Bless This House – New York 2

Bless This House – New York 2 is comprised of a video projection on a screen made of layered saris. The video depicts my kolam-making in front of my apartment building while I contemplate the loss of my mother. Overlayed are images of city lights. The saris represent a long lineage of women who have practiced kolam-making for millennia, perhaps also relying on this art form to cope with life’s tragedies. This 78”x46.6” sculptural piece is suspended from the ceiling.

Kolam is a ritualistic and spiritual practice from Tamil Nadu, India, where women create intricate geometric designs at the threshold of their homes to bless and protect both the practitioners and their spaces. It is a matrilineal tradition. Made primarily with rice flour, the process begins with marking dots on the ground to establish a grid, upon which lines and curves are drawn. This ephemeral art form fades over the course of a day.

In my Bless This House series, I explore the concepts of ephemerality, the cycle of life, preservation, and the intersection of women and spirituality through an examination of rituals and spiritual practices that bless and safeguard the practitioners and their homes, and the integration of art into their spiritual expressions across diverse cultures. My methodology begins with comprehensive research and documentation of these rituals, which I then integrate into my life, reinterpreting them through various media, including photography, video, drawing, installation, and performance.