House of Rising Sun

An interesting art project we are now undertaking is the building of a series of scale models for a unique community building.

The design is a cone or tipi shaped structure which, when built to full scale could feature trees inside and a DNA double helix staircase up the middle among many other features.

The basic idea is that by building our maquettes with young children to begin with, and then progressing towards a larger version (working also with older children, including young adults as we go) we can begin a process of creative, intercultural community building, through inspiration and the linking of art to individual, and cultural transformation.

Enfield and Southgate MP David Burrowes is supportive of this project and he has kindly us in touch with a local primary school, located in one of the more socially deprived areas in the borough. This seems like an excellent place to start, and the head teacher is keen to develop the project.

Ultimately we aim to finish with some permanent structures, the first one to be built somewhere in the Southgate/New Southgate area. David has also suggested a number of possible plots of land for this.

So, we aim to start the project with the construction of a small model, or maquette at said primary school but we also want to build larger models to a higher standard of engineering, using art and design machinery and perhaps student facilities, while working with older kids as mentors. This process of model building could take between two weeks or three plus months (depending on the school or colleges's needs) with the young people engaging in the process, and with the artists involved, in whatever way the college feels appropriate.

Model building artists colleagues Edmond Beus (Ed) and Arul Vettivelu, plus myself, artist and teacher Ilham Sadellah, Peter Fennel (local architect) are the core team on this.

The design is a bit like the Eden Project in Cornwall. It's about the individual's relationship with society and the natural environment - from consumers to creator-artist-citizen-stewards. It's a cone, or tipi shaped structure, symbolic of indigenous human wisdom, it's transparent at the sides and at full size could feature trees growing inside. It's got three floors, a spiral staircase in the middle (in the shape of human DNA strands), a maypole structure at the top (with a crows nest for good views/meditation or prayer) plus (possibly) a helter skelter waterflume around the sides.

Since initially posting on this and proposing it to various schools and local leaders we've been advised to start with the reclamation of a small piece of land for a community kitchen gardening/eden project. Two potential plots of land, one in New Southgate owned by the Millennium Trust, and one much closer to home on Mayfair Terrace in (old) Southgate, next door to West Grove Primary School have been suggested. Currently the Mayfair Terrace land is used for drug use and as it runs underneath a set of arches it could make a really great garden, involving the both residents and school children in common cause. We are now in the process of contacting the land owner in question to move this forward.

Carnival as Culture

'A Model for Culture' by Brian Eno
What makes for a great carnival? I've pondered this question, as I've watched, year by year, the Notting Hill Carnival in London expanding to become the world's second largest (after Rio's).

My conclusions: Carnival is good when the number of participants isn't grossly outweighed by the number of spectators. Carnival is good when many of the `spectators' are actually also joining in (dancing and singing along). Carnival is good when the participants exhibit a range of skills from the absolutely minimal to the absolutely astonishing (the first being an invitation not to be intimidated -- "Hey! I could do that!"--and the second an invitation to be amazed). Carnival is good when people of all ages, sexes, races, shapes, sizes, beauties, inclinations, and professions are involved. Carnival is good when there's too much to look at and everything's mixed up and you have to sort it all out for yourself.

Carnival is good when it dignifies and rewards all sorts of abilities-singing, jumping, laughing infectiously, dressing weirdly, writing the hit song of the carnival, wiggling your backside, standing on a soapbox praising Jesus or the local hardware store, frying salt fish over an oil drum in public, inventing symphonic arrangements for steel bands, designing and building fabulously impossible things. Carnival is good when people try to outdo each other, and then applaud with delight those who in turn outdo them. Carnival is good when it gives people an alibi to become someone different.

Carnival is good when it lets people present the best part of themselves, and be, for a little while, as they'd like to be all the time. Carnival is good when it gives people the feeling that they're really lucky to be alive right here and now. Carnival is good when it leaves people with the feeling that life in all its bizarre manifestations is unbeatably lovely and touching and funny and worthwhile.

Now substitute `culture' for `carnival.' There's a vision for the future of culture..

Read about the mother of London's Notting Hill Carnival, which began with the motto
'A people's art is the genesis of their freedom', here:
The Great Claudia Jones
Claudia Jones Biography

With thanks to Massimo for these two links.