Barton Street Recordings
I’ve been in residence at the Gloucestershire Assistance for Refugees and Asylum Seekers (GARAS) centre since July.
One of the joys of a residency is that it allows time for a project to evolve. I started with the idea of exploring the many different languages heard at GARAS, and ended up making alternative music videos.
The GARAS office at times resembles the arrivals hall at Heathrow Airport - people coming and going, new to their surroundings and learning a new language. For the GARAS clients, the daily battle of survival is fought out against a background of uncertainty - where will they be next week, next month? GARAS staff and volunteers are there to help sort out the many problems that crop up.
Taking part in the recordings involved a different kind of dialogue. Clients and therapists shared something from their past, and in doing so had a common experience.
I started to upload these recordings onto You Tube. This was to return them to participants (the Hindu elders were so chuffed to be on the web), and also to spread the word about the project.
People in the community began to get in touch, offering to be recorded. I discovered the world of Saturday language schools, of Sunday church services and gatherings, or community projects. So much hard work goes on behind the scenes to build a sense of community.
The idea of mixing in footage of Gloucester evolved, initially to make these video clips more visual. Then it became a means of representing dislocation. Being one place and yearning for another.
Marof sang a song about Afghanistan, and I added in footage of Gloucester: spires, a statue of a warrior commemorated, buildings arising out of ruins. Gofran sang of village life, footage from the allotments in Gloucester, life connected to the soil, seemed appropriate.
These songs are located in Gloucester because the people singing them live in the city. They may be singing of lost homelands, of a simple life belonging to another age, of beliefs from a different culture. But these are the streets the singers navigate, and it is the willingness of both singer and listener to engage that weaves them into society’s fabric.
Monday, 9 November 2009
Residency at GARAS, Gloucester
