The evening began with welcome drinks and bubbles as guests settled into an intimate table of 10 people. The open format collaboration featured Emma Witter presenting her practice and process around the works displayed throughout the night, with special guest and moderator Ellen Mara de Watcher facilitating discussions.
Guests experienced a menu created specifically for the artist by Huma and guest chef Kawther Luay, incorporating tactile and playful elements during the seated dinner with curated prompts. Artist presentations and discussions took place before dessert, followed by a closing ritual. Each participant left with a takeaway of thoughts and memories, along with a uniquely made limited edition artwork by Emma Witter.
‘Emma Witter is an artist that dreams with her hands and works to another time, where nothing is disposable and everything she touches might turn to gold. Working intuitively with found and rescued biomass — by-products of London’s restaurant industry or salvaged mud larking on the banks of the River Thames — her sculptures are sensational and beguiling. Witter breathes new life into lost things and shows us value where we saw only waste. Her process is alchemical, transforming what has been discarded into what must be saved, and her art speaks to our contemporaneous notion of the sublime.’
— Nico Kos Earle
Born in 1989, Emma Witter lives and works in London and is currently enrolled on the Art & Humanities MFA at the Royal College of Art. Emma holds a first-class honours degree in Performance Design from Central Saint Martins. On graduating, she won the ‘Seed Fund Award’ from the University of the Arts London — a grant to set up her own studio practice — followed by ‘Best New Business Award’ during UAL Enterprise Week.
Ellen Mara De Wachter is a writer and coach based in London. Her recent book, “More Than The Eyes: Art, Food and the Senses”, has been published by Atelier Éditions in Autumn 2024. Her book “Co-Art: Artists on Creative Collaboration” (Phaidon, 2017) explores the phenomenon of collaboration in the visual arts and its potential in society at large. It includes a historical survey of artistic co-production and co-authorship as well as chapters on 25 international contemporary co-art groups. Ellen is a co-author of ‘Great Women Artists’ (2019), and has contributed to numerous books and exhibition catalogues. Her writing has featured in publications including frieze, Art Monthly, Art Quarterly, The World of Interiors and The White Review.
Ellen has taught widely, including at Central Saint Martins, Royal College of Art, London College of Communication, Royal Academy Schools, Goldsmiths College, Brighton University and Newcastle University. She is a qualified Relational Dynamics coach who works with artists, writers and creative professionals to help them clarify and achieve their goals.
In 2013-15 she was Curator of Public Collection Development at the Contemporary Art Society, where she was responsible for CAS’s acquisitions scheme for museums across the UK. Prior to that, she worked at various arts organisations in London, including the Barbican Art Gallery and the British Museum.
Kawther Luay is an artist and chef. Her work showcases cross-disciplinary practices that touch on migration and belonging by merging local produce and wild food with non-native culinary traditions. Before moving to London last year, Kawther lived and worked in Aberdeenshire, on a project with Deveron Projects titled The Gathering Table. Her work explored the politics of food and hospitality through a creative programme of events, performances and collaboration. After years of studying food through artistic practice, Kawther returned to hospitality and works as a chef in London.
Photos: Gaëtan Bernède, DGS Media, Seçkin Uysal
