Pic: Sanket
Chavan
Cap: For an
exchange of creative ideas – Catherine Riley and Molly Hawkins
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Lively, creative and intrigued by a land
they have visited for the very first time, Liverpool-based artistes Catherine
Riley and Molly Hawkins are already wrapped up in an inter-cultural exchange
workshop that will make a creative difference on the lead float at the carnival
this year. “We are already in a whole different world and are getting used to
it. The people we meet and the places we visit are so inspiring in different
ways,” enthuse these artists who recently arrived in Goa and will complete
their project by early March.
“The Brouhaha International arts
organisation based in Liverpool, UK has partnered with GTDC (India) and Cape
Town, South Africa’s Carnival 2016 to deliver a project ‘Destination Carnival’
under its capacity building in the field of youth. It is an inter-cultural
exchange of artistic passions,” explains Armando Duarte, deputy General
Manager, GTDC, of the project. “It’s an exchange where they will explore each
other’s carnival arts and gain new experiences,” he adds of the programme which
will also see six Goan artists perform with Liverpool and Cape Town artists in
these countries.
Classified as ‘maker’ and ‘organiser’
respectively, Molly and Catherine are bringing their collective experiences to
the workshop. “Unlike Goa, there are no floats in the Liverpool carnival. So
this will be a first for us. Our parades focus more on the artistic and are
performance-based. For instance, we had giant puppets on metal poles tethered
to a backpack of the participant. Last year in Liverpool we worked with groups
from 10 different countries presenting different acts. Our aim is to take our
past experiences and work with Goan artists in a workshop and l adapt our
experiences to the artistic work/organisational structure here. It will be a
good challenge to try something new and adopt new techniques and share skill
sets,” they aver.
The Indian/Goan experience is a dream come
true for Molly who has earlier done a substantial amount of work with Indian
fabrics and colours. “I was acquainted with India even before I visited the
place and for me this is a great opportunity to actually work here,” explains
this freelance artist whose designs and paintings are invariably huge. “All my
work is on a large scale, from big paintings to puppets, theater design and
sets, they are all big. I hope to incorporate all of these aspects into
recreating the lead float here with special effects,” she explains.
Christine, who has worked on several events
under Brouhaha, is on the other hand hoping to incorporate her event production
skills into the local set up. “For me this trip is learning about different
aspects of the organisational structure here and how it works,” she envisages.
Teeing off with a promise that this year’s
lead carnival float will have the ‘wow’ effect, these Liverpool ladies are
immersed in a workshop that will not only enrich the Goan carnival experience,
but theirs as well.
