Re-abakwetha is a ritual in the Xhosa tribe that has been given a contemporary upgrade. Consuming food without using body parts is a part of the ritual for the boys that are going to become men. This project creates an event using upgraded BBQs and certain machines that changes people’s perception about taste, by targeting all the other senses that influence the gustatory experience. Different tastes of various social groups in Cape Town become a new communication code to relate back to various original contexts. The Mixture of all the tastes (Electric, audio visual food and aero food) would be the meeting point of various backgrounds where taste translates into space.
Re-Abakwetha Jewellery has got a taste simulating technology embedded inside of it. It is a series of Lips plates that replicates the African lip plate and de-radicalises the way it is being worn. Each Plate represents a taste and the area of the taste’s origin. Therefore any combination of the plates recreates various tastes and the utilisation of the jewellery not only opens up tastes to people, but it is also a celebration of identity.
All the machines that are needed to create the event, and the trucks that need to get upgraded to be able to transport the machines.
The perception of the people in the space constantly change as they walk between the BBQs, and combine.
timeline shows the machines coming to the site and deploying the bbqs. It illustrates how the space grows through out the time.
view of the space as people get closed by.
view of the interior of the truck that has been manipulate to become the piercing parlour.
view from the top of the smell gatherer.
