Peppery Soliloquies
12, Feb 2021 to 12, Mar 2021 Viewing Room
Peppery Soliloquies calls upon these magical, aphrodisiacal powers Spices that evoke a mélange of historical narratives, emotions, tastes, rituals, associations and aromas. The intention behind Peppery Soliloquies is to uncover and investigate the notions and texture of spice through the artworks, while enjoying the serendipitous coming together of these multiple perspectives in a visual medium that usually gives rise to new readings and intuitive interpretations.
It has been estimated through the fields of archaeology, geology and science that the estimated watermark for humankind began to use of spices as far back as 50,000 B.C. In different nations across the world spices have come into usage in different ways ranging from the everyday acts of cooking to the mythological and magical qualities of the spice. In a contemporary context where our bio-diversity is under risk it is important to revisit the history and the stories behind various spices, in a contemporary context because of the hidden cloak that is drawn around its production. Where much of the growing and farming of spices is dictated by the commercial undercurrent that effects the bio-diversity of our planet. The monoculture that tends to become prevalent because of commerce.
“We have encouraged our artists to explore in contemporary times and trace out the voice of the following aspects our peppery soliloquies employing Art, references Literature, Ancient scripts, history and documents and of course contemporary times, where we examine the influence of species upon the following various aspects of life, from the everyday to the historical, from its aroma and flavour in food to its Ayurvedic usage, from the aphrodisiacal to the mythological, from religious aspects, its medicinal usage. During the Pandemic our artists have turned inwards and created works especially for the show that look at this aspect of the spice trail along the spice trail of India and East Asia,” says Georgina Maddox.
