The creative invention each morning on the floor in front of one’s house must also be nourished by sharing ideas. I had bought paper magazines of kolam patterns in Pondicherry (South India) in 1989. I unearthed them in 2016 and photographed the kolams in them that fit in a square. I share them in 2021. Fragility. Ephemeral.
A kolam is a geometrically inspired pattern drawn on the ground with rice powder and colored powders at the entrance to homes and businesses as a sign of welcome and good luck.
Ephemeral in nature, the kolams are drawn freehand, letting the powder flow. They are placed every morning in front of the entrance of houses in South India to bring prosperity. These daily creations are an offering to the new day, a ritual of sanctification and protection of the house, a sign of welcome, and an invitation to the deities. Made by women, the kolams are bequeathed exclusively by mothers, sisters and grandmothers to their granddaughters. The geometrization of the forms is characteristic of the kolam; manual dexterity is coupled with mathematical thinking. Alchemy of art and nature through the intelligence of forms, the Kolam thus mixes mysticism and mathematics.
(Source: Wikipedia)
