In her final report from Bandung, Sarah Colson explains how she came about the idea for her final design intervention in Pulosari.

Luck to the community

One afternoon, I was sitting outside Jimmy’s house in the Bale-bale, waiting for him to arrive home. Not many people were around so I was observing the few that were. A few small birdcages hung from the cables above my head and the tiny birds sang from inside.  When one of the birds stopped singing, the owner (a well stacked man) would come out from his house, feed, water or move the bird from the sun and it would start singing again. This ritual was repeated throughout the time I sat there and it became apparent to me that the bird’s song was important.

I spoke to Jimmy about it when he arrived and he explained that the bird's song represented luck for if the bird stopped singing for too long, then no luck would come that day.

The tension between the small bird and the man was beautiful. Given the situation where a small amount can be done to control one’s life, the relationship between man and bird showed luck of dependency.

I had spent a lot of time photographing the diversity of birdcages around the city.  Fascinated by the variety of constructions and materials they were made from, but never questioned their cultural relevance. Luck! A simple offering of luck was something I could give back to the community.

I purchased 30 cages through a contact in the community and selected some bright coloured paint to paint them with. I sat in the main courtyard of Pulosari and started to paint them. Before I knew, if half the community had turned up and were assisting in painting the cages. We battled with the rain, but finished the job in one day.

I wanted to create something for the Youth event where my film was being screened, so decided they would be hanging above the river with lights inside them. I found it hard to assist or give any directions on the installation as most of the people helping wanted to show off their skills. So over the course of the day we managed to install them.

The lights were lit on the night of the Youth event and they offered a warm invitation into the community. A young lad in charge of the event came to me and said ‘thank you for all your hard work in the community, we love the lights, the film and you are welcome here anytime’. I later discovered he had been practicing it over and over again around the corner, just so he got it word perfect.

The original intention for the birdcages after the event was for them to be shared out amongst the community.  Jimmy explained that as there were not enough to go around, they would keep it as an installation but move it above the square for future events.