All wrapped up…
The last session with An-nisa was a real pleasure and also a pity as it feels like we have just got going and it’s all over (I often feel this with these short-run projects,). I asked the girls to bring objects to wrap in fabric and bind with sari yarn: three things they had outgrown – and they all brought objects that they had obviously thought a lot about before deciding to part with them. I am not going to describe what they brought , I will save this for you for the show! I also asked them to share about and write down what the object was and what it had meant to them, as this will be part of the piece. I then asked them to write on paper two mental/emotional object – something/relationship/experience they value that is in their present experience and something they wish for the future. There was a great depth and sensitivity , as well as a degree of playfulness and poetry in what they shared and I realised this session and request is what has created the most authentic language of connection. It follows on from The Gifts and I should have known its power would translate to other contexts. Which is a relief. I have decided to create three ‘portraits’ using these objects-they will be suspended works, with the wrapped objects hung between two mirrors , as in The Gifts (1-99). I will post up my working drawings in the next blog that I used for the design planning meeting this week.
I had had a delicious time sourcing fabrics for wrapping, based on the colours they had used in the initial weaving session, and it forms a striking palette. They seemed to enjoy the transformation of what they brought into jewel-like textile sculptures. I always get the feeling that the objects themselves like bring reborn in this way …!
Towards the end of the session I initiated a bibliomancy session by offering them each to dip into Rumi or Hafiz and have me read the verse they chose…some disarming and perfectly matched words came up for a few people, and I may use some of these texts in the show somehow…choosing like that, seemingly randomly, and then finding meaning that speaks to you, is a uniquely individual act that can betray a moment in time in the individual’s life and I am curious to see how the words might all cross over and work as part of a larger piece. At the end Humera presented us each with the perfect gift : a compact mirror with an Islamic design on it. To be treasured.
