Making Space:Sensing Place

In October 2009, along with artist Thurle Wright, I was awarded a Making Space:Sensing Place Fellowship; part of the HAT: Here and There International Exchange Programme, managed by A Fine Line:Cultural Practice. The Fellowship includes residencies with Britto Arts in Dhaka, Bangladesh, with Arts Reverie in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, with The V&A Museum of Childhood, Bethnal Green, London and with The Harley Gallery, Nottinghamshire. Working and collaborating with artists and craftspeople from the UK, Bangladesh and India, responding to the collections and spaces we encounter and sharing these experiences through a touring exhibition and educational workshops.

This blog, which is still developing and being added to, is a record of my experiences during the MS:SP Fellowship. Steven Follen.
www.stevenfollen.com

Friday 5 March 2010

More Wall Decoration

As I was leaving Sanjay's house I spotted some more wall decoration, the work looked familiar and Sanjay indicated that it was his own.The work had been commissioned for a celebration within the household.
The figures, in beautiul colours, process along the wall, playing musical instruments and dancing around a figure, shaded by an umbrella, on a horse. It is as if the figures in the Mata ni Pachedi have come alive from the cloth and run down the road.

The walls are covered with floral designs and the mandalas.

Interestingly the designs have incorporated printed tiles bearing images of the Hindu Gods including Vishnu and Rama.
I had read somewhere that residents has started placing ceramic tiles with images of their Gods on their boundary walls (at a strategic height) as a way of deterring people from urinating against their property.
Walking to the Pol I noticed more wall decoration, Images of Ganesh appear almost burnt into the wall.