I had enjoyed my time drawing at the museum on Friday. The images were just sketches and aware that I was unlikely to get a permit for photographing the artefacts which I particularly liked, I decided to go back and spend the day drawing in more detail the objects I enjoyed and was excited by.
I started off with some of the fishing baskets. I really loved and was intrigued by the form of a giant woven scoop (some 60cm wide at the base) although I struggled to understand the complexity of the form and how the lines flowed into each other. I was trying to work out how the basket might be made using sheet material.
As I drew the gallery attendant came over looked at what I was doing. Through out the morning and early afternoon he was very helpful and slightly protective, moving people on when their interest in what I was doing got a bit overwhelming. The morning went well and I moved onto drawing the group of shola wedding hats or coronets (shola is a natural wood material that has a density similar to balsa but without the grain). The coronets are wore by the groom at Hindu weddings.
I liked the verticle stacking of layers that went into making the coronets, the repetition of shapes which repeated around the form. I liked the layers of flat shapes layed down over each other at the base which form florid patterns. All created by simple cutting.
Some parts became more sculptural with more complex cutting and tying to get the shola to spread and make pom-pom shapes.
In other areas chunks of shola had been used to carve flowers and peacocks.
It must have been lunch time and another attendant appeared at the end of the gallery, there was some shouting and then he disappeared, I carried on drawing, a little time later he returned to tell me that I wasn't allowed to draw, that I needed a permit and permission to draw in the museum. I was taken to the directors office where I explained who I was and what I was doing, that I had misunderstood and thought a permit was needed for photography only. I was moved between several offices to talk to different people in the museum was offered tea asked to write a letter in application for a permit to draw a form was filled out and I was given a time scale that was beyond the end of my stay in Bangladesh. I called on Tarun and he kindly translated and helped explain the MSSP project. They were very helpful and said they would try to get permission sooner. I sat and waited for the remainder of the day, then, as the museum closed, I was told to call back in next week.
I walked back to Owens wondering about the role of museums, why we have them, who they serve, reflecting on (and valuing) the trips I have made to museums to draw by myself, with my family and with students, as well as how lucky I had been to be able to work with museums collections as part of my creative practice.
