Oden Sets the Table
With the help of Devon Hale and many more
In the late 20 teens and into the pandemic, independent food media took a collective smoke break. Stellar publications like Lucky Peach, Tooth Ache and Whetstone printed their final issues.
However, in the ensuing vacuum or perhaps in reaction to the hyper-simplification of content and listicle stupefaction, we are seeing a massive proliferation of small independent food publications! Hooray!
While a full fridge is better than an empty fridge, sometimes it can be hard to find where you put the capers. So how does Oden stand out among a crowd and not get lost behind the mustard and the jar of whatever?
Simply put, Oden is an Annual Journal of Food and Art. We are thrilled to have the opportunity to work with incredible writers as well as visual artists. To us, the art isn’t the visual accompaniment to the stories. After all, without a bun, a hot dog is just a wiener.
Issue 4 we had the sublime privilege of printing Devon Midori Hale’s paintings on the cover and throughout the meat. Her paintings of tablescapes set the table for the entire rest of the issue. Everything reads better next to bold color scenes of dining. Is it our favourite issue yet? Depends who’s asking, but it did help establish ourselves as an art forward food publication.
At our issue 4 release event we hosted a gallery full of Devon’s paintings that were printed in the magazine.
Devon described the series as such:
The series in this issue are table top compositions that represent the big meals that commemorate celebratory moments as well as smaller daily meals which are meaningful over time.
The table items are arranged in a composition with objects and colors expressive of mood. People are cropped and obscured, and the image is focused on the feeling of
the overly-packed table that everyone is gathering and bustling around rather than on individuals. While these rituals are highly personal and cultural, they are at the same time extremely transcendent and human acts that we can all relate to. This work celebrates the times when sharing foods is a love language that reconnects people on an essential level that has rippling outward affects.
We’re tremendously grateful to all of our artists who have brought Oden one sense closer to being able to eat it. Look out for scratch and sniff, built in noise makers and flavor packs in issues 6, 7 and 8 respectively. But actually, while we were in Japan we picked up a few sheets of, well I don’t really know what it is, but it’s some kind of persimmon tannin dyed Japanese paper from Japan and we’re going to deliver it to our feature artist for issue 6 soon. Very excited.
And finally, speaking of a spring-style sprouting of outstanding independent food media, a few of our favourites have hatched fresh issues!
Grab yourself a copy of Kitchen Tables 8th issue BAKED, Cake Zines special STEAK ZINE issue and Full Pour’s Spring Issue.