“A Tale of Two Cities (from Oaxaca City to Baltimore City)”

Inspired by Mexican ofrendas and Danish still-life paintings, “A Tale of Two Cities (from Oaxaca City to Baltimore City)” honors the shared decolonization struggle of two very different yet similar cities, Oaxaca City and Baltimore. On this table are comestibles that play positive, negative, and neutral roles in the decolonization of food systems for both Oaxaca City and Baltimore. Foods with complicated histories in Mexico like mezcal, pastries, and peanuts are positioned alongside American foods with violent pasts such as fried chicken. Krystal created and presented this work as a research resident at Pocoapoco in January 2020. As with all of Krystal’s comestible tablescapes, visitors of the Pocoapoco open house were allowed to graze and participate in a comestible cultural exchange.