Kadi Tombak has brought together calligraphy and geometry in her art form. Her works are inspired by Hindu and Buddhist traditional wisdom, holy songs, and sacred architecture, presented in a contemporary visual interpretation. She writes texts in a circular movement on paper around an architectural symbol.

We can speak here about sacred art as functional art – works that can be used practically for reflection and have a mind-cleansing effect, like art in general. Consciously contemplating whatever visions for an extended period of time becomes, in a way, a part of meditation in itself, where the mind rests on a single experience of the present moment. The works invite us to rediscover the link between ancient teachings and today’s audience.

Kadi Tombak draws on her personal knowledge of sacred symbols and mantras to create her art. For seven years from 2014, she lived on the island of Bali, where she immersed herself in Hinduism and Buddhism, working with the high priests and holy men and women of Bali. 

Kadi’s works depict mantras, incantations, chanting circles, wheels on the walls, to which the viewer adds wind and momentum. She has taken a particular interest in the teachings of the Vedas and Buddha, and the symbols of inherited wisdom to make them visible to the world today. She is fascinated by the order and peace of sacred geometry and the eloquence of its symbols.

Kadi herself calls her works yantras, or sacral geometric discs. Yantra means a set of symbols that acts as an instrument with a specific function, which Kadi considers her works to be – an instrument that creates bridges between past and present experience to connect them across time.

In her ongoing theological studies, Kadi has been most interested in Advaita Vedanta belonging to the Vedic school of thought and the teachings of Buddha. In Bali, her particular area of research involved the priests’ means of communication between the visible and invisible worlds.  

The collection of works exhibited at Haus Gallery is a delicate handicraft, formed within the framework of the author’s own choosing, to emphasise the hand and thought that goes into the whole process. The works form a direct result of Kadi’s seven-year pilgrimage and commitment to Buddhist heritage, which encouraged her to bring sacral geometry as a geometry of consciousness into her creative expression, making it visible in a personalised way.

The exhibition is supported by: Klaasissepp and ArtSmart

Exhibition videos made by Nando Garcelli:

Hand Made And Manifesting

Sry Yantra Wheel 

Buddha Temple