Art camping!

17 June 2010                                                      Jyamirkot

Today was the first day of the artist’s workshop that I am assisting with.  We arrived yesterday afternoon/early evening, getting everything set.  Suniti and I had met Ashmina at a nursery, where I continued on with Ashmina to the Ring Road, where we waited for the rest of the things to meet us.  They came in a huge truck, which we took all the way to where we are now (outside Kathmandu, I’m still not sure where).

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One of the houses where we stayed

We’re currently based out of an old house, which is quite basic (single bulbs in the rooms, and I was surprised to see them there.  There are doors and windows, but they’re pretty much just holes in the walls.  Anything can get in- I swear I saw a rat run across the room and into the attic yesterday.  Also, I’m slowly being eaten alive by mosquitoes.  Apparently it’s because I’m ‘beautiful’, according to one of the male artists here.

Anyway, the house.  I’ve been told that’s it’s very ‘traditional Nepali.’  I believe it’s made out of red clay bricks (and red clay), with a bamboo-supported, thatched roof.  It’s quite basic.  There’s two houses here.  The women are in the smaller one, and the men are in the bigger one.  That’s also where the workshop is being held, as the top floor is quite large.

The workshop today was conducted mostly in Nepali (Piero, the other American here, gave his presentation in English), but they made sure to translate the important parts.  I’m looking at it as a way to test my Nepali and hopefully learn more.  The beginning of the workshop consisted of an introduction of everyone, an introduction to the project, and Piero’s presentation on art and collaboration.  It was interesting to find out that some of the great artists of the world didn’t actually physically produce their works.  This was supposed to get the ball rolling on the collaboration process we’re doing here.

The next step was to get people’s objectives and expectations of the project.  It seemed to have gone very well.  One of Ashmina’s friends, a social architect and landscape artist, was a sort of moderator for the session, leading the participants through the process.  Next, they were asked about their feelings about what a Live Arts Hub is, and what it needs.  After that, there was a break period (a ‘thinking break’) to show or describe what a physical Live Arts Hub would look like.  Ashmina and our moderator discussed how an architect/engineer would be coming, but they didn’t have him yet.  At this point, I mentioned that in the meantime, they had a set designer.  After I finally conveyed after some confusion (‘We should have a set designer?  Yes, I agree’) that I was the set designer, I immediately got put to work drawing as well.  Luckily we didn’t have to show our drawings, because next to all these painters and artists, my drawings look even more atrocious than usual.  I’ll make myself feel better by saying that I draw in a much more practical drafting style, so anyone constructing my designs knows exactly what I mean.

The discussion of the spaces was very interesting.  Some people were still stuck in the mental, theoretical step without proposing anything physical (except for location, which wasn’t wanted anyway).  A lot of people seemed to favor an open space, which should make the first step of combining ideas easier.  Collaboration is so much easier when there is at least one common starting point.  Otherwise, it can take forever just to agree on that first step.

The next step was a little more difficult- what in the space will tell people coming in that it is ‘art’, apart from the activities going on.  As it seems that everyone is either a painter or a sculptor, they got stuck in that paradigm.  I think that way of thinking can definitely be related to politics (see, I’m working!).  They think only of their own needs, and not the needs of others that will be occupying the same space.  Hopefully over these next few days we can get them to think past that.  As someone with a different perspective, I suggested shaping the environment with lights, that could morph in pattern and color and set different moods.  I also said not to be limited in color, that they should use all colors available, as many of them were suggesting certain color schemes or patterns.  Our leaders were glad that I said it, as they had been wanting to say it themselves.  The reaction was interesting- one painter was concerned that the lights would throw off the aesthetics of paintings in the space.  I assured him that all lights are programmable, and that they could be programmed in one place to support any paintings displayed there.  Plus, I just think it would be super cool to have light coming from behind the wall as well as from ceilings/walls/usual places.

After some final thoughts on the day and a note to think about who would be visiting the space and how their designs would change, we were all sent off to dinner, right before which the lights came back on.  Hooray!