.
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in a public art piece, trust is an essential component. from my own experience it is difficult to establish trust, it seems that inquiry, criticism, and doubt don't support the development of it. here is where my own predicament comes in: as an artist i feel the urge to migrate, not to get too comfortable, to challenge the notion of "home". trust, however, needs stability, a community. public art involved with its audience, needs a community. how far do i want to go? how much do i want to be a member of a community? if germany is one big, closed-off, inward looking community, then this is certainly a major reason for me not to feel comfortable there. perhaps this discomfort is the motivator i need to make art.
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nostalgia often derives from a lack of community - like the stories from nuremberg. when i'm not in germany i become nostalgic for it, when i'm there i see the reality of it - i sense my "non presence". maybe this is how to best describe freud's idea of unheimlich: the uncanny.
brain wave II
my dad and my two brothers ca. 1969 - a dad with his two sons on the banks of the hudson near beacon ca. 2010
brain wave IV
my parents and i skating on the silverlake in nuernberg ca. 1966 - skaters at rockefeller center in ny ca. 2010