Australind
2013
Making Australind in Naya, Santiniketan, Kanpur.
Australind scroll II Australindopak Archive
Australind follows the scroll Canberra and Other Ideas. It begins in Hunchy, a green valley set in the Sunshine Coast Hinterland, Queensland. From Brisbane I travelled to India, spending the first month in Gurgaon. I chronicled walking there and in Old Delhi, as part of following the path of Scottish peripatetic painter William Simpson who painted there in 1859.
From Delhi I went south by train to Baroda, then east to Bengal. For five months I stayed in the tiny village of Naya with Chitrakar artists who practice Patuya Sangit - a tradition of painting and performing scrolls. Every two or three weeks I visited Kolkata or to the university town of Santiniketan to check email and do additional research. These journeys punctuate the time in Naya, where I learned much about Patuya Sangit and the Chitrakars life as storytellers.
Returning to Delhi in November, I stopped in the city of Kanpur to visit the site of a massacre during the Indian Mutiny of 1857. There, beside the quiet waters of the Ganges I spent a day sketching.
Moving on to Delhi, with my scroll almost full, I attended a wedding, spent a time with people living rough under Modi Mill Flyover, and helped solve the mystery of Sarina the runaway maid before catching a bus to Atari-Wagah border and Pakistan.
Click on any of the images above to engage with an interactive tour of Australind scroll II Australindopak Archive
Australind follows the scroll Canberra and Other Ideas. It begins in Hunchy, a green valley set in the Sunshine Coast Hinterland, Queensland. From Brisbane I travelled to India, spending the first month in Gurgaon. I chronicled walking there and in Old Delhi, as part of following the path of Scottish peripatetic painter William Simpson who painted there in 1859.
From Delhi I went south by train to Baroda, then east to Bengal. For five months I stayed in the tiny village of Naya with Chitrakar artists who practice Patuya Sangit - a tradition of painting and performing scrolls. Every two or three weeks I visited Kolkata or to the university town of Santiniketan to check email and do additional research. These journeys punctuate the time in Naya, where I learned much about Patuya Sangit and the Chitrakars life as storytellers.
Returning to Delhi in November, I stopped in the city of Kanpur to visit the site of a massacre during the Indian Mutiny of 1857. There, beside the quiet waters of the Ganges I spent a day sketching.
Moving on to Delhi, with my scroll almost full, I attended a wedding, spent a time with people living rough under Modi Mill Flyover, and helped solve the mystery of Sarina the runaway maid before catching a bus to Atari-Wagah border and Pakistan.
Click on any of the images above to engage with an interactive tour of Australind scroll II Australindopak Archive
