The Light Project was an artists’ residency project that explored contemporary drawing through the traditional art form of Rangoli. This was the first phase of ‘One Woman Show’, hence emphasis on audience development, community engagement, participation and public presentation.
Championed by Sangini, a BME women’s lead organization based in South Shields, this project profiles the artwork by Ranbir Kaur, a grass roots exhibition displaying Ranbir Kaur’s work and .
At a community level, the aim of this project is to bring people together to celebrate, share and experience the richness of diverse cultures through a community event to mark Diwali.
It aims to promote community cohesion and cross cultural understanding through a programme of community and school workshops across South Tyneside.
As well as introducing this traditional art from India, the project provides a space for personal reflection and explores Rangoli in the context of line drawing. During a two week residency, Ranbir Kaur will work with a local North East artist Miki Z to look at contemporary drawing and Rangoli practice. Together, the artists would query and explore the ephemeral and the organic that imbues Rangoli, along with the notion of aesthetics, symmetry and harmony, whist experiencing free movements of contemporary drawing that is challenging and evolutionary.
My Diwali Home: Part of this project, My Diwali Home exhibition aims to provide a memorable cultural experience by recreating a festive Indian Home for all to enjoy the spirit of Diwali. A Rangoli installation, personal objects, crafts and textile work produced by International artist Ranbir Kaur are on display. This exhibition was curated with the help of women from local Indian community who also donated personal objects for display.
The project was carried out in the following way: by enforcing and building on Sangini’s already strong outreach work; developing a participatory dialogue through a series of art based workshops; informal recorded conversations and formal interviews; agreed collection of group participatory photographs and a series of commissioned portraits to illustrate the book and give a face to the story-tellers.
As a result of this innovative grassroots approach, Sangini worked with over 100 women and recorded 22 life stories. The diversity of the women is unique in that they range from the ages of 45 to 80, they come from a variety of continents and countries, and they have different languages and cultures.
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