India — an attack to all the senses, an explosion of thousands of different scents in a five-minute walk. Colour, sound, beauty, kindness, curiosity, monkeys, cows, religion, art, culture…

I must admit I was really nervous about not having one single clue of what i was going to work with It’s such an attack to the senses that ideas just burst out; way too many to even have the time to execute them all and enough to get you confused thinking which would be best. There is so much to do, yet so little time.

Going to the market everyday and bringing something almost never seen before became part of my daily routine. I started collecting everything that would catch my attention; bangles, bicycle tire wipers, food, flowers, fruits, fabrics, grains, candy, insects, water from the pond… Every blink of an eye fed an idea. I could say my work was all about this, the constant gathering of sights, customs and traditions.

I close my eyes and I can listen to the beautiful twinkling sound of the colorful bangles in every woman’s arms. I remember how almost every store or home would have seven chillies and one lemon hanging from its door frame to keep the evil away. I can see all the red and white painted trees on the side of the road from Delhi to Modinagar.

The contact with the people was very enriching. Everyone in Modinagar knew about the artists from KHOJ. They were all very interested in what we were doing and why. For me these people were our real inspiration since we were all using their lives, their culture and their environment in order to express ourselves. The isolation of a person from his/her environment forces him/her to find and create a new one wherever he/she may be.