2015

Mandala of Desires (Blue Lotus Wish Tree), 2015.

Eco Friendly Textile Ink on Peace Silk

120 x 160 x 250 cm

The Mandala of Desires is an interactive art installation and the second in Mandali Mendrilla’s Wish Tree Dress series. With this dress, Mandali Mendrilla introduces a revolutionary design concept called Yantra Couture™ wherein each garment is created to reflect a unique geometric pattern, intuitively created by the designer to reflect the ethereal vibration of its mood board based on principles of sacred geometry. The pattern of the Mandala of Desires is constructed according to the Goloka Yantra diagram and the lotus with a thousand petals (sahara patra kamalam) described in the first three verses of the fifth chapter of Sri Brahma Samhita, that are painted on the dress in Devanagari script.

Click here to discover Mandali’s diary entry revealing the meditation behind the sculpture dress.

Art curator, Sushma K. Bahl, writes about the “Mandala of Desires” (Blue Lotus Wish Tree):
“A fashion designer, creative artist, and environmentalist; Mandali Mendrilla is a multi-talented artist, also engaged in a spiritual pursuit. Her interactive installation of “Mandala of Desires” (Blue Lotus Wish Tree), takes its inspiration from the tradition of votive offering to seek divine blessings as practiced in India and other parts of the world. The beautiful dress as mandala of desire is made in non-violent silk and as per the Goloka Yantra diagram and the lotus with sahastra patra kamalam (thousand petals) described in the first three verses of the fifth chapter of Sri Brahma Samhita. Painted over in Devanagari script, the visitors add to it. They paint/draw/write their messages on the dress or on pieces of paper, which are then taken and tied to a tree in Vrindavan, India, seeking a fulfillment of their wishes while also highlighting the cyclic nature of life.”

The Mandala of Desires is now part of the permanent collection of the Belgian MOSA museum.

The sculpture was displayed at the China Art Museum in Shanghai from November 16th 2015 to February 21st 2016, as part of the Forms of Devotion exhibition curated by Sushma K. Bahl and Archana Sapra. Visitors were invited to paint/draw/write their messages which were offered to a genuine wish tree in Vrindavan, India, for all wishes to come true.

In the first few hours after the exhibition opening, over 3000 people placed their wishes on the dress. The exhibition in Shanghai continued to receive thousands of visitors every day and was reported to have been seen by over half a million people.

During the exhibition at the China Art Museum in Shanghai, over a 100 000 wishes were gathered on the dress. They were brought to a genuine wish tree growing at the Kaliya Ghat in Vrindavan, India, on March 6th 2016.

From October 13th 2016. – January 2017., Mandala of Desires appeared at CONDE DUQUE in Madrid, Spain, as part of the Forms of Devotion exhibition.

Invitation to the showing in Madrid:

“Mandala of Desires” in Madrid – short video by Param P. Tomanec: