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.