The vernacular of the diaspora_கலம (Kolam) re-imagined

This project focuses poetry and the creative practice of making and performance to express a visual dialogue in which rhythm and repetition express an imagined, sensory experiential journey. ‘The vernacular of the diaspora’ is in the form of distinct creative cultural expressions which can shift how poetry is conveyed and experienced to an audience that is being increasingly exposed to new hybrid forms of different cultural traditions. It elaborates through an example. It reveals how members of a diaspora experience places they inhabit to return to the place of their ancestors through these different creative expressions. The visual images in this project show the artist as a member of the Tamil diaspora walking in slow rhythmical progression, traversing diverse terrains in different countries, the bare feet sensing the ground. The artist wears the flowing drape of the sari that holds traces of a community’s footprints that once gathered to give acknowledgement of loss in the many decades of war through making. The artist, in the role of a migrant, is thus taking the broader community with her on the journey. The lines of poetry in English and Tamil express the journey through senses, and the images are arranged to take on the visual form of the ritual drawing of Kolam – a geometrical line drawing composed of straight lines, curves and loops, drawn around a grid pattern of dots – which is practised by Tamil women.