ABSTRACT
This chapter accounts for the development and realisation of Performative Formations. Performative Formations developed during the writing up of the authors doctoral thesis, and both projects were finalized in March 2009. This display constituted the entrance to the exhibition Performative Formations, and with the addition of pencils it invited the visitors to adopt a relaxed mode and participate in the continuation of the associative visualized wordplay. This could be described as a version of bhakti, the close relationship between a devotee and deity central to popular Hinduism in South India. The intense and repetitive stitching generated thoughts about further connections between kolam and the European tradition of making lace. A woman’s character was considered to be closely linked to her skills in kolam drawing, and well-made designs articulated the essential capacities for adjustment and self-control.
