“The Garden of Babel” 2009, archival C-print, dimensions variable.

“Carpet Car-plate Sampler-1” Rug intervention, textile, May 2010, 25″ x 15″

“Carpet Car-plate Sampler-3” Rug intervention, textile, May 2010, 39″ x 15″

“Garden Palimpsest” (in progress 5th June 2010) rug intervention, textiles, May 2010, 108″ x 60″

“Foucault Bear Reliquary” drawing, May 2010, 12″ x 8″

“Foucault Bear Reliquary” copper and glass, approx 12″ high. May 2010

‘The Record Room” archival c-print, dimensions variable, 2009

 

“Trees of Pakistan” work in progress, legal-sized laser-print, June 2010, 13.5″ x 8.25″

“Trees of Pakistan” work in progress, legal-sized laser-print, June 2010, 13.5″ x 8.25″

 

 

Office folder, reference for “Trees of Pakistan” Project on-going June 2010, 14″ x 9″

 

 

“Lahore car-plate grid” work in progress, digital print, June 2010, 45″ x 45″

 

-these are the biggest sizes i can currently upload, my Moodle Blog wont accept them, tried up till 5th June 2010 am.  -David Chalmers Alesworth, 5th June 2010

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The studio….

Car Plates Carpet

Car Plate Carpet

Foucaults Bears

Foucaults Bears

Rug wool yarn, studio

Studio

studio

studio

studio

Rug reverse

studio

New car plate, carpet sampler

New car plate, carpet sampler

New car plate, carpet sampler

New car plate, carpet sampler

I dont know if you can see clearly here

but the overlaid design has been corrected

over the last few days.

lines have been straightened

mistakes have been piucked out and

re-stiched

from tomorrow Saturday 6th June

the damaged threads will be picked out and

replaced in heavily damaged areas

this will be subject to the finished look,

just got the thread for this today

then the trees will follow,

there will be many, perhaps more than 1000,

the true spacing may have to change, its going to take

several weeks of constant work

The home….. grapes are ripening

bagged in muslin against the ravages of the Bullbuls

the office and front garden

 

The other workplace…..

a dust-storm and degree show on the same evening

 

 

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of eggs and engines……

 

Editioned archival C-prints, 2010

In Lahore some three hundred new cars join the roads every day.

A city where a mere eight percent of the populace have private transport amongst its ten

million inhabitants. Where the car is king and the environment is continually

carved up and polluted in deference to the needs of the private motorist. Where

crossing a road on foot, no matter where or when, is a life threatening event.

More than anywhere, it is here that the private vehicle is the ultimate object of

desire. Its acquisition usually involves long term debt for our cars are extremely

expensive. Yet the majority of the drivers are unschooled, unlicensed, madly

aggressive and totally fatalistic. The result of this is a massive sprawling market

of cannibalized cars at Bilal Gunj. Here the almost pristine parts of the recently

deceased mingle with those of the newly stolen and freshly dismembered. These

car parts are displayed in so many carefully ordered bowers with the proud

mechanics of death in close attendance. An exclusively male, necrophilic and

auto-erotic atmosphere prevails in the market. It is from this vale of everlasting

youth that the ageing and accident prone legions of Lahore’s cars are endlessly

reanimated by so many mechanical Dr Frankensteins.

 

David Chalmers Alesworth is an artist, art educator and avid gardener (in its

broadest interpretation). He has been living and working in Pakistan for the past

twenty ‐two years and has a long history of collaboration and a deep

involvement with the urban‐crafts and bazaars of Pakistan. He was a pivotal

member of the decorated transport movement of Karachi in the nineteen

ninety’s and subsequently moved to Lahore in 2006.

Over the years, Alesworth has examined the conventions and visual codes of Pakistani society and of urban

life in particular. His work often addresses the aesthetic of Pakistan’s urban

street culture and through this speaks of his twined issues of nuclearisation and

environmental degradation. These concerns resonate through a long career that

continues to stylistically reinvent itself.

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Tree samples….

and some more….I’ve pushed the colours a bit for visibility

also pohotographed under warm halogens

I’m concerned about the scale and form of these trees

they are quite

easy to form, but are they sufficiently close to the plans trees?

These offcuts of the rug is especially rich

also the tufting is much more pronounced

I beleive it wasnt trafficeked so much because it bwas the site of an early hole

people avioded the area because it was torn

these are positively lurid compared with the main rug

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… its nailed to the side of the house.

 

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Number plate sampler, this from a motorbike in Gulberg-V

Verseilles and Paradise arent matching perfectly, the water elements are off centered, but thats OK I think,

better infact because this way the two remain patterns remain close but sufficiently seperate

the possibility of complete overalp is almost there

panorama

details

Heres where the Taxa of cars is at, it’ll be 45″ x 45″ inkjet and as solid in number plates as I can make it.

Its about the heirachy of power on the strrets in Lahore, and a few things besides.

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Garden Carpet Heterotopia (see below)

28th May, pm, after the first day of working on the full rug.
Using a buff coloured thick wool thread.

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youtube is finally back on in Pakistan, though many other sites are still blocked.

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The rug revived, now 9 pieces in all, washed, edged and tassled.

It was orginally cut through in several places and worn down to the backing threads.

Marking the main avenues onto the larger carpet, 9ft x 5ft, Verseilles onto Paradise Garden.

Filling in the number-plate sampler, one more is in progress off site.

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This sample above is about 40″ long and is divided into two halves, pattern wise.

Both are from the Verseilles full sized drawing, the paper-pattern is below.

This is a small crop from the whole plan which will go on to the main rug which is almost 9 ft long.

You can also see nine trees in a light coloured thread, this is now going to be the main embroidery thread (lower right hand side).

Half of this has been done in black thread. I’d thought the black on predominately dark colours of the rug would actually interrupt  the rug pattern interestingly, more mingled as a singled pattern.

However in practice it just vanished. I’m finding the gold too glittery, though I think it resonates well with the idea of Verseilles.

Its too cheap looking and obviously not gold.

I’m now going to use a buff wool thread, it picks up lighter parts of the Persian pattern and will be sufficiently visble but in character.

I may subsequently high-light with some gold, I need to look for better gold colours.

In the progress of these works it was found that many threads will not work, they bunch on being pulled through the weave of the carpet.

Also there is a very limited degree of control over finer pattern because of the weft and weave of the rug, plus its thickness.

These are from the number plate below, so far just outlined in silver, filling one in solidly today.

The second below, is in progress in the market, and may be back tomorrow.

Struggling to transfer the garden plan this afternoon.

Dont want to destroy it as it’ll take a whole day to reasemble from tiled A4 sheets, all 98 of them.

Cant find a wide enough printer in Lahore to print the sheet, 69″ wide x 114″ long

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