Meeting at the Museum

After the workshops at the school today we all went to the Museum of Childhood, to explore more of the collections and discuss ideas for the project and exhibition.

We were introduced to objects from the handling collectionand revisited objects from the displays.

and saw aspects of the building in a new light.

There were lots more aluminium foil panels and dishes to prime in preparation for the last of the 'rickshaw art' workshops with the pupils from Redlands School.

It was good working together.

Redlands School, Tower Hamlets

Together, over a 3 day period (24th, 25th & 26th), the artists involved in the project and Teresa Hare Duke from the V&A Museum of Childhood delivered a series of workshops at Redlands School in Tower Hamlets. These were part of a much wider community programme organised by Teresa which included work with The Central Foundation School in Mile End.

Redlands school has an amazing, large and well resourced art room, thanks to the teacher Helen Kelly.

Tarun, Tapan and Lokesh had been busy with workshops both whilst at the Harley Gallery and during their stay in London.

The workshops with the school explored rickshaw art and block printing. The children saw images of the rickshaws we had seen in Bangladesh as inspiration

samples of Tapans painting

and examples of rickshaw components.

Simple shapes like those seen on the back of rickshaws had been cut from metal foil and primed.

The children drew out their designs on paper, then transfered them to the metal foil using acrylics.

With Lokesh the children used traditional wood blocks from India to print designs onto paper (cards and wrapping paper)

and fabric (Muslin).

We showed the children images of the Block printers at New Market in Dhaka. To my amazement a large number of the 9-11 yr olds in the workshops had been to Bangladesh and recognised where it was.

Meeting

We all met at the Harley Gallery today, to catch up and discuss the remaining time of the residencies and the fellowship. Plans covered the exhibition, education workshops and activities in London.
I drove up on Monday night after teaching, arriving very late and after a brief catch up with Tarun, Topan, Lokesh and Barney. We all crashed out getting needed sleep for the busy day to follow. Woke early to glorious sun streaming in the window. Tarun and Tapon have been staying for the month in a wonderful cottage at Blue Barn Farm close to the Welbeck estate, LOkesh has been completing projects in Kutch and only arrived on the 6th, so is still finding his feet and adjusting to the temperatures.

Surrounded by fields, it is quiet and very green here, probably a startling contrast to Dhaka and Ahmedabad.
I went for a walk with Tapon, and talked about his experiences in the UK.

We breakfasted on some indian treats that Lokesh had brought from Ahmedabad. and then off on the short journey to the Harley.
A great oportunity to see Helen Carnacs exhibition ' Taking Time - Craft and the slow revolution, it was good to see some of David Gates wood and metal constructions, the work Hebden Bridge and the wonderful silver jumper unravelling by.

At the meeting we showed work that we had done to date and the collections from our journeys. Each of us talked about our overall responses and possibilitiies for further work. It was great to see what Tarun and Tapon had been doing, the studio space at the Harley is very large and the artists are making full use of it with large paintings.

We discussed aspects of the education programme and touched on possibilities for the exhibitions. The Moc show will run from November 2011 - June 2011 and the Harley, June 2011+ the two shows may be different as further work develops over the period between the opening at the MoC and at the Harley.

Still Landing

Made a brief and unplanned presentation this week to the Art & Design Foundation students at City College of some of the films of craftspeople working in both Bangladesh and Gujarat. The films prompted some debate about the economics of crafts and lots of questions and subsequent talk about the nature of craft and design in theses countries. Both staff and students were really interested and there was a silence and stillness in the room as they watched. It was great to see them learning and engaged in what they were seeing, to share what I had experienced as part of the fellowship and get responses to what I had produced. - (they even applauded at the end a lovely surprise!).
Since returning I have been brought back into the reality of juggling work, teaching, being a father and a husband whilst grabbing snippets to reflect on the amazing experience I have had. The time and space to think, look, observe, record and just absorb has been wonderfully refreshing and personally shifting. I have flashbacks - vivid scenes of places I visited on the fellowship, some stills and some moving images. I want to get into the thirty + DVD's of data - images and films - to start filtering, re-experiencing, contextualising and responding creatively to what I have seen. At the moment I'm struggling to find the space to do this. Since returning I have been very fortunate to be proposed and offered new projects and possibilities which are exciting developments of the MSSP fellowship and new ventures - work must go on and deadlines must be met, money earnt.
I've started to 'Backfill" the blog, adding images, text and films on the days I hadn't covered ( resizing the photos and selecting through them was taking lots of time whilst away and I thought it better to be out looking rather than sitting in front of a computer). I'm sorting through the imagery, the books and papers as well as the collections of objects I brought / sent back from both Bangladesh and Gujarat, picking out things. The flashbacks and thoughts I have, get noted down in my sketchbook and  we've cooked and eaten food I experienced on my travels. All aspects of filtering and evaluating what may have the potential for further development.
I have enjoyed the photography, - it became a new tool, something I hadn't used much in my work and I have been looking at other photographers and there work in a very different way, even looking at possible routes of study in the subject. I started to explore the weaving the bamboo baskets and fans. The metal baskets and textiles are displayed in my studio space and around the house, helping me make connections and promting ideas and memories. I tried cutting fine strips of steel to use to weave a basket and explore how the metal basket from Bangladesh was made - just to try to reproduce it - to understand how the material might work. Unfortunately the guillotine couldn't cope with such fine strips and they buckled and bent. I need to explore other ways of getting thin strips of metal cut without them folding or twisting.... laser/ water-jet cutting? rolling wire?

I decided to use some of the raw cotton paper from the Ghandi Ashram factory to undertake some tests in weaving too. decided to laser cut the strips out, and spent some time testing out different widths and settings on the laser - whilst they were cutting the patterns looked like the rows of rice drying at the rice mills in Bangladesh.
Off to the Harley next week to meet up with the rest of the project team and the artists who have come over to the UK.

Copperwork

Watch Coppersmiths in the old city in Ahmedabad making water vessels here. Coppersmiths

Finishing