“Kolam” Hindu Earth Graffiti as Land Art in the Field of New Art

Abstract Land art, as a style of "New art", has been creating artworks with a modern, and then postmodern approach, since the 60’s.  This environmental art works were, at first, located in desserts, jungles, mountains and other remote sites. Therefore they could attract only art lovers. With the help of the methods and tricks of the environmental art, and also the philosophy of Postmodernism, land art also, was able to be transferred from the remote locations of its birth, to the places which were more interesting to a wide range of common audience. They have been able to gather more and more observers since then, because the new locations were inside the towns and cities, on the streets, road and pavements, where people pass through every day. In this way the artist could interact with his audience in a very deeper and more influential way. It is obvious that, it is the postmodern philosophy of art that has helped common people to know and understand art. With the help of this new ideology, art has come closer to people and is no more particular to a specific art educated audience. Land art, therefore has been lucky enough to be born in Modernism and raise and develop through postmodern era of art. This has helped it gain more interaction of the observers. Thus the scope of land art widened, and today as we can notice, many arts related to land, could be placed in this zone. Painting the earth has been taken into a huge consideration in contemporary times, as could be seen in the work of ground graffiti artists. But the truth is that, it’s a kind of art that has long been popular among many old nations including the Hindus and their traditional customs, such as Kolam. This traditional art which is also known as Rangoli, is very common among Hindu people in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bengal, Malaysia, and where ever Indian culture is current. The tradition of creating kolams is held in everyday life of Indian people, and also on national and religious festivals such as, Deepawali, Pongal and also during occasions such as marriage events, auspicious customs and other similar milestones and gatherings. They are meant to be sacred welcoming locations for the Hindu deities, which keep both the tradition and the art form alive. Similar practices are followed in different states of India: Kolam in Tamil Nadu; Muggu in Andhra Pradhesh; Mandana in Rajasthan; Chaookpurna in Chhattisgarh; Alpana in West Bengal; Golam kolam in Kerala; Chowk pujan in Uttar Pradhesh and others. Kolam is a drawing with colored powders on the ground of the front doors of Hindu houses. They were done with rice flour at ancient times, on a dark ground which was colored with cow’s dungeon. Their purpose is to decorate and also to bring good luck. They are believed to give boons to the people who create them and also to the pedestrians who walk over them. Therefore people who are to visit the members of a house, or are walking on the sidewalk, deliberately walk through the Kolam designs, which are renewed time by time during the day. Design depictions may also vary as they reflect traditions, folklore and practices that are unique to each area. It is traditionally done by women. As these traditional designs look like the new versions of arts done by contemporary artists on the ground, the hypothesis of this paper is established on this subject. This fundamental research is to create a new vision towards the traditional arts as a whole, and also a new vision towards the traditional Kolam as a new land art specifically. To gain this purpose, this descriptive analytical article, has documented data through library resources. By analyzing the clearest, the most popular and the newest features of new art (according to the daily development of media), and matching them with the characteristics of Kolam, it can be stated that, Kolam designs could be considered as land art, and therefore sometime, some of the traditional arts could be considered parallel to new arts; as they match the characteristics of art of contemporary era. Kolams are made on ground; are displayed out of the walls of museums; are renewed every so often; and as the audience deliberately across them to gain boon, it can be said that, the audience interact with these designs. Due to these similarities (and more) which are discussed in the body, the hypothesis of the paper could be proved out