Rangoli, the traditional Indian art of making floral patterns and other designs on the floor with coloured or white powder, has a cultural ambassador in Singapore-based Indian-origin artist Vijayalakshmi Mohan. Already acclaimed for her creativity and skill, she is one of the five recipients of the Stewards of Intangible Cultural Heritage Award, presented by the National Heritage Board (NHB) of Singapore.
The five recipients have received their certificates from the Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Edwin Tong at the National Gallery Singapore, said an April 2 report by The Straits Times.
In an interview with ST, the famed 66-year-old rangoli artist said that she had been practising this art form since the age of 5. She began learning the art of rangoli from her mother in her hometown Trichy, in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. She moved to Singapore in 1992 and became a citizen in 2005.
Along with rangoli artist Vijayalakshmi Mohan, the other awardees — people and businesses — are Malay drum-maker Mohamed Yaziz Bin Mohamed Hassan; Peranakan-style jeweller Thomis Kwan; Chinese tea shop Pek Sin Choon; and Teochew pastry shop Thye Moh Chan.
These five recipients have been honoured for “promoting and passing on their skills and traditions in intangible cultural heritage to the community and younger generation”, according to ST.
The NHB award comes with a cash prize of SGD 5,000 and recipients are eligible for a project grant of up to SGD 20,000. Their work will also get a showcase at NHB events.
Stewards of Intangible Cultural Heritage Award began in 2019, and it has been given five times from then till now, and the total number of awardees are 22.
Vijayalakshmi Mohan is a veteran of many exhibitions. Her work has been exhibited at spaces across Singapore and at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, United States of America.
The website of her organisation, Singa Rangoli (co-founded with her husband N Mohan), said that Vijayalakshmi Mohan received the Bharat Gaurav Award in January 2006 in Hyderabad, then capital of the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, for promoting Indian Art overseas. (Andhra Pradesh has since been carved up, with the creation of the new state of Telangana, which now has Hyderabad as its capital.)
Her extraordinary achievements include an entry into the Guinness World Records. In 2003, supported by the Whampoa Community Centre in Singapore, the artist single-handedly created a rangoli that was 2,756 square feet in size (52’ x 53’), working for seven hours straight. Vijayalakshmi’s art work was far larger than the previous Guinness record-holder rangoli of 900 sq ft (30’ x 30’), created in the United Kingdom.
The way an Indian woman creates a rangoli (also called alpana in eastern India) may seem effortless to an observer, but there are gears moving in the artist’s mind; she has to keep an eye on the rangoli proportions in order to maintain the symmetry of the work. The larger the rangoli, the more important these proportions are.
In the ST interview, Vijayalakshmi explained, “In South India, we do a white-coloured design called kolam, and we do patterns based on mathematical principles and geometrical designs.”
Her first rangoli competition in Singapore was in 1993, the year after she moved here from India. She created a coloured rangoli centred around the elephant-headed Hindu deity Ganesha; but the strong winds at the open venue carried off her coloured powder and the art work was gone before it could be judged.
Since that brief setback, her career in rangoli art has only flourished, with many workshops and exhibitions and awards. Upon receiving the NHB award, she hoped that this would encourage the youth to learn and practise the art of rangoli.
