A field of folded lotus flowers at the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival

Visual artist and Vipassana meditation practitioner Sabrina Mascarenhas has a unique contribution to the on-going Kala Ghoda Arts Festival this weekend: an installation of hundreds of handmade origami paper lotuses.

"At last this Saturday I will be able to see a wish fulfilled," Mascarenhas writes at her blog Turquoise Dreams. "Hundreds of lotuses planted in the earth."

"The lotus is a frequent leitmotif in my work," she says, "for what it symbolizes and its metaphysical associations. My art-practice runs parallel to my own journey on the path of dharma. It is an earnest effort where I not only read but have a practice to support it (Vipassana meditation mainly). This installation is a three-dimensional extension of being on the path." 

"When I first learned to make these lotuses I was filled with an urge to see them in an undulating mass, over a lawn, maybe. Through this installation I want to say to people, look, you don't have to go to some far away village to witness a pond or a lake filled with beautiful lotuses, to witness a lotus all you need to do is take a square piece of paper, sit quietly and fold."

"Opening its petals to full bloom is like awakening to the Buddha nature inside. An absolute symbol of enlightenment."

Sounds great. Just as long as the paper-wastage police don't pass through. 

Lotuses of the Floating World at Horniman Circle Garden between February 6-14, between 10am-10pm.