Mortar, Pestle, and Lights - A Live Art and Thai Cooking Demonstration

MORTAR, PESTLE, AND LIGHTS
Live Art Light Show + Thai Cooking Demonstration.

What happens when food, art, and light collide?

Join artists VC Tang and Combsy for Mortar, Pestle, and Lights—an immersive experience blending a live art light show with the sights, sounds, aromas, and flavors of Thai cooking.

Watch ingredients come together with the rhythmic pounding of the mortar and pestle while light and art transform the space around you.

Come experience Thai food beyond taste—as memory, movement, color, culture, and art.

Presented as part of Flavors of the Diasporas: A Culinary Journey of Belonging at Chopsticks Alley Art.
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On View "Flavors of the Diasporas: A Culinary Journey of Belonging" Exhibition

Food carries memory. A familiar scent can recall a childhood moment, a dish can bring back a person or place, and a recipe passed through generations can keep traditions alive. This exhibition brings together artists from Malaysia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Iran, and India who now call the Bay Area home. What begins with food expands into an exploration of cultural memory, migration, identity, and belonging.

For some artists, food is central to the work. Eileen Wong Cervera draws on the flavors and memories of her journey from Sarawak to San Jose, while VC Tang connects food, ritual, and cultural memory. Hadi Aghaee reflects on identity and human experience through figurative and surreal painting. Hang Huynh draws from Vietnamese heritage, family, and healing. Justin Tran uses film and visual storytelling to explore people, places, and connection, while Pragati Sharma Mohanty carries Indian myths and cultural stories across generations. Ryan Boun and Saraswathy Lakshmivaraham preserve and reinterpret cultural traditions through dance and the body.

Together, the artists invite us on a multisensory journey through food, movement, image, sound, and story, revealing the many ways we carry culture with us and make a place our own.

Program starts at 7 pm

(The gallery will be open from 1-9 pm)

Exhibition on View from October 2, 2026 - February 5, 2027

Chopsticks Alley Art Gallery

38 S. 2nd Street, San Jose, CA 95113
ChopsticksAlleyArt.org

Gallery Hours:

• Fri 1 – 6 pm | First Fri 1 – 9 pm
• Sat 12 – 4 pm
• Guided Tours Available by Appointment

Funded in part by:

• Applied Materials Foundation
• Makahakama FoundationPackard Foundation
• Applied Materials Foundation
• Packard Foundation
• Silicon Valley Community Foundation
• SVCREATES, in partnership with the County of Santa Clara
• California Arts Council, a state agency

Parking: Street parking or paid parking across the street from the location.
90 minutes free parking in City Parking lots - Info: https://parksj.org/