Photography by: Praveen Sahay

Festival of Colors- Holi

This traditional illustration depicts Krishna, hero of the Hindu epic Mahabharata, celebrating Holi with his divine consort, Radha. Squirt guns loaded with dyed water are used to douse celebrants with color, a playful tradition that continues to this day.

Sunanda Sahay, Festival of Colors- Holi, 2015. Acrylic on fabric. ©Sunanda Sahay. All rights reserved.

Sunanda Sahay

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Holi (Sanskrit: होली Holī) is a Hindu spring festival that is celebrated across the Indian subcontinent and by the greater South Asian diaspora across the world. Aside from being the festival of colors, Holi is a time to celebrate unbridled joy, love, and the triumph of good over evil. Through visual art, this installation highlights some of the spirit and traditions associated with Holi such as throwing colored powdered and spraying colored water through pichkari at friends and family and poojas (religious ceremonies).  

This collection is the result of generous donations from the Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, the MGH Department of Dermatology, and the MGH Employee Resource Group Leaders Group.

Other work from Holi