The Different Moons exhibition

I went to visit Mr Aslom Miah today. Mr Miah is one of the people we've interviewed for the project. Extracts from his interview - and a short and funny animation by Rehmat Gangreker based on one his stories - can be seen and heard at the Whitaker exhibition. 

I had wondered if Mr Miah, who must now be approaching 80, had actually managed to get to see the show - which although it's in Rawtenstall, not far from his house, is an uphill walk all the way. But I shouldn't have doubted - he had been to see it with a group from his family, and was very excited about the show. He said that his son had stayed for over 3 hours. He was also full of how well he had been treated by the staff at the museum - and the quality of the food in their cafe! Another reason to go - quite apart from the fact that the exhibition is only open for two further weeks after this. 

Looking through the blog I realised that there's not that many photos from the exhibition itself, so I thought I should add a few here to give a taste:

An unexpected legacy

Yesterday was very special - all the more so because it was all unexpected. 

Arry Nessa, who originally came to the Different Moons project as a volunteer, is now an important member of our team. Last week Arry went with Maryam Golubeva, the paper-cut artist who has made such a contribution to the Different Moons exhibition, to an exhibition of calligraphy at Old Trafford in Manchester, to celebrate Omani National Day. Calligraphy has a lot in common with Maryam's paper-cutting, and in our exhibition we bring together the two things - in fact three, because we combine it with poetry.

At the Manchester exhibition Arry and Maryam met calligrapher Hst Al-Awaidi. Awaidi is from Muscat in Oman and is an aeronautical engineer, but he studied in Liverpool and established the Liverpool Arabic Calligraphy Association. He is a master calligrapher and Arry asked him to visit the Different Moons exhibition before he returns home to Oman, and yesterday Awaidi did just that. 

But what was unexpected was that Awaidi brought along the original of a recent piece of work. The photograph above hardly gives credit to the detail and subtlety of the calligraphy that took 4 months work. The text consists of verses from the Quran, and the whole, both in design and content, explores and describes Awaidi's inner struggles. 

After visiting the exhibition he offered to donate the piece and asked me where I would suggest it was placed - somewhere that people could see and enjoy it. I suggested the Whitaker itself as the obvious place, because both the Different Moons team and the museum have been wondering how we could leave a legacy after the exhibition, which has been so popular with the South Asian communities in Rossendale. 

Awaidi was very keen on the idea and within minutes signed over the piece to an initial 10 month loan to the Whitaker. It's now at the Whitaker, and we hope that it encourages visitors to visit even once the exhibition closes.

The Bazaar II

The Different Moons Bazaar was an enormous success; from midday until 3.30pm the Whitaker Museum was packed with people, in the main people from our South Asian community. The stalls sold really well - the food ran out shortly after 3pm - and the excitement and enjoyment of the music, the stalls, the poetry and the exhibition was palpable.

The exhibition continues of course, and it is being very well received. Here are a few comments left by visitors: 

The Bazaar

After the Different Moons exhibition being open for best part of a week, we're preparing for the Bazaar on Saturday (22nd), again at the Whitaker in Rawtenstall. 

Look out for Asian crafts, and henna-painting, live music, bookstalls, saree stalls and Asian food. We'll also have, later in the day, live music from Chris Davies and Olivia Moore. There will be a free taxi/bus service from Haslingden Community Link to The Whitaker each hour on the half-hour.

It's been such a successful first week that you should meet the great team of people who have made it happen:

Above, from the left, is Shamshad Khan - the Project leader, Maryam Golubeva who is responsible for the wonderful paper-cuts and the Moon Book and who helped Shamshad on some of the many workshops she organised and lead in Haslingden; then there's Arry Nessa who came along initially as a volunteer but is now an indispensable member of the team organising the Different Moons Festival of activities.

Above there's another key member of the group - Habiba Shenza, the Project Support Artist, and she's standing next to her beautiful panel made up of mehndi, or henna, images. Habiba has also been great link with the community in Haslingden. I'm on her left - Bob Frith, the Artistic Director of the project.

Finally here's Phil Milston who has been responsible for making the Fountain, and supporting me in the technical work that's central to the project. Of course we're the most visible part of the team, but there's a whole group - mainly at Horse + Bamboo - who  are supporting us too, as well as the team at the Whitaker offering us their help for the exhibition. 

Our Opening Weekend

Mr Mazhar Hussain, one of the very first people to emigrate to Lancashire from South Asia, shows Lizzie Lempen (of Lempen Puppets) where his family originated on a map from the first of the boards in the explanatory section of Different Moons.

The exhibition opened Saturday 15th November at the Whitaker Museum & Art Gallery in Rawtenstall and the galleries were packed all day long with visitors, including many from the local South Asian communities. The reactions have been unanimously positive, with many people spending a long time to take in the animated films, listen to the recordings we've made of people reminiscing about their journeys from Pakistan or Bangladesh to Rossendale, or read the poetry inspired by these stories. 

On Sunday we had a Bengali storyteller, Saikat Ahamed, at the Boo to tell the story of his mother and the traumatic period when West and East Pakistan tore apart and the new nation of Bangladesh was formed, in his show 'The Tiger and the Moustache'. It was well attended afternoon, and a brilliant tour-de-force of a performance by Saikat. A memorable opening weekend to the exhibition that runs until the end of December. 

Scrolling text

Today was our first day day hanging the show in the Whitaker Museum and Art Gallery in Rawtenstall. Things went slowly, with a number of unexpected hitches slowing our progress. Still, Phil got the fountain basin in situ, and I erected the listening booth structure, where visitors will be able to listen to extracts from some of the interviews we've had with older immigrants to Rossendale, both from Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Throughout the project we've been at pains to include mother tongues within the interviews - and in the poetry and other creative writing done in response. There majority of the recordings are in English, but we're also including Pashto, Sylheti, Urdu, Punjabi and Bengali. One or two of the interviews selected for the listening spots are in Urdu and Pashto. 

Accuracy of translation and transcription has been a constant issue for us, but we've been lucky in having helpers in the process. In the exhibition there's a new problem - we're projecting some of the sayings and proverbs that we've learned from the interviewees (see the example above). These are being projected onto the gallery walls, and the sayings appear as scrolled words moving across the surface of the walls. The 'problem' is that some languages read from left to right, such as English and Bengali; other read right to left - Urdu and Punjabi, for example. We've solved this by the simple device of changing the direction of the scrolling depending on the language.

Final preparations for the Whitaker

It's just a week now before we move into the Whitaker to set up the Different Moons exhibition. So it's a busy period as you can imagine...here at the Boo we're finishing the fountain (above), the lanterns, the audio tracks and the animated films. Elsewhere Maryam has Shamshad's poems and is creating the 'moon-book' which will have 69 (at last count) poems from the various workshops, and creating her own paper-cut piece based on Samina's poem. Habiba has completed her large 5-panel mehndi image, and that's at the printers with all of the other information panels. 

Of course at the end of next week we're having the Opening Day - Saturday 15th - at the Whitaker, and everyone is invited along. There will be special food and live music for the occasion, and Shamshad and I will be around all day - hopefully Habiba, Arry and Maryam will also make an appearance.