Three months in London flew by faster than I imagined. It was a time full of meetings that have opened the world up for me in unexpected ways—meetings not only with people, but also with institutions, archives, and neighbourhoods. beginnings of friendships that I hope will grow over time, spread, instigate, and create potential memories in the future.

I also feel that I have only scratched the surface of something—a web or wave of histories that connect two regions: Sylhet and London. My initial plan for the residency was to research the Stranger’s Home, a lodging house for seafarers from Asia and Africa in London (1858–1940). But I also wanted to remain open and receptive to possibilities I could not foresee, allowing my time at the residency to be shaped by that openness.

Luckily and generously, the Delfina Foundation residency is a programme without obligations and not outcome-oriented. Instead, it offers a space for the mind to explore more intuitively, allowing for a natural flow—one that, of course, depends on each individual. For me, this time has been about finding parts of the story of Sylhetis in London, formal and informal lodging houses and especially Shah Jalal Cafe (or Ayub Ali Dining). This also led to trying out ways of engaging with archival material or the absence of creating images that don’t quite exist in the archives, but that explore the language of record-keeping. Alongside this, I’ve been making images—drawings, photographs, and moving images—as a daily practice: a way to sketch, to think through making, and to work in a manner that feels second nature and intuitive.

While the Stranger’s Home had a missionary agenda alongside its aim to provide accommodation, temporary work, and return passages for destitute seafarers—lascars who were often stranded in London without work or refuge—Ayub Ali Dining (although started much later - sometime in the 1940s, later known as the Shah Jalal Cafe) functioned very differently. It was an informal café and a meeting point for the community—created by Sylhetis, for Sylhetis.

Ayub Ali also hosted sailors who were sometimes in trouble with the law and helped people with legal paperwork and other practical needs. The café, as a space that created and sustained webs of solidarity, interested me more and resonated with me.

Somehow, stories about stones began to populate my imaginary world during this time. Much of this emerged unconsciously, through chance encounters with friends I’ve made here. The relationship between Sylhet and London, too, revealed itself to be full of such stories.

There is the handful of soil that accompanied the Sufi saint Shah Jalal on his journey from Lebanon/Turkey to Sylhet. His uncle gave it to him and asked him to travel the world, to settle where the soil matched the ground beneath his feet. And there are also the stones thrown to break the windows of squatted houses in Spitalfields in the 1970s, where many Sylheti families were living.

During the open studio, I shared a constellation of works/thoughts exploring the feeling of finding one’s place while feeling out of place. Drawing from my research on Asian seafarers’ lodging houses and my own encounters around the city, the installation brought together gestures and pockets of warmth, images (moving and still) from the Thames river banks, imagined archival carbon blue impressions of Shah Jalal Café/Ayub Ali Dining, stories around rocks, and a small game with stones taught by Amina from the Siddi community in Baichvad (Karnataka). The open studio offered a space to introduce ideas and forms playfully, perhaps in a nascent, miniature version. I hope these ideas can grow and take on other shapes over time.

There were also elements from the Delfina Foundation house that became part of my installation— like the tea cups that formed a column, a small video of Romain changing the doorlock of my room, a recording of the sound of the outside world coming through the fireplace shaft in my room. Residencies, too, are stranger’s houses—spaces of unfamiliarity, transit, and shared time. My experience was deeply enriched by the time spent with the other residents, as well as by the people who work at and sustain the Foundation.

 (Open studio photos credit - Anne Tetzlaff)