Other tongue
Ruby Chang-Jet White

In two related exhibitions — at Bus Projects and The Physics Room — Ruby Chang-Jet White sought to articulate her experience of Chinese postpartum practices in the wake of becoming a mother. The works included an interactive rug with inset video, 回口 (the reply), alongside letters to her mother from her family in Malaysia. Described as an ‘intergenerational dialogue’ that unravels the ‘speculative, historic and lived realities of yellow women navigating matrescence and parenthood in foreign lands’, the work traces cycles of nurturing and migration, daughterhood and motherhood. Another element of the work was Other tongue 餓 ghost kitchen, a limited-edition takeaway food service offering nourishing meals that honour birthing, menstruating bodies, and healing. Developed and prepared by White, these dishes were informed by 坐月子 Zuo yue zi postpartum cuisine (specifically Hakka dishes) and Chinese medicine philosophy, as well as the food she ate during her own fourth trimester. Here, White offers one of the recipes for you to try — whether you are recovering from birth, surgery or illness, or are otherwise in need of comfort and inner healing.

Ruby 嫦潔 (Chang-Jet) White is a contemporary artist whose work explores the ongoing evolution of inherited food and handcraft traditions. Of mixed Malaysian Hakka and European Australian heritage, White moved to Aotearoa as a teenager. After graduating from Elam School of Fine Arts, she developed a series of pop-up dinner events under the pseudonym Miss Changy, which eventually led to the creation of Small Fry, an artist-run café inside Te Tuhi. Blending her handmade ceramics with modern Malaysian-inspired dishes, Small Fry was described as a ‘living, breathing, mouthwatering art project.’ Since closing the café in 2018, White has continued to work with ceramics and food, as well as producing textile, video and installation works. Her exhibitions often combine these with the actual preparation, cooking and sharing of food, and in recent projects she has begun to focus on how food can be used to cultivate spiritual and bodily empathy. White currently resides in Naarm.