Free entry
9 Sep 2025 – 14 Sep 2025
Gallery 2
| Monday | Closed |
| Tuesday | 11am–6pm |
| Wednesday | 11am–6pm |
| Thursday | 11am–9pm |
| Friday | 11am–6pm |
| Saturday | 11am–6pm |
| Sunday | 11am–6pm |
Access requirements
The Whitechapel Gallery is committed to making all of our events as accessible as possible for every audience member. Please contact access@whitechapelgallery.org if you would like to discuss a particular request and we will gladly discuss with you the best way to accommodate it.
Information about access on site at the gallery is available here https://www.whitechapelgallery.org/visit/access/
This includes information about Lift access; Borrowing wheelchairs & seating; Assistance Animals; Parking; Toilets and baby care facilities; Blind & Partially Sighted Visitors; Subtitles and transcripts; British Sign Language (BSL) and hearing induction loops; Deaf Messaging Service (DMS).
About This Event
This exhibition takes place in the Gallery 2 space at Whitechapel Gallery, located on the ground floor.
This exhibition is free entry and drop in, with no booking required
Transport
Our nearest train station – Aldgate East Underground (1 min) is not wheelchair accessible. The closest wheelchair accessible stations are Whitechapel (15 min), Shoreditch High Street (15 min) or Liverpool Street (15 min).
Free parking for Blue Badge holders is available at the top of Osborn Street in the pay and display booths for an unlimited period. Spaces are available on a first come, first served basis.
Hearthside is an installation of a new body of work by British-Bengali artist Mohammed Z. Rahman, presented over six days, in collaboration with Oitij-jo, meditating on hospitality, food knowledge, ecosystems and the emotional power of the dinner table to foster solidarities.
Interpreting embodied culinary knowledge, reflections on food supply chains, and teeming moments of community, Rahman communicates their alchemical, magically alive gastronomical universe through paint, sculpture, and installation.
Rahman’s self-taught painting practice shares its DNA with when they began cooking in their teens as part of a working-class Bengali family living in London. Their culinary vocabulary consists of diasporic interpretations of their ancestral Sylheti cuisine, English classics, and their enmeshment in the kaleidoscopic, ever-creolising cuisines of London’s migrant communities.
Politically, Rahman makes visible the care, labour, and regionality/globality of food in a bid to humanise and unite in a socio-political moment characterised by steepening divides. Inspired by Islamic notions of hospitality and internationalist notions of solidarity, Rahman considers the role of food as a vehicle for redistribution, spiritual renewal, and radical kindness.
This exhibition will be closed to the general public from 5pm on Thu 11 September as we will be hosting an in-conversation event with Mohammed Z. Rahman within the exhibition space.
Raman, Parvathi (2011) ‘“Me in Place, and the Place in Me”: A Migrant’s Tale of Food, Home and Belonging.’ Food, Culture and Society: An International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research, 14 (2). pp. 165-180.
“Going for an Indian”: South Asian Restaurants and the Limits of Multiculturalism in Britain, Elizabeth Buettner, The Journal of Modern HistoryVol. 80, No. 4, A Special Issue on Metropole and Colony (December 2008), pp. 865-901 (37 pages) Published By: The University of Chicago Press
“Dreams of Pakistani Grill and Vada Pao in Manhattan: Reinscribing the Immigrant Body in Metropolitan Discussions of Taste.” Food, Culture & Society vol. 13. no. 4 (December 2010).
Yuson Jung (2012) Experiencing the “West” through the “East” in the Margins of Europe, Food, Culture & Society, 15:4, 579-598, DOI: 10.2752/175174412X13414122382809
“Fatness and Well-Being: Bodies and the Generation Gap in Contemporary China” by Anna Lora Winwright, January 2009, DOI:10.1515/9781845459666-009, In book: The Body in Asia (pp.113-126)
Bourdain, A. (2000). Kitchen confidential: adventures in the culinary underbelly. Unabridged. Random House Audio.
Mabey, Richard. Food for Free: 50th Anniversary Edition. William Collins, 2022.
Wright, John. The Forager’s Calendar: A Seasonal Guide to Nature’s Wild Harvests. Profile Books, 2019.
Kariya, Tetsu, and Akira Hanasaki. Oishinbo: The Joy of Rice. Translated by Tetsuichiro Miyaki, Viz Media, 2009.
Dal Puri Diaspora (2012), Richard Fung
Chef’s Table (2015-2024)
Tampopo (1985), Juzo Itami
Mohammed Z. Rahman (he/they) is a British-Bengali artist based in London and represented by Phillida Reid. His work puts socio-political and personal histories in conversation through the lens of the domestic. With a background in social anthropology (BA, SOAS), Mohammed approaches his practice as a visionary, intimate and political force putting the ordinary and fantastical at play in explorations of dreamworlds, globality, queerness, biography and socio-historical perspectives. Mohammed is an awardee of the Tate Frieze Fund 2024 and the UK Government Art Collection London Gallery Weekend Fund.
Oitij-jo fosters collaboration among creative practitioners to boost British-Bengali interaction globally. Our mission is to drive social and economic progress by connecting cultures, fostering innovative narratives, and celebrating the rich heritage of the Bengali diaspora since 2013.
Mohammed Z. Rahman: Hearthside has been generously supported by Phillida Reid.
The exhibition is presented in partnership with Oitij-jo.
