JP TERLIZZI | THE GOOD DISHES

JP TERLIZZI | THE GOOD DISHES

The Good Dishes integrates memory, legacy, and metaphor with my response to loss. As I witness an early generation of family members pass, my cousins and I were each faced with the emotional task of cleaning out the family home. Sorting through the heirlooms, we would determine which items to toss, sell, or preserve. Without fail, when it came to the family’s fine china, that item was always given to the person that most cherished its memory and sentimental value.

“Eating is a physical need, but meals are a social ritual. Utilizing the passed down heirlooms of friends and family, The Good Dishes celebrates the memory of family and togetherness.” – JP Terlizzi

Growing up in a large Italian family, everything was centered around food and the family table. I remember vividly my mother’s vintage marigold stoneware dishes that she bought at the grocery store back in the early 1970s. She used them every day for as long as I could remember, and they had a life of their own. Along with my mother’s everyday dishes, she had one set that she kept on display behind glass that only she handled, only she washed, and only she hand-dried; These were deemed “the good dishes.” Whenever I heard, “I need to use the good dishes,” that meant one of two things in our household: The priest was coming over for dinner, or it was a very special occasion. Either way, the food presentation, table dress, and table manners all changed whenever the good dishes came out.

Eating is a physical need, but meals are a social ritual. Utilizing the passed down heirlooms of friends and family, The Good Dishes celebrates the memory of family and togetherness. It borrows the stylized rituals of formal tableware and draws inspiration from classic still life paintings. Background textiles are individually designed and constructed to reflect patterns found on each table setting while presentation, etiquette, and formality are disassociated by using food and fine china in unconventional ways as metaphors for the beauty and intimacy that are centered around meals and table.

JP TERLIZZI

JP Terlizzi (American) is a New York City photographer whose contemporary practice explores memory, relationship, and identity themes. His images are rooted in the personal and heavily influenced around the notion of home, legacy, and family. He is curious about how the past relates and intersects with the present and how the present enlivens the past, shaping one’s identity.

Born and raised in the farmlands of Central New Jersey, JP earned a BFA in Communication Design at the Kutztown University of PA with a background in graphic design and advertising.
He has studied photography at both the International Center of Photography in New York and Maine Media College in Rockport, ME.

His work has been exhibited extensively in galleries and museums across the United States and internationally, including juried, invitational, and solo exhibitions. JP has received several awards and honors, including being recognized and named in The Critical Mass Top 50 (2019, 2018), Critical Mass Finalist (2016, 2015). Fresh Finalist (Klompching Gallery, 2019), First Look Winner (Panopticon Gallery, 2019), International Portfolio Competition Winner (Soho Photo Gallery, 2018).
His work has been published in online and print publications and is held in permanent and private collections across the United States and Canada.
JP is currently represented by Foto Relevance Gallery in Houston, TX.

Read the full article in Lens Magazine Issue #85