I Miss My Mum’s Cooking (Who More Sci-Fi Than US?)

I Miss My Mum’s Cooking was an installation created for the group exhibition Who More Sci-Fi Than Us: Contemporary Art from the Caribbean guest curated by Nancy Hoffmann at the Kunsthal KAdE Amersfoort, Netherlands, May – August 2012. 

After McMillan’s mother Escaletha ‘Letha’ nee Pereira/Brewster passed away in September 2011, he kept some of her cooking utensils when his siblings cleared the house they grew up in before it was passed on. I Miss My Mum’s Cooking became a homage to memory, loss, health and legacy through the material culture of his mother’s cooking utensils, the ingredients she cooked with, cooking techniques, the dishes she made and how they tasted. 

The piece consisted of two installation pieces: a 1970s styled formica topped kitchen was laid with a plastic red and white gingham patterned table cloth and adorned with various cooking utensils belonging to McMillan’s mother including her cerished ‘Dutch Pot’. This is a traditional aluminium bowl shaped pot used in the Caribbean, and across the African diaspora that is embedded over time with the flavours of whatever is cooked in it. His mother’s walking stick was also leaned against the table, which stood on a woven red and white plastic mat from her kitchen. This was surrounded by three concentric circles of rice, blackeye peas and kidney beans.

The second installation piece consisted of a monologue, McMillan wrote on a draped length of grease proof paper with one end hanging from a wall, and other end held down by tins of Carnation evaporated milk and corned beef at the centre of three concentric circles of sugar, cornmeal (polenta) and salt. Within the circle on two floral patterned place mats were a number of other products that were used for either cooking or treating ailments. On one side was a bottle of Encona West Indian Hot Pepper Sauce, a tin of Bolst’s Curry powder, a plastic container of Borwick’s baking powder, a coconut, and a tube of Deep Heat Rub and a box with a bottle of Canadian Healing Oil that was used to treat bruises and muscle injuries. There was also a bottle of Alcolado Glacial, as a mentholated splash it evaporated on contact with skin, and put on our heads as children whenever we had a common cold or flu. On the other mat was a white rectangular enamel plate in which was a small bottle of vanilla essence, a nutmeg and stick of cinnamon.

McMillan grew up with these cooking ingredients and treatment remedies and still use them in my own cooking and to treat ailments, with loyalty to some brands, and upgrades for others, such as the coconut cream and milk, instead of the labour intensive method of extracting them from an actual coconut.