Jemma Foster - Wild Alchemy Lab

After an MA in English Literature (with philosophy and international law) at Edinburgh University, I began a career as a journalist (The Guardian, Time Out, The Times) and scriptwriter (Alexander Berberich, Rachel Rose Seely), publishing a series of short stories (The Cardboard Book Project) before turning to food and drink as a medium for storytelling on board narrowboat Xanadu.

This gave rise to a decade of in-depth study into plant and vibrational medicine - herbalism, wildcrafting, ethnobotany, homeopathy, astrology, alchemy, sound healing, sacred geometry and energetic practices - that evolved into experimental botanical studio Mama Xanadu.

As a response to, and vehicle for, distilling our experience in a time of crisis, I founded mixed-media publishing house, arts collective and curatorial agency, Wild Alchemy Lab, and co-founded independent film studio Semantica Productions, at the intersection of nature, science and esoterica.

My own creative practice explores the mysterious architecture of creation to look beyond the human experience, through myth, ritual, plant neurobiology and interspecies communicationl. I lecture and consult for institutions on developing sacred eco-awareness from an alchemical and ethnobotanical perspective.