The world we live in today is a melting pot with cross border influences, a theme that has fascinated me with art being my medium of expression. India epitomizes this concept of a melting pot with its unique position, long coastline and age old lure of spices, that made it a great trading nation, along with centuries of foreign invasions creating a mini cosmos of the world within its borders a mix of European, Persian, Mongol and indigenous Indian cultures, an interaction that gives it a culturally diverse heritage, which over time has been divided by race, caste and religious barriers, though as a nation it continues to be secular. Centuries of interactions through trade, migration and communication and interaction, has led me to better understand the role India plays in relation to the world.
I spent my early childhood in Sikkim and Nepal and grew up in Afghanistan, which exposed me to an international community at a very young age; I was intrigued by the commonalities in language food and art in my interaction with people of various cultures and communities.
I constantly strove to find common ground amongst various cultures in symbolism, language and art. I view art as the perfect medium to link people of various races and communities always looking for interlinking elements. My study of architecture, art and costume history have given me a global perspective that helped me develop this idea.
The Mandala
The Mandala provided me with a symbol in my attempt to find elements that interlinked various cultures around the globe.
The Mandala comes from the ancient Indian language Sanskrit meaning “Encircled essence”. A mandala has a concentric structure even if it may be dominated by squares or triangles.
Mandalas offer balancing visual elements, symbolizing unity, harmony, cosmic and psychic order serving as a tool (Yantra) in our spiritual journey, representing wholeness and a model for the organizational structure of life itself; a cosmic diagram that embodies our relation to the infinite, the world that extends both beyond and within our bodies and minds.
The mandala appears to us in all aspects of life, the Earth, the Sun, the Moon and in our interactions, the circles of life encompassing friends, family and communities. It represents an integrated view of the world, transcending all religions and continents.
Cross-cultural patterns of the mandala are seen in many religious traditions all over the globe, from Hindu temples, Buddhist Stupas, Muslim mosques and Christian cathedrals to Native American teepees. The principle of a structure built around a center "axis mundi" or world axis is a common theme in Architecture.
Creating mandalas helps stabilize, integrate, and re-order inner life. Its symbolic nature helps one to access progressively deeper levels of the unconscious, ultimately assisting the meditator to experience a mystical sense of oneness with the ultimate unity from which the cosmos in all its manifold forms arises. It serves the creative purpose of giving expression and form to something that does not yet exist, something new and unique. The process is that of the ascending spiral, which grows upward while simultaneously returning again and again to the same point.
In the Americas, Indians created medicine wheels mandalas. The circular Aztec calendar was both a timekeeping device and a religious expression of ancient Aztecs; In Asia, the Taoist "Yin-Yang" symbol represents opposition as well as interdependence; Tibetan mandalas are often highly intricate illustrations of religious significance, that are used for meditation suggesting the impermanence of life.
The interaction series is an attempt at breaking down barriers and leading people to think about similarities rather then dissimilarities by delving into the concept of focus, continuity and interactions, which is the key to a harmonious world.
I have tried to bring together common elements from various cultures surrounding the mandala with a contemporary view of the world we live in today.
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