1000 Colours for Lalita

1000 Colours for Lalita is a painting and sound installation in the form of a coloured, mystic, power diagram of one thousand, coloured squares that spatialises the text of an ancient Indian Sanskrit prayer.

Formally the work has connections with the ontology of abstraction, especially the minimalist, colour field paintings from the 1950’s, 60’s and 70’s of artists like Sol Le Witt, Ellswoth Kelly and Josef Albers. While the work has connections to these painters in terms of their application of geometry, grids and colour theory it is more closely aligned conceptually with the spirituality of Indian tantric paintings which aim to create a scared space where one can reconcile inner conflict and achieve union with the self.

The installation gives form and sound to Anna Nangle's personal experience and process of healing from the trauma of the bushfires on the NSW South Coast and includes a video made from Super 8 footage of that time. While painting the 1000 different coloured squares she reconnected to the meditative state beyond thought that occurs when the individual self merges with the universal. Experiencing this work the viewer also has the potential to restore and reconnect themselves with these generative and life sustaining forces.

The sound elements of the work are an analogue synth atmospheric soundtrack that fills the gallery and two spoken word monologues accessed via a QR code or MP3Players. These pieces create a narrative connection between the auditory and visual elements of the work, in a similar way that mantras (sacred sounds) are combined with yantras (mystic diagrams) in Indian spirituality.

There is a reading table with the follwing texts and a perspex audience response box.

• The Body Keeps the Score, Bessel Van Der Kolk.
• Milkman, Anna Burns. 
• Interaction of Color, Josef Albers.
• The October Colouring-In Book, David Batchelor.
• Yantra, The Tantric Symbol of Cosmic Unity, Madhu Khanna.
• Grids, October, Vol 9, Rosalind Krauss.