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The Darshana Project
The Darshana Project is a hybrid manifestation of the South Asian Rangoli tradition combining the age-old practice, observed by women from India who make ritual drawings on floors and walls of their homes, with the experience of life lived in the US. In addition, while it is rooted in this transitional and ritualistic folk art practice, it is designed to use the powerful tools of art and the creative process to break down barriers, identify common issues, encourage meaningful interactions between diverse peoples and unite the community in a spirit of hope and friendship.
The Darshana Project installation is site specific, comprising of patterns derived from basic geometric constructs - circles, squares, and triangles - yantras, symbols of different energies in the universe. They represent qualities contained in the three aspects of all life; creation, evolution, and dissolution. Ritual can transform materials or objects and make them function spiritually as well as physically. The Darshana Project takes common natural materials that are all around us and by displacing them and presenting them in a ritualistic format, engages the viewer in the idea of the sacredness of everyday life. The materials used are simple objects collected from local neighborhoods, ones that function symbolically on multiple levels. Materials used in past installations include; green plastic strawberry baskets, baggies filled with water, cloud photographs, asthma inhalers, earth, bark, leaves, seeds, flower petals, spices, lentils, stones, sticks, pebbles, words, nails, raku bowls and many others.
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