Alchemy in the Urban

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I was invited by Colombscope to showcase my work, I Sit Under your Shade but to also offer workshops that explored the intersections between ancient practices of culinary healing, and today's urban tired world.

Alchemy in the Urban gathered 15 participants; artists, writers, botanists, to take residence at Ranbath Organic and explore healing modalities in poetic and personal ways. Leading up to the workshop, I explored Ranbath Organic's family farm, and the family run Ayurvedic medicine production facility Ayuwanna in search of deeper knowledge, and understanding how, in today's world, such practices can be accessible to all who wish to practice across socio-economic divides and lifestyles.

Day 1 of the workshop was an exercise in mapping; produce from the farm, with intuitive anatomy, and our own personal traumas and current affairs; grief, decolonisation, witnessing a genocide and more. Participants began to create dishes, drinks and remedies that could bridge these approaches, and serve as talismans.

Day 2 of the workshop explored another kind of healing- the magic that happens when a community gather together. Inspired by the collective cookie making tradition in the Middle East of Mamoul or Kaak Al Eid, we stuffed this semolina cookie with Sri Lankan staples; peanuts, jaggery and coconut. A noisy assembly line of invested participants, pinching, shaping and stuffing- ultimately resisting individualistic cultures. 

Traditionally, these cookies are offered to others, to celebrate with visitors during Eid or Easter, and so, we offered the baked cookies during Colomboscope's farewell dinner.

For the farewell dinner, or offering, I performed the role of the mother, the medicine woman, the intuitive, caring, listener, each eater was inviting to my table, to whisper their ailments, and spread across the table were replicas different healing dishes the participants had developed. I would combine the best possible concoctions, and scoop them onto naturally dyed hoppers for the guests to enjoy.

Photo courtesy Isira Sooriyaarachch and Colombscope (2024).