EACH time Minaal Lawn walks into an art gallery, or a Hindu temple, she feels a similar sense of contentment.<\/p>\n
Expanding on this feeling, the Indian-Australian ceramic artist has created an exhibition for the Art Gallery of Ballarat\u2019s Backspace called Objects of Worship<\/em>.<\/p>\n The room has become an \u201cabstracted temple,\u201d with Lawn reimagining traditional details.<\/p>\n \u201cElements that you find in Hindu temple architecture have taken on the forms of my work, and I\u2019ve transposed them into this space,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cKnuckle stacks are a form I\u2019ve been making for a while, and in this context, they represent guardians of the temple, which are ominous structures you walk past.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s always a lot of wall adornment and pure decoration, and a central deity which is the main thing you\u2019re worshipping.\u201d<\/p>\n Lawn has created and installed 413 knots on the wall, symbolic of a tradition at a temple located not far from the Taj Mahal.<\/p>\n \u201cYou tie knotted fabric on the lattice exterior of the temple, and that\u2019s to bring you blessings for children,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n The show is inspired by the style of the late Indian contemporary sculptor Mrinalini Mukherjee, and it pays homage to her.<\/p>\n \u201cShe was practicing in the 1970s, used to make floor-to-ceiling sculptures out of knotted fabrics, and was completely independent,\u201d Lawn said.<\/p>\n \u201cShe was an amazing woman, wearing a sari and hanging out with all the men in art school. I found a real synergy between her art practice and her independent spirit, and the fact that she was an Indian woman trying to do something that wasn\u2019t the cultural norm.<\/p>\n \u201cThe central deity in my exhibition, in a very abstracted way, is Mrinalini Mukherjee, who I am revering. I hope her energy is felt.\u201d<\/p>\n Lawn\u2019s creative background is rooted in fashion design, and she said it developed her understanding of colour and texture.<\/p>\n Exploring ceramics as a hobby once her three children arrived, it became her \u201cprimary vocation,\u201d and she now has a home studio in the Hepburn Shire.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" EACH time Minaal Lawn walks into an art gallery, or a Hindu temple, she feels a similar sense of contentment. Expanding on this feeling, the Indian-Australian ceramic artist has created an exhibition for the Art Gallery of Ballarat\u2019s Backspace called Objects of Worship. The room has become an \u201cabstracted temple,\u201d with Lawn reimagining traditional details. […]<\/p>\n