Oh so much has been happening that I have not had a chance to write much, plus we have had a lot of problems with the internet. Last week, Zoe and Dan, who have been working down in Bairawa on a mosaic project, where our guests. Also Philip Holmes who is the director of the charity I am volunteering for was back in country, this as meant a week of planning and meetings. A woman who is opening a shop in Kathmandu is very interested in the Bangle sculptures and we are now working on prototypes. Also the clay maquette figures that the girls produced are now being developed so they can be fired. This does mean that the emphasis of what I am doing has changed. I realise that what is needed before I leave is to put in place means of development and production. Dreams of Naga sculptures are out the window now. An amazing weekend followed the meetings and planning sessions. This started on Friday with a trip to Timi (a town near Kathmandu that is famous for its potteries and papier mache workshops). We took the girls, all together in a micro bus. Because Hari and Rajendra who work here for the project in the pottery both come from Timi, they were our guides, we started with a visit to a traditional mask maker, who gave us a demonstration, this was fascinating. In a courtyard behind his house Hari’s uncle was working on a hand powered wheel, basically a tire and a stick. We then went to visit Hari’s brothers workshop, where I discovered that glazed pottery was only introduced to Nepal in 1984. The weekend was one long festival, it started in the middle of the night in Patan, although I did not catch up with it until later in the day, it was the day that all Brahim (top caste) have to retie their sacred thread, every one gets a thread around their wrist as well. The main Siva temple in Patan was heaving. The water tank that we had seen being cleaned a few weeks ago was full and everyone was queuing to make offerings to a Lingum (phallic symbol of Siva) that had been set up in the middle of the tank. There were many pandits who were tying sacred threads and just loads of people. In addition the Shamens from the mountains were dancing around beating drums. Outside was like a small fete. It was all really exiting. I managed to get a lot of photographs and some video footage, although the camera was not too keen on all that Hindu mess. Like most of these experiences I am not sure what to make of it all yet, but was interested in the following day which was the Gai Jatra festival, this is a day when people who have died in the last year are commemorated. A procession follows a cow. There was music and masked dancing.
So now I am in the fourth week of being in Godawari. Some of the bangle sculptures have been completed by the girls and we have been making animals, clay on a metal armature, so that we can create part moulds for repeat casting. All useful skills. The director of the charity returned to Nepal this week and this morning we met with a contact of his who is opening a shop in Kathmandu, just the day I fly from Delhi ironically. She is interested in selling mosaics and ceramics and anything else the girls make. Much to my delight she was very taken with the bangle sculptures and we talked about what sort of figures we could make, woman carrying baskets and water carriers. I now feel filled with enthusiasm, but realise that the large scale naga (snake sculpture) is probably out of the question. Last week there was a naga festival and pictures of nagas appeared on everyone’s gates, including ours. I am still pursuing ideas about these potent fertility symbols. I have been told that there are many stories of snakes coming in the form of women and luring men into relationains with them. They then turn in snakes again. The daughters of nagas are half woman half snake and called Naga Kanya. I am pleased that in some way the work that I am creating with the girls is relating to ideas that are circulating in my mind for my own work.
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So now in the third week at Godawari, it has been an interesting time, the girls have started to make sculptures that we can stick broken glass bangles on. This has involved making proper armatures, padding them with polystyrene and wrapping muslin dipped in plaster round this to make a basic structure. Monday was quite mad as I had some girls at the plaster stage and some at the armature in wire stage. The result is a solid bag of plaster and a blocked sink. Last Friday, myself and three girls, went into Patan, to Mangle Bazaar, to buy more Bangles than the old couple running the stall have ever sold before. Monday morning we smashed them all! I got my video camera out for the first time since I have been here to record this event. I feel that this footage could become part of some work, footage of several Nepali girls crouching on the floor smashing these beautiful bangles with rolling pins, there seems to be some symbolism in this action. Even the way that Mumta was scooping up the pieces and putting them in a box, it had a similar action to sorting rice or beans. I have been making some sketchs for a Naga (snake) woman sculpture that we could construct in the same way that we have made the smaller sculptures. Working on this collaboratively, making a larger structure. Nagas are worshiped by women and are associated with fertility. Speaking of fertility and as I have mentioned before the obvious symbolism of Hinduism on Sunday we visited the Siva temple in Patan, there the pujari was performing rites around a Siva Lingham, decorated with flowers and fruit. A pan of water was dripping onto the Siva Lingham from above. It reminded me again of the ceremony that we had witnessed in Utterkarshi, with the newly married couple pouring milk over the Lingham. I hope that what I am teaching the girls is useful to them, I think that they are learning useful skills. I am exited by the idea of collaborating with them. It is quite strange as I rarely make real sculptures these days and actually it is quite pleasurable playing with plaster and clay.
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