Well finally arrived back in the UK!
The last week in India went really quickly and much of my time was spent cramming in last minute trips and working out what I could bring back with me to England, 20kg is not a lot!
I am yet to digest all that I have experienced. Going to take a while and a good few weeks in the studio to unravel the sights, smells and experiences of this Indian residency.
I have come back with an interesting collection of objects, some women’s ornamental hair pins and ornate handmade wooden combs.
I am particularly interested in using everyday objects in my work, the seemingly mundane and everyday things. I intend to incorporate some of these everyday elements in my work back in the studio.
This has been my first experience of an international arts residency programme, and I have learnt quite a bit a long the way.
India itself did not disappoint.
In some ways I feel I have only touched the surface of this vast country. The very nature of this kind of short residency experience is that it opens up so many more potential possibilities and avenues to pursue.
I suppose in many ways that is the point.
I am looking forward to exploring and interpreting some of this research over the coming weeks and to see how this experience might impact on my practise in the longer term.
Left at 3am this morning for the golden temple, the hotel was only a short ride so didn’t take us long to get there.
We checked in our shoes at the drop off point and made our way to one of the four gates that surround the temple itself, four gates symbolising that the temple is equally accessible and open to everyone regardless of faith, caste and religion.
The temple is truly breathtaking, at this time of the morning the place exudes a serene and tranquil atmosphere, Sikh men were already stirring and starting to bathe in the holy water that surrounds the temple, lots of people also lay asleep in the grounds.
We had come to see the book ceremony, every morning at around 4 am the book is moved from its resting place and taken into the golden temple itself. It is believed that the book is a living entity and that each morning it should be woken up and taken to the temple, at night it is returned to its resting place until the next morning, there is quite a procession that surrounds the movement of the holy book, moves pretty fast too!
The temple serves over three thousand meals everyday through its kitchens, a staggering feat. Huge pots were already lit in the kitchens in preparation for the first meals of the day. Everyone is welcome here, one can come and sit and eat in the large dining room. All they ask is that you do something to help, maybe a bit of washing up, or help making the chapatis, everything is run by volunteers who tithe both their time and their money. Even at 3 am in the morning I was offered sweet tea.
We also went to look at the Temple museum. A stark contrast to the serene and tranquil environment outside! Lots of paintings of Sikh martyrs being boiled in vats and cut in half, also lots of paintings of great bloody Moghul battles.
There were some particularly grisly photographs of dead Sikh men hung on the wall, all died in the shooting in the 1980’s when Indira Ghandi ordered troops to storm the temple as Sikh guerillas were seeking refuge inside the building, 600 hundred people were killed as a result.
It has been a busy week, trying to pack in as much as possible as my time here is coming to an end.
Went to Amritsar on Tuesday to see the Golden Temple. Caught the 7:30am train from New Delhi Station.
Train was excellent although negotiating the platforms and locating the correct place to board the train proved a bit of a challenge! Thankfully I found a helpful passenger who directed me to the correct train. 400 trains pass through New Delhi station everyday.
I booked an air-conditioned coach, just make’s the journey that bit more comfortable and as it was a six-hour train ride was well worth it. It was great to get out of the hustle and bustle of Delhi and get a chance to see some of the countryside.
Amritsar is set in the Punjab, situated right on the border of India and Pakistan, 60% of the population in this area are Sikh. Throughout the Punjab agriculture is the main source of income and work, lots of large open spaces and a lot less traffic.
I was picked up at Amritsar station by my guide and driver and taken to the hotel to freshen up before heading off to the border area to see the changing of the flags ceremony performed daily every evening.
It is a theatrical spectacle! The ceremony was originally started in 1947 when both independence and partition split former India into India and Pakistan.
Hundreds of people gather on both the Pakistan and Indian border to glimpse the ceremony.
Guards in their finery and colourful headdresses on both sides parade up and down to the gate getting the crowds in a bit of a frenzy before the flags are lifted.
From what I can gather the banter is all good-natured between the crowds on both sides, it has a celebratory and carnival feel to the ceremony. It has only been abandoned in times of war and although tensions remain between the countries the ceremony continues.
