Drink Your Medicine

With observation and documentation of the natural world being a key element of Al Ajmani’s work, Drink Your Medicine looks closely at the UAE’s flora and documents them onto ceramicware. The process starts by handpicking wild plants from patches of desert landscape throughout the city, as well as homegrown herbs and flowers from her mother’s garden, which are then carefully pressed into earthenware and stoneware clay before it is transformed into functional ceramicware.

Given the desert climate in the UAE, the availability of the featured plants and flowers rely completely on the occasional rainfall during the winter season, emphasizing the process as a slow craft in a fast paced world. Therefore, this particular series is created once a year and takes into consideration the seasonal life cycle and elemental responsiveness of the plants.

Because most of the materials being use are natural, with clay itself belonging to the earth; nature, or in other words the land, the rainfall, and the plants that are use are all considered active collaborators of this collection. A final ceramic piece incorporates all physical elements of earth, water, air, and fire, as well as a fifth element of mystery and magic throughout its transformation.