In the Autumn of 2023 I spent a month at Thread, a cultural centre in Sinthian, a village in the south eastern region of Tambacounda, close to the Gambian river. The residency is run as a close collaboration between the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation and Le Korsa, a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to improving the health, education and environmental security of the local community.
The activity that set the rhythm of my days was steam - bending three tree branches, bit by bit.
The strong arm of the cashew nut tree in the garden acted as the strong overhead fixed point the branches could hang from as I weighed them down. The generous space under its canopy was an unwalled but defined studio.
The three branches were cut from this freshly fallen limb of a huge old tree in the bush. I hoped their shared origin would mean their fibres would react to heat and weight in the same way. It is good to control your variables. My independent variable, the one I changed on purpose, was the ‘thing’ weighing it down in the hope that it would curve.
I chose a branch and cut it off, then sat down to draw it and the path up ahead.
Watching and being watched during the semi final of the regional football tournament which was hosted by the village on the pitch next to Thread. The children gathered round me gradually as the game went on. Some sat close and quiet, watching the drawing change. Others taught me my colours in Pulaar. When the owners of the knees and hands I was drawing swapped places while I looked down I knew something was going on because of the sudden wave of giggling.
The pitch on a quieter day.
‘ ‘I love to drink water.’
I traced the branches each evening to follow how they were changing. I could follow, but not control. They curved themselves into contours I could not have designed or made.
I was amazed by the luminosity of the world around me while staying in Sinithian. and turned to the camera - as well as drawing and just being - as a way to enjoy and absorb it. Light and lines and shapes and shadows were everywhere, and continually in movement.
