Mallika Singh

Artist Statement

My art practice/s are rooted in my environment/s and my relationships. In everything I do, I am deeply committed to process and play. Even when cooking and farming, I am a poet. I believe in poetry that is active, an action. Poem as something we do. River as something we do. I am interested in food, poetry, and ritual as tools to access our singular and collective imaginations. Food has always been a sensory and embodied experience for me. I am inspired by the ingenuity and skill of my mama/s, the histories and archives of culinary practice, and the innovation, exchange, and care that occurs through/with food – amidst apocalypse and amidst celebration. I dream of a food system that enacts a life beyond capitalism through collectivity, knowledge sharing, and the redistribution of resources, land, and power.

PHOTO CREDIT - mk blurry gloves hand reaches for a lamb chop resting on a bed of mashed turnips and stewed greens. other dishes on the table include a citrus salad and radicchio salad.

Bio

mallika singh is a poet, farmer, and cook who makes work about ecosystems and intimacies. in collaboration with Rebeca Alderete Baca, mallika ran OOZE— an event series that celebrates poetry, ritual, and gathering. mallika also facilitates a study and writing group called Rivering Towards: Desert-Water Poetics and Politics. their debut chapbook, Retrieval, was published in 2020 from Wendy's Subway. mallika was born in Delhi, India and raised in the Bay Area, CA and Santa Fe, NM. they are currently living under the open skies of New Mexico and growing vegetables, herbs, and flowers with their coworkers at Ashokra Farm.