​SOUP (Critical Craft Collective), Bergen Senter for Elektronisk Kunst, Norway

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Kinship and the stone soup was made for ‘The only lasting truth is change’ symposium and flexible residency with @bekelektronisk.

Taking a cue and departing from the different fables of Aesop’s stone soup, this installation-performance activation work traces the history of the Spice Route, the commonalities that are shaped through the use of spices in our everyday life, and how collective ways of remembering may be presented in the installation of spoons, spices, stones, video and a family recipe - which in this case is a lemak/laksa recipe from my mother-in-law. The work teases out the contributions of stories, ingredients and recipes, and in the process of sharing one’s belongings and care, a richer and more magical experience may be had collectively. It also looks at how the monsoon seasons played a significant part in the trade routes and impacted our modern-day sensibilities and palates. Referencing magic realism and (Asian) cartographic histories, this installation was part journal, part drawing with an assemblage of differing found and sourced objects in its depiction of personal history, real and imagined spaces.