Magnificent obsessions and the art of kolam in southern India

Laying a kolam © Caroline Fraser

I was a bit shaken up by the sights of southern India, and it took me a while to regain my equilibrium.

I vowed never to return. 

Always a mistake...

For I am already wishing I had taken more photos at Marina Beach in Chennai. A week would do it.

And having just tidied the 'holiday' drawer it seems only right to find a use for the 6 bottles of suncream and 12 bottles of insect repellant.

Say no more.  Magnificent obsessions was the subject of a previous post.

I live with a man who doesn't like being bitten. And I don't want to get skin cancer......

      

                                                                

Amongst the dirt and noise of Chennai and Pondicherry were small oases of calm and cleanliness on the pavements outside Hindu homes.

Kolam © Caroline Fraser

Kolam is a Hindu practice; a geometrical drawing composed of curved loops drawn around a pattern of dots. 

Every morning in Tamil Nadu, Southern India, women draw kolams on the ground with white rice flour. 

Through the day, the drawings get walked on, washed out in the rain, and covered with debris blown onto them. 

New ones are made every morning. As I walked out before breakfast fresh ones were being laid.

Kolam © Caroline Fraser

Each morning before sunrise, the floor of the owners' house, or where ever the Kolam may be, is cleaned with water and the muddy floor swept well to create an even surface, to which the flour of chalk will better adhere.

Traditionally they were drawn with coarse rice flour to invite birds and ants, as a sign to welcome all into the home, not least the goddess Lakshmi, bringer of prosperity and wealth.

Kolam © Caroline Fraser

Kolam © Caroline Fraser

Kolam with dogs, Mahabilipuram © Caroline Fraser

Kolam, Mahabilipuram © Caroline Fraser

Kolam © Caroline Fraser

The contrast of the spotlessly clean pavements outside certain homes in Tamil Nadu with the general filth of most pavements and gutters was very striking, and it was this contrast that lead me to photograph kolam on the streets as a way to seek out something beautiful amongst the dirt.

And now, after being home for a few weeks, they are what I remember best about the streets that we walked. The images of litter and dirt fading into my memory.

street scene, Pondicherry © Caroline Fraser

Out of the darkness and into the light

wind, blue ropes, a rook and a stream; a cure for seasonal affective disorder

I seem to have been suffering from a mild case of SAD ( Seasonal Affective Disorder)

This became clear to me when the sun shone brightly last week and I suddenly felt happier than I have for weeks. I had forgotten what it felt like.


SAD is cured by exposure to light.

light in my hallway

Light is uplifting.

Photographers seek light........

No excuse for SADness then.



I have sat down to write this blog many times in the past 2 weeks and found words would not come.

I wanted to tell you about the exhibition 'Magnificent Obsessions' that is currently showing at the Barbican in London. But I couldn't think what to say.

It is a lively exhibition, capturing the idiosyncrasies and personal collections of well known artists; what goes on behind closed doors.

I wanted to write about Martin Parr's wonderful collection of postcards; the highlight of the show for me.

'Totton Bypass' was particularly fine.

in the days when there were roads with practically no cars......

As was one from the Stoke on Trent potteries.

Who would you send these to?

The collection was amusing and banal. Ordinary life, captured on pieces of paper to send through the post.

We have some old postcards. Tree lined streets in suburbia. Polite messages on the back from the mystery admirer of a local lady.

in the days before cars.......

The show is about the artist as collector.

I came face to face with The Hare with Amber Eyes from the personal netsuke collection of the potter Edmund de Waal. Small, beautiful and very old. A collection that inspired the book of the same name.

no bigger than  a button

It got me thinking.

What do I collect?

• Photos

Currently Lightroom informs me that I have 35,974 photographs.

And when I back up my files I have nearly a million. Which makes me wonder what the other half a million are? I will probably never know.

Suffice it to say that one of the reasons that I have been low on productivity recently is because I have been doing more techno-geek stuff; installing a new external hard drive and future proofing my collection.

I never thought I would be able to say ' I reformatted my new Lacie 2big Quadra into Raid 1 mode' and lived to tell the tale. This involved poking the back of my new Lacie 2 big Quadra with a cocktail stick, because the little plastic device that they sent for the task broke on the first attempt.....

• Stones

Stones have been a bit of an obsession recently. They are all around the house. Free souvenirs from beautiful places around the world. 

They say creativity comes from doing, so I shall keep doing until something comes along that evolves into a proper project.

For more stones see here

• Birds; some made of stone. others of wood, clay and metal. A modest collection.

And that is about it.

bird on a stone talks to a stone bird

Innuit stone bird in Norway

Innuit stone bird 

So now you have seen my entire Innuit stone bird collection. 

Maybe I will collect some more. It can hardly be described as a 'magnificent collection' as it stands.

Next stop, adding keywords to my 35,000 images........

Then I will be able to find the ones that I had forgotten existed. I am considering a project based on selecting forgotten images from my archive by the use of random numbers.......

It could be almost as banal as the Totton Bypass.

And if it doesn't work out..........

never mind

A much over used phrase in my opinion.