So, I have been in Godawari for 3 days now. It feels like a lot longer, after the frenzy of travel in India and the Holiday in Kathmandu, life has slowed right down.
I have started working with a group of about 8 girls, we have been exploring 3d form, first by modelling vegetables and odd objects out of clay. Then I bought some ornaments down in the village and they copied those. I am amazed at their facillity for modelling in 3d.
I have been busy with that and trying to learn rudimentry Nepali as you can imagine, but have also had time to think about the pilgrimage and my own work.
I have had an idea ever since I was in Chennai Museum and saw memorials to victims of Sati (widow burning) on which they hung glass bangles, of making a bangle sculpture. As I sat in the garden this morning I thought why not here, there is a Bangle shop at the end of the path. It seems a fitting place, most of these girls lost their childhood in a violent way.
There are other sculptures I have been thinking about, but I wonder if using the very blatent, obvious symbolism of sexuality that appears in Hindu sculpture and rituals may seem a bit crass in our (seemingly) more sophisticated art world. But this kind of symbolism is the essence of life. For example when we visited a temple in Uttarkarshi we saw a newly wed couple pouring Milk over the Siva Lingum (the phallic symbol of the god Siva). Obvious, but none the less a beautiful action, the lingum was covered in flowers, which were also coated in milk. It made me think of Helen Chadwick's photos of flowers, which I believe she coated in milk to make them look right for the camera.
I am still trying to walk everyday as well, as a way of thinking. The idea of pilgrimage and the idea of physical activety to excercise the mind, today it was cut short by rain, but hey!
