Workshop: Sauren Aru-Blaney – Bodies of Knowledge

Join artist Sauren Aru-Blaney for an in-person workshop where we will make rotis without a recipe.

Roti is an unleavened flatbread with origins in the Indian subcontinent. Deriving from the Sanskrit word for ‘bread’, roṭikā, roti was first mentioned in text over 6000 years ago. Today, versions of roti can be found from Malaysia to the Caribbean. The roti’s diasporic evolution traces migration and adaptation, and highlights the importance of food in locating a sense of home. 

Using basic ingredients – flour, water, and oil – we will explore the relationship between cooking and the generation of knowledge. Ideas and experiences will be generated, activated, and shared as we make, cook, and eat together, framed by a series of questions including … How can making and eating create a sense of home? Why is sharing joyful? How do we understand authenticity? How is food a form of resistance? 

Intuitive responses are welcomed and no prior roti cooking knowledge is required!

This event is part of Still there are seeds to be gathered … a programme of events led by EOP members.

Please email us at info[at]eastsideprojects.org if you have any dietary requirements or accessibility needs, and we will do our best to accommodate. 

About Sauren

Sauren (she/they) is a curator interested in knowledge, archive, and diaspora. Her practice often favours live programmes which generate unexpected forms of knowledge. Bodies of Knowledge is part of Sauren’s current research project, Becoming Together, which investigates food’s potential in curatorial practice to build diasporic institutionalities. Sauren also works as a Library Assistant at Wellcome Collection and Associate Lecturer at University of the Arts London.