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)

Flowering structures - Steve

I forgot to mention yesterday the purpose of my visit to the flower market, which was to look at the use and context of flowers in Indian culture and daily life, and to source materials (as well as taking in the overwhelming odours, colours and the general spectacle of the place). My intention is to make some work here using the same hand-made ceramic flowers I used in my sculpture Monopoly (shown at the British Ceramic Biennial in 2009) and have had 10,000 white flowers shipped out to india for use in the Pol project. I'm hoping to make a more linear, elegant piece here, and I've been making some tests using the flowers attached to a wire armature, with mixed results. Having tried various materials to attach the flowers to the wire structure (various wires, strings and threads) it seems that sticky white florists tape is the best thing, both visually and technically. The structures are surprisingly strong when the flowers are packed tightly together.

Trial maquette using florists tape.

Dhal ni Pol - Amanda

"The Pol, a small residential unit consisting of a single
street (usually a dead end street) with a group of houses
is generally protected by a massive gate at the entrance.
They are densely populated and when put together they
look like a maze with winding narrow lanes forming a
series of micro-neighbourhoods. "
from Residential Cluster, Ahmedabad: Housing based on the traditional Pols
by KANIKA AGARWAL
PLEA2009 - 26th Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Quebec City, Canada, 22-24 June 2009

There are approximately 600 Pols in the old city of Ahmedabad. Dhal ni Pol is built on a small hillock, reflected in its name Dhal which means sloping or slanting. Within the pol are smaller enclaves called khadkis. According to one of the pamphlets I've been given, at one time khadkis would have been inhabited by people of the same social group or caste. The pamphlet quotes a newspaper report from 1879 stating that a house in the pol couldn't be mortgaged or sold to an outsider without it first having been offered to people within the pol. Talking to a few people it seems that this still holds today to some extent - we heard of someone who wanted to buy a house here, but the owner decided to wait and sell it within the community. In a Jain pol like the one where we are staying, this obviously makes it easier to achieve consensus about daily practices that may have religious as well as social significance, especially in an environment where there is so much contact with neighbours.

Dairy cattle

There is a Jain dairy in the pol and the 20 or so strong herd wanders round the narrow streets being fed leftovers by the residents. There are also scores of dogs and several birdfeeders called chabutras which are kept supplied with food and water. These incorporate the influences of Hindu, Muslim and Jain architectural designs, but the practice of putting them up is linked to the Jain faith in which the departing soul assumes the form of birds and animals.

Chabutras

If this makes the pol sound like a closed space, that's not how it feels. My impression after a short time (and not speaking Hindi or Gujarati), is of how welcoming people are. We walk around the pol everyday and each time we are approached by someone who wants to chat or to invite us to attend a dance or look at something. So much happens outside - washing up dishes and washing clothes at the taps, sitting on the otla, the wide steps, in the evening.

But I'm also wary of making it sound idyllic. I know very little of how people feel about the pol, about each other, or about us being here.

Tomorrow we will have some more help with translation and over the next few days I hope to understand a bit more. From an anthropological point of view this is a lightening trip, a small gesture. There are things you notice when you are still green and things you can find out by interviewing people. But there are other things you can only understand after being somewhere a long time.

An immediate question I have is about people's occupations. I know for example that our neighbour Mr Parmar is a tailor. And one night we met a business studies student who is living in a hostel in the next pol, and another night a stockbroker who has renovated his pol house because although he'd prefer to live in the new part of the city, his mother and grandmother do not want to leave the pol - so clearly this is a diverse population.

The Municipal Council are very keen to protect the pols from commercial development hence the big heritage drive that includes heritage walks, art projects and the renovation of haveli like the one in which we are staying. Heide Imai, an architect who studied at MMU, did her PhD thesis on the roji of Tokyo and found they were in constant danger of being demolished to make way for new highrise offices on the one hand and of becoming themeparks on the other. That hasn't quite happened here yet.

(photos by Steve)

flea market? Cj

Waking up at 6.45am for the flea market, it was a little disappointing to discover that it wasn't actually on due to the local elections!  But worth getting up that early to experience the city in a calmer, cooler state.

The Sabarmati River which marks the dividing point between the old city and the new city is also the point where you see the new vision for the city taking shape.  A stark contrast between calm still water reflecting the future of the city, and the industrious sorting of discarded materials across the bank in order to earn a living.  
"The project envisages comprehensive development of both the banks of Sabarmati river. At present, the riverfront lies neglected and characterised by unimaginative and unplanned development. Though it is a major source of water for the city, except for a few months during the monsoon, the river is dry. 

Sewage contaminated storm water outfalls and the dumping of industrial waste pose a major health and environmental hazard. Though the riverbanks provides a place to stay and source of livelihood to many economicallybackward citizens, the riverbank slums are disastrously flood prone and lack basic infrastructure services."  
The Times of India Sabarmati river-front project launched in A’bad, TNN, Apr 14, 2003

This cart reminded me of the gypsy weddings in Ireland, and with the murals on gable ends, somehow I was transported to Belfast...

Flags fluttering in the wind, kids laughing out loud with buckets on their heads and playing games in the heat of the sun reminded me of the community, the reasons for being here, and the work ahead...

There are so many more photos from today on flickr...

A circle of dancing - Amanda

Coming back to the Pol last night we ran into a circle of dancers celebrating Navrati, a festival that celebrates the Goddess Durga and lasts nine nights. The dancers and people watching gestured for me to join in, so reminding myself that this is what anthropologists do, I threw caution to the wind and danced.

Photo by CJ.

supplies and ghost dancing - Cj

Saturday was a more productive day, with supplies of cutting mat, paper, pens for myself and supplies for workshops with children all purchased in a well stocked, cheaply priced art shop across town.  Steve also managed to order his print proofs for his flag project.



Lokesh found this bag for me - connecting directly to my 'chai' project.  The imagery has a beautiful quality, printed simply in black on brown paper it is the beginnings of something I am thinking - silhouettes and imagery of tea drinkers?
Waiting for Steve and Lokesh outside a tool shop, I met a rubber stamp maker, which has set my mind off on another tangent.  Paper cuts and stamps, woodblock prints and tea cups - how do these things join, meet, intertwine?  I'm painfully aware of time here, and it's running away from me every minute - how do I create something of value in an environment which is so rich already?



Lokesh also arranged for us to meet Mayur Lekhadia to see if he could fire the tea cups I want to decorate with the community in the Pol.  He introduced us to his chosen method of transferring imagery onto ceramics - sublimation printing - which involved using a 'hacked' printer to print with ceramic inks, and then a compact heating unit which was shaped to fit a standard mug, simply taping the image to the cup and heating to 200 degrees sealed the image in (seemingly permanently).  A fast process and high quality finish on the piece, but immediate application to my own work is limited due to the shape and scale of the compact heating unit.  Great potential for investigation though!
At this point I should really explain a few things - Lokesh is helping and supporting our (Amanda, Steve and I) separate and collaborative projects within the overall 'the pol project'.  We are writing a blog for the project, and you can read all of our posts on there, some of mine may be repeated from here, some may be duplicated, all are in development!!



We rushed off to meet Marie Alamir and Mali Genest for dinner at mirch masala - the best food I've had in Ahmedabad!!  Great choices by Lokesh, and we also got to see a catalogue of the beautiful work of Mali...



On the rickshaw ride back we stopped on Ellis Bridge and I felt so strange standing in the middle of a bridge, with cars, trucks, rickshaws, bikes flying past on both sides.  Amazing...



Back in the Pol, Amanda joined in with the street dancing, and thus ensued a series of 'ghost dancing' images - enjoy more on flickr...

Flowers before breakfast - Steve

Up at 5.30a.m. to visit the local flower market, bustling and busy with the Navratri (Nine nights) festival getting into full swing. Just coming to the end of a whirlwind week here at Arts Reverie, a restored haveli located in historic Dhal Ni Pol in the old city of Ahmedabad. I'm juggling two collaborative projects whilst here, the Pol Project (with Amanda and CJ) and Marking the City (with Kate Egan - unfortunately not here with us) and both of these will feature in the Ahmedabad International Arts Festival (AIAF) towards the end of this month....the pressure is definitely on!

The Pol Project is investigating the social aesthetics of the urban environment within the Pol, looking at the individual ways that local people 'find beauty' in their environment (resonating with the umbrella theme of the AIAF, Making Beauty.) My role within this is to create a site-specific artwork in the heart of the Pol, and a series of smaller related pieces, which will act as temporary 'way markers' to guide visitors to the artworks within the Pol. Marking the City is to consist of a series of digitally printed textile banners, focusing on floral motif's inspired by the prints of master wood-block carver Maniklal Gajjar of Pethapur (a traditional community of wood-block carvers, located close to Ahmedabad city). The proposed site for these banners is the historic Ellis Bridge, which links the old and the new parts of the city, just as the banners will link traditional and digital printing technologies.

Our guide, mentor, collaborator, food advisor and all-round 'Mr Fixit' while we are here is Lokesh Ghai, a textile artist trained at NIFT and now living and working in Ahmedabad. Lokesh is facilitating our many strange and diverse requests with enthusiasm, grace and good humour, helping us to tap into the appropriate local knowledge and expertise, making introductions, arranging our meetings, selecting and sourcing local materials, equipment and technology.

This first week has been spent researching and 'mapping' the Pol, getting to know some of the people, trying to understand the social dynamics of the space, developing, discussing and testing ideas. The highlight for me has been the discovery of a textile printing workshop in the Pol; meeting, talking and taking tea with the owner, Mr Sandip Shah, and watching beautiful lengths of block-printed textile emerge.

Printing table on the ground floor at Mr. Shah's workshop - printing in gold seems to be his signature.

Up on the first floor, block printing in bright yellow onto pre-dyed fabric.

Detail of the finished fabric length.

Up on the roof, resist printed fabric hanging out to dry after dyeing.

Goddesses and watches - Amanda

A few days ago Steve and Lokesh went out for a walk around the Pol. Along the way they met a man who goes house to house buying bric a brac. Amongst the things on his cart he had a small table and two framed prints of Hindu Goddesses.

Steve bought a print of Bahuchara, Goddess of Castration.



And Lokesh bought an old print of the Goddess Durga



Lokesh went home and remembered a catalogue he hadn't looked at for a long time about a collection of restored oleograph prints produced at Ravi Varma Press. Raja Ravi Varma was a painter (1848 -1906) who according to the catalogue combined Eastern traditons and Western techniques in his paintings of Hindu Gods, Goddesses etc.

Not only is the text of the catalogue written by Esther David, the writer who we bumped into after buying her book, but Lokesh found that inside the catalogue he had carefully placed a print by Mr Gajjar for safe keeping - thus drawing together two coincidences from my previous post.



Once you start tuning into patterns you see them everywhere. Last night we went for dinner with Lokesh and two Swiss friends of his who were visiting Ahmedebad - art historian, ethnologist and former political scientist Marie Alamir and the artist Mali Genest www.maligenest.ch

Mali brought a catalogue of her work for Lokesh. One of the pieces reminds me of the print bought by Lokesh from Mr Gajjar.

Mali Genest's work

Mr Gajjar's print

detail of Mali Genest's work

And then Marie spotted that she and I were wearing the same watch...