Inspired by the fairytale motif of the departing woman or supernatural bride, this ongoing project re-imagines magical contraptions from a distinctly feminist standpoint. It began as an homage to a beloved great-aunt and her gift for piecing rich, fabulist stories together from fragments of older folktales. The “uran khatola” (in Urdu, the term literally means “flying cot”) was ubiquitous to these collaged stories – a fantastic, shapeshifting symbol of the mobility and resourcefulness of peris, as they travelled between worlds. I started crafting these vessels using an assortment of found and painted material in the improvised fashion of my aunt, master collagist of the fairytale. For inspiration, I looked also at medieval depictions of Noah’s ark, often delightfully bizarre and anachronistic and full of the same spirit of defiance that characterised my aunt’s flying vessels. These mixed-media assemblages were then turned into postcard-sized prints, to encapsulate the intimacy and wonder at the heart of oral tradition.
