RESIDENCY AT SANSKRITI KENDRA

CERAMIC RESIDENCY in DELHI - Feb to April 2009

Ok, so now you've read about my travels and influences leading up to my Residency at Sanskriti Kendra in New Delhi, here's the juicy bits about my time in residence....

FEBRUARY 20 - I arrived back in Delhi to a warm welcome by staff and artists in residence. I was immediately struck by how beautiful and serene the grounds of Sanskriti Kendra were! It was going to be a sanctuary for me just outside crazy Delhi, where I was to create work and experiment with new ideas and methods.

Right from the day that I arrived, there was a big ceramic exhibition happening at the Habitat Centre in the city, called MAATI. It was perfect timing, as I had arrived just in time for the opening! This exhibition was of 100 potters both from India and other countries, and the focus of the show was for all the artists to try their hands at working with terracotta. Later, several of the internationals mentioned to me what a hard time they had had working with this clay too, so I praise the traditional Indian potters who have worked with it for centuries! MAATI continued for the whole week with additional demonstrations and lectures taking place each day - so my first week in residence was actually spent mingling with other potters and absorbing many different styles to go back to my studio and play with. I met some wonderful people and was even invited to share in a paper kiln firing with a lovely women called Usha Garodia.

This was all really exciting and I had gotten used to travelling into the city and back every day, but after a week it was time to get down to business. My reason for doing this residency, to experiment with my own work!

My studio was amazing. It had my workspace on the bottom level and my bedroom and bathroom was up the stairs on the top level. I had plenty of space and great neighbours in the block of 4 studios that I was in. It was time to get to work...

I started to make houses. Not just any houses though, they were village type houses made from coiling, carving, incising and moulding the clay. I was combining the different decorational techniques I had been influenced by into the roofs and walls of the houses and finishing them off with some thrown decoration from the trusty kick wheels in the ceramic centre! Some examples:

It was only after I had made all these, and was talking with Princess, a writer from France/Nigeria staying in the studio next to mine, that she questioned where the doors were?! Princess, with the biggest phobia of lizards I had ever known, had a straight up and practical way of thinking...usually. She screamed for her life every time she caught a glimpse of the cute little lizards that were living with us and had them shooed out of her studio... straight into mine. Being originally from Nigeria, I guess she believed that they were bad luck and would drain the life out of her. However in India, they are believed to be good luck. One lucky artist even had a lizard couple staying in her studio. How romantic.

Hmm, so as I realised that I had been making these cottage houses with no doors, I also enjoyed the fact that it meant that I was really indulging in sculpture for the sake of sculpture! I also loved that with the weather sunny and warm every single day, I was able to work outside if I wanted to sometimes.

In between making things, listening for the bell which indicated food time (not to be missed!), discussing art related and non art related things with other residents and reading books, I also attended several cultural music and dance events happening around Delhi. Delhi is a buzzing place filled with art and cultural festivals and exhibitions. If I saw everything that was going on - I would never have got any work done!

Some of the things I attended were a Bharat Natyam dance performance by Rama Vaidyanathan and a  festival where I witnessed Tibeten Monks creating a large Sand Mandala which was to be destroyed at the end of the week. The Sufi Qawwali music performance by Chand Nizami was in a tucked away mosque in the heart of Delhi. The entrance was via a long narrow winding lane which led from what seemed like the outside world, into the inside world of the hidden and intimate mosque. It was a magical place covered in golden arches and pillers. It was worth the trip through the many open muslim butchers which lined the lane into the center. For a vegetarian who hadn't even caught or smelt a glimpse of meat for the past 5 weeks though, it was tough!

There were always events being held for various people and organisations in the grounds of Sanskriti Kendra. The embassies of different countries in particular were always held high in the respect of the staff of Sanskriti, as they encouraged us to meet and share our work with the representatives of our respective embassies. Leoni, a photographer and textile artist from Holland however, was snubbed by her own dutch embassy during an event, and I even found that some of the Australians just couldn't care less. Hmm, whats it all about anyway?! At least I usually managed to have them give us some free wine to share amongst the artists afterwards, which I think I attained a bit of a reputation for. After every event, everyone would be looking at me and wondering where I'd stashed it. I found that the most beautiful things that came from these meetings however, were how the workers of Sanskriti decorated the grounds. Here are some examples from different events:

 

 

MARCH 11 - It was Holy Festival whilst I was in residency. It begins with a bonfire the night before, which the workers held at midnight. Of course being a lover of fire and believing in its power of transcendence from one thing to another, I stayed up with Jane, a writer from England to watch the bonfire take place at the back of Sanskriti. Quite funny really, as we were the only 2 artists there amongst a big group of the workers who were absolutely stoked that we had waited up for this event!

This festival holds many symbolic meanings, but to me, the most important one is that for 1 day in the year, all the society class barriers are broken down by the throwing of colour pigment at one another. This means, yes I got covered in various different coloured dyes (took a week for the green to come out of my hair!), and yes it was mostly due to the workers at Sanskriti Kendra who would otherwise never be allowed to interact with me in this way! They had fun, and so did we!

And then I was taken to a party by Leoni and her Indian friend Koka, along with Kris and Corina, a photographer and fashion designer from Germany. It was the Holy Cow festival, and Holy Cow it was a mess! Sponsored by Jagermeister and in someone's farmhouse, it was covered in coloured natural dye, water sprinklers and foam. It was interesting, fun and gross all at the same time!

The following week was a big one for me as I was to fire my work first in the gas kiln to bisque it, and then in the wood kiln with glaze. It turned out to be less easy than I had thought as I ran out of gas, then couldn't get the appropriate glaze materials, and then ran out of wood towards the end of the firing of the wood kiln!

I through a Potter's Party at the woodkiln during my firing, so that I had the artists for company for a bit of the night. My hired help didn't speak a word of English, which made for the most interesting communal firing I will probably ever be involved in! During the Party, vodka, wine and beer was shared along with a few tales. Kris, who never really had an interest in ceramics before this, couldn't seem to keep away from wanting to stoke the firebox. I guess Fire will hold the attention of any man, or any potter for that matter! When the artists all went to bed, I was left to the exhaustive task of firing till 5am with my Indian helper, Bablu, and thank god he knew his kiln or we would have been there till 5pm the next day!

Argh, it sure was testing, and I certainly learnt a few things from it all! The main thing being that in future residencies, I should try and work in the way of the local traditions and not try and do what I do back home. It just simply doesn't work as planned in such a different environment. In the end, I didn't really have any successful work come out of the kiln, which in ceramics, can happen a lot. The main thing however is that I enjoyed my time exploring new processes and discovering where things can go wrong!

 

Whilst I was there, there were also 3 South Indian Potters from Tamil Nadu. They had taken part in the MAATI Exhibition and had stayed on at Sanskriti to complete some orders. They were a fine example of the traditional works and firing methods used in India. They are the sole makers of the famous Terracotta Horses and Bulls which in traditional times were placed at the entrance of every South Indian Village to ward off evil from entering the town. I spent time admiring the processes of these potters and perhaps I should have gone by their example during my time in residency. Although, they did fire really fast, stack the kiln extremely precariously and glue all their work back together at the end! However, they were still highly respected by all except the upper classes of India.

 

During this same time, I also went to my new friend Usha's house to take part in her Paper Kiln firing, which I had never done before. Its essentially a pit firing, but you have to wrap the pots up like little presents before you stack them in rings of newspaper and set alight. Inside the wrapped surprises, we put in mixtures of different materials such as copper, iron and salt. I had saved a couple of my little houses for this. The thing that truly amazed me the most about doing this firing, was that we didn't actually do any of the firing! We watched as Usha's servants built the brick kiln around our pots then she suggested that we have a glass of wine and watch the fire whilst her servants managed the wood and flame.

Aah, wouldn't it be wonderful if we all had people to help us out whilst firing! Secretly, I think they really enjoyed this part of their job.

I also took part in a Raku Workshop that was being held over a few days at Sanskriti Kendra for a group of local potters. It was held by a couple of members/organisers of the Delhi Blue Pottery Trust and was another fun way of meeting several of the Delhi potters. There were many different Raku techniques being explored, so I took the opportunity to slip in a few of my little houses!

 

To conclude this phase of my residency, a group of 5 of us artists from all different countries and arts practices, held an exhibition at Sanskriti Kendra of the work made whilst in residence. Except as most of my work had been an experimental disaster, I had chosen to show a projection of my work, past and present.  This seemed to actually be the way to go, as visitors to the exhibition actually got to see probably more of my work than anyone else's! After slightly stressful times, it really was a nice break to have people appreciating the work I had done both in residence and previous to.

 

Whilst all this is going on, there was also all the unexpected things that become part of the experience. The group of artists that were there at the same time as me all got along really well, and we had some good times and many laughs. Over the last couple of weeks leading up to the exhibition, there were things happening almost every day with always someone different to make us laugh. The eccentricities of individual artists combined made for an eventful and always interesting stay. Thanks to Devena for keeping me sane!

STAY TUNED for the last segment of my residency where I visited the original potters village in Delhi, Nek Chand's magical Rock Garden in Chandigargh and colourful Rajasthan!