The ‘Mellified Man’ is a medicinal legend whereupon an aged man would self-sacrifice his life, originating from 16th Century Chinese Pharmacology. The man would eat and bathe in honey until the point that he became ‘mellifluous’, and would begin to secrete honey – literally urinate, sweat and excrete honey. On passing, his corpse would be placed in a stone coffin and mummified in honey for 100 years or more. The resultant liquid – the ‘confection’ – would then be applied and ingested to cure a wide range of ailments.
For The Edible Body Farm, myself and artist Kaye Winwood prepared ‘confections’ which invited the audience to experience the sweetness of the Mellified Man.
Menu:
Mellified Kiss – We performed a ritualistic edible experience (the Mellified Kiss) in three parts – flesh, blood and spirit – performed by Rico Johnson-Sinclair, and served using tableware cast from my own mouth. Soft, hard, runny, sweet, salty, citrus, honey, pork, bacon, vodka.
Mellified Tongues – hard candy honey and prosciutto tongue lollipops, produced from a cast of my tongue. Sweet and salty, honey and flesh.
Tonguing – For those without an appetite for flesh, we created chocolate tongues.
