innumerable sailboats

(Safety Space, site specific, December 2010, 80 kg of salt, 6 rolls of double-sided tape, a sari and some cushions)

One long Monday and a weekend that already seems eons ago later, I've now spent the evening drawing out tickets and posters for the upcoming play - The Fairytales of Mr Night - that has been written and directed by two lovely coyears of mine, and will be happening this Saturday and Sunday. Cue minor panic on my, the producer's, behalf, as I've got quite a couple of props and costumes left to source. Considering the play is about fairytale characters (who begin to consider that the Brothers Grimm aren't the ones in charge of their destinies), there are some odd items I'm still hoping to stumble upon somewhere in this rural countryside area of India.

As for the rest of MUWCI-living, we had a College Meeting on communication and decision-making again today, although once again it remained rather ambiguous as to why and what and how we were discussing. There's a Change of Pace day on Wednesday, as it is India's Republic Day, so that'll be good for EEing/sleeping/doing some more art.

To explain the above piece, it was an attempt at creating a 'safety space' - I'd researched into bunkers and tried to consider what safety might mean. I discovered that salt had a lot of interesting, contradicting meanings in religions and cultures, so I wanted to use it as the core material (the texture is also rather appealingly gritty) to convey a concept of inherent contradictions of vulnerability/security, preservation/destruction, freedom/captivity. There was already double-sided tape from a previous exhibition on the walls, so I added to that to allude to previous inhabitants and a void of attempted personalisation of the room. It also remained sticky, making it uncomfortable to lean back, as over-the-top safety often makes one felt clung unto. There are also some allusions to Gandhi and the sea, which I could go on about but I think I'll just post the document I wrote about it at some other point, and try and refocus on India and sleep.

Love.