Amanda Yee

Artist Statement

Documentation of a Non-Dane reimagines how we engage with documentation. While governments enforce rigid systems that often disadvantage marginalized communities, BIPOC cultures document themselves through food, memories, stories, and shared practices. Chef Amanda Yee’s deportation from Copenhagen to Berlin during the rise of anti-Black and anti-Chinese sentiment shows how state systems can erase lives that don’t conform to sanctioned narratives. In contrast, this series highlights how BIPOC communities preserve their histories. Objects become artifacts, and memory, often invoked through food, transcends state-controlled records. By unpacking both literal and metaphorical baggage, Documentation of a Non-Dane explores how memory, objects, and food form a living archive, reflecting the resilience of displaced individuals. Through video, photography, and an installation built from packing materials, this work challenges the official gaze, showing that these personal acts of documentation carry cultural significance no system can erase.

The Blues Woman, 2018

Bio

Amanda Yee is chef, published author and artist originally from Oakland, California. She honed her culinary skills in acclaimed restaurants in both California and Denmark, gaining valuable experience working alongside James Beard award-winning chef Bryant Terry on the cookbook Afro Vegan. During her tenure as a creative director for the publishing company 4 Color Imprint, she contributed to award-winning cookbooks such as Black Food and Memory of Taste. Amanda's work has been featured in notable publications including Gravy, Whetstone, For The Culture, Where Women Cook, and Mad & Venner. Her culinary practice intertwines with her artistic vision, exploring themes of memory and cultural identity through food.