5 YEAR PLAN
editor/curator/producer Aaron Sinift
created in India, February 10- June 20, 2010

Book packet inventory:
1 cloth book entitled: “5 Year Plan”
2 jhola bags
1 small paper book entitled: “5 Year Plan: Literary Companion”

Cloth Book:
screen printed and block printed onto hand-spun /hand-woven/ unbleached cotton khadi.
Khadi was woven April-June 2010 at the Manav Seva Samiti, Khanjarpur, under the direction of Karan Singh and Mr. Vijay Kumar Handa. This is an ashram in Modinagar, Uttar Pradesh, India.
The book was printed and bound in Jaipur, Rajasthan at Rudraksh Printers under the direction of Nandita Devraj.
The total edition was 180 bound copies and 5 unbound copies.
(35 artist proofs, 65 signed copies, and 80 unsigned copies)

embroidery:
80 front covers were embroidered (35 for APs/ 44 for signed edition/1 for an unsigned copy)
15 back covers were embroidered by Alpana Bawa (signed editions)
machine stiched in the Pink City of Jaipur, Rajasthan

Jhola Bag notes:
The jhola bag in hindi was made by the Swarajya Ashram Sarvodya Nagar, Kanpur U.P
The jhola bag in english was commissioned by 5YP from the Manav Seva Samiti, Khanjarpur. U.P (total of 320) (“DREAMING. HE IS AT WORK”, by David Dunlap)

5 Year Plan Literary Companion notes:
Printed at Krishna Printers in Jaipur, Rajasthan in an edition of 1000 paper books, July 2010

5 Year Plan is an independent artist action to promote awareness of Gandhian principals of service and self-sufficiency by working with Gandhi Ashrams in India.
All participants were informed that the project is a seva (service) in honor of Gandhi-ji.
To this end, all proceeds (up to $25,000) go to Medicins Sans Frontiers and to further projects of 5 Year Plan.

For more information about the 5 Year Plan project please see the Introduction within
“5 Year Plan Literary Companion”

5 Year Plan would like to gratefully acknowledge the efforts of Marshall Weber
and Booklyn Artist Alliance for their guidance and support in bring the 5 Year Plan project to fruition.

 

2. 5 Year Plan Page Inventory

Cover:
artwork by Aaron Sinift; 5 color silkscreen, color separation by hand
(logo of 2 trumpeters was lifted from an old lunghi label purchased by A.S in India 93'. It was revealed to the artist that the logo is actually that of Gemini Studios, a film company in Madras active in the 60's-70's.)

inside Front Cover:
artwork/design by Aaron Sinift; 1 color silkscreen, printed onto thinner khadi sewn to preceeding pg.

Pg 1 : Orijit Sen; “Time Traveller” 2009; 6 color silkscreen
Pg 2 : Francesco Clemente; “The Four Corners” 1985; 6 color woodblock print, hand color separation
Pg 3 : Pushpa Kumari, “Woman as Earth” 2010; 6 color silkscreen print (commissioned for book)
Pg 4 : Anonymous Thangka Painting – Bhaktapur, Nepal. Late 20th century; 6 color silkscreen
Pg 5 : Julie Doucet; “i am” 2005; 3 color silkscreen
Pg 6 : Jane Gilmor; “Kama Bunny” 2009; 5 color silkscreen
Pg 7 : Tim Wehrle; “5 Year Plan” 2010; 7 color silkscreen
Pg 8 : Anonymous Gandhi ashram jhola, Varanasi,Uttar Pradesh, late 20th century; 3 color silkscreen
Pg 9 : Johnny Coyne “Hanuman” 2009; 1 color silkscreen
Pg 10: Anonymous jute bag, West Bengal, early 21st century; 3 color silkscreen.
Provided by Prof Andy Rotman of Smith College
Pg 11: Yoko Ono; “IMAGINE PEACE” ; 1 color silkscreen
Pg 12: Franck Andre Jamme; “Flowers” 2010; 2 color silkscreen
Pg 13: Chris Martin; “Three Into Four” 2000; 4 color silkscreen
Pg 14: Donald Baechler; “Gandhi's Watch” 2009; 3 color woodblock print
Pg 15: Mrs. Bina Handa; “Bapuji” 2010; 4 color silkscreen
Pg 16: Anonymous Gandhi ashram jhola, late 20th century, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh; 3 color silkscreen
Pg 17: Anonymous jute bag, West Bengal, early 21st century; 3 color silkscreen.
Provided by Prof. Andy Rotman of Smith College
Pg 18: Sarnath Banerjee; “Vicco” date unknown; 5 color silkscreen
Pg 19: Melissa Lockwood; “Money Monster” 2006; 2 color silkscreen
Pg 20: Anonymous jute bag, West Bengal, early 21st century, 3 color silkscreen
Provided by Prof. Andy Rotman of Smith College
Pg 21: Aditya Pande; “untitled Gandhi” (mis-labled in book, no parenthesis) 2010; 2 color silkscreen
Pg 22: James Green; “Transition of the Spirit, Part 2” 2009; 5 color silkscreen
Pg 23: Monisha Raja; “Revelation” 2010; 4 color silkscreen
Pg 24: Erin Stack; “The Frog Prince” (mis-labled as: untitled (3 eye'd frog); 3 color silkscreen
Pg 25: Robyn Beeche and Meagan Haberman; “untitled” (translated: “Kaliya has returned to the Jamuna” it refers to the cobra-snake demon Kaliya who was defeated by Krishna, who then rode on the serpent's hood. It is a reference to rampant development endangering the ecology and historic waterfront of Vrindaban)
Pg 26: Tamara Gonzales; “Llameantes Ojos (Flaming Eyes) 2001; 5 color silkscreen
Pg 27: Duncan Tonatiuh Smith; “Gandhi in Chiapas” 2010; 5 color silkscreen
Pg 28: Gurpreet Sidhu; “All Creatures Great and Small” 1998; 3 color silkscreen
Pg 29: Marguerite Byrum; “Victory” 2010; 5 color silkscreen
Pg 29 verso: Aaron Sinift; “Thank You” 2010; 2 color silkscreen
Pg 30: Alpana Bawa; “LOVE” 2009; 8 color silkscreen (first 15 copies embroidered by Bawa)

3. Curator's notes:
The 5 Year Plan was conceived from a desire to produce an artwork inspired by the Gandhi ashram collectives in India. Jhola bags are a common product of ashram collectives and a common signifier of Gandhian principals of non-violence and self-sufficiency. They were a recognizable sign of resistance during the independence movement and are considered a badge of the intellectual and poet in contemporary India. The bags are made of hand-spun, hand-loom cotton, produced by village collectives. The designs on the bags are most likely drawn by people of the ashrams. They are an authentic counter-industrial pop art with a Gandhian agenda.
The 5 Year Plan is a seva (service) in honor of Mahatma Gandhi. To do this project in a true Gandhian spirit it could not be for profit, therefore we resolved to give most of any funds raised to Doctors Without Borders (MSF), and any remaining funds would go to doing another 5YP benefit project.
24 artists were invited to participate by doing a page for the book. The project was explained to the artist by myself (Aaron Sinift) and they interpreted the project on their own terms. Fluxus actions were very influential in conceptualizing the spirit of the project. Each participant was treated as a collaborator and asked to contribute according to their expertise, this includes spinners, weavers, ashram volunteers, printers, tailors, porters and poets, gallerists and patrons.
To print the book required 1400 meters of khadi to be woven. One meter of khadi requires 3000 meters of thread to be spun on a charka by hand. One spinner on average can spin 2000 meters of thread in a day. 1400 meters of khadi requires 4,200,000 meters of thread.
This required 2100 days of work.

To weave the tread into 1400 meters of khadi required 262 days of weaving (8 meters per day/loom)
In total simply preparing the khadi for the book created almost 2400 days of work.
In other words, about 100 families were kept employed for a month.
We found great allies for the 5 Year Plan project within the Gandhi Ashram Collectives.
An unlikely bridge is being formed between artists around the world and village India.
Let us hope that we can nurture this relationship for the betterment of life for villagers, artists, and for those served by the efforts of Doctors Without Borders.
If you look through the book slowly and quietly a narrative will emerge from the order of the works.

Thank you.
Aaron Sinift
instigator/hypothicator of 5 Year Plan

 

Collections to Date (2/12):
Boston Athenaeum
Bucknell University
Chapman University
Oberlin University, OH
Stanford University Special Collections Library
School of the Art Institute of Chicago (Joan Flasch Book Collection)
Smith College, Northhampton, MA
University of Iowa Art Library
Yale University
US Library of Congress
Swarthmore
Lafayette College
Multnomah Public Library
University of Washington, Sandra Kroupa Library
University of Oregon
Howard Gottlieb Research Archive; Boston University
Museum of Modern Art , NYC
Occidental College, Louisiana
Harvard University
University of Applied Arts Vienna
Duke University
University of Wisconsin
University of Connecticut
University of Delaware
Trinity College