I am collecting images for a body of work I am doing on the figure of the nomad.  I began by collecting from books, print publications and google searches. But I feel that it would be so much more exciting and interesting to work from an archive of images sent by all of you!!!  Meaning images which come from a process of interpretation and which can actually represent diverse points of view. So, I was wondering if you would be able and willing to send me two images.

The first would be an image of the nomadic, a nomad or something nomadic (vehicle, object etc.), in whatever way you interpret that term or idea. 

The second would be an image of where you are now. (place or space, micro or macro perspective -your city/village, your kitchen or anything in between)

I would love to have images coming in during April 2010 because its part of my fellowship work at Kala Art Institute.  If you want to send after that I will be continuing to collect. I like the idea of a making a nomad archive for the year 2010. I will keep track of who sent what- and am happy to credit you in any way you wish.

EMAIL TO : ranu dot iz at gmail dot com

If you want to know more about what I am doing- here is the longer story:

I am curious about the multitude of ways that the nomadic appears in contemporary (global) experience – including archaic/traditional forms, migrant labor, business travel or relocation, spiritual engagement, and as brought on by natural disaster or war. I sense this figure is related to a feeling of precariousness shared by many, and at the same time is deeply desired. I am wondering about the places where these conditions meet the more aesthetic, ethical and philosophical versions of nomadism (as laid out in particular by Rosi Braidotti, Miwon Kwan and, of course, Deleuze and Guattari). So, I am trying to picture a “nomadic narrative” which can refer simultaneously to a global condition, an aesthetic desire and a set of ideas around site. I am working on video animations and works in drawing/print/collage as well as the archive itself.

I think that collecting one image from you about your sense of the nomadic, and another which interprets your “location” will give the archive a complexity in its embodiment of the nomadic. Since I am not physically traveling much these days, I bring another guiding figure- the octopus- to bear on this. With its many sensual, sustaining and far reaching arms/tentacles, the octopus offers me a way to understand how to travel from where I am, through communication. I am also amazed by its abilities to mimic environment and to throw out highly sophisticated decoy images made of its own ink.