Sand drawing (or sandroing in

Bislama Bislama (; ; also known by its earlier French name, ) is an English-based creole language and one of the official languages of Vanuatu. It is the first language of many of the "Urban ni-Vanuatu" (citizens who live in Port Vila and Luganville) ...

)"Sandroing"
Vanuatu Cultural Centre is a ni-

Vanuatu Vanuatu ( or ; ), officially the Republic of Vanuatu (french: link=no, République de Vanuatu; bi, Ripablik blong Vanuatu), is an island country located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is east of no ...

art Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas. There is no generally agreed definition of wha ...

istic and

ritual A ritual is a sequence of activities involving gestures, words, actions, or objects, performed according to a set sequence. Rituals may be prescribed by the traditions of a community, including a religious community. Rituals are characterized ...

tradition and practice, recognised by

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

as a

Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity The Proclamation of Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity was made by the Director-General of UNESCO starting in 2001 to raise awareness of intangible cultural heritage and encourage local communities to protect them and th ...

."Proclamation 2003: 'Vanuatu Sand Drawings'"
UNESCO"The National Action Plan for the Safeguarding of Sand Drawing"
, Vanuatu Cultural Centre Another form of art which implies drawing in the sand is

sandpainting Sandpainting is the art of pouring coloured sands, and powdered pigments from minerals or crystals, or pigments from other natural or synthetic sources onto a surface to make a fixed or unfixed sand painting. Unfixed sand paintings have a long es ...

, but this process also implies the coloring of sand to create a colorful environment on a small or a large scale.

Description

Sand drawing is produced in

sand Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided mineral particles. Sand has various compositions but is defined by its grain size. Sand grains are smaller than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a textural class o ...

volcanic ash Volcanic ash consists of fragments of rock, mineral crystals, and volcanic glass, created during volcanic eruptions and measuring less than 2 mm (0.079 inches) in diameter. The term volcanic ash is also often loosely used to refer ...

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4). Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...

. It consists of "a continuous meandering line on an imagined grid to produce a graceful, often symmetrical, composition of geometric patterns". The artist's implement is a single

finger A finger is a limb of the body and a type of digit, an organ of manipulation and sensation found in the hands of most of the Tetrapods, so also with humans and other primates. Most land vertebrates have five fingers ( Pentadactyly). Chambers ...

. UNESCO describes sand drawing as: Artists such as

Pablo Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...

were known for drafting their visual ideas in the sand. Norman Joseph Woodland, inventor of the

barcode A barcode or bar code is a method of representing data in a visual, machine-readable form. Initially, barcodes represented data by varying the widths, spacings and sizes of parallel lines. These barcodes, now commonly referred to as linear or o ...

, came up with his invention by drawing it in the sand.

Correlated forms of art

Sand drawings are associated with the Indian

sand mandala Sand mandala (; ) is a Tibetan Buddhist tradition involving the creation and destruction of mandalas made from colored sand. Once complete, the sand mandala's ritualistic dismantling is accompanied by ceremonies and viewing to symbolize Budd ...

s because of the geometry-driven shapes it delivers through the manipulation of sand. The work of making patterns in the sand with a rake is also evocative of the

Karesansui The or Japanese rock garden, often called a zen garden, is a distinctive style of Japanese garden. It creates a miniature stylized landscape through carefully composed arrangements of rocks, water features, moss, pruned trees and bushes, and us ...

practice in traditional Japanese rock gardens, and of the large scale

Nazca Lines The Nazca Lines are a group of geoglyphs made in the soil of the Nazca Desert in southern Peru. They were created between 500 BCE and 500 CE by people making depressions or shallow incisions in the desert floor, removing pebbles and l ...

in Peru. Since the traditional art of sand drawing is so precisely geometrical, academic research is being led to associate the (ethno-) mathematical patterns held in this art, and correlate it with modern mathematics to get a sense of the potential scientific knowledge carried by the builders of the civilizations practicing it. The ancient Greek mathematician studying geometry by drawing figures in the sand also leads to the idea that traditional Sandroings convey much more than a pleasing visual effect.

Vanuatu (Sandroings)

The Vanuatu Cultural Centre has noted that the spirit of sand drawing tends to disappear, only a few practitioners still master the special techniques of sand drawing. Nowadays, this form of art is mainly used as a graphic layout for advertising or tourism ends, and its original sense and purpose is getting lost. A National Action Plan for the Safeguarding of Sand Drawing has been initiated by the Centre, together with the Save Sand Drawings Action Committee; the programme is sponsored by UNESCO. The project notably led to a National Sand Drawing Festival, as from 2004. The Turaga indigenous movement based on

Pentecost Island Pentecost Island is one of the 83 islands that make up the South Pacific nation of Vanuatu. It lies due north of capital Port Vila. Pentecost Island is known as in French and in Bislama. The island was known in its native languages by ...

write using

Avoiuli Avoiuli (from Raga 'talk about' and 'draw' or 'paint') is a writing system used by the Turaga indigenous movement on Pentecost Island in Vanuatu. It was devised by Chief Viraleo Boborenvanua over a 14-year period, based on designs found in t ...

, an alphabet inspired by designs found in traditional sand drawings. Sand drawing is interpreted as a key visual medium in a country where more than 100 languages are spoken.

Pitjantjatjara (Milpatjunanyi)

In the

Pitjantjatjara dialect Pitjantjatjara (; or ) is a dialect of the Western Desert language traditionally spoken by the Pitjantjatjara people of Central Australia. It is mutually intelligible with other varieties of the Western Desert language, and is particularly ...

of North Central Australia, the word ''Milpatjunanyi'' means "the art of telling stories in the sand". In this culture, the storytellers, often women, have a ritual approach to the process, using a stick that is first pressed against the body to create a connection, and also used as a drumstick to bring musical rhythm to the story. The sand drawing communication technique is also used in schools.

Artists

Non-traditional artists

* Jim Denevan, American chef and artist from the surf culture, creates large scale sand drawing on California beaches during low tides. *

Andres Amador Andres Amador is an American artist, known for his large-scale organic sand drawings. Early years He grew up in San Francisco and received a BA in Environmental Science. He joined the Peace Corps and then became a computer technician. In 1999, h ...

, American computer technician turned sand artist, draws large-scale organic patterns on beaches, mainly in the Pacific. * Andrew Magdy, Egyptian lawyer turned sand artist, draws precise small-scale work on glass boards. *

Michael Heizer Michael Heizer (born 1944) is an American land artist specializing in large-scale and site-specific sculptures. Working largely outside the confines of the traditional art spaces of galleries and museums, Heizer has redefined sculpture in terms ...

, American land artist who created large scale sand drawings in the Nevada desert with the trail of his motorcycle (Double Negative, 1969-1970). *

Andy Goldsworthy Andy Goldsworthy (born 26 July 1956) is an English sculptor, photographer, and environmentalist who produces site-specific sculptures and land art situated in natural and urban settings. Early life Goldsworthy was born in Cheshire on 26 Ju ...

, British land artist, author of ''Dark Dry Sand Drawing'' in 1987, which inspired a generation of Western sand artists.

Technologies

In 2015, the

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

corporation launched the ''BeachBot'', a robot designed to make large-scale sand drawings. The robot fills a 30-square-foot with drawings from Disney's most popular movies.

References

{{UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, state=collapsed Vanuatuan culture Drawing Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity Sand art