Entry - Amanda

Below is the finished film.

Entry HDV from Amanda Ravetz on Vimeo.

I've been wondering how the film works once its removed from the context of Dhal ni Pol and Ahmedebad. I used the title Entry (in the subtitle "Will you come in?") which was Rajish Kapoor's spontaneous response to being asked to pose in the doorway, to reflect my preoccupation with transitional space. The space where boundaries between one thing and another might be temporarily suspended and it becomes possible to play.

Despite my fleeting acquaintances with people in Dhal ni Pol and theirs with me, it struck me that hospitality of the kind I experienced works by suspending feelings of difference and separation. This involves 'playing a part' - putting on a performance and this is clearly one aspect of the film. But I think the film also shows another facet of playing host, the playfulfulness involved in suspending disbelief in the face of something unfamiliar, and how from that it becomes possible to make some new relationship or thing.

Tea, flags and flowers

All of our efforts over the last month have culminated today at the Ahmedabad International Arts Festival, which kicked off with a grand opening ceremony on Ellis Bridge at 8.00a.m. attended by the newly elected mayor of Ahmedabad, a host of local dignitaries, and a gaggle of press and photographers. After this it was straight back to Arts Reverie to prepare for the Pol Project exhibition and the Chai event at 4.00p.m. At the house we are showing examples of the childrens' work from the chai decorating workshops, as well as an installation of CJ's new ceramics with intricate and beautiful narrative silhouettes, which document the progress of the Pol Project. It's also the first showing of my completed floral bicycle, and I've spent much of the afternoon 'posing' the piece in a range of photogenic locations in and around Arts Reverie. As usual, the local people are fantastically accommodating, and completely unfazed by my strange requests.

The floral bicycle 'on location' in Dhal Ni Pol.

Saddle detail.

Floral tyre detail.

Home and screening

The outdoor screening last Sunday was memorable. I was quite anxious beforehand - what would people feel about seeing themselves - or not seeing themselves, if their part had been cut out?

Steve introduced the film and said something about the Pol Project. Here is a short clip of Palak translating Steve's speech to the audience...it was quite strange filming at this point, being an observer of my own event:

Dhal ni Pol screening from Amanda Ravetz on Vimeo.

First I showed the 15 minute film ENTRY. There was lots of clapping and laughter when different people appeared on screen.

Then I began screening the rushes as requested, but soon the audience got restless, so we speeded the film up and that was better received.

Some people wanted to see the amazing dancing I'd filmed on the Saturday night when Mayur and family and friends had made an enormous rangoli with hundreds of lamps (I'll post some video of it soon). So I ran back to Arts Reverie and got the tape to project directly from the camera.

Eventually it was 10.30pm - an hour and half after beginning - and time to finish.

Now I'm home in Manchester. CJ and Steve are working around the clock to get the different installations and exhibitions done. I feel sad not to be there and also hugely appreciative of their efforts and those of Lokesh and Palak to finish things off. Lokesh skyped me last night. It was 2am and he was still working. It was good to talk again.

I'm home now, but in my imagination I'm still in Dhal ni Pol.

AIAF

We have all been working towards the AIAF - Ahmedabad International Arts Festival - this weekend as the presentation of our hard work over the last few weeks.  If anyone would like to come along, here are the details of what/where/when we are showing.  

Event: "ENTRY": screening of film made in Dhal ni pol by Amanda Ravetz

Venue: Arts Reverie, Dhal ni Pol
Time: 4-6pm daily 29-31 October
Organizer: AFL, Arts Reverie, MIRIAD, British Council
Contact person: Lokesh Ghai - 9825522039
Free, open to public

Event: Flowering: temporary outdoor installations by Stephen Dixon

Venue: Arts Reverie and throughout Dhal ni pol
Time: 4-6pm daily 29-31 October
Organizer: AFL, Arts Reverie, MIRIAD, British Council
Contact person: Lokesh Ghai - 9825522039
Free, open to public

Event: The Pol Project/Tea in the Pol with CJ O’Neil, British artist/designer

Venue: Arts Reverie, Dhal ni Pol
Time: 4-6pm daily 29-31 October
Organizer: AFL, Arts Reverie, MIRIAD, British Council
Contact Person: Lokesh Ghai - 9825522039
Free, open to public

Event: Marking the city: The Flag Project by Stephen Dixon, Kate Egan and Lokesh Ghai
INAUGURATION OF AIAF
Chief Guests: TBC
Venue: Ellis Bridge/Manekburj
Time: 10am
Organizer: MIRIAD/AIAF
Contact Person: Lokesh Ghai - 9825522039
Support: AMC/AHC

Sponsored by Savvy Infrastructure
Free, open to public

Event: The Pol Project - Screening of 'Entry' by Amanda Ravetz and presentation of ceramics by CJ O'Neill and the children of Dhal ni Pol (film screenings only Friday pm and Sunday am)

Venue: British Council Library, Law Garden Road, Ahmedabad
Time: Friday 29th / Saturday 30th : 11 - 7, Sunday 31st : 10 - 4
Free, open to public

portraits (CJ)

I started this project with the idea of completing a series of portraits in silhouette of various characters in the Pol, on chai (tea) cups.  Somehow that idea changed, morphed, evolved into papercuts, transfers, water prints, and landed at a tea set decorated with peacocks.
A national emblem (in India) the peacock is a symbol of beauty, the eternal soul, a perfect love, all things wonderful.  Some believe that man was created from the eyes of peacock feathers, others have a different story, but each connects somehow to the beauty of the birds...  An apt motif then, for creating beauty from the everyday...  Connecting serendipitously again to Amanda's list of coincidences, the song that Palak sings in Amanda's film calls for a beautiful bird to fly to heaven and ask the goddess to come down and dance garba - what a beautiful image - and one I hope to create by making the words of this song (in gujarati) fly up to heaven, via the teapot surface in gold and black.

Alongside this I am producing a series of portraits of people from the pol photographed during the Entry filming day, the door provides a continuity for the differing groups and allows the narrative of the film to be  captured, frozen in time.  I really am enjoying producing this series of work, it is incredibly labour intensive, which again, seems apt for the context of the work here in India.

The gujarati for each scene has been patiently provided by Palak again, what would we do without herself and Lokesh!!??

I hope to also manage a couple of papercuts this week, as there is one lady in particular whose portrait will provide an amazing papercut silhouette.  More to come.  I'll also upload images soon from the drawing workshop yesterday, as well as some images of the children's fired cups but see flickr as usual for recent images of work in progress.  We also had a new floor the other day.  Off to Laxmi again on Wednesday to fire the final set of pieces, so must get on with cutting gujarati text - it takes a long time!!!

Circus, cycles and serendipity (Steve)

The circus has come to town (we drove past it today, on the way to the AIAF press conference, which was a great success, and well attended by most of the local and national papers). Great circus posters, and bicycles are in evidence here too.

And speaking of cycles, my bicycle Hero is now fully flowered up and ready to re-assemble. Here is the completed saddle.

Yesterday was a crazy day, beginning with an early start (7.00a.m.) at the Ellis Bridge market - way too early - a children's drawing workshop in the afternoon, followed by an open air screening of Amanda's film 'Entry' at 9.00 in the evening.

An amazing find at the flea market.........

It's actually a baby walker, but bears an uncanny resemblance to Amanda's decorated door, which has become something of a local icon, and the focus of our activities in the Pol. I've bought six (for the princely sum of 30 rupees each) and these will become the 'framing' structures for the trail of flowered objects which will guide visitors to our exhibition at Arts Reverie.

Here is CJ 'mapping' the Pol during our drawing workshop - 42 children signed up for the workshop and 82 turned up, so it was a frenzied affair! At the end of the session the children were presented with their decorated cups and saucers from last weeks ceramic workshops.

And finally Amanda's open air projection in the Pol - an eager audience awaits the world premiere of 'Entry'. (See yesterday's post by Amanda, who bade a fond farewell to the Pol at 5.00 a.m. this morning.)

Long films and short films (Amanda)

I've been editing away for the last few days and am close to finishing the short version of the film - 15 minutes - in time for the screening tomorrow and for showing at Arts Reverie and the British Council during the AIAF. See an even shorter version here edited down to about 3 minutes for the press conference.



Palak Chitaliya has been sitting with me for sone of this time, translating where necessary and making really helpful suggestions. The film has a short voice over about the importance of thresholds and a song sung by Palak to go with the garba dancing in the film. The v-o is spoken in Gujarati by her. Actually, we spent a long evening a couple of nights ago with me trying to record the voice over myself, one sentence at a time, with Palak's patient coaching. She SO wanted me to be able to do it - but I stumbled over each word and eventually had to admit defeat - for now at least (last night on the otla (steps) I had an impromtu language lesson from several children and can now say 'sun', 'circle', 'broom' - and a few other things besides).

Palak also went to see Mayurbhai yesterday to check things were ok for the screening which will be outside his mechanics shop. She came back with a request - please if at all possible, people would like to see the entire footage from the day. So, I will show the short film first and then let the long version - two and a half hours - just roll.

My Hero (Steve)

I've been working on my strand of the Pol project, 'Navigate', whenever there has been a quiet moment between trips out to organise printing, fabric sourcing and meeting contractors for the Ellis Bridge flag project. I am now the proud owner of a second-hand indian bicycle (which answers to the name 'Hero') bought from the cycle repair shop just opposite the entrance to Dhal ni Pol. In my haste to begin to take it apart, I forgot to get a photo of the bike in its original state, so here is a photo of Devi Singh's bike 'Hercules', which looks pretty similar.

One aspect of the Pol project has been to explore the 'finding' of beauty in mundane and unexpected places and contexts, and I do find these battered but sturdy bicycles rather beautiful. However, rather than attempting to build a complete ceramic floral bicycle (my original intention) I am instead making some discreet interventions into the form of the bike. The wheel is an obvious choice, resonating with the cyclical Indian concept of time and history, and the cakra, the spinning wheel symbol of Indian independence, so I'm attempting to replace the front tyre with a band of flowers. I'm also drawn to the saddle as a potential site for flowers - largely because of its elegant shape.

return to ceramic heaven (Cj)

Steve and I are going to briefly talk as part of the Pairings Symposium at MMU (UK) tomorrow, Friday 22nd October, about our 'pairing' / collaboration with Amanda out here in Ahmedabad - and give a small insight into some of the work we've been doing. A daunting prospect given that none of us have actually finished anything just yet!!
We hope too that the technology doesn't let us down and Skype helps us to communicate clearly, without delays, from India to Special Collections...

So I returned to Laxmi, and fired all of the cups decorated by the children in the Pol, which were amazing...  Watching as they were fed into the mouth of the furnace, I felt anxious, scared that something may go wrong, worried about how the pieces seemed to be precariously balanced on top of one another, wondering again what is it that drew me to work in this way...

Whilst waiting for the kiln to work it's magic, we chatted with Deepak about all manner of subjects from the differences in ceramic materials used by different religious groups in India to telepathy, but my mind was constantly returning to the kiln, and thoughts of the kids faces if something went wrong...

And, telepathically or not, I asked if I could check on the kiln and the pieces had just started to re appear on the chainmail belt, shiny, glistening and renewed...

And so, with cups packed beautifully, and armed with yet more pieces to decorate, we returned to Arts Reverie once more, with just a small delay caused by an altercation with some striking rickshaw drivers...

more images from the return to ceramic heaven here...

Entry - Amanda

On Sunday four of us carried the door to the pre-arranged location in the pol.

After more dancing for Dushera, the night that ends Navarati with the symbolic burning of effigies of Ravana the demon king, I spent today capturing material videoed on Sunday.






The actor Rajish Kapoor was visiting Ahmedebad on Saturday and he stopped off at Arts Reverie where we are staying. Kapoor is doing a one man show at the AIAF at the end of the month organised by Arts Reverie's Anupa Mehta.



Rajish stood in the doorway and wondering if I wanted him to come through, simply said 'Entry?' This sums up rather neatly some of the ideas I've been working with. Entry will be shown next Saturday in the same space where it was filmed.

Photoshopping (Steve)

It's been a frenzied weekend, spent helping with CJ's ceramic decorating workshops in the childrens library in the Pol on Saturday, and watching Amanda's amazing filming sessions turning into a spontaneous public improvisation event on Sunday. (More of this from CJ and Amanda I'm sure.) For myself, the flag project 'Marking the City' is progressing apace, with digital scans, designs and images winging across the world from Kate Egan in Manchester to Lokesh and myself here in Ahmedabad. All of this is way beyond my rudimentary digital design skills I'm afraid, but Kate and Lokesh are both well versed in the etiquette of photoshop. Since testing the prototype print, we have been reworking and refining the designs, to give a richer and more layered quality, while trying to combine the traditional aspects of the Indian woodblock with a more contemporary digital design aesthetic. The idea is that the flags will read as a metaphor, celebrating the relationship between the old and new sections of the city, which lie either side of the Ellis Bridge (and to some extent the relationship between Manchester and Ahmedabad, known as the Manchester of India because of the cities' shared textiles heritage).

This is one of the early stages of the process, the raw material for the designs, using scanned woodblock prints digitally reworked by Kate in Manchester

One of the early designs, using a sampled floral motif, enlarged and laid over another print.

And another design (in progress) using massively enlarged detail and the full palette of colours.

navrati dancing (CJ)

Wow.  Thanks for the track preview Jason!!

I was aiming to get an early night as I'm running some ceramics workshops tomorrow here in the Pol, but the music from the loudspeakers for the Navrati festivities and dancing appear to be actually inside our haveli they are so loud!!  So I'm wondering, should I try and sleep or go out dancing???
Average finish time for Navrati Garba dancing here?  4am.
Workshop start time? 9am.
Answers please...

Update.  Amanda and I joined in - for a short hour, the music is still going strong along with the 5 year olds dancing - how any of them are going to make school at 7am is beyond me!!  Or our workshop afterwards either!!

sounds from a similar city... (Jason)

Hi!

Well, I have been getting a steady supply of sampled sounds from CJ and I am getting really excited about how this sound piece is going to take shape!

Over the next couple of days I will be putting together some sound pieces and sending them to CJ, so watch this space for more stuff coming soon...

Jason

Flagging (Steve)

I'm writing this while waiting for Lokesh to arrive at Arts reverie with the first prototype flag/banner. We left the image files with the digital fabric printers a few days ago, and have sourced fabrics to match, in bright fuchsia, purple and gold - the colours of the AIAF - from the Khadi Emporium.

Lokesh has been stitching the sample banner together overnight. We have also made visits to a couple of 'decorators' (which is the term used here for the people who organise and install events - weddings, festivals, exhibitions and the like) and are waiting for costings from them for the hanging and installation of the banners on Ellis Bridge.

Hand painting gold details onto the first print-out

Lokesh and Devi Singh holding up the printed banner

Here we are discussing (at great length) the technical options for hanging the banners with the first decorator and his team of advisors.

This is the advertising sign of the second decorator, altogether a much bigger operation.

Lokesh has arrived, and we are now able to have a look at the full size prototype, here seen hanging in the chowk (inner courtyard) at Arts Reverie. After much scratching of heads, the consensus is that there is still some work to be done fine-tuning the colours (particularly beefing up the black linear motif) and layering another wood-block pattern or detail into the background colour.

sounds from the other city (CJ)

I am referring to the great music festival that happens in Salford, UK, each year - sounds from the other city - and I hope that no-one minds me using this term, but it seems so appropriate for the collaboration between myself and Jason Singh.  "Born in London, Jason currently lives in Manchester, UK, but works across the UK and abroad.  He is a producer, beatboxer, dj, experimental percussionist, workshop facilitator, composer, sound artist and visual artist."   
I'm gathering sounds in much the same way as I gather pattern normally, and sending them to Jason whilst I'm here in Ahmedabad - neither of us are quite sure where/how this will turn out - the plan is to have a track finished in time for the AIAF in a few weeks.  I'm excited to find out how it develops...  
I wanted to upload some recordings from today, but am having technical hitches - any advice on uploading sound to blogger gratefully received!!   

chai patterns (Cj)

My focus within the Pol Project is Chai (tea) and today we got to try some from the local chai seller - which was very good, and tasted even better when he was so very smiley!!  We hope he will temporarily relocate his stall for our event on Saturday!

More from Chai Patterns on flickr...

Pol dancer (Steve)

Noticing that Amanda and CJ have avoided the obvious and completely inapropriate pun, I'm using this as an excuse to post another 'ghost dancer' image, to show that I did in fact join in the Navratri celebrations last night, although I was easily the most inept dancer on the floor.

Dancing in the Streets - again (CJ)

Today after meeting many of the wonderful people in the pol with Palak, 

 

we were invited to the Navrati dancing at 11pm in a square within the Pol.  Of course we gladly accepted, and we tried to join in as best we could, 

though we were all in need of some dancing lessons Ahmedabad style…

Fun was definitely had by all – probably mostly by the locals laughing at our bad attempts at their beautiful dancing!!

More on dancing on the street on flickr…

Walls have ears (Steve)

I've been adding to my growing archive of photos of Ahmedabad wall paintings. Until recently all commercial advertisements had been hand painted onto buildings, walls, vehicles, in fact any flat surface available. This seems to be rapidly changing with commercialistion and globalisation, but there is still a legacy of this to be seen on the walls of Ahmedabad. I'm constantly drawn to these faded, richly layered, painterly surfaces. This is one of todays photos, a detail of the wall opposite the digital ceramic printers, taken while I was waiting for the first digitally printed banner to arrive. (More of this later.)

Another of a painted steel sign, which Palak tells me is advertising a womens' tailor.

and another of a rather magnificent elephant....

.... which coincides with my first sighting of an elephant, snapped very badly from the rickshaw as we flashed past.

Traffic and hospitality - Amanda

Last night CJ made a list of tasks for today.



I wanted to buy a door for something I'm doing this Saturday. Steve and Lokesh had located a door place on their way to the printers, and Steve, myself and Palak went by Auto to buy it.

The civic elections for Gujarat happened last Sunday and the results came out today (a landslide victory to the BJP), so the traffic was worse than usual and it took ages to get there.

Steve's election photo

Because of the election results there were extra policemen on duty at the council offices opposite the door seller. The police got interested in our negotiations.



Eventually after photography on both sides (a policeman photographed us in front of the door), the police invited us to drink tea with them on the street.

Happily, even while stopping for chats and tea, we managed to get everything on the list done.

ceramic heaven (CJ)

Finding somewhere to fire the ceramic pieces I wanted to produce was always a bit of a concern.  A priority for me.  After meeting Mayur, he very kindly brought us to Laxmi to meet Deepak Tahilani, and see the ceramic production set up there in Memco - about 25 minutes in the car from Dahl ni Pol.








Perfect for my way of working, there is a tunnel kiln firing tea cups and saucers in their hundreds every day, and the firing cycle takes around an hour - amazing!

Transfers are printed upstairs, then covercoated and dried in beautiful stacking racks.

Downstairs, pieces are decorated with transfers and painted lines,

before being packed into wire baskets and stacked ready for firing.

After processing through the tunnel kiln (note the tiles with gods at the entrance to the kiln), they are then returned to the packing room,

where they are checked

and packed ready for distribution.

Deepak was so accommodating and was very supportive of the project and idea of running a workshop with families in Dahl ni Pol, he gave us 3 boxes of cups and saucers and the promise to send 2 of the decorating ladies (one transfer, one line drawing) to work with us on Sunday.
All in all a very good day!!!

More images of both Mayur and Deepak's studio/productions facilities in flickr...

Cycles adorned - Steve

I'm finding flowers are used everywhere to adorn and beautify the most mundane and incongruous things. Spotted this tricycle earlier, the front wheel encircled by marigolds (the flowers that is, not the washing up gloves).

The bicycle is emerging as a possible theme/subject for the flower piece, an idea triggered by Devi Singh's bike, parked daily outside Arts Reverie. Could I make one out of ceramic flowers I wonder? The bicycle is such an iconic environmental symbol, appropriate to the recycling (no pun intended) of the ceramic flowers into another artwork.

This bicycle belongs to the caretaker at the Rani Sipri Mosque just outside the Pol, on the Astodia Road.

(jokes by CJ and Barney)