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我們今天要煮甚麼？ What are we cooking today?

Materials: Deadstock cotton fabric from Sham Shui Po
Dimensions: 2 x 4 meter

Installation, Screen printing on aprons

"What Are We Cooking Today?" is a project by Widi Asari that is interested in the relationship between Indonesian migrant workers and the kitchen spaces of Hong Kong—not merely as domestic interiors, but as sites of care, negotiation, and memory. Through collaboration with the Indonesian Migrant Workers Union (IMWU). Widi uncovered how food becomes a language of connection between workers and their employers—flavors as bridges of empathy and understanding.

In this work, participants are invited to touch, smell, and feel everyday kitchen fabrics while responding to five questions about their food memories—whether from their hometowns or their employers’ kitchens. With closed eyes, and guided by kitchen cloths and aprons as tactile prompts, their stories are translated into drawings and then into textile motifs. These motifs are inserted among industrial deadstock fabrics sourced in Sham Shui Po, quietly weaving migrant memories into the fabric of the city.

Rather than treating kitchens as purely domestic spaces, Widi reveals them as a charged social space. While preparing meals for their employers’ families, migrant workers are also feeding families back home—sustaining two kitchens at once. In the layered fabrics she creates, Widi sees cloth as an archive of distance and resilience, with each thread holding care, absence, and memory.

Through shared storytelling and experimentation, Widi treats fabric as a form of radical listening—recording the emotional and migratory geographies carried by migrant workers and their kitchens.

Terima Kasih Kepada:

Sringatin (Hong Kong)

Dini Ramdani Lestari (Bandung)

Indonesian Migran Worker Union (IMWU) Hong Kong

Jaringan Buruh Migran Indonesia (JBMI) Hong Kong

collaborator

Ade Nurmalasari (Sragen-Jordan)
Anna (Lampung-Jordan)
Atin (Ponorogo -Kwun Tong)
Dhe (Malang -South Horizons)
Hindun (Blitar- Taipo)
Lina (Majalengka-Homantin)
Purwanti (Ponorogo-Sai Wan Ho)
Romlah (Sulawesi Tengah- Taiko)
Siti Masiroh (Lampung Timur- Jordan)
Kesy (Blitar-Cheung Sa Wan)
Win (Madiun Jawa Timur- Taikoo Shing)
Sukma Kediri -Siu sai wan)
Septiana (Lampung-Yau tong)
Sustari (Malang-North Point)
Wana (Blitar-Pok Fu Lam)