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!!