"It's like travelling in two boats..."

I will start this document today, week six of a project I have been working on with a group of Australian women from the Indian subcontinent in the Western Sydney suburb of Blacktown.

We're working together to produce a collaborative artwork for a forthcoming drawing exhibition at Blacktown Arts Centre (opening 19 July 2012) called Remarking/Remaking: Australian Drawing Connections.


Today, we began drawing on cloth with a needle and thread (this act is often called embroidery).

We have come to this place after 5 weeks of discussions, sharing ideas, references, drawing with pens, pencils and textas on paper. Drawing with scissors, paper and glue (also called 'collage') and large wall installations. I will be discussing these aspects of our process in more detail in other posts.

Today, I believe I may have also found the title of our collaborative work. During our discussion about diaspora, home and what it is like to live 'between cultures' one of the participants, Priya, said "It's like travelling in two boats." This really resonated with me, I loved the poetics of it. I named this blog 'Travelling in Two Boats', whether or not we use it as the title of our work, I am unsure - I like to keep that process open...

I did find this interesting article about language and 'journeying between worlds' from Outlook India after searching the phrase.