a kaleidoscope in which narrative fragments interact, reflect and echo one another in ever-changing ways. Armed with engaging forwardness, personal warmth, generosity and a sense of humour, Hande rallied a remarkable amount of support from a very generous local community and its elected representatives. It was moving to see how many local residents, including prominent Indigenous elders, flew from Laverton to Perth to attend the exhibition opening at the Western Australian Museum. Their role was not that of co-authors but of very active and committed participants in a dialogue that provided the basis for an artwork concerned with issues of great relevance to their community. Hande’s project was part of an artist exchange between India and Australia organised in partnership with Asialink and 1.Shanthiroad, a leading contemporary art centre in the southern Indian city of Bangalore. Also part of the exchange, Michael Bullock was the Australian artist who travelled to Bangalore. As one can imagine, engaging local residents in a city of more than 8 million inhabitants is not the same as interacting with a community of less than 300, such as Laverton. Yet Hande’s and Bullock’s projects share a thematic focus in the long-established trade routes that connect Western Australia to South Asia. Bullock is interested in sandalwood, a commodity with deep symbolic and cultural resonances in Indian culture. According to legend, the first statue of the Buddha introduced in China was made of sandalwood. Titled Smoke Sculptures, Bullock’s works are bronze casts of everyday objects such as soaps and ropes. Following his arrival, the artist gave sandalwood-scented soaps to people he met, requesting they used them and returned them to him before he left India. The cast soaps show different levels of wear and speak of the passing of time in a way that is both intimately personal and anonymously collective. The second series of objects originates from the ropes that Indian couriers use to fasten parcels to their bikes. Arranged in what appear to be chance
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