We decided to celebrate by showcasing an everyday artform practiced in the warm embrace of culture, tradition and history. Walking along any residential streets of South India its common to find the entryways of every household decorated with intricate geometric patterns consisting of dots and lines with white/Rice powder like substance – this traditional art form is called Kolam.
Kolam (Tamil: கோலம், Malayalam: കോലം, Kannada: ಕೋಲಂ) has been practiced for the past 5000 years in and around south india. Drawing these beautiful patterns at dawn every day is auspicious and invites prosperity, giving a positive start to the day. According to local beliefs, it has a cleansing and calming effect on the mind and body.
Traditionally these designs are drawn with rice flour that double as food for the ants, birds and even the smallest insects. Hence, becoming a symbol of harmonious co-existance between human and nature.
To celebrate this beautiful concept we at Design Matter have created a bird feeder, a sanctuary, a social hub. Revolving the form around the selected kolam pattern and extruding it to allow feeding stations at varying levels.
Apart from this we wanted to play with the shadows casted by this piece, as this piece would primarily be placed outdoors, we wanted to maximize how the shadows played with the kolam design. Strategically adding circular voids on the feeder panels, recreates the kolam design on the shadow casted.
Each level of the bird feeding station is equipped with an inbuilt feeding container and a coconut that doubles as a water container. Coconut again finds itself deep in the history, culture & cuisnes of south india, making it a perfect addition to the piece.
Finally the product is equipped with a planter box at the top, which ties closely to how, in some households, kolam is drawn in front of the tulasi (Holy Basil) plant. It has its own deep-rooted religious and traditional significance.
The colors used has been picked from the bright saturated colors traditionally used in rangolis commonly seen during various festivities in India. Hence this piece provides food, water, shade and greenery for public spaces, backyards, private balconies.
The product can be scaled up further by extending the central channel and adding additional feeder panels based on requirement.