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A Shirt for the Future

Noted Indian artist N.S.Harsha was recently on a residency at Deng Kong Elementary School, Danshui, Taiwan. He played a Pied Piper there, bringing the school children out of their class rooms to paint on large size white shirts, which they would keep as a living work of art at their homes. A feature from Taiwan.

Artist in residencies are now promoted by many culture programs as the new way to bring culture values to a wider segment of society, and residencies in schools is now, after many successful prototypes, proven to be valid and will probably be a key program in many schools in Taiwan in 2008.  It is the myriads of ways that artists can be the one with magic wands, he or she is the pipe pier with the flute, or the puppeteer with skillful moves, that can inspire the students (and teachers too, sometimes) to the inner creativity and sensitivities of each student.  NS Harsha, our artist in resident from Mysore, India, is such a person for four hundred sixth graders.

 NS Harsha is one of three artists invited to spearhead the prototype for Tamsui (Danshui) city’s effort of initiating an international artist in residency program.  An artist, whom we met in another community residency program in Hong Kong several years ago, is now on fast track on international biennale circuits.  It was hard to fit several weeks of creative solace in our old port of Tamsui within his complex international commitments.  But that he did come, not so much as spend some idyllic month to reminisce on his own work , and use our studios for his creative experimentation as any normal residency program would be like.  Instead, he worked with us months ahead, with a concrete proposal for a very specific project that is trying to use his residency so that he can understand our culture and especially our children.  The idea was most thoughtful and his plans are precise and concrete.  The process of his project, which only took two weeks, is now being documented and the visuals will say much more than the following paragraphs can explain.
 
As I asked him on the last day before he left for Mysore, his home town that he has not seen for months, “Is this project successful and did it pan out as you have expected?”  He reply every so gently, “Yes, definitely so, just see the faces of these four hundred children, and how they are running about showing off their art work on their body, and talking to total strangers all about their future”.  YES, that sight so unusual and in total contrast to the sight when I first arrive to see the initiation of the project on an early Monday morning, within a class of 30 odd bewildered 6th graders facing a blank yellow sheet of paper in front of them.  What magic can an artist do to these graduating youngsters in such a short time frame (five sessions within two weeks)!  It is the power of this special artist who can inspire all the staff in the school, and attract all the affection for the little ones, and his gentle but coaxing ways pull all the efforts of the teachers, all the dreams out of the children and allay all the performance fear off these precious minds.

 It takes a special person to be able to work with children, and even more special to work with them given a language barrier, but he has that magic touch that attracts children to him for his genuine love and non demanding ways with them.  Not all artists can be artist in resident in schools, though much as our government is now promoting that concept, let each likely candidate, the artist and the schools themselves, fully understand the difference.  To hear the multiple voices from Deng Kong elementary school shouting genuinely ‘Teacher Harsha’, ‘Thank you teacher Harsha!’ is a heartfelt conviction that this was a success.

You may feel that it is quite simple to have kids paint a picture of what they see themselves doing in the future.  Not that this has never been done before, but to be guided to really think it through, why they see themselves in such a profession, what are the their interests that they have for such a job, what are the settings of such a career, how should they prepare themselves for such a future, etc..  They are led carefully by Harsha in a very non-intrusive way to verbalize it to him first, and suggested to try and sketch it, and finally transfer the thoughts and images on to their own adult white shirt.  The resulting parade of four hundred big shirts running down Tamsui’s narrow streets with all the bright colors, objects and words is a sight to see.  One can imagine the total astonishment of the passer-bys and shopkeepers along the way.  At the final destination in the subway plaza, the transform into happy groups of marooning youngsters cornering total strangers and talking spiritedly to them their views of their future and asking for open comments and questions from these “captive audience”. 

This is the most valuable part of this program was the process; it is a very special learning experience of helping them know themselves and verbalize it to Harsha, their friends, to total strangers in the public, and hopefully to their parents, of their own interests, their possible view of their future career and why.  This is not just about learning of art and art practices.

The whole process looks simple but it is so only with much heartfelt thanks from our project managers, for the great trust that was given to this concept by the school.  It is indeed a leap of faith this whole process that they trusted Bamboo Curtain Studio’s choice of artist totally in our referral. 

 Deng Kong Elementary School is indeed one of the more advanced schools for experimenting in new concepts.  The whole 12 class of sixth graders were into this and the class teachers were willing to let this foreigner come in with his magic wand and through language difficulties and methodologies differences, permit him to work with each child only verbally, coaxing them to see into their future without ever touching the black board, nor demonstrate any drawing, nor correcting any initial sketches that any child produced.  It was painful at first to see the blank face, and mental void in these little minds that were asked to come up with a ‘future’ of their own, but it was a matter of pace, some took longer than others, and Harsha, requested special time slots to be added to help those lagging behind to talk with him again and pull their thoughts together some more, that is what is so uniquely magical of this painter, to work his magic without ever touching a brush to show his craft and yet get all the results he wishes to surface in each child!  The class teachers were all amazed by this non-intrusive way of guiding children to the deep well of creativity within each of them.  Teaching with this open ended method is indeed different if not difficult in itself.  But the resulting variety and energy that exploded onto these shirts is proof of its power.
 
We asked to understand more of such artist in residency programs that he has done before, he has done interactive projects with children in many countries, and each are uniquely different, as he custom made to each situation, with different culture social and environment, how he values each settings and each child’s situation within that context.  His next project I hear, is going back to south India to work in the villages again, where there is really no art facilities nor culture classes, how he can help bring to them a precious gift of his talent, to inspire them to a wider world by helping them built up a library.  One may say is that an art project?  Well, who is to say what is art these days, it can take any form.  This artist at Deng Kong never touched nor produced any artwork himself!  Art is a concept that can lead us to envision beyond, that he does, be it with four hundred children on their future, or the bigger world beyond their town via a library, that is the magic that he can give.