Rice Art

I grew up going to fairs and random outdoor events where a key attraction always seemed to be getting one's name written on a grain of rice. This feat of control & extraordinary vision is apparently an ancient tradition and a 2000 year old specimen  (that I have yet to visit) is on display at the Topkapi Palace Museum in Istanbul. Blik, an LA based graphic company, has created contemporary uses of this canvas with their beautiful & quirky "rice skins."

At the other end of the scale spectrum would be Japanese crop art where different varieties of rice paddy are planted in patterns. When they grow, the leaves are different colours and the carefully crafted image becomes visible.

Mandalas are Hindu & Buddhist designs made with either sand or rice that may be coloured or not. Creating a mandala is a kind of meditative process and the destruction of the circular & geometric image can symbolize a breaking of attachment to material things and that which we create.

I've seen many installations using rice in different forms: cooked glutinous rice used as sculpting material, rice noodles crafted together, rice paper kites and even school projects of gluing rice to bits of coloured construction paper in patterns. It is indeed a versatile medium!