A recent residency at Khoj, New Delhi , more specifically supported the compilation of the output, and looked at ways of presenting/ exhibiting process through an experiential rather than a documentary perspective.
Chronology of shows, displays, schloarships/residencies
2003
‘The Story of Five Posters’, an installation at The Canberra Contemporary Art Space, as a guest exhibit in relationship to ‘Witnessing to Silence: Art and Human Rights’, an Australian National University Humanities Research Centre Project.
2005
Posters and bookmarks were made for the sale of garments that Himmat periodically organizes, and are displayed in the stalls.
Placards were made for a Mayday rally, and are used every year.
Placards were made for a rally in memory of Bibi Banoo, and were taken out on procession during the event.
December/February 2006
The girls won the ‘Mirror Amdavad’ fellowship offered by Drishti ( Media, Arts and Human Rights) for a project which involved painting and performance – entitled Paani ki Museebat. It was performed at Faizal Park , Navapura (2 performances), Ekta Nagar, Mayur Park (at Himmat), the GSF, Ahmedabad and informally for visiting groups on several occasions. The performance was also filmed by Johanna Hoyne and the girls, as a documentary by the same title.
October 2006
A month – long residency at Khoj International Artists’ Workshops to compile work from the project and to think through ways of displaying of such material. Six films were edited from footage shot by the girls: Cutting Chai, Paani Ki Museebat, Himmat, A Film for Bibi Banoo, and Interviews. One of the earliest exercises in painting involved six one foot by one foot canvases, one each by the six participants of the project when it began. I made seven, from sketches made on site during the workshops. Put together, it forms a sequence of 13, and is entitled The Himmat Workshops. A trial exhibit was mounted, very successfully, at the Khoj premises. The painting was bought by Vadehra Art Gallery ; some of the proceeds went towards exhibition expenses, including a later display in Ahmedabad. The remaining was divided equally between the girls and myself. This was a way of diverting the kind of funds that are available in the art market towards areas where there is a lack.
The narrative scrolls, the excerpts from the script, and the curtains that were sewn during Shanta Rakshit’s module were mounted as an installation in one room, with “Interviews” showing on a monitor. One of the quilts was spread on the floor, for people to sit on.
Paani Ki Museebat was projected on the wall of the landing as one mounted the steps to the first floor. Rabia and Tahera attended the opening, Monica and Zaid were also present. The paintings, posters and collages were displayed in the other rooms of the building.
Before the event, we were also required to do a powerpoint presentation of the documentation of the entire project.
Yet another presentation was made at the Dept. of Art and Aesthetics at the JNU.
Chandita Mukherjee, a reputed film-maker, contacted us for a film that she was making on three artists’ responses to the riots. She spent about two days at Khoj, filming the mounting of the display, and later, the opening evening. The presentation at JNU was also filmed.
We managed to raise about 50,000 Rs for the framing and display from Bodhi Art Gallery .
Some of the paintings were also shown at the WSF in Delhi , at the Himmat stall, and later at a peace festival in Bombay .
February 28th/ 2007
A large exhibit was mounted at the Hutteesingh Gallery at the CEPT campus, as part of Sach ki Yaadein, Yadon ka Sach, organized by several NGOs in Ahmedabad, on the 5th anniversary of the carnage. There were other events like film screenings, and a show of Madhubani paintings on the riots by Santosh Kumar Das. Students who had been involved as resource people during the project helped with the display.
March 2007
Experimenta 2007 ( Bangalore and Bombay ): Screening of ‘Cutting Chai’, one of the films edited from video footage shot by the participants. Also screened earlier by VIKALP, Bombay
Reproductions and two of the films were represented at ‘Moving People’, WSF, Nairobi , in ‘Follow the Arrow: Investigating Movement’ an event curated by Archana Hande and Mamta Murthy.
Posters from the project, including stills from the films, were compiled into a separate presentation for a seminar organized by Sahiyar at the Fine Art Faculty premises. It was also an attempt to explore the many different kinds of functions that posters can perform.
April/May 2007
Both Cutting Chai and the collaborative painting of 13 panels have been shown in my solo exhibitions at Sakshi Bombay and at Vadehra art Galler, New Delhi . Part of the written narratives are contained in an audio text, as recordings, for ‘Listening Post’, a voice installation. As an extension of the project, one cubicle was set aside for a free expression of opinions that could be written or painted on the walls –– a group of children from Aarohan, a Delhi based NGO, covered 20 ft of canvas with graffiti, which I will work on to complete.
October 2007
‘After-Images’, an exhibition held in the wake of what developed around the arrest of Chandra Mohan, a student of the MSU. A four-day workshop was conducted at the centre, and three paintings by Rabia, Tahera and Taslim were exhibited at the show. Two were bought by Sakshi Gallery. A small percentage goes to ACUA, an organization of teachers of the MSU, a small percentage to Himmat, and the major part of the proceeds to the girls.
Tahera and Rabia are now enrolled in an open schooling programme, and the funds will probably support their education.
Selected images of paintings/drawings/posters have been printed as cards by Himmat. The girls periodically paint the walls of the centre, and also work with volunteers who regularly visit Himmat. Tahera attends community workshops regularly, as one of the Himmat representatives, as she is vocal, articulate and has strong views on most things.
I will continue to work with them on collaborative paintings; as these are a significant source of funding.
Articles in:
Vahi, a Gujarati periodical of the arts and literature, written by Piyush Thakker, a young artist, writer and researcher.
Art Connects, periodical of the IFA.
January 2008,
Baroda .
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