One of the more popular festivals celebrated by Indian people across the world came to the Art Gallery of Ballarat on Thursday.
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Local artist Anindita Banerjee, who currently has an exhibition entitled Ondormohol as part of the Ballarat International Foto Biennale, spent the spring afternoon creating an intricate image on the Lydiard Street path outside the gallery's doors.
Ms Banerjee was celebrating Diwali, a period of great cultural and religious significance on the Indian calendar.
Ms Banerjee explained the drawings served particular purposes.
"There are two types of drawings," Ms Banerjee said. "One is a more ornamental drawing to let people know there is some celebration happening inside. If there is any special occasion happening inside, whether it's prayers, someone's birthday, or celebration of a marriage, we would do this.
"That's a way to please the gods and attract wealth to the house. It is asking for prosperity, not just for us, but for future generations. It's a painted prayer.
"Then, there is a ritualistic kind which is drawn inside when you offer prayers."
The alpona, the term for the design, is made from rice flour and water. In India's past, women would spend time in front of their houses drawing every evening. However, the work of art was not meant for eternity.
"By the next morning, it would be obliterated," Ms Banerjee said.
"Insects and birds would be eating them so (the request for prosperity was) spread."
According to Ms Banerjee, older females instruct younger females about the skill.
"Every Indian who has grown up in India will have learnt it from their mums and their grandmums," she said.
"It's a knowledge which is passed on through generations."
Peter Freund, marketing and public programs officer of the Art Gallery of Ballarat, has clearly been taken with Ms Banerjee's creations which are on display inside the hallowed halls.
"In some ways, the exhibition is relatively simple," he said.
"Then, once you start looking, it becomes more and more complex."
Mr Freund outlined the insightful works relate to Ms Banerjee's past life and her present existence. Photographs have been taken around Ballarat and alponas have been worked into the images.
"Anindita's exhibition explores aspects of her being an Indian-born Australian living in Ballarat and having resonances of the environment, the buildings, the Victorian grandeur of parts of Ballarat linking to Calcutta and the place she's left," he said.
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