Rangoli is a mesmerising art limited in time: Austrian artist Linda Gaenslze

The colours of rangoli
| Photo Credit: S. Sudarshan

A bus journey from Munich to Delhi 40 years ago bound Linda Gaenszle, an artist from Vienna, to the people and culture of India and Nepal. The rangolis she saw in the neighbouring countries stunned her with their colours and patterns. She was even more astonished by the short life of each rangoli.

As artists we want our art to last, she says, but here I saw women drawing the rangolis with so much dedication and concentration and washing them off to make a fresh one each day! “Rangolis are a piece of bewitching art made within a short time and kept for a limited amount of time; I always wonder why and find the designs intriguing,” she says.

Linda has been coming to India and Nepal with her anthropologist husband since 1978. They live in villages around Kathmandu and have travelled extensively across North India, Goa and Kerala and. Linda has been particularly fascinated by the temples of Varanasi and the Jagannath Temple in Puri.

Linda, who started her artistic journey with pastels on canvas, switched to knitting Tibetan carpets and stitching patterns on textiles, recently mounted eight of her needlework and photographs of 15 select rangolis at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts. This was the well-known Viennese artist’sfirst exhibition in India and one which established a connect with the viewers. The chaupal (the hub of community life in rural areas) backdrop specially created for the show added to the ambience.

During a quick chat, she talked about how creating art is meditation. “You cannot see a prayer because it is something only you do yourself; but in my artworks I make meditation and prayers visible,” she says.

The rangolis based on goddess Lakshmi and the good fortune she bestows on her devotees appeal to Linda for their vibrancy, intricacies and deep multi-layered meaning. Her needleworks are done using silver and gold thread on black and red-coloured coarse fabric. Her exhibitions combine both the art forms and she describes each of her art works as having a dialogue with the inner-self. “The rangolis explain the static thoughts because the image for drawing is already conjured up whereas the stitchings are like progressing thoughts led by feelings at that moment,” she says.

It is like capturing the flow of emotions and transporting both the maker and the viewer to a different level. Linda says her fingers bleed when she puts the stitches on cotton or silk cloth into a pattern guided by her thoughts. The gold and silver threads are stubborn and difficult to push through the fabric. “It needs some effort and sometimes you get hurt. The process summates our lives.”

If watching, learning and making rangolis with random families in the Asian countryside fill her with gratitude, the needlework helps her heal many a life’s sorrows. Eleven years ago, Linda lost her 27-year-old son. To overcome grief, she began putting her heart and mind into this art and, she says, her hands are driven by a force that create beautiful patterns. “I keep finishing them and my passion inspires me to keep making more. It is kind of an intense prayer that calms my mind.”

The focus required to create something artistic is akin to praying. In times of stress and sorrow art nourishes the soul and Linda says her artworks are picked up not just as wall decoratives but also as a creative tool for meditation.

Linda feels her extensive travels – that also led her to author a travelogue Ulto-Sulto (Nepali word for topsy-turvy) last year – have given her a new perspective on bonding among family members; how they stick together during crisis and come together during festivals and peoples’ faith and their natural closeness to gods that gives them the strength to tide over problems.

Her interest in the Himalayan region remains intact even after so many decades and she says, she is constantly on the lookout for rare moments to capture in her mind that later manifest as her artworks.

If anything disturbs her, it is the failure of her generation to find proactive solutions for pollution and climate change. “Exploring is the essence of our being and artists have the ability to present things  appropriately and continue to use our freedom of expression for the right cause,” says Linda, planning her next exhibition on abused women.