Singapore-based Indian-origin artist Vijayalakshmi Mohan was among five people who were awarded for promoting and passing on their skills and traditions in intangible cultural heritage to Singapore’s community and younger generation. The recipients of the National Heritage Board’s (NHB) Stewards of Intangible Cultural Heritage Award received certificates from Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Edwin Tong at the National Gallery Singapore, NHB said on Friday.
The 66-year-old rangoli artist from Trichy picked up the 5,000-year-old form of Indian folk floor art comprising ornamental designs with symmetrical and geometrical shapes when she was five and went on to become a rangoli practitioner.
Growing up in Trichy, Tamil Nadu, she learnt the art form from her mother, who would draw rangoli every morning on their doorstep.
“In South India, we do a white-coloured design called ‘kolam’ and we do patterns based on mathematical principles and geometrical designs,” The Straits Times quoted Mohan as saying. Mohan moved to Singapore in 1992 and became a citizen in 2005.
Every morning at 6.30 am, Mohan, a kolam and rangoli artist, draws an intricate rangoli pattern with rice powder outside her door.
Traditionally, it is drawn on the floor with coloured rice powder or marble powder and lasts only a day or two.
In 1993, she took part in her first rangoli competition in Singapore and drew the Hindu god Ganesha using coloured rice powder.
“It was my first time participating and I did not know it would be so windy. Before the judges came, my design flew off and I was disqualified,” she recalled with a laugh.
Growing up in Tamil Nadu, she learnt the art form from her mother, who would draw rangoli every morning.
She later went on to conduct rangoli workshops at schools and universities and co-founded her company Singa Rangoli with her husband N Mohan in 2015.
Her company makes rangoli in traditional designs using contemporary materials such as CDs, coloured straws and pistachio shells, to show that anyone can pick up the art form. The company also takes on rangoli commissions and runs workshops on rangoli making.
