Over the summer our team went through several ups and downs, we saw many team valuable members leave the project due to other commitments and went through several funding rejections. The students were on holiday and without the workshops, the project lost a lot of momentum. As artists we were used to constant doing, making and creating but the summer forced us to put aside our urge to produce something and instead spend some time building new relationships and deepening our understanding of the relationship of the Chitpur community to their history and their locality.
One of the most memorable conversations was with the Sheel brothers of the Diamond Library, a historic publishing house and book shop in the locality. Mr. Sheel had so far been a skeptical participant, engaging the students when they visited his shop for interviews and showing up for community meetings, but always remaining wary of our intentions. After all, many artists, researchers and film makers had come before us, documented their archives and interviewed them, but their business had not benefitted in any way. However after spending a long time talking to us about our project in his shop, he invited us over again in a week to show us some of the objects he had in his archive.
One of the most memorable conversations was with the Sheel brothers of the Diamond Library, a historic publishing house and book shop in the locality. Mr. Sheel had so far been a skeptical participant, engaging the students when they visited his shop for interviews and showing up for community meetings, but always remaining wary of our intentions. After all, many artists, researchers and film makers had come before us, documented their archives and interviewed them, but their business had not benefitted in any way. However after spending a long time talking to us about our project in his shop, he invited us over again in a week to show us some of the objects he had in his archive.
An old artwork, remixing images from popular media and original illustrations to create book covers for Jatra Scripts
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A book on the fight between Goddess Lakshmi and Saraswati and a medical manual on how to ensure your child is born a boy were shown to us with a word of caution to take the latter in the context of society a 100 years ago.
Mr. Sheel, saved the best for the last- a wonderful collection of 100 year old wooden blocks originally etched and used for printing.
We also met Chayanika De, a feisty woman who was a fifth generation resident of this locality and art teacher, she shared her family's story with us and enthusiastically invited us to include her art students in the workshops. This was another happy moment for us as it was our first step towards building relationship with residents and expanding the project beyond the school.
These conversations reinforced the need for us to expand our understanding of our practice- conversation, and a willingness to truly listen are critical, as is the ability to make ourselves and our art useful in some way. We also understood usefulness in a new way, as Mr. Sheel said, he finally trusted us not because we helped him increase his business but because we invited them to all our events and workshops and did not disappear after a single interview. We are slowly understanding that people don't expect art to be utilitarian to be useful, but hope their identities and their presence is acknowledged and included in some way or the other.
These conversations reinforced the need for us to expand our understanding of our practice- conversation, and a willingness to truly listen are critical, as is the ability to make ourselves and our art useful in some way. We also understood usefulness in a new way, as Mr. Sheel said, he finally trusted us not because we helped him increase his business but because we invited them to all our events and workshops and did not disappear after a single interview. We are slowly understanding that people don't expect art to be utilitarian to be useful, but hope their identities and their presence is acknowledged and included in some way or the other.
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