the nesting project
a group installation
Jivamukti Cafe at the Jivamukti Yoga School
841 Broadway, 2nd floor
December 2009, deadline extended January 15 2010
Inspired by the teachings of David Life and Sharon Gannon, we come together as a community to enrich the creative culture by yoking it with the force of spiritual activism to make a difference in the lives of others.
Artists explore this concept by creating nests similar to the way birds gather objects to build a home. The nests will be on silent auction until January 14, 2010 to raise funds to build actual homes for those animals and humans displaced.
All proceeds will go to HABITAT FOR HUMANITY in Sri Lanka, to aid families without homes still from the Tsunami in 2004, and those living in relief camps in the wake of the Sri Lankan civil war and the NY Audubon, a grassroots community interested in the preservation of wild birds and their habitats in the five boroughs of Manhattan.
the sanskrit nest
Kelly Britton
About a month ago I was watching an old French New wave movie by Jean-Luc Goddard and one of the characters said “Language is the house that man lives in.” and it really stuck with me.
When I was asked to create a “nest” for the Nesting Project I almost immediately declined because I don’t consider myself particularly good with creating visual art, but I wanted to participate and I remembered that I could write Sanskrit. I was going to just pick my favorite quotes from the Bhagavad Gita, and then I remembered the quote from the movie and I thought, yes, I will build a house out of the words of God. If language creates our world and that world becomes the home that we inhabit, then we want to built it out of the most special and purist of words. I find sanctuary in the words of God. I started with Isvara which is the Supreme Self, a force so compassionate it comes in whatever form will speak to our hearts. As Sanskrit informed the Hindu tradition, I chose the Hindu Trinity of Gods and Goddesses as the various forms of Isvara, each one contributing a different aspect to my nest.
Biography
Kelly Britton started out with promise but crashed and burned early. She was programming computers at age 10, singing in coffee houses at 12, a senior in college by 19 and a divorced single mother living in a shelter for battered women at 23.Completely broke, she moved her babies to New York’s East Village and was lucky to partake in the Internet boom of the late nineties. As an artist, Kelly has a lot of stories to tell. She has lived in squats, dined with Kennedys, and has given birth to two children at home without drugs or doctors. She has been rescued from a fire, jumped by skinheads, had a strange man break into her house to steal her underwear and worked on an internet start-up with Keith Richards (a good time was had by all!). She has written hundreds of songs and two novels. For several years, Kelly sang in the Gospel choir at St. Mark’s Church-in-the-Bowery. Kelly has played her original material at various East Village and Williamsburg venues including CBGB’s, the C-note and Black Betty.
She believes deeply that there is no faster way to personal transformation than by service and kindness to others, and that the more you practice patience and compassion, the more capacity you will have for both.
Kelly has yet to find words that are adequate to express her gratitude to Sharon Gannon and David Life for lighting her way through the darkness. In late 2008, blessed by the support of Sharon Gannon and the Jivamukti Yoga Community, Kelly was able to create her first album Refuge, a collection of rock and roll yoga gospel punk songs.
