writing

Letter size print-at-home zines (Experiments in Listening)

rajni — Tue, 07 Sep 2021 03:54:39 +0000

Letter size print-at-home zines (Experiments in Listening)

2021

rajni Tue, 7 Sep 2021, 5:54am

In June 2021, Rajni published a monograph called Experiments in Listening (click on the title for info) and has now made five accompanying print-at-home zines. The zines contain slightly edited versions of preludes that open each chapter of the book. They are a friendly way to encounter some of the main ideas in the book at low cost and in larger print.

This page contains the ANSI Letter versions of the zines. Visit this page instead to download A4-size versions.

Printing instructions:
Print double sided, black and white.*
If possible, select 'flip on long edge' and 'no scaling' (or 'fit to paper').
Once printed, carefully fold each sheet of paper in half, then use the page numbers to help you assemble the zine in the right order.
Secure the spine with a simple stitch using a needle and thread.
Enjoy!

*if your printer doesn't do double-sided, you will need to select 'only print odd pages' then re-insert the printed pages and select 'only print even pages' to print on the second side - you may want to do a test first to make sure you re-insert the pages the correct way! [and if your printer shows you a picture to try and help you orient the second side, you'll need to ignore it as the pages are already rotated]

If you have any trouble downloading or printing, please get in touch using the contact form on this website.
If you would like PDF copies of the zines in reading (rather than printing) format, please also get in touch using the contact page.

Experiments in Listening zine 1 (Letter)

Experiments in Listening zine 2 (Letter)

Experiments in Listening zine 3 (Letter)

Experiments in Listening zine 4 (Letter)

Experiments in Listening zine 5 (Letter)

A4 Print-at-home zines (Experiments in Listening)

rajni — Tue, 07 Sep 2021 02:53:09 +0000

A4 Print-at-home zines (Experiments in Listening)

2021

rajni Tue, 7 Sep 2021, 4:53am

Experiments in Listening

writing

Printing instructions:
Print double sided, black and white.*
If possible, select 'flip on long edge' and 'no scaling' (or 'fit to paper').
Once printed, carefully fold each sheet of paper in half, then use the page numbers to help you assemble the zine in the right order.
Secure the spine with a simple stitch using a needle and thread.
Enjoy!

*if your printer doesn't do double-sided, you will need to select 'only print odd pages' then re-insert the printed pages and select 'only print even pages' to print on the second side - you may want to do a test first to make sure you re-insert the pages the correct way! [and if your printer shows you a picture to try and help you orient the second side, you'll need to ignore it as the pages are already rotated]

If you have any trouble downloading or printing, please get in touch using the contact form on this website.
If you do not have access to a printer and would like readable PDF copies of the zines, please also get in touch using the contact page.

Experiments in Listening zine 1 (A4)

Experiments in Listening zine 2 (A4)

Experiments in Listening zine 3 (A4)

Experiments in Listening zine 4 (A4)

Experiments in Listening zine 5 (A4)

Dear Stranger, I love you

rajni — Wed, 03 Feb 2016 09:36:26 +0000

Dear Stranger, I love you

2013

rajni Wed, 3 Feb 2016, 10:36am

Glorious

writing

Dear Stranger, I love you: the ethics of community in Rajni Shah Projects' Glorious
Lancaster University and the Live Art Development Agency, 2013.
Comprising: two books (120 and 40 pages) and DVD (32 minutes), all housed in a card envelope. 140 × 210 × 20mm
ISBN: 978-1-86220-306-8
Design by Studio Hato. Printed by Hato Press with soy based inks on recycled paper using an environmentally friendly stencil duplicator.

Dear Stranger, I love you offers an in-depth exploration of artist Rajni Shah’s Glorious, an experimental performance project that began with a series of conversations between strangers and ended in a large-scale theatre production involving local residents and musicians in each location where it was presented.

The publication brings together four ways of looking at Glorious: a short film made in response to six performances of Glorious by filmmaker Becky Edmunds; a music video shot in and around Lancaster and Morecambe by Lucy Cash; a critical overview of the process behind two iterations of the project by Elizabeth Lynch; and The Glorious Storybook, a collection of memories from throughout the process, edited and contextualised by writer Mary Paterson.

The publication is designed to reflect a process of letter-writing between strangers that lay at the heart of the project, and is packaged within a cover that can be posted directly to each recipient, resulting in a uniquely personalised book cover each time it is sent out.

£15+postage

Buy now from Unbound >>

“Glorious was a strange and beautiful show, different each time it was performed and growing organically over the course of its three years. Here and there, in the hearts of the hundreds who took part and the thousands who encountered it, Glorious is growing still. For those who didn't, there's a lovely lo-fi record of it in the form of a DVD, a book of essays and images, and a critical evaluation. It's a pity more arts projects don't produce documentation of this quality that in their physicality reflect the character of the work. I feel lucky to have seen Glorious. I'm impatient to see what Rajni Shah and her collaborators will make next.”

François Matarasso, freelance writer, researcher and consultant

“A beautiful boxful of memories, perspectives, evaluations and brave ideas that makes a substantial and vital contribution to current debates about socially engaged arts. Each page and every movie frame responds to the simple proposal and significant challenge of making contact with strangers - and celebrates the gutsy vulnerability required of those who rise to meet that challenge.”

Dr Helen Iball, Lecturer in Theatre Studies, University of Leeds

“This lovely publication Dear Stranger, I Love You, in all its compactness, and the project Glorious, in all its roaming and inviting expansiveness, seem now to share between them a particular quality of analysis, a way of seeing-in-several, a sort of compound eye for the many elements, not least the coming and going, self-asserting, intermingling human elements, that together make an identity, a place, an action, an idea. Fascinating.”

Professor Joe Kelleher, Head of Drama, Theatre and Performance, University of Roehampton

“This beautifully designed and eloquently written publication not only offers its readers an exciting package to unwrap and explore, but also stands as a testament to an inspirational participatory performance project. Offering multiple perspectives on Glorious, across writing and film, the publication reflects on the fertile possibilities for long-term artistic community engagement.”

Lois Keidan and CJ Mitchell, Directors, Live Art Development Agency (co-publisher)

Holding OPEN with Karen Christopher and Rajni Shah

rajni — Thu, 07 Jan 2016 21:31:10 +0000

Holding OPEN with Karen Christopher and Rajni Shah rajni Thu, 7 Jan 2016, 10:31pm

Wooda

rajni — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 13:31:52 +0000

Wooda

2010

rajni Fri, 2 Apr 2010, 3:31pm

research

writing

From February 1st to March 15th 2010, Rajni was resident at Wooda Farm as the recipient of the Wooda Arts Award 2010. Below are a selection of blog entries and images from her research time. Special thanks to Elspeth Owen, Max Burrows and Gary Whitbread for creating the space and support that this award offers.

Wednesday, 10 February 2010 - 3:58pm

I wanted to write about a dream I had. In this dream, there was a woman being attacked at a bus stop on the other side of the road. I knew her, and we had been talking just before. She signalled that I should go and get some help. When I went to get help, the others (we were part of some kind of community) just said something like 'Oh, she's always like that, don't worry, she'll be fine'. I suddenly couldn't tell whether this was a crisis situation any more. I didn't go back to help her. Later, when I saw the woman, she had a red crusty mark on her forehead where the gun had been pointed. She said she was going to be okay. She didn't treat me as if I had done anything wrong, because she was used to dealing with this kind of situation on her own, I got the impression that it happened regularly. The way I had acted was acceptable to her.

On waking, this reminded me of an informal showing I once did at Chisenhale Dance Space, where we were exploring the stereotypes and issues around the (then newly fashionable in the arts world) term 'cultural diversity'. We had some sections of the evening planned, and between these we wandered in and out of variously extreme and provocative personae trying to engage in dialogue with the audience in various ways. It was some way into the evening when I decided to use one of the other performer's make up to 'black up'. I smeared face paint on, and looked in the mirror. And somewhere in my mind, on seeing my reflection, whiter teeth against the darker face, I heard the word 'savage'. This was a shock for me. I think I might even have laughed it seemed so surreal. But I didn't want to pull away from it. So I went out and started talking to people about what had happened, wanting to explore how deeply racial stereotypes were embedded within us, all of us. This felt like a pivotal moment for me. But this is when it got really scary for me, because the more I tried to delve into the question of the inherent racism inside me, the more the audience resisted. And they resisted by insisting I was a good person. They resisted by telling me that I wasn't really racist, that my reaction was okay, was normal, it was just because I wasn't used to seeing myself this way. And I couldn't push the conversation any other way. They wanted me to be good, fair, untroubling.

Wednesday, 17 February 2010 - 4:03pm

morning flashbacks: the most beautiful show on earth
Lucy keeps showing us videos of the most beautiful shows on earth. Buster Keaton, Jacques Tati. I ponder about finding a way to embrace this delight and artistry whilst creating a space within which participants, many of whom won't have engaged with the arts very much, will be comfortable.

screens and skies
We want to have a long shot of walking at the beginning of the show, so we went into a field to try this out. I walked to the top of the field while Lucy and Lucille stayed at the bottom with the camera. I walked all the way out of shot so we could have a minute of film before the long walk down towards the camera. As I crossed into the next field to wait, a hundred sheep slowly started walking towards me. They all came. And then they all stopped. And each one of them looked patiently at me with seemingly kind but expectant eyes. I told them about the idea for the film and what we were doing. I invited them to follow me down the hill. Then they became disinterested and walked back into the field. Then I entered the frame.

I've been thinking about talking directly to people, with audiences for example (this will eventually be a beginning of that action).

Thinking about landscape, land, walking, having connection and having no connection to the land on which we walk. Lucille suggested that the reason we all find the sky beautiful is to do with evolution - those that did not like the sky were too sad to reproduce.

We talked about the physicality of screens, and I remembered the very beautiful Safety Curtain at the Oxford Playhouse - one of my strongest memories of being young and going to the theatre was this strange white thing that would come down in the interval with the quotes: "What, has this thing appeared again tonight?" and "For thine especial safety" and then the name Hamlet and some numbers. It took me a long time to figure out what it was all about - neither the physical object nor the words made sense to me - I had some notion of Hamlet relating to cigars but the rest was a mystery.

the collection
Lucille is planning to make a whole collection for Glorious - I imagine Victorian crossed with twenties, with landscapes emerging from within and around the fabric, the internal landscapes breaking out at every gesture. I imagine tracing the line between glamour and nature, what those things mean, or not really what they mean but how we navigate between them and how we might beautifully collide them. Ah Lucille.

Saturday, 20 February 2010 - 11:00am
When I was five, we were set an exercise at school. We were asked to write out a few simple sentences about the life of a plant, from seed to tree. This was easy, as I seem to remember we were copying from a book. But there was one sentence that kept tripping me up.

"The rain falls on the seed and helps it grow."

My hand was so used to learning to write my name after "ra-" that it just kept insisting on taking this path. So I ended up, several times, with:

"The rajni falls on the seed and helps it grow."

This made me laugh - it was a funny image, and the unwilling repetition of the mistake made it absurd. It got to the point where I would just write "The rajni" and laugh and rub it out. And I remember thinking, how strange, I'm laughing out loud in the classroom at my desk and sharing a joke with myself - a joke between my mind and body.

Sunday, 28 February 2010 - 11:46am

Like you, I saw that land and language are bound in the rocks at Crackington Haven
the lines across them not just symbols but the surprise undulations of earth
What we call continents have been crushed together and yearned apart
years ago, again and again, so that (of course!) north america was a step away from this beach.
I always wondered why it was not easier to walk here and there.

In my mind I step down with the rockbeds that dive so comfortably into the sea
and I too become continuous
as if yoked to ancestors, who lay claim to the dusk
where ashes of memories and visions fly light and loose
and we shape landscapes by the pearly fragments we choose into our eyes
each making present what we wish.

Celebrate your choice to be crushed in the city!
We too are landscapes, colliding and retreating in tides of generations
I, like you, am marching within the constraints of my own time and place
and my own time and place carelessly map the temporary storage of body
locating and unlocating from random memories.

Last night a shrew adopted the poised quiet of grass
and quickly puzzled the cat
Not playing at running or rutting familiar paths
it placed itself carefully in harms way, and took on the surrounding stillness.

You and I notice bodies or tongues that are borderless
No - not borderless - those that unknowingly overseep boundaries
embarrassing our finely-tuned and lawful inner sketches
upending entire continents with streams of chatter and desire.

But what of those who wander tirelessly over the same ground,
making moats and traditions, scars and openings
without awareness of the time that has passed
Perfectly balanced, in an environment oiled by necessity.

Things are cracked at airports
Trust, jokes, champagne, nerves, faith, bones
It takes a lot to remain whole in this place filled with reconfiguration of goodbye
And do you think that tagging, border patrol, passports, visas
are attempts to make something visible?

Wednesday, 3 March 2010 - 2:01pm

I just can't talk about it any more
I wonder where I lost my voice. Where I decided that it counted more to stand for in-betweenness. When I became afraid of the dusk and the dark. Why I cried at exactly 7pm each evening for a year. I have a kind of hankering to do something extreme. To dive into it. But I am growing more and more cautious every day.

She wrote a manifesto against shapeshifters
Others decide what makes good art. Me, I just suggest images to them, and those images, they come from outside sources - they are plastered on to my mind daily. Maybe this is why I liked the clairvoyant - she and I are just regular people at the end of it, no special powers, awkward with our words. In performance, for other people, we can take on the mantle of articulacy.

How we are using up our bodies
I tried to tell you a nice story, about walking and falling, and Laurie Anderson. But you said, "Yes, I know, we are all always falling, because of gravity. I know that already."

Sunday, 14 March 2010 - 4.00pm

A short song, for my final presentation (everybody shut their eyes):

Oh…. the way is not long but it’s wide
and the grass it is falling inside
and the windows are locked
and your eyes have been blocked
but the roof has eloped with the tide

So the hills have been tidied away
they can tell it’s the end of the day
they are ready to rest
and they’ve all done their best
which is all that I really can say

True Riches - A Programme of Live Art for the ICA

rajni — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 17:59:35 +0000

True Riches - A Programme of Live Art for the ICA

2009

rajni Mon, 9 Feb 2009, 6:59pm

writing

The project True Riches – an imaginary season which runs from now until the end of 2009 at the ICA - arises from our invitations to around 25 individuals to make proposals for works, seasons and themed and un-themed programmes. It gathers materials which stem from a variety of approaches, tendencies, and impulses in the live art sector – from the satirical critical to the archival, from the comical subversive to the theoretical investigative ... The ICA Live Art Department, even though it does not exist, is alive and well and glad of your support. We would like to extend our thanks to the many artists and curators who have joined us to make the varied proposals, statements and programmes that comprise True Riches. We hope that you’ll join us, in imagination, for these and other events. We can dream perhaps that London would have a place where such things were possible.

- Tim Etchells / Ant Hampton, editors

The True Riches programme with contributions from: Geraldine Pilgrim, José Antonio Sánchez, La Ribot, Gary Stevens, Vivi Tellas, Nicolás Goldberg, Christine Peters, Yara El-Sherbini, David Rosenberg / Shunt, Rajni Shah, Bill Aitchison, Goran Sergej Pristas, Frauke Requardt, Momus, The Centre of Attention, Duckie, Lois Keidan, Borrowers-International-Network, Hannah Herzig, Home Live Art, Zhana Ivanova, Station House Opera, Janez Janša and Stefan Kaegi.

Download the True Riches programme here

Read Lyn Gardner's blog on True Riches here

Wechselnde Perspektiven in falschen Übersetzung

rajni — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 09:08:38 +0000

Wechselnde Perspektiven in falschen Übersetzung

2008

rajni Tue, 15 Jul 2008, 11:08am

performances

writing

A lecture presentation at Hebbel-am-Ufer (Berlin), in which speaking in both German and English was used as an illustration of the ideas of (mis-)translation and cultural identity within Rajni's work.

Ich moechte zuerst eine eher seltsame Situation beschreiben. Mein Name ist Rajni Shah und ich kann nicht Deutsch sprechen - zumindest nur sehr wenig. Ich habe deshalb keine Ahnung was ich Euch erzaehle. Ich hoffe aber, Ihr versteht mich.

So, ich sollte zuerst mit ein wenig Hintergrunginformation beginnen. Es ist der 10te. Juni. Ich schreibe den ersten Teil meines Textes in Englisch, und morgen werde ich den an meinen Freund Bernd schicken, der ihn ins Deutsche uebersetzten wird. Danach werde ich nich in der Lage sein, Veraenderungen vorzunehmen, da ich nichts verstehen werde. Ich werde ihm vertrauen, wahrheitsgetreu zu uebersetzten. Natuerlich werden viele Elemente in der Uebersetzungen verloren gehen, andere werden aber dazugewonnen. Danach werden ich den zweiten Teil meines Vortrages in Englisch schreiben. Diejenigen unter Euch, die beide Sprachen sprechen, haben natuerlich einen Vorteil. Das macht aber nichts, da jede Person eine andere Interpretation haben wird, egal welche Sprache ihr sprecht, Genau das ist eines meiner grundlegenden Prinzipien als performance-Macher. Wie ein Denkmal, oder irgendein Platz (zum Beispiel ein Feld oder ein Fluss), meine Performance bietet Freiraum fuer Zusammenkunft. Durch das eintreten in diese Freiraeume, Menschen bringen ihre eigene Identitaet, ihre eigenen Ideen, ihre eigenen Geschichten und ihre eigene Landeskunde. Deshalb sind diese Worte jetzt schon eine Mischung meiner Gedanken, Bernd’s Uebersetzung und meiner entsetzlichen Aussprache.

Heute abend kommen dann noch euer Zuhoeren und eure Interpretation dazu. Jeder einzelne unter uns wird von diesem Vortrag mitnehmen was ihm oder Ihr wichtig erscheint. Das schliesst mich ein. Nichts soll fest sein. Also, los geht’s…

I would like to explain a rather strange situation. My name is Rajni Shah and I do not speak German. Or at least, I speak very little German. So I do not understand what I’m saying. I hope you do.

So now I shall begin with a little background. It is June 10th. I am writing this first bit of text in English, and tomorrow I shall send it to my friend Bernd, who will translate it into German. Then he will send it back to me. After that, I will be unable to change it because I won’t understand it. I will trust that he has translated it accurately, but of course many elements will be lost in translation, and some will be gained. Then I will write the second half of the talk, which will be in English. Those of you who are bilingual will have a kind of advantage. But this does not matter, because no matter what languages you speak I am sure that each person will interpret this differently. And this is one of my basic principles as a performance-maker – that, like a monument or a location (for example, a field, a stream), my performances provide a space for gathering; and coming into them people bring their own identities, their own ideas, their own histories and their own geographies. So these words are already a mix of my thoughts, of Bernd’s translation, and of my poor pronunciation.

This evening we shall add your listening and your interpretation. Each of us will take what we need from this talk, including me. Nothing shall be fixed. So here we go…

Lecture presentation: Changing Perspectives in Wrong Translations (Berlin)

rajni — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 10:38:22 +0000

Lecture presentation: Changing Perspectives in Wrong Translations (Berlin) rajni Sat, 5 Jul 2008, 12:38pm

Point and Place: Six years in conversation...

rajni — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 18:02:13 +0000

Point and Place: Six years in conversation...

2008

rajni Thu, 12 Jun 2008, 8:02pm

research

writing

other collaborations

This article was written for Dance Theatre Journal and exposes some of the processes involved in the making of the art book Point and Place which was awarded a Birgit Skiold Award of Excellence at the London Artists Book Fair 2007. Includes images and words by Julie Brixey-Williams, Camilla Brueton, Simon Kennedy, Theron U.Schmidt, Rajni Shah and Caroline Younger.

The article is available for download as a PDF from this page.

PointandPlaceRajniShah_optimised.pdf

Internal geographies: negotiating space in performance installation (talk)

rajni — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 10:51:51 +0000

Internal geographies: negotiating space in performance installation (talk) rajni Fri, 11 Apr 2008, 12:51pm