KARKHANA, A CONTEMPORARY COLLABORATION AND THE MUGHAL WORKSHOP

My Carpet Pages IV: Flying Carpet collaborative piece is not dissimilar to the Karkhana project spearheaded by Imran Qureishi, a contemporary artist working with miniatures. Here's some excerpts from the catalogue of that exhibition which you might find instructive as they deal with the old Mughal workshops of the past, and also an overview of methods and materials. Qureishi's idea was to have a few paintings on the go, and all the artists are from the tradition or have heritage within the tradition (mine don't and are more international). Mine is a single flying carpet, and we'll see what happens as we'll also track it on social media. So they are speaking the same language... mine will go through some 'translation'. Both are interesting. Both are non-prescriptive and an invitation, like an exquisite corpse, to the next artist to contribute. They stipulated that their works travel by special courier to each other. Mine are using the regular post and although they will be tracked, depend on luck and the vagaries of the international postal service to ensure delivery. Will it, like Bas Jan Ader and his boat, simply disappear? I hope it safely reaches its destination. The travel is of course all part of the work. Hand delivery between artist mates in London, international post - it's all wrapped up in the image and the dialogue between artists encapsulated on a piece of paper travelling around the world and across minds and hearts. As an artist I'm excited by the exchange; as a curator too since I have no idea what's coming next. It's an exercise in letting go; so far all the Carpet Pages projects have been more traditionally 'curated' - and cared for - by me; this time I'm allowing the other artists and handlers - and fate - to look after it. So we'll see!