This focal point of this work is my research practice in food foraging, healing remedies, and socially embodied practice namely with the Roadside Beauties projects, alongside a longstanding attentiveness to the interstitial spaces of care and the intertwining of personal and cultural histories. I am also looking at the differing expressions and experimentations around nature, food, and healing, specifically in relation to folk and intergenerational food remedies.
By looking at some healing practices, food histories, folk/community knowledge and relations to land, what alternative narratives and creative strategies may be brought to the fore? Could there be a legacy through narrative around food and love language and a way to resurface ‘lost knowledge’ while bringing together various forms of cross-cultural knowledge? The wildflower/roadside beauties projects (and workshops) are part of my larger body of works that reconsiders our human-nature relationship in light of climate change, the current pandemic and persistent development in our society. Partly derived from my childhood background as a forager for the family, the cartographic research projects will examine ‘foraging’ history, and conversations with the participants in the context of the gathering of the flora/fauna, oral tradition and knowledge systems for the (women)folk. It is hoped that alternative knowledge such as healing elements of the flora-fauna would be generative and responsive towards our immediate ecological concerns and for the future generations. |
Roadside Beauties Foraged wildflowers in cocktails Encounters BIOME STPI Annual Fundraiser 24-25 October 2020 About the politics of care and resilience, & foregrounding the Japanese concept of “kachou fuugetsu” (花鳥風月). |
Indices for cooling remedies:
Ang Tek Hiok/Boat Lily Roadside Beauties & other tales of healing, Plural Art & National Heritage Board’s Singapore HeritageFest 2021 |