SHEILA GHELANI
Grafting and Budding
‘I use apples as a material that I manipulate and sculpt in front of the audience (using power tools, a blowtorch, glitter, ink, chain, candles, nails, feathers etc.) in order to create a collection of ‘hybrids’ – the mule, the monster, the cyborg, and the griffin. Inserted into each of the apples is a small drop of my own blood collected on a small price tag. Overlaying the production of these hybrids is a spoken text relating to the horticultural practice of grafting and budding and to the idea that I am carrying out experiments into alchemy and that any ‘mixing’ results in the production of gold. The work draws on styles of presentation used in circus, magic, medicine, and cookery, literally mixing up elements, colours, smells, and concepts.
My artistic interests stem from my mixed heritage (I am half Indian and half English) which my skin colour doesn’t reflect (I’m identified by people that don’t know about my heritage as white). I am interested in hybridity, ‘crossings’, blood, skins, skinning, carefully controlled experiments, well-oiled machinery, colour, and genetics.
Grafting and Budding is based upon ideas first tried out at the Live Art Development Agency’s East End Collaborations platform for emerging Live Art 2005.’