12. Flower Garlands

In my studio I tried to maintain my own world. I had prepared well for the stay in India, and had planned to work with simple material, which plays a dominant role in daily life. Apart from the saris, I focussed on flower garlands, which are brought into the city by the thousands every day - thick bundles wrapped in old saris, carried by women on their heads. Once in town, they spread the saris the roadside, lay out the garlands and wait for their customers.

I always try to imagine the enormous work involved in garland making: how the thousands of roses, tagetes, lotus, jasmin and other flowers who's names I don't know, are planted, watered, grown, cut and lined up on strings. These malas, as they are called, are used in every day life in varying contexts.

They decorate gods and godesses, shrines, entrances, dead bodies, they are gifted and hung around human necks in appreciation. I was overjoyed when my student girls in Sarnath presented me with five tagetes blossom malas as a farewell gesture.

These flower garlands embody «vanitas» for me: a fast withering decoration, an obvious symbol of impermanence, worn on our bodies, to which mortality matters most.