Chantal Jumel - Chantal Jumel (Page 5)

Chantal Jumel

Fascination for Floor Art

Chantal Jumel has made Mylapore her year-end home, to study local creative work.

Chantal Jumel

Global fame for the humble kolam

French researcher Chantal Jumel's fascination for the kolam led her to document this traditional practice.

Bibliography/Ephemeral art

Rajasthan mandana paintings, "Books and references"

Various books on mandana tradition

Mandana/Rajasthan

Rajasthan mandana, "Adorning the floors and the home for Diwali" — part 6

In Rajasthan floor paintings, most patterns of animate beings come to life on the vertical surfaces of the house, except for the symbolic representations of the footprints of Goddess Lakshmi, called paglya, and the hoof prints of the cow which are drawn on the floor inside and outside the house.

Mandana/Rajasthan

Rajasthan mandana, "Adorning the floors for Diwali" — part 5

During Diwali, houses are renovated, mud houses are repaired, the thatched roofs are redone. Walls, courtyards, cooking hearths, inner rooms, pillars, doorways are decorated with mandana, and women draw inspiration from various sources.

Mandana/Rajasthan

Rajasthan mandana, "Villages around Bundi" — part 4

Perched on a hillock, it is a densely built up area and houses adapt themselves to uneven grounds by spreading harmoniously their volumes on different levels. Alignments, projections and recesses allow glimpses of terraces overlooking other open spaces. This is how I notice freshly painted mandana.

Mandana/Rajasthan

Rajasthan mandana, "Preparing Diwali, Bundi and nearby villages" — part 3

Among birds, the peacock has been a source of inspiration for poets, bards, dancers, and painters since antiquity. In the mandana, it is an immensely popular design and is most often depicted in pairs, flanking a central flower on the gables of houses or on walls.

Mandana/Rajasthan

Rajasthan mandana, "Preparing Diwali at Lakshmi's home" — part 2

Drawing mandana is described as subhkarya ( an auspicious activity) and emphasises the idea of centre, symmetry and multiplication.

Mandana/Rajasthan

Rajasthan mandana, "Jodhpur, the quest begins" — part 1

Holding a sword in both hands, the tip of the blade touches a metal plate placed on a floor painting made of several squares enhanced by a stylised flower in the center.

Chantal Jumel

Sa-Ri-Ga-Ma-Pa-Dha-Ni-Sa

For The European Night of Museums, I created at the “Musée des instruments” (Musical instruments museum) in Céret, (France) a floor painting inspired by the Indian musical scale and the symbolic representation of the notes. The technic is influenced by the Tamil kolam and the Kerala kalam.

Chantal Jumel

Bhoomika Chitra

Conference on kolam at Apparao galleries.

Bibliography/Ephemeral art

Voyage dans l’imaginaire Indien, Kolam, dessins éphémères des femmes tamoules.

Happy to share with you the release on August 13th of my book on South Indian Kolam.

Kolam/Tamil Nadu

Sikku kolam or interlaced kolam

Kolam made by a single continuous line or several lines running around dots are called sikku kolam and exist to my knowledge only in Tamil-Nadu. They distinguish themselves from other kolam by their entangled lines.

Inspiring kolam artists

Inspiring women "Subhadra Natarajan"

A lotus with eight petals in a circle welcomes two feet dedicated to Râma. Each petal bears a word from the mantra “Jaya, Jaya Râma, Sri Râma, Jaya Râma”. According to her, this kolam is equivalent to the invocation of the divine name.

Padi kolam/Shaivite kolam

Padi kolam or kolam with lines

A padi kolam, also called kalyana or kanya kolam is a kolam drawn using parallel lines which cross over at right angles or diagonally. They may start from a dot or a square and form basic structures such a square, a circle, a cross with diagonals, a swastika or two superimposed triangles.

Pulli kolam/Kolam with dots

Pulli kolam or kolam with dots

The pulli kolam, or dotted kolam, have many variations which range from the purely geometrical to interlacing lines, stylised representations of animals and plants, benevolent gods with their vehicles or attributes, and votive objects like oil lamps or pots used for offerings.

Chantal Jumel

How it all began

As a child I dreamed of becoming a dancer or an actress, a musician or a painter, and my favourite book was “Contes et légendes de l’Inde”. The images showed black and white men in turbans, an assembly of bonzes, a man with an elephant face and characters with numerous arms and heads.

Chantal Jumel

Kolam workshop

Acquaintance with the ingredients (vegetable and mineral powders). Initiation to the drawing and colouring techniques (the hand becomes a tool). Learning of traditional designs.