Felicia Young and Earth Celebrations
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ART – COMMUNITY ACTION – CLIMATE- WATER – RIVER RESTORATION
Sharing the creative community-engagement and collaborative process of developing sculptures paintings, ceremonial art objects and performances by folk artisans with community participation for the Vaigai River Restoration Project and Pageant. This is the story and process of the giant kumbha pot painted by a celebrated local painter Mohan from Velachery’s potters’ family/community.
The process of engagement for the giant khmuba pot to be created for the culminating procession along the Vaigai River included: workshops with students at TCE college exploring the issues of pollution and solutions for restoration, applying these issues and concepts to develop imagery integrated into various visual art folk forms, engaging painter/potter Mohan to paint the pot integrating the imagery developed through the workshops, (top band-representing solutions, middle-issues of pollution and bottom history of the Vaigai River.) The kumbha pot was then the central ceremonial sculptural object in the 4 hour procession along the Vaigai River with over 3,000 participants. It was carried on a bullock cart at the front of the procession with celebrated honorary farmers who were known for their community leadership. They conducted water ceremonies along the route offering blessings with water from the Vaigai and then receiving offerings of water carried in pots by hundreds of women from all over the city, each labeled with its source. The mixed waters of the various city sources and channels were then offered to the Vaigai River in a traditional ceremony with ‘Mulapaari’ sprouted offerings, that had been carried in the procession, to the river as the sun set.
The year and half long process of community-engagement, partnership building across diverse sectors of the city, workshops led by artisans creating visual art and performance work to address the issues of pollution and solutions for restoration culminated in a 4 hour pageant along the Vaigai River in Madurai, South India.
Initiated by social action artist Felicia Young and Earth Celebrations-Ecological and Social Change through the Artsin partnership with Sponors/Partners: Dhan Foundation and Asia Initiatives
WWW.EARTHCELEBRATIONS.COM
Engaging Communities to Generate Ecological and Social Change through the Maboneng Arts
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