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

Thursday 25 February 2010

Early morning



I woke early after a calm quiet night and a good sleep. The mist was rising around the cottage and the stream, so I decided to pop out and wander in the fresh air around Radhanagar.Bananas were ripening outside the cottage.
Children were heading to school.Along the road, there was evidence of clay having been dug, possibly to make paint for the houses.

Further along the road, near the plantation, there was a shop which had been repaired using old tins, these had rusted over time.
A patch work of plum panels, creased from where they had once been tins.

Boys cycling to work on their bikes, stopped to talk.
An old woman painted the step around her house with mud.Most houses were built of mud bricks painted with a clay wash and topped with a tin roof. The step is to keep the rain out during the monsoon.Many are built around a central courtyard, often used for cooking, keeping animals or working.
A splendid, though not very strong, fence made of fluid and wavey lines of bamboo. The hollow in which the fence stood may have been waiting for the rains to fill it with water.
Jack fruits growing on a tree, with their bright green spikey skins.Boys pushing barrows of wood up a hill.A man carrying juteA group of women making plugs of soil for plants.
Although early, people were busy, attempting to avoid the heat of the day.