"Imagining Sarmad"

The 6 weeks residency included 7 artists; 4 of us from China. Brazil and Scotland/NY and myself from Jerusalem/UK. We all lived together in a guesthouse that was comfortable and in a great area. We made our way to Khoj studios and office on a daily basis using auto rickshaw, the sense of travelling through the city was an experience in itself, of which we spoke and documented.

The other three artists were from India and I personally got a great deal from the exchange with them and feel very privileged to have met with them. Same goes for the people who work in Khoj and the Delhi based artist Anita Dube who is on the board and whom we met with on a regular basis. Meeting these people gave me a great opening into Current Indian culture, local concerns, thought processes, insight into the art world in Delhi and the issues that are currently relevant to it. I also got insight into the very complex history and the religious make up of India through many passionate conversations.

Apart from the meetings we held as a group in Khoj with or without other participants, there were also other activities as part of Khoj programming including talks, presentations and film screenings. Khoj felt like a very vibrant place at this point, as an alternative space to a more commercialised art spaces, where people from Delhi and abroad seem to gather up on a regular basis. Some of the discussions I took part in were the most passionate I have encountered in any of the countries I visited in the past or London where I live and work. I enjoyed the level of involvement people feel regarding art and performance.

At some point during my stay I went to a conference at the Goethe institute on counter culture where I met with Shuddha from Raqs media-collective, I ask him about Jews in India for some reason, and he gave me a quick and well informed over view, including the mentioning of Sarmad the Saint. I followed this lead and found out bit by bit about this 17th century saint. According to a small book in Hindi that I found he was born to a Jewish Rabbinical family in Palestine (although in another source says it was Persia) he came to India as a merchant, gradually became a Muslim but mainly a Sufi, he believed in direct contact with the divinity rather than any form of official religion. He fell in love with a young Hindu man Habichand and even though the authority and Habichand's parents tried to separate them, their love was stronger and eventual they were allowed to live together. Sarmad taught Habichand everything he knew about religion, poetry and translation. Sarmad became a known poet and a saint, a spiritual master. He used to walk naked, but people did not bother about his body- they listen to his wisdom. In 1660 he was beheaded by the last Mughal ruler Aurangzeb and was buried in Jama Masjid. I found his Tomb with the help of Hemant the residency coordinator who took me to a fascinating place in Old Delhi, one of the last letter press publishing house were the owner is researching and preserving the history of old Delhi and Jama Masjid.

The Sarmad's tomb is still visited by many worshipers. I really appreciated spending many hours with Sushil and Anusha and Rahul, the writer in residency at Khoj, translating and discussing the story and its cultural implications. I am very much hoping to get a proper translation of the Hindi book into English.

Since arriving back I got a book in English about Sarmad called Sarmad Jewish Saint of India, which has a slightly different approach to the subject. This is what I find interesting about the story, that it is so much based on myth and interpretation.

"Imagining Sarmad"

I had based my performance in Khoj on this story. The performance is an adaptation of the story told in eight letters written by Sarmad to his imaginary sister. In the performance I lie in the middle of the space on a box and "embody" the story through drawing, clothes and other props, whilst 8 people from the audience are sat around me and read the 8 letters.

In the open night I did the performance twice and felt there was interest and focus in the room and that it went very well. This story and the performance open up an avenue to whole new project I want to develop around Sarmad. For which I am very much hoping to come back to India and continue the great connections with the people I met. I would like to make the adaptation into a film. I am thrilled that the performance I did in Khoj was already invited to be shown in APT gallery in London, the Freud Museum In London and the Gay museum in Berlin. I am happy that the work I made and this initial research had a further life outside the residency where further discourse can take place.