When I show these works of art by Jitish Kallat to kids at the Winnipeg Art Gallery they always think they must be star maps. The children are quite surprised when I tell them they are really raindrop maps or designs. The artist Jitish Kallat calls them Rain Studies. He makes them during the monsoon season in Mumbai, India.
Kallat uses watercolor pencils to make dark circles on woven paper. Then during rain showers he steps outside and holds up the paper to the sky, allowing rain to fall on it for a certain number of breath cycles. A breath cycle is breathing in and then out. The raindrops leave an imprint on the dark circle and he sprays it to preserve it and then wipes the paper dry. 
In these three pieces, you can see how the length of time Kallat remains outside makes a difference in the designs. Kallat has noted the number of breath cycles he held each circle up to the rain. The first one was for two breath cycles, the second for four and the third for seven. Kallat uses a BC abbreviation and he pencils in the number of breath cycles by each dark circle. He also records the time and date of each rain study. 
During some of the rain studies, it must have been raining quite hard and in others, quite lightly. The images do look very starlike, almost like astronomical charts. 
Kallat says in a New York Times interview that nature makes the artwork. He doesn’t.
Kallat’s Rain Studies are part of the current Vision Exchange exhibit at the Winnipeg Art Gallery. It closes in just a couple of weeks so if you haven’t seen it already you want to be sure to go before summer ends.
Other posts about the Vision Exchange exhibit……..
Did you know you are looking at a conversation? This beautiful wool carpet is woven through with metalized thread. It is called The Necessity of Infinity and was created by the Raqs Media Collective consisting of artists Monica Narula, Jeebesh Bagchi, and Shuddhabrata Sengupta. Their carpet serves as a stage for a conversation between two great Persian scholars who lived in the 10th century.
The silver threads in the carpet represent the words of Ibn Sina the author of more than 450 books most of them about medicine and healing. He is often called the Father of Modern Medicine. Iba Sina was also very interested in, and knowledgeable about, mathematics, astronomy, and philosophy. 
When The Necessity of Infinity was on display at the 
There are many thought provoking reflections in the book. Here are a three I really appreciated. 
Jahan’s closest relationship in life is with an elephant named Chota. Jahan arrives in Istanbul as Chota’s keeper and immediately sets about saving Chota’s life. I am not necessarily a big animal lover and will admit that I’ve never understood the deep love some people have for their pets, but I was quite taken with the way Jahan and Chota care for one another, know each other so well, come to one another’s defense, respect each other and provide each other with solace and comfort at crucial times. 
And finally at the end of the book Jahan travels to Agra India to help design and build the dome for the Taj Mahal. I have been to the Taj Mahal and my husband made me pose for this photo where I am appearing to hold up the magnificent structure by the top of the dome. 
What Next? 