Derya Akay

*Looking at the Garden Fence* is an art project initiated by Vivienne Bessette and Derya Akay across the growing season of 2021, for which they invited a group of artists, neighbours, organizers, and gardeners to collectively create an exercise on urban agriculture, neighbourhood organizing, and friendship. The project is centred around four urban garden spaces — Sahalli Park Community Garden, Elisabeth Rogers Community Garden, Harmony Garden X̱wemelch'stn pen̓em̓áy, and Garden Don’t Care — and the communities that care for them. 

To conclude the project, a website designed by Cristian Hernandez-Blick and Salem Sharp, with assistance from Syed Haris, brings together documentation from the project’s numerous contributors: Adassa Brooks, Anita Devi, Conor Fanning, Cristian Hernandez-Blick, Damla Tamer, Dana Phillips, Daniel Mendoza, Dean Jackson, Derya Akay, Grayson Truong, Haruko Okano, Ingrid Figueroa Manelik, Jaz Whitford, E. Kage, Moses Ayamega, Mt. Pleasant Neighbourhood House, Nil Alt, Salem Sharp, Senaqwila Wyss, TJ Felix, Vines Art Festival, Vivienne Bessette, and Zion Greene-Bull. 

Visit the website [here](http://www.lookingatthegardenfence.com/).

As part of the project, a recorded conversation with [T’uy’t’tanat Cease Wyss](https://tuyttanatceasewyss.ca/), Jaz Whitford, Heather Lamoureux, Vivienne Bessette, Ingrid Figueroa Manelik, and Derya Akay reflects on the question “How was your growing season?” at Harmony Garden in X̱wemelch'stn / Squamish Nation Capilano Reserve.  

Listen to the recorded conversation [here](http://www.lookingatthegardenfence.com/harmony.html).

*Looking at the Garden Fence* was funded by the Canada Council for the Arts. Additional programming support was provided by the BC Arts Council, Vines Art Festival, the Contemporary Art Gallery, and Western Front.

Looking at the Garden Fence

Join artist Derya Akay, Hayat Shabo and her daughter Carmen Aldakhlallah of Tayybeh as they explore Syrian cuisine.

Hayat Shabo, a chef originating from Damascus, and her daughter Carmen Aldakhlallah will discuss traditional Syrian dishes while demonstrating how to prepare kibbeh, minced meat, onion and bulgur balls. All participants are welcome to try their hand at making kibbeh under Hayat’s guidance. Over the afternoon there will be opportunities to taste a range of Syrian recipes and share stories about food traditions.

This event is presented in collaboration with Tayybeh, a nascent organization that aims to support Syrian women in Vancouver by organizing community-based dining experiences. By showcasing beautiful and authentic dishes from their hometowns in Syria, the women of Tayybeh have access to an income and financial independence. Working together, they build connections with other women and interact with the communities they live in. All while doing something they love: cooking.

The word “tayybeh” in Arabic is the feminine construction that means “kind”, and in the colloquial Levantine dialect means “delicious.”

The Contemporary Art Gallery welcomes Vancouver-based artist Derya Akay as the Burrard Marina Field House resident this spring. Expanding on recent projects, Akay is collaborating with women elders from a range of cultural backgrounds to explore and share local and diasporic culinary traditions through a series of workshops and meals. This convivial partaking of food is a gateway to oral history, which Akay understands as both storytelling and the sensations and memories summoned through communal eating.

### Biography

Derya Akay (b, 1988, Istanbul, Turkey) is an artist living in Vancouver. Recent solo exhibitions include Campbell River Art Gallery, 2017; Del Vaz Projects, Los Angeles, California, 2017; Painting with Light, Kunstverein Toronto, 2015; Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner & Supper, Centre A, Vancouver, 2014. He received the 2016 Portfolio Prize Emerging Artist Award, Vancouver, and was shortlisted for the 2015 RBC Emerging Artists People’s Choice Award at the Gardiner Museum in Toronto. Recent and upcoming group exhibitions include Ambivalent Pleasures, Vancouver Art Gallery, 2016; Geometry of Knowing Part I, Simon Fraser University Gallery, Vancouver, 2015.

A salad in a big blue bowl, a bottle of olive oil, and various other plates are placed on a table. 

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Derya Akay: Exploring Syrian Cuisine

Workshop

CAG and The Jewish Museum and Archives of BC are pleased to present *The Chosen Food: Shabbat Dinner & Fresh Challah*. This is the second event in the series *Mantι, Börek, Baklava* by Vancouver-based artist Derya Akay, the current Burrard Marina Field House resident this spring. Akay will prepare a dinner informed by the family recipes of Jewish community members Sara Ciacci, Leonor Etkin, Claire Hammer, and Debbie Kafka. Several of these women will be present to share the history, memory and symbolism associated with the dishes served.

Expanding on recent projects, Akay is collaborating with women elders from a range of cultural backgrounds to explore and share local and diasporic culinary traditions through a series of workshops and meals. This convivial partaking of food is a gateway to oral history, which Akay understands as both storytelling and the sensations and memories summoned through communal eating.

This event is also the first evening in The Jewish Museum and Archives of BC supper club series, *The Chosen Food*. Each event in this series will showcase a regional style of Jewish cuisine. 

### Biography
Derya Akay (b, 1988, Istanbul, Turkey) is an artist living in Vancouver. Recent solo exhibitions include Campbell River Art Gallery (2017); Del Vaz Projects, Los Angeles (2017); Kunstverein Toronto (2015); and *Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner & Supper*, Centre A, Vancouver (2014). He received the 2016 Portfolio Prize Emerging Artist Award, Vancouver, and was shortlisted for the 2015 RBC Emerging Artists People’s Choice Award at the Gardiner Museum in Toronto. Recent and upcoming group exhibitions include *Ambivalent Pleasures*, Vancouver Art Gallery (2016); *Geometry of Knowing Part I*, SFU Galleries, Vancouver, (2015).

People self-serving food from various dishes on a long silver table.

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Derya Akay: The Chosen Food: Shabbat Dinner & Fresh Challah

Join Derya Akay, Maria Dyulgerova & granddaughter Biliana Velkova as they explore traditional recipes shared in Bulgarian & Turkish cuisine. We invite participants to join in the preparation and enjoyment of the food while sharing stories and conversation.

The Contemporary Art Gallery welcomes Vancouver-based artist Derya Akay as the Burrard Marina Field House resident this spring. Expanding on recent projects, Akay’s project *Manti, Börek, Baklava* includes the artist collaborating with women elders from a range of cultural backgrounds to explore and share local and diasporic culinary traditions through a series of workshops and meals. This convivial partaking of food is a gateway to oral history, which Akay understands as both storytelling and the sensations and memories summoned through communal eating.

### Biography 

Derya Akay (b, 1988, Istanbul, Turkey) is an artist living in Vancouver. Recent solo exhibitions include Campbell River Art Gallery, 2017; Del Vaz Projects, Los Angeles, California, 2017; *Painting with Light*, Kunstverein Toronto, 2015; *Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner & Supper*, Centre A, Vancouver, 2014. He received the 2016 Portfolio Prize Emerging Artist Award, Vancouver, and was shortlisted for the 2015 RBC Emerging Artists People’s Choice Award at the Gardiner Museum in Toronto. Recent and upcoming group exhibitions include *Ambivalent Pleasures*, Vancouver Art Gallery, 2016; Geometry of Knowing Part I, Simon Fraser University Gallery, Vancouver, 2015.




Two people standing and mixing cut vegetables in a bowl on a kitchen table. 

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Derya Akay: Cooking with Maria Dyulgerova and Biliana Velkova

In conjunction with the Sustenance Festival: a city-wide festival with local food-focused workshops, exhibitions and talks, CAG has organized a panel examining artistic practices that consider food security, sovereignty and knowledge sharing.

An image of many dishes placed inside red and white gingham patterned tent. Small flags showing various words, such as immigration and heritage, are sticking out of each dish.

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Randy Lee Cutler, Holly Schmidt, Gaye Chan, Derya Akay and Keg de Souza

Panel Discussion

In the spring of 2017, Derya Akay collaborated with community organisations and women elders from a range of cultural backgrounds to explore and share local and diasporic culinary traditions. Over the course of a four month-long residency, a series of workshops and the resulting meals were offered to the public at the Contemporary Art Gallery’s Burrard Marina Field House and off-site locations.

This publication culminates Akay’s 2017 residency, featuring six recipes that the artist and women elders shared together throughout the project.


Derya Akay

Talks & Events

Publications & Editions