“Under the big top of Magic Wallrush, we breed circus mutants with DNA illegally purchased from around the world and across other galaxies … we decided to camp in human form from time to time on the sidewalks of the city exchanging our malicious perception for green colour bills with tingling numbers.”
This is Magic Wallrush and I was fortunate enough to sit in the eaves of their big top and watch one of these ‘malicious perceptions’. Actually I was filming from the roof of a car, parked at the edge of a cardboard mat, which was cobbled together from boxes and sticky tape. The camera was extended on a tripod, way above my head, trying to capture the bird’s eye view of dancers breaking to the tunes of a car stereo.
Snake charmers, belly dancers, monkey performers, Bengali Bauls – these were the things we thought to find in India. A youth group bringing art to the streets of Calcutta, and an all-female break dancing group called Untitled, was not what we expected. I don’t feel too bad for my inaccurate expectations, because the faces of the audience backed up my disbelief. Old men, young children, families, taxi drivers and homeless people, all stopped what they were doing and stared at the show. Three, four, five lines deep was the crowd that gathered. As surprised as we were to see Magic Wallrush on the streets of Calcutta.
Chris