TAKE HOME TEMPLE CULTURE
“Take-home Temple Culture is a thing. From a mini Taj Mahal memento from a breathtaking visit to the source, to an in-home mandir (temple). My childhood home, like (I dare to assume) many other South Asians’, has a mandir. This is an abridged version of the vast ornate hindu temples found across India where devotees visit, often making extensive pilgrimages to worship. This bite-sized mandir is take-home temple culture. A place to make daily offerings and worship, connect and pay respects to the multi-limbed hindu deities which knowingly sit at your altar set up. I’ve rarely participated in this. Questioning if the mandir and its dwellers were mine to venerate.”
Mini Adorned Pillar No. 4 is symbolic of the stambha (pillar) that traditionally stand in front of the temple asserting its divine authority and celestial connection. In this context, it represents strength, support as expressed through Minaal’s ceramic vernacular.
Mini Adorned Pillar (No. 4) 2024
Ceramic, glaze, tuelle, organza silk
65 x 15 x 15cm
Mini Adorned Vessel No. 2 (Devotion) is Minaal’s version of a mandir, where the murti (idol of worship) is composed of her ceramic vernacular (the vessel, an object of utility) though in this context edified beyond a container.
Mini Adorned Vessel No. 2 (Devotion) 2024
Ceramic, glaze, tuelle, dyed cotton
44 x 22 x 22cm
Available