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Chayka Sofia Studio

CHAYKA SOFIA is the creative duo Alisa Lapidus & Natasha Subramaniam, who together founded the interdisciplinary studio that realize visual content spanning the realms of fine art, design, installation, photography, and cinema to branding and advertising.

Their award-winning work has been internationally featured in outlets including The New York Times, NOWNESS, The Huffington Post, and others, and screened worldwide to acclaim in film festivals including Telluride Film Festival, AFI Film Festival, and Melbourne International Film Festival. Their projects have additionally been showcased at the Park Avenue Armory Center for the Arts, American Cinematheque, and Philip Johnson Glass House.

Zergüt

Within a refrigerator, a battle ensues as moldy, decaying foods forgotten in the depths of the back rise up against the fresh ingredients that reside in the front. These confrontations escalate, as foods morph, disintegrate, dance, explode, and become a textural, abstract display of color and form culminating in a grand finale sequence that results in their obliteration. Zergüt brings alive a culinary universe in the vein of a contemporary Fantastia- focusing on the unique, overlooked beauty of everyday edible delights.

Co-created with Alisa Lapidus


Reverie

From stream to understory and forest environments, Reverie delves into sustainable ingredients endemic to Southern California through the visionary cuisine of chef Jordan Kahn. Treading between dream and reality, the film is a lyrical ascent into an intimate gastronomic realm where surreal culinary dreamscapes, botanic forms, and wildlife evoke our deep ties to nature and the subconscious. A meditation on how food is interwoven with elemental forces, memories, the imagination, and the sublime, Reverie conjures an atmosphere as rooted in our primal surroundings as it is in our fantasies.

Co-created with Alisa Lapidus


Reef

Reef traces the realization of a dish developed by Chef Peter Gilmore, who was inspired by the coral reef gardens on Hamilton Island, Australia. It captures the otherworldly ocean landscapes where his ingredients are locally sourced and the QUAY kitchen where Gilmore prepares and realizes his creation. Read the article on Nowness.

Co-created with Alisa Lapidus


Assiette

Assiette depicts a traditional croissant unravel to become an avant-garde dessert. Revealing itself in a single continuous take with no cuts - a cinematic "bite," the ingredients on the microcosm of the plate mirror the macrocosm of a forest. Read the article on Nowness.

Co-created with Alisa Lapidus