Black Tie Soup Night was a participatory performance and a party that happened in Walker Court on the evening of April 14th. Through the lens of fragile dynamics in our systems of care and the theoretical concept of "primordial soup", BTSN posited that we’re all soup people: floating, mixing and melting into each other in order to get by. BTSN lead with the suggestion that there is something healing or nurturing— as soup often is— in the act of celebrating our innate soupiness by embracing the chaos of our big bowl of inextricable goo.
Guests were encouraged to don their most elegant and extravagant garments and were treated to a performance from the one and only, David Lee Broth (Ben Gorodetsky) and complimentary soup developed by Shalaka Jadhav.
Collaborators
Shalaka Jadhav spent their childhood between cities in India and in Dubai, before moving to a neighbourhood spitting distance from Ontario’s largest mall. They now join from Block 2 of the Haldimand Tract, splitting their time on Treaty 1 territory. Trained as an urban planner, Shalaka followed the advice of an aptitude test to pursue curatorial studies, and is currently practicing as a researcher, writer, and curator. Shalaka is interested in hosting and hospitality as a framework for problem-solving that untangles conversations around power dynamics and relationships to spaces and places. Shalaka has worked across multiple roles, including radio journalism, social innovation, service design, in urban planning departments, on rooftop gardens, and farms. Across their work, they strive to apply an ecosystem approach of thinking, dreaming, and sustaining.Shalaka is an Emerging Curator as part of the inaugural University of Manitoba School of Art Gallery Visiting Curator Program, and a member of the Relationships, Reciprocity, Exchange Collective at OCAD University. They’ll likely point out the names of “weeds” as you walk together, enjoy studying the menus of local restaurants, and always order dessert.
Ben Gorodetsky is a performer, writer, and producer based in Kitchener, Ontario. He's the director and host of award-winning, interdisciplinary variety show Pinch Cabaret. His performance work has been presented by Movement Research at Judson Church, The Tank NYC, CAFKA, Mile Zero Dance, The Guelph Dance Festival, Hillside Fest, Brian Webb Dance Company, Expanse Festival, Rubaboo Festival, and the Guelph Dance Festival. He is the former Associate Artistic Director of Rapid Fire Theatre and has performed, taught, and directed improvisation in Atlanta, Detroit, Austin, Philadelphia, NYC, LA, Reunion Island, Vienna, Ljubljana, Montreal, Yellowknife, Calgary, and Vancouver. He is co-creator of political satire comedy duo Folk Lordz (VICE). Ben is the winner of the Emerging Artist Award at the Anna Pidruchney Young Writers award, and a nominee for a Canadian Comedy Award. He teaches at UWaterloo, holds an MFA from Brooklyn College-CUNY and a BFA from the University of Alberta.
About the Artist
Lauren Prousky is a multidisciplinary artist, writer and culture worker. She has an MFA from the University of Waterloo and a BFA from Concordia University. Recent exhibitions include Public Sweat x University of Waterloo Art Gallery, School of Art Gallery at the University of Manitoba, The plumb, Xpace Cultural Centre and Cambridge Art Galleries. Lauren has had residencies at Studio Kura in Japan, Fish Factory Creative Centre in Iceland, Caetani Cultural Centre in British Columbia, Co-Create Residency in Ontario and Maple Terrace Residency in Brooklyn. In 2021, she was selected to participate in the COVE/COVOX program, facilitated by Inter Arts Matrix and funded by Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Trillium Foundation, to develop the large-scale collaborative performance piece, When we speak at the same time we speak the same language. Lauren has published work with Public Parking, Hoax, Untethered, SUM and Peripheral Review and has curated exhibitions within a variety of contexts including Lumen Festival, Gallery Stratford, Apollo Cinema and a public pool.
Lauren was selected as the inaugural 2023 AGO x RBC Emerging Artist-in-Residence for her project, Black Tie Soup Night.
Soup Solution (against all odds a watched pot boiled). 2023
18:52
Performance for video
Soup
Soup #1
last bites / suburb food court banana split
When a banana split is served up, it’s already a bit soupy. I liked the gymnastics that sharing a banana split pose, plastic spoons crossing over one another for their ideal bite, the crushed peanuts sinking rapidly into puddles at the bottom of the bowl.
Base
potato
cauliflower
onion
garlic
veg stock
salt and pepper
Corn drizzle
corn
butter
goat cheese
salt
water
sugar
Spiced sunflower seed
sunflower seed
salt
chili flake
oil
sugar
Soup #2
after a long day, my mom picked up dinner at the Portuguese bakery
My mom started learning how to drive a car at the age of 40, when we moved to Canada. Once she began driving to work, she’d often frequent a Portuguese bakery by her workplace for a pastel de nata to keep her company in traffic on the way home. Once home, I’d tear up the pillowy papo secos along its seam, snacking on it with a pat of butter, before the caldo verde warmed through. We always ate dinner together.
veg stock
onion
garlic
oil
fennel
salt
pepper
bay leaf
kale
collard greens
potato
champagne vinegar
curry leaf and spice oil
diced tomato
Soup names and descriptions by Shalaka Jadhav.
Soup recipes developed by Shalaka Jadhav with assistance from AGO Bistro chefs, Renee Bellefeuille and Kevin GIlmore.
