- Sketchbook (Ongoing)
- The Scoop / Writing
Bees & Refugees- A String of Love, Whitworth Art Gallery
- 2025 ++
- Craftspace x Serendipity Art festival, Goa
- Heal, Home, Hmmm x Intervention Architecture at V&A Museum
- A String of Love x without SHAPE without FORM
- A sickness is spreading, it’s turning us blue
- Comfort Near Me
- Made in the Middle
Courses for Dis-Course(s)- The Podcast and Publication
Material Matters- New Contemporaries
- Manji, Charpai, Daybed x Greenwich & Docklands International Festival
- Don’t play with your food
- Jalebi Press
- Hospital Rooms x Sandwell CAMHS
- Rhythm with Osman Yousefzada
- Aftercare with Liverpool Biennial
- Comrades (Midlands) with Outside In x EXPLORERS project
- 2023 ++
- Arts Council Collection Acquisitions 2022
- Courses for Dis-Course(s)
- Quisse of the Komagata Maru
- Khao, peyo, aish karo, but don’t hurt anyone’s heart
- Care Work ft Desi and Disabled
- But what if I gave myself an ounce of the care I show for others?
- Archive 2019 - 2022 ++
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Email roodhissou@gmail.com Twitter @roodhissou Instagram @roodhissou
- © Roo Dhissou and Jalebi Press 2025. Please ask for permission when referencing my writing because it may contain original references to my PhD, or using my images, as they may belong to one of my many photographer friends.
Bees and Refugees with Ali Alzein and Oreet Ashery
Beeing Together is a project conceived by artist Oreet Ashery as part of their research into bee vision, edge detection and multispecies cohabitation. The project includes building a large outdoor clay oven and benches from reclaimed clay, essays, a series of short films, a new font, a publication and an online radical beekeepers gathering.
My role in Beeing Together: Building a Chula began when I met Oreet online, after she reached out to me for my experience in designing and building clay chulas. I was invited to design and help lead the construction of the Chula at Bees & Refugees in Otford, Kent, developing the form in response to the site, its use and the materials available. We worked with reclaimed clay sourced from building sites around London, and I brought in my long-time collaborator and friend, Prashant Patel of Rescued Clay. I had previously worked with Prashant on Heal, Home, Hmmm at the V&A, and our shared experience of working with reclaimed clay became an important part of the project. Together with the wider project team, we prepared, mixed and built the clay structure, including the associated seating area.
I think of the chula as a piece of infrastructure for gathering, cooking and spending time together. This connects closely to my wider practice and my interest in how materials, food and making can create spaces for people to meet and care for one another. Building the chula was a very hands-on process, with knowledge being shared through working with clay, fire and food. I was interested in the cultural history of the chula and its place within South Asian domestic and communal life, as well as the memories and experiences that surround these structures. The process of building, tending and, eventually lighting the Chula allowed it to become part of the life of the site. The first fire and the rituals around it marked the beginning of its use as a place for cooking, hosting and gathering.
My role in Beeing Together: Building a Chula began when I met Oreet online, after she reached out to me for my experience in designing and building clay chulas. I was invited to design and help lead the construction of the Chula at Bees & Refugees in Otford, Kent, developing the form in response to the site, its use and the materials available. We worked with reclaimed clay sourced from building sites around London, and I brought in my long-time collaborator and friend, Prashant Patel of Rescued Clay. I had previously worked with Prashant on Heal, Home, Hmmm at the V&A, and our shared experience of working with reclaimed clay became an important part of the project. Together with the wider project team, we prepared, mixed and built the clay structure, including the associated seating area.
I think of the chula as a piece of infrastructure for gathering, cooking and spending time together. This connects closely to my wider practice and my interest in how materials, food and making can create spaces for people to meet and care for one another. Building the chula was a very hands-on process, with knowledge being shared through working with clay, fire and food. I was interested in the cultural history of the chula and its place within South Asian domestic and communal life, as well as the memories and experiences that surround these structures. The process of building, tending and, eventually lighting the Chula allowed it to become part of the life of the site. The first fire and the rituals around it marked the beginning of its use as a place for cooking, hosting and gathering.
Images below taken by long-time friend and collaborator Ben Crawford.