The College of St. Catherine: Center for Women and Spirituality

isiting artist Gita Kar touched the campus community through the construction of a traditional Indian mandala of colored rice and flowers. During one week in November 2002, students, faculty and staff from both campuses encountered both Kar’s Hindu philosophy and a deeper understanding of their own spirituality.

Participants carefully placed grains of rice on an eight-foot square template that Kar created from design motifs she culled from Our Lady of Victory Chapel, where the mandala was constructed. While creating the mandala, Kar explained how artintertwines with spirituality in Indian culture, as well as encouragingstudents in a cross-cultural dialog to tell stories of their own spiritual identities and traditions. Classes from the departments of Art and Art History, Sociology, Women’s Studies, Liberal Studies (in Minneapolis) and from The Reflective Woman classes participated, along with students, faculty and staff members who came by individually.

Gita Kar is a kathavachak, a traditional story-keeper-teller. She works in the ephemeral arts genre and interprets it through the oral tradition of India. Her art is an expression of her cultural identity, grounded in and inspired by her culture’s philosophical and mythological traditions. She has worked in the Twin Cities as an artist and cultural educator for the past seventeen years, exhibiting widely and receiving many study grants and awards.

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Students, especially, were deeply moved
by the experience. One student wrote:
“The moment I sat down at the mandala
with Gita and began to work with the rice,
the outside world dropped away and a new
sense of time and space took shape. This is
a state of mind that really enables me to
listen to myself, ask questions, meditate
and feel a connection to something greater
than myself.”

“I was proud of the final product,” commented another student, “but more important is the calmness and relaxation only produced through the process. I enjoyed the personal demonstration of how art in itself is a spiritual act. Not focusing on completion, but the reflection process. Art slows me down and takes me away from the hectic world. It keeps me calm, and helps me reflect more deeply.”

The sense of having experienced a deep connection to their own inner depths – and to others – by working on the mandala is expressed by another student: “I was having a horrid day when I went in to work with Mrs. Kar for the first time. When I left the Chapel, I felt like the only thing that mattered was the unexplainable power that rejuvenated within me while working on the mandala. I realized that Gita Kar’s intention for us wasn’t so much to learn how to construct a mandala; it was more targeted towards learning how to unify with strangers or acquaintances and build a relationship. I wish I could work on a mandala with Gita Kar everyday because it was a great source of peace and stress relief for me.”

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Even the organizers of the visit felt the power of the mandala. Patricia Olson, assistant professor in the Department of Art and Art History, commented: “The organizational work behind the experience all seemed to float away so cleanly and effectively. In my experience with this type of event, the behind-the-scenes activity never feels that way. I think this is due to Gita’s incredible presence and the process of very carefully and intentionally placing small grains of rice.”

The week culminated with Nataraj, a multimedia presentation of the time-cycle mythology that reflects India’s cultural world view. As music played and Kar read from an Indian text the story of creation, preservation and destruction, classical Indian dancer Jocelyn Gorum performed bharata natyam, visualizing the cycle that maintains the universe. Afterwards, a group returned to the Chapel to ceremonially dismantle the mandala, doing in microcosm the same creation, preservation and destruction cycle so beautifully expressed in the Indian myth.

Gita Kar’s residence was co-sponsored by the Department of Art and Art History and the Center of Excellence for Women and Spirituality with cooperation from Campus Ministries. It was part of the Arts and Religion in the Twin Cities Program with funding provided by the Henry Luce Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation.