Spirit Level', produced at the Khoj Workshop, Mumbai (2005)

In June 2005 the KHOJ International Artists’ Workshop was held in Mumbai at the Jindal Vijaynagar Steel Ltd, Vasind. Acclaimed international artists came together from Bangladesh, South Korea, Germany, Pakistan, Turkey, Sri Lanka, France, UK, Barbados and South Africa to work alongside prominent Indian artists from from Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi, Cochin and Kolkatta. The group worked intensively for 2 weeks activating their immediate space and pushing their practices through responding to the physical space.Describing her work in her artist’s statement at Khoj Mumbai (2005), Annalee Davis states, “Before I came to India, I was preoccupied by thoughts of small island migration in the West Indies. After soaring across islands, oceans and continents, I made Spinal Adjustment a spinal column that sprouts wings across space and time, between seas and skies.// And then I registered Bombay a city bursting at its seams; its colonial grandness; now defunct mill lands; the wretched ship breaking yard; the denseness of Dharavi and the sterile guest house sanctuary at Vasind. The confluence of slum, steel factory, marketplace, chai, heat, wild drivers and a most beautiful people made me think about the negotiation of space all over again.//I saw a people's ability to balance life with so much grace. And then I made Spirit Level "scales hung from a branch weighing things not of a physical matter. Nearby, a spirit level was inset into the trunk of a tree."// What matters? I am marked by the fine balance of these people. India made me want to dance again!”