Bead on - 24,000 - the 2019 project

This is a long story, Bead project photos in a following post!
For 2019, I wanted to find out just how much 24,000 looks like.

Why?

Not long ago I began hearing about Persecuted Christians in India. As you may know, issues like refugees and persecution weigh heavy on my heart. I am not comfortable to go protest, but I can make and show work that might make other people aware.

And why should it matter? Well, it could be me or my family or my friends or my neighbours! Or yours.

So, we know India is a very big country. But I began to read that the current Indian government is led by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). They believe that being a Hindu is part of Indian identity, and frequently turn a blind eye to attacks on those of other faiths. Also, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is a militant Hindu nationalist group linked with the BJP; they have stated that they want to see India free of Christians and Muslims by the end of 2021.
Organisations monitoring the persecution estimate that almost 24,000 Christians in India were physically attacked last year because of their faith.

What does 24,000 look like? I mean, each 1 making up to 24,000 is an individual. For a start, I looked up Cricket Stadium Capacity.

via

A list on Wikipedia states that Edgbaston Cricket Ground in Birmingham, England holds 24,803. The WACA in Perth, Australia holds 24,500. (If you are into football, Stadion in Malmö, Sweden holds 24,000.)

OK, that is a bit of an idea. It is a lot of people! But I realised I wanted to personalise it a bit more. I am not good at sums, but this turned out to be something possible.

24,000 ÷ 8 = 3,000 and  3,000 ÷ 10 = 300. So, If I used 10 beads 8 times for 300 days, it would take nearly a year to show what the count of 24,000 looks like.

Furthermore, I had this fabric with orange and black squares, which (if I got those sums right) should have enough squares to hold the record.

I chose this because I want to use beads in bright and contrasting colours like one might see in a crowd of Indian people. The sarees are so beautiful and so eye catching; pink, orange, yellow, bright purple, turquoise, blue and more.

And so, then I had a cataract op! 😵  So, I waited til I could see a bit better and caught myself up on the project.