A Dublin artist is set to dazzle Diwali celebrations with her stunning rangoli designs.
Meenaranjani Karunanidhi will be showing off her talents at the "Ireland's Biggest Diwali" event in Tallaght on October 16. Meena, who has been a professional rangoli artist for over a decade, said told Dublin Live: "Rangoli is really close to my heart and it’s not just an expression of myself but it’s also about the Indian culture being displayed in a European country."
Rangoli is an art form from the Indian subcontinent which involves using coloured powder to create intricate patterns on the floor or on tabletops. Rangoli are usually made during Diwali or Tihar, Onam, Pongal, Sankranthi, and other Hindu festivals.
Read more: Diwali details and events happening in Dublin to celebrate
Rangoli represents positivity and happiness and is usually made to welcome Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth and good luck. Meena, who moved to Ireland 20 years ago from Chennai, India, said rangoli has always been a part of her life growing up.
Meena said: "I’m from Chennai. We make kolam every day. Like after brushing our teeth we make kolam in front of our house. I’ve been practising it since my childhood. I would have practised in India but not on a big scale like I do here. I think it’s a beautiful art."
Kolam refers to a type of rangoli that is drawn using rice flour. Kolam originated in ancient Tamil Nadu and the practice has since spread worldwide thanks to the Tamil diaspora. Meena said that while she loves to share her rich culture, drawing rangoli in Ireland is a challenging task thanks to the weather.
She said: "Given the weather here, it’s not easy to spread the colours like we used to do in India. You don’t get the colours like you do in India.
"Some of them are a combination of materials. Sometimes I don’t have colour powder so I just use rice powder or coffee powder."
She added: "I use spices and flours from my own kitchen to make the colour powder. I arrange it with flowers. To make a good size visual display you need to bring grandeur to it.
"To me, the design represents Indian culture. So it represents the grandeur of the culture and the festivities." Meena has showcased her talents in a number of events in Ireland across the years.
She said: "We collaborated with the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin a few years ago for a rangoli exhibition where we showcased 16 types of rangoli. It was the first event given to us. We had to prepare a month in advance because drawing rangoli here isn’t the same as in India.
"I had to split the 16 rangolis into different mediums so some of them I painted on fabric beforehand, and some of them I made on the day as a demonstration to the audience. I did underwater rangoli and overwater rangoli with flowers too."
She is also one of the founding members of UNITAS, a non-profit collective that promotes Indian valus through sports, art, and culture.
Meena will be showing off her fabulous rangoli designs this October at Dublin Celebration's Ireland's Biggest Diwali Event. You can find the tickets here.
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