A box of Marukawa bubblegum, emblazoned with the rare fruit flavor of choice (orange, strawberry, grape, and melon) contains four glossy pastel spheres. A vacuum-sealed package of Nori Maki Arare, net weight 5 oz., contains around seventy-eight rice crackers wrapped in seaweed. This is approximately two weeks of snacking, if you delight in six a night. Sara Nishikawa builds stoneware ceramic objects shaped for, and around, our domestic rituals of snacking. Her ceramic objects are designed for specific foods including bubblegum, rice crackers, pocky (strawberry or chocolate), or inexplicably, shrimp cocktail. With this, Nishikawa’s miniature objects seem as if designed for a particular user, sometimes herself, her nephew, or the loveliest imaginary guest. Handbuilt to a snack-sized scale, her objects have their ideal portions built into them—almost neurotic allotments for perfect satisfaction and savoring. A peach ring holder is for exactly five sugary loops, while her pocky stand holds fifteen sticks alone. Accented with lime, orange, and pink glazes atop speckled stoneware, Nishikawa’s objects feel simultaneously ‘cute’ (invoking Sianne Ngai’s aesthetic categories), sensible, and indulgent, flitting between art, craft, and design conversations.

Snacking is an intimate ritual—the specificity of knowing how and what someone prefers to eat, (when they theoretically don’t need to) feels like love, or care at the very least. Take Nishikawa’s onigiri holder, slatted with air vents, to prevent fresh rice from getting soggy. The vents certainly serve a functional purpose, but her nephew also never eats his onigiri (tuna mayo, of course) if it loses its triangular shape. Many objects are designed for packaged Asian snacks that line the aisles of now ubiquitous H Mart or Tiger Mart supermarkets. In Hawaii, Nishikawa grew up near both sides of her extended family, meaning Chinese and Japanese home cooking, but also rice crispy treats made on request by her grandma. Through a devotion to specific, often Asian snacks, Nishikawa's objects suggest a diasporic longing for family and place, through easily accessible cultural foods in our consumer-oriented reality.

Slow time and delightful ritual. To enjoy, enjoyment, enjoyed. To sit, and to savor. When viewed together, Nishikawa’s objects resemble a miniature playground of sensory and intellectual treats—some savory, others sweet—which ask us to indeed, play with our food. Yet, while Nishikawa’s objects are designed for specific foods, do they equally shape our behaviors around dining. A single grape stand, three strawberries in a row, one Oreo. Her ceramics ask us to snack thoughtfully, and to ultimately, re-examine our daily rituals which architect living well.

@cakesniffing