Whilst at Open School East, Tannu Kotecha began to explore the gendered nature of public space and political formations and notions of language, including silence, proxy, absence and presence.

Developing her interest in poetry, meditation and ritual, Tannu co-organised a short series of Healing Justice sessions with associate Anni Movsisyan, all prioritised for people from marginalised communities. 

As part of these sessions, Tannu spent time in conversation with people living locally, developing a song-walk project for and with local women on the nearby estate.

The other strand of her work centred on asemic writing, abstract sculptural forms and fabric as a gendered material. Writer Michael Jacobsen describes asemic writing as offering “meaning by way of aesthetic intuition. It often appears as abstract calligraphy… without words, asemic writing is able to relate to all words, colors, and even music, irrespective of the author or the reader’s original languages”.

Using her own language, written in silence, in a site specific location, Tannu’s piece An Invitation to a Silent Conversation travelled out through the building.