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SqW:Lab fellows were invited to interpret their favourite story, song or poem via a series of images that represent key plot points within that story for an ongoing project by Charlie Levine called The Tale Tellers.

Each selection of images tells a complete tale.

Shatranj Ke Khiladi (The Chess Players), 1924 – Munshi Premchand ( Hindi short-story)

1. Christian and Muslim Playing Chess. A picture from the book of Alfonso X

2. A Company school painting,India, Kolkata, 19th century Illustrating a street scene in Kolkata

3. Nawab Nasir al-Din Haidar , second King of Oudh , by Muhammad Azam Musavvir, India, Lucknow, circa 1830

4. Dicken’s comprehensive pictures of the Great Exhibition 1851

5. Recreation of Peruggia stealing the Mona Lisa.

6. David Hockney – Card Players

7. Moral levitation – Gaganendranath Tagore

8.  Company School Painting from the MET collection attributed to Shaikh Muhammad Amir of Karraya (active 1830s–40s)

9. Illustration of Garden Cockfight by Yōshū Chikanobu, 1898

10. British Indian Army poster (from WW1) from Colonial India written in Urdu.

11. Soldiers of the Indian Army in Egypt (the Seaforth Highlanders still wear the trews of the old 72nd Regiment)

SqW:Lab had been in our conversations and thoughts for over a decade and in the making for 6 months. It is therefore rather difficult for me to summarize the excitement in words. I would like to firstly, thank the core team for jumping on board this crazy idea and making it their own. It is this sense of ownership that they have so generously presented that is most encouraging and assuring that this endeavour will continue for years to come.

The week itself, as exciting as it was, was incredibly hectic. The process of our home slowly transforming into a Lab was a stimulating experience with comfort levels increasing by the hour. Informal introductions over lunchtime cocktails kick-started conversations that would sustain the fellowship and I was amazed at how quickly these discussions began to appear. A city-walk with Alisha Sadikot, showed us Byculla in a way that I have never seen before. Oscillating between my own curiosity and making sure that everyone crossed the road, I wished for more access to places we were visiting and would like to ensure that the next time we are able to get just that. Such thoughts, of minor changes to the organisation kept appearing throughout the week and continues to do so.

Between ordering lunches and taxis, materials and meetings, I found time to engage in some amazing conversations with fellows, which led to to explore methodologies of mapping, something I had never thought of as a basis to investigate domesticity. Working largely with material aspects, this personal discovery and the newly acquired typewriter has me thinking about movements and permissions within the domestic environment: how these change over time and familiarity or over-relational acknowledgements. Furthermore, I explored the typed hyphen’s potential to act as a line and its iconographic possibilities in the mapping process to create a language that is not entirely truthful, leaving space of fictional narrative.

These moments of interaction and discoveries is what has been most exciting, affirming the need for SqW:Lab to my practice. While we now spend time playing with projects and ironing out ‘technical’ glitches, I know I can do this for a long time to come.  

 

It is 10th December and been precisely a month since we have had Sqw:Lab open studio on 10th November. I left for Tokyo immediately after the open studio for 14 days. I was back to Bombay for two days and left again for Amsterdam and London for 10 days. I was supposed to write my personal reflection by the end of November, but I did not manage it while I was away from Bombay. Finally, I am sitting in my usual place, on the desk in the corner of the studio, and remembering the busiest month while feeling winter sunlight coming in the room with a shot of espresso. I remember that we made many cups of coffee during the week in Bombay!!

Katsushi Goto, winter sunlight into a corner of the studio, 10th December 2018

No matter how many workshops and parties we organise, it is always demanding to host the workshop in our studio/home, especially in the place was only completed a half year ago, and especially when there are not enough chairs. Nevertheless, I was so excited to have creative fellows to interact and play with, and inhabit our studio/home. Moreover, as I imagined, conversations and productions filled the space, and finally, the studio/home was lively and become a creative environment. First of all, I would like to thank all the fellows for coming and being part of the programme.

I must stress that although the programme seeks specific outcomes from the fellows, for me, hosting the programme in the space itself – which is designed by our design firm – is experimentation and a part of the long-term project. It was great to observe the fellows finding their own place to settle and work, arranging/re-arranging positions of cups, the way things are left for a night,  a location that the fellow had a conversation, and especially how the kitchen platform accommodated multiple activities. It is not recorded in any formal manner that is useful for architectural planning but as I read the other’s personal reflections there are lots of narratives that connect the spatiality and content relationship. I am sure spending a week in an unknown studio in a foreign county is not enough time to make anyone feel like it is their studio or home, but the responses from the fellows points out the direction of my search for the spatial organisation beyond the limit of the home/studio.  

[image] Katsushi Goto, seeing above the kitchen, November 2018

Apart from my own concerns, the energy of production and insightful conversations was an unforgettable experience that I haven’t had in a while. Though we had a schedule and a basic framework, the real driver of production was a fellow’s action/word and reaction/response of other fellows. In fact, I have never experienced (or maybe only once) such productive moments with an open-ended programme. We need to carefully observe where these intuitive actions and responses were heading to and nurtured within each fellow’s practice and consciously engage in the process of developing play projects while keeping these moments as starting and anchor points.  

 

SONG
The strongest memory, the one that keeps sticking its head above the grass that makes up an experience, is that of the sound of the city as it wakes up. It isn’t just sound though: it is as if heat, and dust, and something ancient and animal are the only ones left on the scene after everybody else has fallen asleep. I would step outside my room and stand in the open hallway and I’d feel it. Something was very much alive.

Night and day mean different things here.

DUSK / DUST
It is exhilarating to walk through a city you’ve never visited before. My feet got dirty every day, and washing them at night became somewhat of a ritual. I got blisters quickly, but it didn’t bother me that much. Walking around as a group has an organic feeling to it; you pull and shrink and pull as you move yourself around. Everyone keenly aware of where the others are. It’s fascinating, really, to move as a school of fish, or a flight of sparrows. Breathing out, breathing in. Here is hot chai on dusty street corners, here is a man who knows so much more than you. Here falls the dusk as a powdery curtain; scraggly street cats sleep under the fluorescent lights.

LISTENING TO…
I love listening to people talk about their work. I won’t lie about it; it fascinates me to hear how other people do things. Yes, it did go on too long. Next time we should manage that. But in two days I learnt more about the world than from any encyclopaedia. I saw the streets of Brazil, I marked forgotten spaces with my eyes in America. I picked up small things to hold as though they were the greatest treasure; and I left magnesium to burn until my grief burned away with it. I mapped and routed, I started and stopped. I wandered and wondered about places and people, and uncoiled myself in the presence of others.

CHAOS
Mumbai is a sound bath. There is honking and yelling, yellow little taxi cars speeding by, people going, going, going and moving, moving, moving in undecipherable patterns. Mumbai is stop and start, not in a smooth line but erratic spasms bursting out left and right. It takes time to adjust, to move in tandem with the new and unexpected. It’s all process, really.

ECHOES
I’m always curious to know what the world does to a body. What happens when you go from one place to the next? How does the liver think about departure, so suddenly? Or saying goodbyes? What does the spleen have to say about the long hours waiting in airports, the early morning sun of England (so pale, so beautiful). It’s hard to think about the past weeks with the brain; it gets tangled so quickly in there, stuck in vague and generic affirmations: it was kind of crazy, kind of hard, kind of amazing, so very new. Better not to think too much about these things. Better to feel.

How to hands get dry with the approaching snow.
How the stomach mulls over conversations had.
How the kidneys hold on to colours.
How the body holds on to echoes.

My journey began a while ago with initial video conferences with the five founding fellows. There was a separation in the process which felt good, but there was also a sort of urgency that felt implied. I had been asked to discuss initial ideas. As I settled into what would become a slightly insane semester teaching and directing the gallery, I awaited for the formal invitation letter which would initiate requests for funding. This process took its course and came to fruition. There (to Mumbai) and back already – and now I write.

Though there was organisation and communication there also needed to be a certain amount of flexibility. After all, this was the first time around for us all. Five founding fellows invited five plus-one fellows. Charlie Levine invited me. knowing many of the founding fellows from various art-related endeavours, I knew the project would be an exciting time at the very least. I was also very keen on getting to know Vishwa and Goto’s work more. I knew there were similarities, but I was uncertain how they would reveal themselves.

john ros // reflection mumbai, india // 03-10 november 2018

Since the last few months have been absolutely bonkers, I left for India with only a few things and little expectation. I wanted to re-ground myself and experience something completely new. I don’t fear flying, but then again a twenty-hour commute is no joke. I slept on the first leg to London and tried to do some work on the second. Without wifi, I felt there was little I could do. I know that was not a correct assertion, but it seemed so at the time. I puttered around in the digital space of my work computer and anticipated by early Monday morning arrival at BOM. Vishwa had arranged a car for me which was appreciated, especially due to the 2am arrival.

No matter how much experience you gain, new experiences are always revealing in a way that feels profoundly human. After gaining access to the country and meandering a bit, I found my driver and though he got lost on the way, we managed to find our way to the yacht club. I woke Tash and fell asleep pretty quickly. We did not realise there was air con until the second night.

john ros // reflection mumbai, india // 03-10 november 2018

I was a day behind everyone, but that never felt strange. I met many of the fellows at breakfast at the yacht club then we all grabbed a cab to the art space. Papaya and pineapple were a welcome treat with black coffee on this Monday morning. The space was light, airy, open. It felt as though there was a flow of energy both in the excitement of the creatives as well as the humming of the walls. Collaborative work would be done in this space over the next week and it felt fitting. Fertile. Upon arrival we met up with the remainder of the team as well as a mid-day reporter and photographer. We posed a bit and got to work. Intros first.

john ros // reflection mumbai, india // 03-10 november 2018

These took a bit longer than they should have. Though there is so much to discover from each artist, there is a finite amount of focal control, especially after a long commute. I would have kept these intros within a maximum of 20 minutes each, however, it was great to get to know one another in this way. These would last into the next day with the addition of play project intros. Again, a bit much for the start – though I know there is much to get done.

Initially, I can only suggest a slightly more structured time-frame for these intros and play projects. Discussion will continue throughout the week.

I resorted to discuss only a portion of my process. Photos and placing my practice a bit more contextually. I am currently at a crossroads (or transition/milestone/etc.) with things both within my practice and how I talk about my practice. Process will likely stay similar, but output and inertia shifts. It feels like a core-thing. Like tectonics or paradigms. I am not totally ready to quantify this into words, but this will be something I aim to do throughout the next three months. The shift started in the beginning of this year and continues to grow. It is time to confront it. And release it.

john ros // reflection mumbai, india // 03-10 november 2018

I knew immediately after meeting everyone and listening to their intros that I wanted to initiate one of my own play projects. Informally. I wanted this to be light and easy. I extracted a phrase that they said during their presentation and presented a typed A4 page to each creative. They were asked to do whatever they wanted with the page but I asked that they responded to it in one way or another. Not responding was also a viable choice. It was exciting to see the playfulness and connectivity happening through this process.

Throughout the week it was my focus to be completely present in the mind space of the week – though this sometimes proved difficult with the time difference. Having come from an intense and stressful job atmosphere, it was nice to be surrounded by support and rigorous thought and creativity. Something that evades my current faculty. I needed this space and time more than anything. I think I am still riding the high a bit, especially once the jet lag subsided. it was also amazing to enjoy the sights, sounds, smells of Mumbai. there is a magic… an electricity in the air. though I did less sightseeing and exploring than I might have allowed, I did get a chance to feel a part of the spaces I walked through. Again, this year is about transitions for me and this trip is helping to make these abstract notions tangible for me. There is also nothing wrong with abstract notions staying abstract.

Though the trip was quick, I was also ready to head back to the states… mostly to end this academic semester and move in new directions within my daily life. Though experiences like these are so fruitful and necessary for growth, I am also rooted within my local communities and think that the everyday involvement within these spaces are of utmost importance. Trying to make sense of new experiences and lessons learned can be more abstract when not applied to the everyday. That abstraction should be acceptable (and is) but between the the current space I find myself and this new inertia for evolution within my practice, I find myself a bit restless and looking for focused time to discover.

I am so appreciative of the generosity that was shown to me during this time and am encouraged that the energies shared during the week in Mumbai will ebb and flow into new and exciting spaces, conversations, moments and things. We so often forget to allow time for play. the emphasis on exploration through play so far has not only been appreciated, it has been a gentle hug of remembrance to continue to play and enjoy and be and breathe.