I Cook A Lot Of All These Foods tells the story of the integration of the artist’s mother to Indian culture upon marrying her Indian father in Australia. She recounts the rejection from her Romanian family after her marriage, and how she adopted a new way of living after feeling anchored in the safety of Indian cooking, tradition and being welcomed into a new family.

References to Monica’s childhood reflect on the home as a key space where the complexities of cultural negotiations exist, especially within a multi-racial household. The work explores how these stories are memorialised and how the fragments of different histories and traditions cohabitate and are passed on.

Roomsheet and Essay by Audrey Newton