Himmat: Sequence of Workshops/Modules 2005

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January 2005

Posters
The first couple of sessions that we did dealt with colour – we started with marbling on
paper, some tie and dye, some drawing, printing with vegetables, collage with fabric – we made bookmarks combining the vegetable prints and fabric collage. There were sacks full of scraps of waste fabric at the Centre in which we used.

The girls were given notebooks that they could draw or write in, so they could keep records of the process.

We went on a visit to the Kanoria Art Centre, where we met Sharmila Sagara, who invited us to participate in the art festival that was scheduled for February. We also visited NID, where the staff took us around. We had the benefit of short demos in every department, and interactive meetings with the students.

Azra Khan came over from Baroda on the last day as a resource person and showed the girls how to make stationary, and showed them some simple book binding techniques.

With the output from the first session, these posters for the sale of garments which Himmat had organized in Bangalore and in Goa . Later, we sold six of these to Oxfam and with the proceeds, we started literacy classes for the girls. A local resource person, Shahana, was willing to conduct the classes, for an hour and a half every day.

The girls began their sessions and by May were able to sign their own names.

February 2005

Participation in Annual Festival of the Arts, Kanoria Art Centre, Ahmedabad
Madhubani painting / Resource person: Shatrughan Thakur
Batik with vegetable dyes /Resource person: Pravina Mahicha

The second session took place at the Kanoria Art Centre. We were invited to participate in the annual art festival there. Tahera, Rabia and Farzana were in the Madhubani workshop. The selection was made on the basis that the three had a reasonable good hand, and were more fluent with drawing than the others. It was conducted by Shatrughan Thakur. The idea was to use the Madhubani tradition as a teaching aid, to help them to arrange elements spatially, on a flat surface - the girl’s level of perception and expression of the physical world corresponded with the strong decorative sensibility of folk and tribal forms. They were also familiar with mehndi patterns, which appeared frequently in their drawings.

The other three, Tasleem, Shah Jehan and Rehana did batik with vegetable dyes with Pravina Mahicha. They were inhibited about drawing, and the medium and the dyeing process were intended give them a sense of freedom and tactility. They later did a three –day workshop with Shatrughan at the Centre.

April 2005
Fabric collage/Resource person :Sharifa

We were finally able to begin working in our own space upstairs, convenient for several reasons.
We began working with fabric, and Sharifa, one of the older women, was our resource person. She could work on the haat, was expert at embroidery and basic appliqué,
She showed us how to transfer our cartoons on to fabric, and guided the girls whenever they needed help.
We a made a set of purely experimental pieces, with appliqué and overlapping areas of transparent fabric. It was also an exercise in colour-mixing.
The work extended over two sessions, into May.

Fabric/Embroidery /Resource person: Roumanie Jaitley
We worked with the running stitch on a set of six pieces of fabric which were originally meant to be cushion covers, but they seemed significant in that the motifs were recurrent in most of their work. They are framed and presented in a manner that is in keeping with a more complex narrative.

May 2005
Mayday Rally Placards
1st of May coincided with Himmat’s birthday – there was a Mayday rally that Himmat was participating in. On the last day of April, the girls made a set of placards, very quickly, which were later taken out in procession. The slogans were composed by Monica Wahi.

June 2005
Collaborative Painting

The girls painted six small canvases, 1ft by 1, one each. In October 2006, at a residency in Khoj, New Delhi , I added seven more of my own. This was meant to be a partial fund - raiser for some of the framing that needed to be done for a trial exhibit in Delhi . The work was acquired by Vadehra Gallery: the proceeds distributed in a manner that works towards sustainability for all concerned.

June-July 2005
Ahmedabad Hamara / Resource person :Shahrukh Alam

Shahrukh Alam, a lawyer associated with Action Aid was involved with a stay order vis a vis the demolition of bastis in an area that is called Mahakali, after a mandir that is built there. We asked her if she could conduct a few sessions that would work towards rights - based empowerment. To begin with, she decided to do a film based module whereby the girls would learn to critique what they were exposed to in terms of advertising/media and the visual language in general.

Between June and July Shahrukh did six sessions with the girls.
A VCD was hired, and set up in the centre. Shahrukh screened different kinds of films - documentary, Bollywood, activist - there were discussions afterwards which were very lively. The discussions culminated in a set of collages, using old newspapers, magazines, around some specific themes – Ahmedabad Hamara ( a topic that the girls chose) from different perspectives – male, female, rich, poor. The collages were in the form of collections of photographs relating to these issues.

August 2005
Silk-screen printing / Resource person :Shatrughan Thakur

Tracings were made from the photo montages, the choice of images was left to the girls. This process simplified the forms. They were rearranged as compositions pertaining to the above topics; they were guided as to how to convert the completed drawing into a graphic black and white format suitable for silk screen reproduction. We were thinking in terms of an affordable graphic medium, requiring hand skills that the girls could learn.

The drawings were scanned and printed on transparent film. The image could then be transferred on to the screen through a simple photographic process.

Shatrughan Thakur offered to help us, as a resource person. Sharmila Sagara gave us permission to print at the studios at Kanoria Centre for the Arts. In September, we made six editions of 12 prints each. The posters are also about building a relationship with the city, and affirming a presence within it.

September 2005
Pen and ink drawings / Resource person: Shahana

We had developed a methodology –Shahana discussed issues with them during the literacy sessions, and helped them make small sketches in their notebooks. They also wrote about what they had drawn. They had developed a good understanding with her, based on shared experiences during and post – riots. One of the themes that they had worked on was the floods during the monsoons in 2005, they had drawn and written about the absence of a drainage system and the resulting difficulties.
During the screen printing session we made larger pen and ink drawings using the sketches as the basis.

September 2005
Paintings by Tahera and Farzana /Resource person :Santa Rakshit

Tahera and Farzana completed their printing session before the others, and one of the young artists working at the Kanoria Centre, Shanta Rakshit, took them out for some sketching and painting. Tahera made a painting of the façade of the School of Architecture , and Farzana of the sculpture on the grounds of the campus.

October 2005
Four ‘Pats’ / Resource person :Santa Rakshit

Santa Rakshit conducted a module with the girls, the theme chosen was ‘Mother’. They made scrolls in the tradition of the Bengal ‘pats’, and the narrative speaks of daily domestic routines, difficulties, struggle - also related to the aftermath of the riots of 2002 – looking for work, lining up outside the government office where the death certificates were issued, visiting injured relatives at the hospital.

15 Paintings / Resource person: Monica Wahi
Monica Wahi conducted a session with the girls – based on three questions that they were to ask each other in private. They made rough sketches based on what they told each other, about their families, details of their daily lives; and those who died during the carnage are included in the family portraits. Apart from other things, this was an exercise in bonding; the session would help to build closer relationships amongst the group.
Fifteen paintings were made on the basis of these drawings, in enamel paints (industrial) on canvas.

November 2005 -March 2006

The Drishti Fellowship / Resource person – Prem from Soumya Joshi’s troupe The girls won the Mirror Amdavad Fellowship ( for two months, to be followed by an exhibit/performance) after intensive interview sessions with Drishti. The concept combined painting with performance in the form of four long painted scrolls on canvas, the script of two plays written on four khadi scrolls. The plays developed from discussions within the group. Two broad themes emerged, one around the non-availability of water, the other around education. Prem, from Soumya Joshi’s troupe trained the girls for a few days. They were performed at the Centre. The scrolls were toured locally, in the neighbouring bastis, as a narrative piece, and also taken out on a rally. When mounted in an exhibition space, they take the form of an installation.