INTERACTION SERIES

By Lakshmi Mohanbabu

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About Lakshmi Mohanbabu Having grown up in Afghanistan, and seen all the destruction and chaos cultivated a keen desire to create rather than destroy, thus started the sojourn of design, Lakshmi joined up to study architecture at the Manipal Institute of Technology. On completion, Lakshmi joined a prominent architect Benjamin and Benjamin. Although working on creating structures she felt constrained by the realms of the society, which was not ready to shed its traditional molds of conservative life style. Over the years, Lakshmi has also used her talent as a skilled artist to spread messages for the betterment of the society. She has tried to convey the messages on various social aspects through illustration by working with World Health Organization, Voluntary Health Association of India, World Wildlife Fund, and National AIDS Control Organisation to name a few. Her illustrations are very explicit and easy to understand. At the same time her commitment to the field of fashion design did not diminish, Lakshmi started teaching fashion design at NIFT in New Delhi. After shifting to Singapore, she continued teaching at Lasalle School of the Arts. Over the years she has not only seen her students win International Awards, she has herself won awards and recognition. Having traveled in Europe and Asia, studying architecture and fashion design and how to apply the same to her world of design, Having her paintings and jewelry already in circulation with private clients, she wanted a medium to reach further thus the internet came to her rescue to reach out to the world and introduce them to her paintings, jewelry, sculpture. Lakshmi has design studios in both Singapore and India. Over the years she has studied Art, Architecture, Jewelry and Design all over the world with significant time especially in Europe and the Asia Pacific. This has enabled her to incorporate cross-cultural elements in her designs be it in painting, jewelry or art. She has a passion for art not restricting herself to painting but in the design of jewelry, furniture, sculpture and shoes etc... She has a plethora of work in various mediums such as Pen and Ink, Pencil Colour, Charcoal, Acrylic and Watercolours.

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Inspiration and Thoughts “The Mandala” 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. In Hinduism A ‘Yantra’ is viewed as an astronomical map or diagram representing the position of the planets over a given date and time and is considered auspicious. A Mandala is one of the key representations of the universe with Mount Meru as the axis mundi in the center, surrounded by the continents, a microcosm and a macrocosm, we being a part of its intricate design. In Christianity forms evocative of mandalas are: the Celtic cross; the rosary; the halo; the aureole; oculi; the Crown of Thorns; rose windows; the Rosy Cross; and the dromenon.

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In Islam, sacred art is dominated by geometric shapes in which a segment of the circle, the crescent moon, together with a star, represent the Divine. The entire building of the mosque becomes a mandala as the interior dome of the roof represents the arch of the heavens and turns the worshipper's attention upwards. In Buddhism the mandala is interpreted as an outer circle of fire usually symbolizing wisdom with a ring of eight charnel grounds representing the Buddhist exhortation to be always mindful of death, and the impermanence with which samsara (The world) is suffused: Inside these rings lie the walls of the mandala palace itself, specifically a place populated by deities and Buddhas. It can be can be used as a vehicle to explore art, science, religion and life. The lotus depicted in mandalas is sacred not only because it transcends the darkness of the water and mud where its roots are, but also because of its perfectly symmetrical petals. The Triangles represent the male and the female. “The Color Wheel” A color circle, based on red, yellow and blue, is traditional in the field of art. Sir Isaac Newton developed the first circular diagram of colors in 1666. Since then, scientists and artists have studied and designed numerous variations of this concept. Primary Colors: Red, yellow and blue. In traditional color theory primary colors are the 3 pigment colors that cannot be mixed or formed by any combination of other colors. All other colors are derived from these 3 hues. Secondary Colors: Green, orange and purple, are the colors formed by mixing the primary colors. Tertiary Colors: Yellow-orange, red-orange, red-purple, blue-purple, blue-green & yellow-green. These are the colors formed by mixing a primary and a secondary color. That's why the hue is a two-word name, such as blue-green, red-violet, and yellow-orange.

RED RED ORANGE ORANGE YELLOW

- ORAN

GE YELLOW

YELLOW - GREEN GREEN B

LUE - GREEN

BLU

E

B

LUE

- PU

RPLE

PURP

LE

PURPLE - RED

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“The Yin- Yang” The paintings are based on the concept of the Yin –Yang, The Yin and Yang of Geometry. Each painting is divided by a single continuous line starting and ending at the same point, dividing a square in two sections representing male and female, creating an illusion of a complex set of patterns, a mandala. “The interdependence” of a crest and a trough forming a wave is reflected in the two sides of the painting, with one side raised and the other receding. A wave is created only if there is a crest and a corresponding trough, the creation of one being dependent on the other. Over the years of my study of global architectural forms and buildings has helped me to simplify this idea of complimentary and interdependent spaces and hence visually the use of a depressed area and a raised area of the Yin-Yang. The raised arrows interact with the depressed space and the depressed arrows interact with the Raised space.

“The Traditional Shri Yantra” The Shri Yantra is formed of intersecting triangles surrounded by lotus petals within a square with four gates, I picked this idea with the use of the triad within the color wheel which when rotated about its center gives the next set of triads therefore the primary the secondary and the tertiary going on to an infinite range of possibilities.

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The Interpretation As a representation of racial harmony and interaction I decided to conceptualize my creation around the color wheel, which essentially represents the mandala, the interaction of colors creating new colors, the addition of light and dark in the receding and raised spaces adding yet another dimension to the hues giving it a range of values. The series consist of groups of triads, “The Primary”, “The Secondary” “The Tertiary” and so on. I have interpreted each level of interaction with a greater degree of complexity focusing on a different basic geometric form. The realization of the interrelationship between two elements to form a third unique element was the pivot in choosing the color wheel.

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The Primary Interaction: This series comprises of three paintings based on triangular from in red, yellow and blue the primary colors. The square is divided into two triangles visually representing the interrelationship of triangles connected by channels in two directions creating a linear form.

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The Secondary Interaction: This series comprising of three paintings based on the circular form in Orange Purple and Green the secondary colors, The mandala itself reflecting the shape of the lotus with petals radiating inward towards the center to outward towards the periphery creating an interacting radial pattern.

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The Tertiary Interaction series comprises of six paintings based on the square form with two sub groups, the gammadion cross and the Dromenon in six tertiary colors. “The gammadion cross” is an ancient eastern auspicious symbol of good fortune and well being which in essence is a cross with the arms bent at ninety degrees along the periphery. It is a symbol seen in most ancient cultures in the east and in Greco Roman cultures. The gammadion cross a suggests movement and progression.

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The Dromenon: “the thing done,” The dromenon represents a journey from the outer world to the inner sacred center where the Divine is found. Dromenon is the running, repetitive action of ritual, whose meaning is not its destination but its pattern. The Dromenon suggests movement and progression.

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Interaction Series is a Set Of 13 Paintings Size : 160cm X160cm (Frame Size) Medium: Acrylic on Canvas Bespoke Designer Sculpture Frames by the artist 3D Monogram Frames are one of a kind, paired with each painting Ready to Hang No Prints - No Copies Only Originals

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