Karla Diaz is an American artist who collects recipes from prison inmates and recreates them in performance using only ingredients and utensils available to those incarcerated. Her multi-media participatory performance piece ''Prison Gourmet'' comments on system-impacted communities and people, the politics of food and questions about institutional power. She has been exhibited in Spain, the UK and at multiple museums in the US. She teaches at
California State University Long Beach
California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) is a public research university in Long Beach, California. The 322-acre campus is the second largest of the 23-school California State University system (CSU) and one of the largest universities i ...
. She and her husband cofounded the artists' collective
Slanguage.
Early life and education
Diaz was born in Los Angeles.
She grew up there and in Mexico.
She received a Master's in Fine Arts from
California Institute of the Arts
The California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) is a private art university in Santa Clarita, California. It was incorporated in 1961 as the first degree-granting institution of higher learning in the US created specifically for students of both ...
in 2004.
Diaz first became aware of recipes created by inmates when a mentor, poet
Manazar Gamboa, who between the ages of 20 and 43 had spent 17 years in state prisons, shared the "special recipe" for his favorite dish.
Diaz recollected that the recipe, an imitation of tuna casserole, included tuna, mayonnaise, hot sauce, pickle juice, and was topped with crumbled crackers.
She later described it as not tasting very good.
Career
Diaz collects recipes from prison inmates and recreates them in performance using only the ingredients and makeshift utensils available to those incarcerated.
''Prison Gourmet'' is a multi-media participatory performance which focuses the food prisoners make for themselves as a supplement to that served to them by the institution.
The performances comment on issues of system-impacted communities and people, the politics of food and questions about institutional power.
In 2010 Diaz's brother was incarcerated, and she learned that the prison commissary offered a limited selection of shelf-stable foods such as
dry snacks such as
chips
''CHiPs'' is an American crime drama television series created by Rick Rosner and originally aired on NBC from September 15, 1977, to May 1, 1983. It follows the lives of two motorcycle officers of the California Highway Patrol (CHP). The serie ...
or
corn puffs and
instant noodles
Instant noodles, or instant ramen, is a type of food consisting of noodles sold in a precooked and dried block with flavoring powder and/or seasoning oil. The dried noodle block was originally created by flash frying cooked noodles, and this is ...
.
She recalled the dish Gamboa had prepared and began writing to inmates and former inmates in California, asking for their recipes.
As of 2015 she had received 200 recipes.
Some of the recipe instructions are very detailed, calling for specific equipment such as a 6" square paper box, a 12.5 ounce cereal bag with no holes, or commonly jury-rigged prison cooking devices such as a stinger.
Some call for specific techniques such as putting ingredients and hot water into a plastic bag, tying the bag off, wrapping it in a towel to retain the heat, and allowing it to sit for a half hour to cook the ingredients.
Recipes she has collected include imitations of traditional Mexican soups. The most common recipe she receives are for
spreads, which usually involve topping instant noodles with dry snacks and/or other ingredients.
In 2010 Diaz began exhibiting a 2-hour performance piece, ''Prison Gourmet'', first performed for the
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile, Los Angeles, California, Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Pa ...
's EATLACMA event, in which she demonstrates the preparation of an imitation of
orange chicken
Orange chicken or ''chen pi ji'' () is an American Chinese dish.
Origin
The variety of orange chicken most commonly found at North American Chinese restaurants consists of chopped, battered and fried chicken pieces coated in a sweet orange-fl ...
, a recipe calling for pork rinds coated in a mixture of strawberry jelly and Kool Aid.
After performances the audience is invited to sample the dish.
Since then she has exhibited at the
Whitney Museum
The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District, Manhattan, Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude ...
, the
Institute of Contemporary Art, the
Newcomb Art Museum
Newcomb Art Museum of Tulane University is an art museum located in the Woldenberg Art Center on the campus of Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. It has been historically known for its significant collection of Newcomb P ...
, the
San Jose Museum of Art
The San José Museum of Art (SJMA) is a modern and contemporary art museum in downtown San Jose, downtown San Jose, California, United States. Founded in 1969, the museum holds a permanent collection with an emphasis on West Coast of the United Sta ...
, the
Serpentine, the
Institute Cervantez,
Pitzer College
Pitzer College is a private liberal arts college in Claremont, California. One of the Claremont Colleges, the college has a curricular emphasis on the social sciences, behavioral sciences, international programs, and media studies. Pitzer is k ...
,
MOCA, and
ESMoA.
According to Diaz, prison food recipes are less about the dishes' taste and more about "a reminder of humanity, community, and the person you were on the outside".
The inmate from whom she'd received the orange chicken recipe told her that although the finished dish was a poor imitation of the original, making and eating it reminded him of the times he and his daughter had made real orange chicken for themselves and of spending that time with her.
Diaz is on the faculty at
California State University Long Beach
California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) is a public research university in Long Beach, California. The 322-acre campus is the second largest of the 23-school California State University system (CSU) and one of the largest universities i ...
.
She and her husband, Mario Ybarra, also run an artists' collective, Slanguage, which they co-founded in 2002.
Recognition
Diaz has received a Los Angeles Arts Recognition award.
In 2015 she received a grant from the
Art Matters Foundation
Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas.
There is no generally agreed definition of wha ...
.
She has done three residencies as a Lucas Arts Fellow at the
Montalvo Arts Center
The Montalvo Arts Center is a non-profit center for the arts in Saratoga, California, United States. Open to the public, Montalvo comprises a cultural and arts center, a park, hiking trails and the historic Villa Montalvo, an Italian Mediterran ...
.
She and Ybarra, representing Slanguage, did a residency at
18th Street Arts Center.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Diaz, Karla
American performance artists
Artists from Los Angeles
21st-century American women artists
California Institute of the Arts alumni
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people