Food Culture in Iran, Other Islamic Countries Showcased in Detroit

DETROIT (KI) -- The Detroit Institute of Arts presents  The Art of Dining: Food Culture in the Islamic World, a major survey exploring and celebrating Islamic art through the lens of food and culinary culture.

Featuring nearly 230 works from the Middle East, Egypt, Central, South, and East Asia, and Europe, the exhibition illuminates connections between art and cuisine from ancient times to the present day, demonstrating how food transcends cultures, backgrounds, and borders.
On view from Sept. 22, 2024, through Jan. 5, 2025, The Art of Dining combines a multi-sensory experience of sights, sounds, and smells with a vast range of historical objects related to the preparation, serving, and enjoyment of food.
The show is presented in thematic groupings such as food preparation, communal dining, and coffee culture as well as eating for health, picnicking, and much more.
“Through this exceptional presentation, the DIA celebrates the art of dining and its power to bring people together,” says Salvador Salort-Pons, director of the Detroit Institute of Arts. “Being especially relevant in Michigan, we are excited to break bread with everyone and experience the fascinating and delicious food culture of the Islamic world — an opportunity to relish the cultural wealth of our diverse communities which enrich our region every day.”
The show includes vessels and tableware for eating and drinking; paintings representing scenes of feasting and food preparation; historical cookbooks with recipes still used today; musical instruments — played for entertainment during elaborate meals — presented here with sound clips; beautiful garments worn for special occasions, such as banquets; and scent boxes filled with the aromas of rosewater, orange blossom, coffee, and cardamom.
A section focused on the sufra — a cloth or low table on which food is served — explores the dining experience, with an interactive sufra inviting visitors to a digitally presented six-course meal based on historical recipes from throughout the Islamic world. The recipes, adapted for today’s cooks by chef Najmieh Batmanglij, a cookbook author and leading authority on Persian cuisine, are available via QR code.
Complementing the presentation of historical data-x-items is a contemporary multimedia installation by Iraqi-born artist Sadik Kwaish Alfraji titled A Thread of Light Between My Mother’s Fingers and Heaven (2023). Rooted in the artist’s memories of his mother, her homemade bread, and family meals in Baghdad, the work includes a large-scale animation, drawings, and photographs that evoke feelings of comfort, love, and nostalgia.
Originally organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), the exhibition includes works from 30 public and private collections from across the U.S., Europe, and the Middle East.
Sixteen of the works on view are from the DIA’s collection, including a rooster-headed ceramic ewer from Iran (ca. 1200); a tinned copper saltcellar from India inscribed with poetic verses about salt (dated 1664–65); and two strikingly similar serving dishes — one from China (early 1400s) and the other from Turkey (late 1400s–early 1500s) — that demonstrate the global vogue for blue-and-white ceramics; among others.
Metro Detroit has the largest concentration of Arab Americans in the nation, and is home to many other communities with ties to the Middle East and Central and South Asia.
For the exhibit, the DIA is collaborating with several organizations, businesses, and community leaders to host free public programming, educator workshops, and more. The exhibition will kick off with a live conversation between Alfraji and Arab American National Museum Director Diana Abouali on Sept. 22, at 2 p.m.
“With objects representing artistic and cultural traditions across a broad geographical expanse and more than 1500 years of history, The Art of Dining reflects the diversity of the Islamic world,” says Katherine Kasdorf, DIA Associate Curator of Arts of Asia and the Islamic World.
“We can all relate to the practices of eating, drinking, and sharing a meal with friends and family, and this exhibition invites visitors to reflect upon the personal and cultural connections we make through food.”
At the Detroit Institute of Arts, the exhibition is supported by the Friends of Asian Arts and Cultures, along with a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
The Art of Dining: Food Culture in the Islamic World is free with museum admission, which is always free for residents of Macomb, Oakland, and Wayne counties.