The inspiration behind the piece ties back to my hometown, a small rural village in southern India and the summers I spent there as a child. I vividly remember waking up at the crack of dawn to watch my aunt draw beautiful, intricate patterns on red oxide tiles using rice flour in a coconut shell.

The process of creating one almost always involves a specific set of rules/algorithms; as the size and intricacy of kolams increase, so does its computational complexity. Interestingly, the women who draw these are not thinking in terms of mathematical theories when making them- they start out small & then expand by enlarging the same sub-pattern.

Much like the kolams themselves, the code consists of basic concepts when zoomed out, results in an overall ‘complex’ & recursive pattern. To add a level of dimension & abstraction, the kolam resembles a spinning top; the slow rotation acting as symbolism of village life.

Tomorrow, while madras sleeps tired from a fast-paced life, radha athai will rise before dawn, clean a patch of her front porch and begin. Gotta love a culture that wakes up and draws first thing, right outside its door :)