Anna-Lee Ramsurrun - Interview

                      


What led you to setting up Pilipala? Where there any other routes you could have seen your
creative practice taking you?

I started volunteering on the island of Kos in October 2015. In 4 days in between work my
life changed. I never thought I'd be taking wet crying toddlers of rubber dinghies at 3am in
the morning who had just risked their lives for a safe home, like I always had. Escaping war
was difficult enough and to see how Europe was responding to this crisis made me feel
ashamed to hold a British passport.

I continued to return to different camps from 2015-2017 always rocking up with a bag of
paper and pens/colouring pencils. I would gather the children and they would all sit on the
floor and draw for hours. They gifted me a lot of artwork which inspired Pilipala.

I had a different idea to begin with, I wanted to find a way I could make a salary whilst
working and connecting with the people out here. I studied textile design, and graduated
from East London university in 2010. The drawings were really powerful and I started to
play around with them on the computer, making them into repeatable patterns. They
looked beautiful. For the past 6 years I was a nanny in London and really noticed the type of designs all the children were wearing and thought it would be great to come to Athens, set up a cooperative to make these products to sell into stores in London. Providing jobs for displaced people.

I arrived in Athens for the first 4 months trial at the end of April 2018. I started running silk
screen printing workshops in different centres across Athens working with refugees from
everywhere. When I started running the workshops with the children I realised that was my
calling. The kids loved to just get messy, creative, and have fun. In the beginning I noticed at times I was wanting to control the design as I was thinking about products but that looses all the fun. Children like to do things their way and why not. I dropped my ego and dropped my perfectionist attitude and just learnt to enjoy every moment. Letting the children be free was the best way for them to express themselves.

The four months turned settling in Athens with two dogs from the streets. I have been
contacting many camps that I would like to start running and organising art workshops and
carnivals for. This all takes permission and time, but for now I am working on creating an art room in a base here where 200 refugees are living. 100 of which are children. I have some wonderful volunteers who have come forward to support and graft the work in getting this room ready, forever grateful for my supporters.


Prior to setting up Pilipala, what experience did you have in the creative industry and how
has this impacted what you do today?  

I guess I was a freelance designer for many years, but I found it pretty soul destroying.
Working for people creating their collections and seeing the designs in places like Harrods
and the Surtex show in New York under someone else's name. I even experience my
drawings being signed by my employer. I worked at a digital printing studio not long after
graduating and here I designed dresses for Amy Winehouse, she wore the first and last one
at the concert before she died. That was sad.

Being a nanny for 6 years was probably some of the best in my life. We were always so
creative, kids taught me many things about myself and I continue to learn from them
everyday. Art is about having fun, using your energy to create, letting go and just being in
the moment. I always had this idea that I had to prove to my family and myself that I would
become a designer, but that is not important to me anymore. I don't have to prove myself
to anyone. 


The people that you work with will often have experienced a lot of trauma. How do you
accommodate for this in the organisation of your workshops?

This is something I have learnt through experience. I did some training with The Art room
this year in Brighton which was very useful. What I have learnt is that we have to sooth and
nurture the children with love, there needs to be boundaries and structure which is always
adapted to the surroundings we are in. With the correct planning, allocating roles, and
good team work anything is possible. Communication is key, with volunteers and the
children. Usually when children are acting up they are trying to tell us something, and it's
good being able to identify that before it gets out of hand, having two types of activities
running simultaneously usually works very well.


What processes/methods of production do you tend to focus on in your workshops? And
why do you decide on these specific processes/methods?

I started by running silk screen printing workshops, they were great, but I noticed the
process can become boring if it's done over and over especially for the younger children. I
was working with a group of young kids from 3-6 for a month and a half. It was incredible to see what just a cardboard box and paint can do. I really want to utilise the waste here in
Athens and it never ceases to amaze me what I find in the streets. My utility room is getting
crammed with stuff that will be used in future workshops. In January 2018 I came to Eleonas refugee camp and brought 6 women along with me. We created a huge carnival in the camp, we made everything throughout the week from trash. The instruments, the massive paper maché whale shark, the masks. It was a great success and I just can't wait to organise another one.

So what I'm trying to say is we improvise to whatever we find, and for the kids we are
working with the messier the better.

What are the some of the biggest hurdles you’ve faced so far (as a
practitioner/organisation)?

It's normal to fail, things don't go to plan, new paths are formed, whatever the universe has
in store I trust in it and I wont get beaten down. I have learnt to rest well, and take each day
as it comes. Making the phone calls, sending the emails and getting organised.

Hearing horrendous stories never gets easier, but you have to learn to let them pass
through, holding them inside I will never be useful. I have to keep positive because I know
how I can provide hope and it won't happen if I remain angry and depressed. Teaching people to live in the moment, making good memories is what I want to provide. Having dogs helps me, I run, do yoga, eat and don't have a social life ha ha haaa.

Getting into the camps out here is difficult as they are run by the military who are not in
place to support refugees. You can see that by where the camps have been located literally
in the middle of nowhere. I will keep pressing them and won't give up.


Are there any moments you can recall that have been particularly rewarding, and why so?

Every-time I leave a workshop I have this warm fuzzy feeling through me. The kids have
enjoyed, tried something new, felt proud of themselves. We laughed, connected and for
those couple of hours you see children being children, no fear. The next workshop when
you arrive the children come running to you with smiles from ear to ear. 'Teacher, teacher, drawing, drawing!' so eager to get going.

I knew from October 2015 I wanted to do something about this refugee crisis, and the
journey has been a rollercoaster of emotions but now I'm here in Athens, I wanted to create
something sustainable which is why I gave up my life in the UK. This is just the beginning,
but more smiles will be spreading around the world.

Finally, what goals do you have in terms of Pilipala and your practice? Have any been
achieved so far?

Long term goals at this moment would be to have shipping containers of Art rooms popping up in Refugee camps around the world. No one should have to get used to living in a refugee camp or calling it home yet people are stuck in these places for years. I want to create a safe place that children can come to and make art, a safe place to remind them
there is hope and they can feel peace there.

https://www.instagram.com/wearepilipala/

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Hearing from Anna has been really inspirational to where I'd like to see my practice develop in the future. I do still feel relatively uncertain as to what I want to do with my practice after leaving uni. Utilising my creative skills in a career like hers seems a very attractive option to me, as it would allow me to continue doing something that I love whilst directly being able to help and attribute something incredibly positive to people who have been completely displaced. Working in a field like this, as rewarding as it would be, would be likely to come with a lot of financial uncertainty. This would definitely be a worry of mine, however, at this point in my life I think it would be a very reasonable compromise to make in order to do something so worthwhile. This summer I am trying to save to make it out to Athens to volunteer with Anna.