Food Envelopes: Ruoyi Shi

In many cultures, people insert letters or objects in food and use food as an envelope for secrets, or transform a regular message into a revolution: mooncakes, fortune cookies, king cake, or new year dumplings. In Food Envelopes, our first Welcome (M)Artist Rouyi Shi used food to deliver messages. By presenting video installations along with edible objects that contain letters inside she retold the "fish story" in Cincinnati at The Welcome Project for the first quarter of 2022. 

The storefront was transformed into a museum of "food envelopes". It was a space that mixed fantasy and reality. Shi creates objects with edible materials and ceramics to showcase how people have historically used food to transport messages. A Small post office was set up at the entrance, and everyone who entered the space could use the food Shi prepared to send a hidden letter to their friends. 

Ruoyi Shi is an interdisciplinary artist working with objects, writings, performances, and video installations. Inspired by folklore, oral history, mythology, and personal memory, she combines humor and fiction to construct her own poetic narratives. Shi was born and raised in Nanjing, China. She is a recent MFA graduate from the California Institute of the Arts (2021) and received her BFA degree in Sculpture from the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) in 2019. 

Food Envelopes was open January 15th through March 26th, 2022. 

Welcome (M)Art is a new program that blurs the lines between art gallery, grocery, and dinner party; providing a unique opportunity for social discourse in Cincinnati. 

Welcome (M)ART was generously funded by the Carol Ann and. Ralph V. Haile, Jr. Foundation.