community based art

Zareyein-2

khoj studio — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 07:38:10 -0400

Zariyein>>>Khirki Village, New Delhi>>> East Khasi Hills, Meghalaya

Navjot Altaf- Report

khoj studio — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 03:33:15 -0400

D E L H I L O V E S M E ?

I am interested in’ P u b l i c A r t ’ that emphasizes a process of engagement with issues, and when the work emerges out of extended dialogical and personal interaction with the groups of people and individuals; the dialogue becomes two–way and interactive which respects and invites multiple
points of views.

Khirkee-ki-Khoj: Temple Installation

Aastha Chauhan — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 04:21:05 -0400

The Sai Baba Mandir at end of the street in Khirkee Extension plays a significant role in the community both geographically and socially. The priest at the temple is an interesting man with generous advice on life and politics. He mentioned once that he was unhappy with my involvement with the “lower classes” in the street, of how “they” are an incorrigible bunch. One fine day he asked if I would make a “statue” for the temple.

Khirkee-ki-Khoj: Shop Make-over Project

Aastha Chauhan — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 03:43:17 -0400

As part of the larger Khoj Community Arts Project initiative, eleven artists have chosen to explore uncharted territory (at least as far as some of their individual practices are concerned) and venture boldly forth into the realm of community art. The site? Khirkee village, more specifically, the street Khoj calls home. The project engages with the shopkeepers who are the primary residents of the street, and entails a group of two or three artists working in collaboration with a shopkeeper, establishing a rapport, exchanging ideas and developing a collective method of art-making.

Khirkee-ki-Khoj: Kite-making Workshop

Aastha Chauhan — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 02:15:34 -0400

In our pervious tryst with the Khirki community, we mapped the street, made friends with a few residents and held a show where we photographed friends and understood their perspective on friendship and what it means to them. We also held a collage workshop for the children of the street and the response was encouraging. On the basis of this we held our second workshop of â€œKite makingâ€ for the children. We invited skilled kite makers from Old Delhi and invited 20 children from the street to learn kite making. On the 22nd of January 2005 the children poured in and by the time we were winding up the number of participating children had escalated up to 26. The enthusiasm of the children was a lot more than it had been in any of the previous workshops we had ever held. Each child made 5-6 kites on an average.

For the trial round the children made newspaper kites, once they had mastered this they went on to plastic kits and fine paper kites. Using their creativity in attaching fancy tails to the kite, mix-matching the colors and writing their names to make each kite unique. We had invited Mr. Kaushikâ€™s (landlord) grandchildren as well as the children of all the fruit/food vendors and laborers living in the vicinity of Khoj. We wanted them to work together and enjoy themselves and push their creative thought process.By the end of the workshop we had made over 100 kites in different sizes, shapes, material.

We decided to fly the kites on the 26th of January (Republic day). That was luckily a bright sunny day. We marched up to the terrace of Khoj with all the kites and one by one the children dotted the sky with their very own hand-made kites. Each took great pride in flying the kite he/she had made with his/her own hands. We carried on till we had spent all the kites and the children went back very happy and made us promise that we would call them for the next workshop whatever it is, whenever it is.

The workshop was a whopping success in terms of the fact that the children got familiarized with using their hands to create something which they later put to use, they got to know one another and got to know us, at least by our first names. They went back reassured that there will be more activity where they would do other fun-things. And we will be able to develop there creative as well as personal front by working with the same lot of children over and over again.

Gallery