Digest: Lingering After a Meal
Laurie Caird
Awaken Cafe, 1429 Broadway Ave, Oakland
EXTENDED through May 25, 2025
Food has always been political, and perhaps now more than ever. Who grows your food, cleans it, cooks it? Who are you eating with? Who serves it to you? And what happens after that? How long did that process take, from farm to table to tooth to toilet?
I’ll bet you’ve snapped a photo of a meal at least once, for clout or posterity, in memory of a special dish you made or a meaningful date out. What happened to those photos, much less the food you used as fuel?
Well, Laurie Caird has spent a lot of time documenting just that—those moments of postprandial peace and satiety are the sole focus of her solo show Digest: Lingering After a Meal. And her love for the foods and spaces she has consumed and shared is clearly demonstrated through the minute detail in the small renderings, no wood grain, shadow, or ice cube too unimportant. Clocking in at just six by six inches and still small nestled in their understated light maple frames, the paintings ask for closer inspection, and for introspection.
How long do you let things sit, allow them to work their way through you at whatever speed they require? In our states of doomscroll and permanent dopamine dysfunction it can be difficult to slow down and really linger, to remain seated, languorous in your loafing and nervous to let friends return to their activity-packed lives. Caird’s works argue for the opposite, beg you to sit just a little—or a lot—longer at that table with your book or your pal. Spanning many local businesses, local produce, food scraps, and a largely Bay Area color story, one woman’s meals chart the twee and profane, full of greasy burgers and bisexual lighting with coffee aplenty and more than a few cocktails to wash down the good cheer.
I found myself seeking out familiar views and drawn to the pieces featuring bright colors and intricate detail, particularly enticing and delicious in their minute and watercolor format. There are eye-popping cobalts of dish ware, a veritable bevy of hot pinks: magentas (berry preserves, Four Friends Kitchen, Denver CO), fuchsias (iridescent light at Viridian), and neons (Friends and Family’s equally infamous lighting), the vibrant hues of Mother Tongue’s logo.
Caird views her paintings as odes: “the post-meal tablescape extends the invitation to mindfully absorb the experience – the company, the conversation, the sense memories – everything that made this meal one to savor long after the dishes have been washed,” she writes. I do too, and invite you to take that picture next time after you eat next—you may just remember the meal more, with the golden glow of genuine appreciation.
Inspired, but too late to catch Awaken’s kitchen, I opted for an eggplant parmesan sandwich and glass of white wine at the new Prescott Market Hall. I’m much more of an analog sort but didn’t want to bust out the mess of real watercolors, so sorry in advance of what you’re about to look at.
Digest has previously been on display in-situ at MAMA Oakland, The Drawing Room, Gallery-O-Rama, Gallery Route One, and Sacramento Fine Arts Center. Keep your eyes peeled and you may catch it somewhere else soon!
