A conversation with

Bobbi Salvör Menuez

How would you describe your home? Is there a specific style or design tradition you're drawn to? What's your favorite room at home?

"Cozy recharge zone, filled with treasures. The design styles are pretty eclectic. I especially love our living room. It is the room my husband & I meditate in every day with our pets, the room we pile friends into for movie nights, and has even been the perfect room for hosting multiple friends recovering from gender-affirming surgeries over the years. It has these lovely pre-war bay windows that flood the room with light. We keep most of our many plants here, along with our personal library, the majority of our miniature collection and a precious selection of art from dear friends."

Bobbi Salvör Menuez Salter House Daydress

You have some tea sets available at Picture Room, and we're hosting an event together for friends to come and have tea served from those vessels... What is your relationship to tea?

"I love tea, but I am no tea expert. My paternal grandmother studied tea ceremonies and I first learned a little about this tradition from her. I often thought of the bath as a kind of energetic tea making, albeit perhaps not so appetizing, I used to save small portions of bath water from specific moments as a kind of potion / energetic archive. Water is a material I feel extremely supported by, and I love that tea is this way for water to hold different frequencies, flavors & information. In a very simple quotidian way, the ritual of an afternoon tea offers me a lot of nourishment and a framework for soft connection. I am really looking forward to sharing these new vessels in this intimate way."

Bobbi wears the Batiste Cotton Daydress in size Small.

Can you tell us more about your practice and the triangulation of food, performance and sculpture?

"I really have too much to say at this juncture. These elements have bounced off of eachother in my solo & collaborative practices for over a decade now. So much of how we relate to food is performance. Food can be sculpture (&/or ikebana) and so many of the objects that connect us to food can be sculpture as well. These categories weave into each other in ways that really interest & make sense to me. I enjoy the edges where they blur together and into new spaces. There is so much narrative & relational potential. One faction of my practice that feels relevant to these questions is Spiral Theory Test Kitchen which is a project I do with Precious Okoyomon & quori theodor - the work from which often exists within a relational aesthetic space."

Bobbi Salvör Menuez visits Salter House Bobbi wears the Black Cotton Beatrice Blouse, Wrap Skirt, and Silk Bloomers in size Medium.
They styled with a pleated apron and house bow.

Where are you from, originally? Tell us about the house you grew up in.

"NYC. I live now in the old rent controlled apartment where I first lived as a child. It has taken on many different shapes & paint colors over the years. I originally moved out when I was 18 and lived in a bunch of different areas, later looping back to take the lease over in 2019. It’s such a gift to have affordable rent in this city and to live near Prospect Park, it’s made life here a little softer."

Bobbi wears Ivory House Bow and Petal Silk Wrap Skirt in size Medium.

Have you repaired or restored anything recently?

"I have always enjoyed hand sewing, first learning how around the age of 7 - I used to make clothes for myself & my teddy bears from old shirts my dad was getting rid of. There is almost always a mending pile in my house somewhere - most recently I mended a pair of much loved pajama pants."

What one house museum would you recommend visiting?

"My first thought was the Gustave Moreau museum in Paris, a true gem, a little portal."

Bobbi Salvör Menuez visits Salter House Bobbi wears Ivory Taffeta Corset and Bloomers in size Medium; styled with Pan Collar Pajama Top.

If you formed an intentional community or cult, what would its core belief or idea? Does that idea show up in your present life?

"I think in a way I may have already? Leaning more in the direction of intentional community, lol. Some key values include: intersectional interdependence, collective joy & bodily autonomy. I try to move through life with these values and to practice them in my relationships big & small - with gentleness for human imperfection."

Have any movies influenced your style recently?

"I haven’t watched it yet but the costumes from Nosferatu against the cold of winter makes me want to dress more goth."

What else have you been working on recently?

"I had a great time working briefly on the new Pedro Almodovar film The Room Next Door, and will be in a play this spring called Bad Stars at the Collapsible Hole in the West Village, which I am looking forward to. Two other films I worked on that came out last year and are now on streaming that I feel proud of are Lunacy & Summer Solstice. I also directed some new music videos for dear friend & collaborator Colin Self that were a ton of fun to make and easy to find on Youtube! A new two-part curation I have done for Dizzy TV will air soon online. I also plan to more formally launch my creative agency 80881, through which I have a ton of fun things cooking."

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