13. A Chain of Roses

Flowers, in particular roses, are sensitive to touch and tend to loose their petals easily. I wanted to capture this fragility in a series of drawings. I drew the same simple object, a rose garland, as it changes shape through my touch, and simultaneously looses petals, which I re-integrated into the drawing. Whatever falls off turns into a basis for a new constellation. In my drawings, the rose malas look like cells, but I leave their development undetermined. They are not complete, just suspended in time, caught on a piece of paper. Their transformation could continue at any moment. Red strings through my hands, again.

This first step of reduction to the cell level was a good preparation for my installation and the video work with the strings made of saris, which I would wrap around my neck and body like a giant mala.