Speculative Hummus

Year: 2023
Production: Limited edition
Material: Hummus
Commission: Design Museum Holon for the Food exhibition
Curator: Liora Rosin & Dana Ben Shalom
Photographer: Dan Perez

Speculative Hummus explores the connection between the production processes of food and objects, through the menu of a nonexistent hummus joint. Familiar hummus dishes have been subjected to a product design process, undergoing aesthetic and practical changes. The decision to redesign the hummus plate builds on its significance as a longstanding cultural Israeli icon that raises questions concerning authenticity, locality and appropriation. This project also explores the act of design in general, and the ways in which it intervenes in the cultural landscape. 

The new process is based on the circular production of ceramic objects (jiger), adding functional features to each plate while playing with the overworn word “plating”. Then, the new designed dishes were meticulously photographed and projected on screens, resembling the menus in fast-food joints.
All of the dishes are local classics (left to right): hummus plate, chickpeas and falafel, half plate, hummus with fava-bean mash and egg, hummus with tahini.

Alongside the dishes, the project display includes objects used by the designers while working on this project, allowing a peek behind the scenes that reveals thought processes, inspiration, design and production processes. Some of the artifacts reveal the work process in an authentic manner, while others were intended to stylize and exaggerate the design process, underscoring the humorous side of the project.

Created with support from the Pais Art and Design Greenhouse