Row 3: The dugout canoe its bouquet

Recently, we were offered a residency at La Becque on Lake Geneva in Switzerland to work on a project linking Lake Malawi and Lake Geneva. The residency runs from January to end March 2023. The Awesome grant will assist in the production costs of one aspect of the project at La Becque. We would like to create collages composed of images of the rich textual surfaces of the Malawian dugout canoe, which we have gathered over the past five years, nailed and glued to wood and other flotsam material found on the shores of Lake Geneva. The technique of collaging the different materials is inspired by the Malawian fishers' methods of repairing the dugout canoe by patching with different materials. The fishers method of patching turns the dugout canoe into a beautifully textured and textual surface, carrying multiple stories of the lake shore communities and of the larger Malawian society. Our collages will therefore carry Malawian stories as well as those of Lake Geneva to point at how the two vastly distanced geographical locations are actually closely linked ecologically on the planet.

Ֆինանսավորված On the Water կողմից (January 2023)