The Spiros Project

Peaceful Abode

2007-02-05T03:14:00.000-06:00

I spent January in and around Calcutta—City of Joy and India’s self-proclaimed cultural capital—learning about the West Bengal art scene and writing an article for Fine Art Magazine on the same. Calcutta is as close to a European (or rather, British) city that you’ll find in India owing to its Londonesque layout and architecture, and it was comfortable in many ways and perhaps too comfortable in some ways as well. I also purchased and equipped a 1999 Royal Enfield Bullet 350cc motorcycle (click for photo) which will serve as my main transportation for the remainder of my time in India. Realizing that my India voyage could easily slip away in a cloud of Calcutta art gallery openings, music festivals (both jazz and Indian classical music festivals in January), parking hassles, and the city’s notoriously polluted air, I took the bike on it’s “maiden” long (200km/132 mile)* ride last Sunday to reach Shantiniketan (Peaceful Abode), where Nobel Prize-winning poet and (later) painter Rabindranath Tagore founded his school and then university.

Shantiniketan was recommended as a stop on my trip by Tawatchai Somkong in Thailand who was the first Thai artist to study his MFA here. He was followed by his friend and co-publisher of Fine Art magazine, Alongkorn Lauwatthana, and then by a succession of Thai artists who continue to lend/add to the diversity of the Institute of Fine Arts (Kala Bhavana) at the Visva Bharati (Place where the World Will be One) University.

While Tagore is not a household name in the West, his influence in Indian, and particularly West Bengali thought, is immense. Tagore (1861-1941) was an internationally celebrated mystic, humanist, poet, composer, lyricist, singer, educator, playwright, novelist, and, later in life, founder and inspiration of the West Bengal school of painting, a naturalistic style with roots in the countryside of Bolpur. Though Tagore was born to a wealthy Calcutta family, his inspiration came from village life, and his school was designed to revive the forest ashram tradition in education. Tagore and Rudolph Steiner probably could be discussed in parallel as sources of enlightened thought and writings that influence successive generations of progressive thinkers, and whose appreciation of the interdependence of humans and their natural environment stood out. The first Nobel Laureate in Asia, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913 for his book of poems “Gitanjali” (Song Offering), his first work published in English in 1912. Knighted by the King of England in 1915, he renounced the title in 1919 in protest over a British Army massacre of peaceful protesters in Amritsar. At age 70, Tagore’s first exhibition of paintings was held in Paris and then throughout the continent.

The University he founded is also where I had the pleasure of finding Dr. Janak Jhankarnarzary, Chair of the Dept. of Art History and a talented sculptor whose work is very much in line with the Spiros Project’s line of inqury.

Let me backtrack for just a minute to explain that India’s contemporary art world is booming, and Calcutta is one of the centers of the boom. Fueled by a rapidly growing economy and newfound interest among investors, India has joined the world stage of nations with a significant fine art presence at auction and in the homes of collectors. A new generation of “art investors” have joined established collectors to propel India’s current generation of artists to newfound fame and art prices to new highs. In this Go-Go environment, Indian contemporary art is becoming less different from the rest of the world—more abstract, and more commercially aware. In this environment, the number of artists with a genuine interest in spirituality appears to be shrinking.

With this backdrop, it was a great relief to meet Dr. Jhankarnarzary, whose unique sculptural works elegantly reveal an authentic spiritual inquiry centered around the translation of primordial space into unique physical manifestations. By primordial space I refer to the vastness of the infinite, out of which (in Vedic and non-dual spiritual traditions) phenomena and physical forms arise. Janak approaches these questions beginning with the OM- the original cosmic vibration/ sound that, in Vedic philosophy, forms and attunes matter with the basic point of origin. This orientation developed studying Hindu philosophy as an undergraduate, and his sculptural works have successively tackled the difficult task(s) of exploring the vital force of life (a theme throughout his work); situating the human consciousness in the vastness of the infinite; exploring the dichotomy and power imbalance between the human and Divine aspects of the feminine; and exploring the five elemental forces.

These two earlier pieces- both from the 1970s- deal directly with the question of situating the human consciousness in a vast space out of which all phenomena arise. I find the treatment of the limits of human vision very interesting in the first. The second is more conceptual, perhaps, focusing more on the way that events arise out of this vastness.

This third image is from work on the Divine Feminine from the early 1990s. One might raise the question of whether a male artist should approach this theme so directly, but I think the observation is an honest one, at least, and the work interesting.

Finally, two pieces that say something about the life force itself through pretty innovative installations. Janak explained that on the first day(s) of the exhibition in which these pieces were shown, he watered the (dry) seeds that comprise the outer ring. By about the seventh day of the exhibition, they had sprouted and the pieces were, literally, filled with life.

The honest exploration and depth of Janak's gentle, whimsical, and non-didactic inquiry leads me to think of his work as adhering to a Karmic tradition-- in the sense that none of these works refers to the details or "facts" of a particular religious narrative, but all of them help the viewer better understand some of the elemental forces of the universe and shed light on basic questions of existence. After a bit of a hiatus from spiritually-focused art, Janak was a great find. Specifics from his interview will be posted shortly in the artists' directory.

So...now in South India, Pondicherry to be specific, and set to begin meeting artists here tomorrow. There may be at least a few new updates in the coming weeks...hopefully they will cheer your February.

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*For those of you unimpressed by this description of a “long”ride, a note: 132 miles on Indian highways took about 4 ½ hours. Average cruising speed of around 37 mph, falling to 5mph often. Sketchy road conditions, dodging oncoming traffic and the occasional cow, and recently re-built engine limiting speed.

India: Engima with Flowers…

2006-12-21T01:33:00.000-06:00

Happy Holidays to everyone from Varanasi, India, Hinduism’s holiest city, sprawled along the West bank of the Ganges River. Varanasi (formerly Banares, from British times) —a city where Shiva (the Hindu Deity of destruction/renewal/transformation) is constantly worshipped—for many contains the archetypical Indian experience. The medieval old city is a network of alleys populated by small temples, silk vendors, small restaurants, music academies, vedic astrologers, cows, goats, neighborhood water spouts, and garbage. The riverside, where pilgrims bathe, bodies are cremated and ashes scattered, and where people seeking salvation come to die, provides almost endless opportunities for contemplation of the meaning of life. When Mark Twain visited Varanasi, he wrote something to the effect of, “the Parthenon, the Coliseum…Varanasi is just as old and looks twice as ancient.” Walking through this city, the quintessential scents of India are upon you. It is truly amazing that the electricity works for the five or six brief hours a day that it does, and that the city has not been wiped out by plague in recent memory.

After nearly a month traveling (for recreation and photography) in the Rajasthan and Punjab states of northwest India, and to cities including Agra, Jaipur, Udaipur, Jodhpur, Jaiselmer and Amritsar, research on contemporary spiritual art re-started here in Varanasi. On Sunday, I had the pleasure of meeting and interviewing Dr. Anjan Chakraverty, who is a professor of Art History at Benares Hindu University and a talented painter working in what has been described as the Visionary tradition of spiritually-influenced art.

Dr. Chakraverty’s work—layers of pen sketch, watercolor, gouache, varnish, various techniques borrowed from printmaking, and embellished with miniaturist detail invoking Rajasthani artistic traditions, was a refreshing start to research in India. Hindu symbols are present to suggest or invoke, but the totality of the image tells a much more personal story of the individual’s spiritual journey, so the images of the Devi (Goddess) and the Saddhu (Wandering Seeker) are portrayed in metaphoric narration of the individual’s spiritual journey—scenes of meditation in the ivory tower isolated from a disarticulated nature (The Monastic Cage, 1999), the imprisonment by ritual symbols (Ritual Bound, 1999), and the dance of life interacting with nature (The Orchid Grove, 2004).

Chakraverty’s attention to naturalistic detail beyond the simple invocation of lotus flowers also reveals a sensitivity to life itself as the ultimate spiritual narrative. This sets Chakraverty closer to the great Indian mystic tradition of Rabindranath Tagore, who was highly attuned to the interdependence of the natural and human-made world, than to the Tantric or Iconic art with tendencies towards self-referential images. Central to this enterprise is Chakraverty’s intention to dissolve the specificity of symbols in the singular state of mind of love, peace, and passion…mystical ecstasy. Says Chakraverty, “This is the zone where spiritual aspirations bloom into the higher lotus out of which I find completion.”

The next stop is Calcutta (Kolkata post-independence), high-culture center of post-independence India where, Chakraverty declared, “they will die for art.” As the former British Imperial capital of India and the seat of the Indian independence movement, Calcutta promises to be a bastion of contradictions—high art and high rates of poverty alongside each other. Nearby is Shantinektan, where Tagore founded his university town—perhaps India’s “Princeton” is a good analogy. I plan to visit the Bela Academy of Art and Culture in Calcutta where Chakraverty has shown, and to follow a few more leads provided by Dr. Banerji and by Tawatchai Somkong as I spend Christmas in Calcutta.

That’s all for now. More on India travels and the road so far next time.

Destination, India

2006-11-12T16:25:00.000-06:00

Welcome back to the Spiros Project Blog. As many of you know, I’ve been back in the States for the past four months after a very successful first trip to Southeast Asia, where I focused on contemporary spiritual art in Thailand and Bali, Indonesia. Many of the artists I met on the last trip are now listed in the new Artists Directory. Take a browse—this directory just went live last week and will continue to grow.

My next destination is India— the cradle of world spirituality—where, along with Nepal, I’m expecting to spend the coming six months. On Tuesday evening I’ll get on a plane bound for New Delhi (from Chicago) and get started on Phase II.

India is in the throes of globalization and rapid economic development, and the majority of contemporary artworks that are garnering international attention deal with issues more common to the western art world—globalization, national and individual identity vis the media, gender issues, etc. According to many I’ve spoken with, there is a turning away from spiritual art, at the very time that the west is looking more intensively towards the East for spiritual inspiration and insight. Nonetheless, I expect to find that those who continue to work on spiritual themes, with declared spiritual intent, and in communities of mystic and spiritual practice to have interesting things to say through their artworks. There is also a relatively large community of Western artists treating spiritual themes in their work living in India today, and these too will be an important component of this phase of work.

My research on India suggests that the most active areas for contemporary spiritual art—at least that which is known in the West—is concentrated in Benares (aka Varnassi, Hinduism’s holiest city), in West Bengal (Calcutta and Santineketan), and in the area near Chennai (formerly Madras), where the Sri Aurobindo Ashram (Pondicherry), the Auroville community, and the communities near Arunachala/Trivunamali have attracted and launched a number of recognized artists who create works dealing in spiritual themes. So, after some time exploring Rajasthan in November and early December, I’ll head east from New Delhi to Kolkata and then south towards Chennai (Madras), perhaps stopping in Puri (Orissa) on the way South. Following what I expect to be a few weeks near Chennai, I will continue southwest into Kerala and then turn north towards Goa, where I look forward to a week or so of rest. From Goa I’ll head to the Mumbai area, where I hope to visit the Ganeshpuri Ashram and Osho Dam, two communities that have had (and passed) their moments of notoriety, but where art and spirituality continue to intermingle…by design.

From Mumbai I expect to head back to Delhi and then to Nepal, where a concentration of contemporary Himalayan artists (especially Vajrayana Buddhist thangka and neo-tantric artists) are apparently working. One gallery in Katmandu also represents a number of Tibetan artists of note.

Following time in Nepal, I will return to Delhi and travel to Rishikesh, cradle of yoga, and then to the far-north country where part of the Tibetan exile community is concentrated. I’ll visit Dharamasala but am particularly looking forward to Mandi/ Rewalsar Lake, where Lama Wangdor Rimpoche, a much beloved Tibetan master, heads a community of monks that educates and cares for young Tibetan refugees, as well as providing a spiritual community.

Of course, this could all change or be re-organized quickly. From what I hear, India has that effect on travelers, and is a challenging and unpredictable place. I’m nervous—moreso than prior to leaving for Thailand last winter—but also very excited to visit India.

I want to send out thanks to a couple of people who have helped get me prepared for this voyage. First, Debashish Banerji, Ph.D. a Los Angeles-based expert in Indian art expert who curated “Divine Carriers,” the last comprehensive look at Indian contemporary spiritual art in 1996, and more recently… I would also like to thank Barbara Matilsky, Curator of Exhibitions at the Ackland Art Museum at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. The Ackland Museum’s Five Faiths Project has been exploring the art of Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism since 1999. Both Debashish and Barbara provided a lot of great information and suggestions that helped greatly in planning this trip.

And of course, to my many supportive friends and associates in Washington, Chapel Hill, Lawrence, and elsewhere, thanks for the encouragement and support. I’ll miss all of you!

If anyone has suggestions, contacts, or knowledge they’d like to share about India, please leave comments or e-mail me at spiros at spirosproject dot com. I’d love to hear from you all!

For those of you just joining, I’ve put in a gallery of images collected so far below, mainly from Thailand and Indonesia.

Images from the Spiros Project So Far

2006-11-12T13:20:00.000-06:00

Flash Slideshow

Bali and Back

2006-07-03T12:58:00.000-05:00

Yes, friends and readers, it has been a very very long time since my last entry on this blog.

In my last post, I announced that Fine Art Magazine of Thailand had requested three articles outlining what I had found in my research so far. In the end, it will be one long article appearing in the August 2006 issue. Writing this—perhaps I’d call it premature digestion—felt like two months, but in fact it was finished inside of three weeks and is now in the hands of the publisher. I’ve posted an advanced copy of the article here.

Have I been idle? No, definitely not. I’ve been from Chiang Mai to Bangkok, back to Koh Phangan, to Singapore, Jakarta and Bali, Indonesia, and now am back in Bangkok. Perhaps travel fatigue could be an excuse, but this is also not really the case. Lack of convenient internet access and full-on cultural disorientation in Indonesia are the excuses I’m sticking to. Delays have been aggravated by a nasty burn on my ankle from a motorbike tailpipe, lots of uncertainty about where I would be next, and work on the next phase of this website, which will include a searchable database of artists, are also part of the story.

In the course of this time I have met two great artists in Bali, shot a book for one, learned a new country, and spent the last few weeks of my trip working with Michael Messner on developing the concept and presentation for a new art museum project in Bangkok- a great opportunity, as Michael and his father Artist Ernst Fuchs are extremely involved in the world of Phantastic and Spiritual Art in Europe and Asia.

But back to the travels…While working on the article for Fine Art, I traveled to Indonesia on May 15 and spent four days in Jakarta before continuing on to Ubud, Bali. Bali is Indonesia’s most popular tourism destination, a land of beautiful beaches, mountains, and highland lakes. Unlike the rest of Muslim Indonesia, Bali is predominantly Hindu, and the island is so steeped in ritual- dance, music, festivals, etc.—that it is undoubtedly a very spiritual place. From the spirit houses that grace every family compound and public space to the daily offerings to the spirits made by households and businesses, to the frequent temple rituals including elaborate cremations, Balinese culture is steeped in its spiritualism. Here’s a picture of a temple dance ceremony I attended with one of the artists. I was happy to be the only tourist at this celebration, whereas others I attended were either designed for but empty of tourists or packed with them.

I chose to explore Bali at the urging of many artists I had met along the way who reported that among Southeast Asian places, Ubud Bali is one of the most important. On arriving in Ubud, it was clear that the place lived and breathed art. While I have many good things to say about Ubud, I had to admit that the art scene surprised me: as dense as it was, there were really very few serious fine artists making original contemporary artworks concerned with or inspired by spiritual themes. Bali’s island culture is steeped in art and craft, to be sure, and the handicrafts and carvings, for example, are second-to-none. Yet, with a few very notable exceptions, what I found in Bali was an art-culture obsessed with its own Balinese-ness: dozens if not hundreds of artists painting about Bali, and dozens more doing copies (or not very original originals) of contemporary, abstract works. Not everybody agrees: here’s an article that gives you a run-down of the scene there perhaps a bit out of date, but still illuminates the landscape.

The bright spots, however, were very bright. In my three weeks in Bali, I was able to connect with two very interesting artists, I. Madé Sumadiyasa (Madé), a leader of the younger generation of abstract (or semi-abstract) artists whose large-scale work is recognized around Asia as being truly inspired, and Dewa Nyoman Batuan. I have to thank Korney Choy of the Bamboo Gallery LINK for helping me navigate it a bit, and introducing me to Made as well as noted Malaysian artist Chang Fee Ming and for hosting me for dinner not once but three times. I will also publish another article in Fine Art about a third artist who Korney works with- J. Philippe Hauer whose recent exhibition in Jakarta was an important debut of a new style of permanent expatriate artist in Bali…more on this later.

I arrived to Bali soon after the Quest for Global Healing II conference, a project of the Institute for Notetic Sciences, an organization dedicated to “exploring the frontiers of consciousness.” (think “What the Bleep do We Know?”) founded by Apollo 14 Astronaut Edgar Mitchell.

The Institute had brought together including Bishop Desmond Tutu and two other Nobel Laureates, and a lot of media-friendly consciousness types. It was a big event for Bali, whose tourism industry has been suppressed since the 2002 and 2005 bombings. I mention this because I first saw Madé’s work in the catalog for his solo exhibition titled “One World, One Heart” from the first Quest for Global Healing conference in 2004, and was impressed by his work, though not sure exactly why.

As soon as I saw his works in person, it was clear—there is, as you might say—a lot of “juice” (choose your synonym: shakti,
prajna, chi, qi, current, life force) running through this painter and onto the canvas. Made is probably the most successful of his generation in Bali, and his grand-scale semi-abstract works are nothing short of overpowering at times in its depictions of dark/light, motion towards oblivion and salvation, etc. Although he and his gallery both insist that he should not be pidgeonholed into the category of “spiritual art,” they admit that his work attracts those recognized as spiritually connected and powerful. Made was chosen as (perhaps ‘elevated to’ would be more apt) the Artist in Residence for the Global Healing Conference, Bishop Tutu apparently stood in awe in front of the work that graced the conference poster.

Here are a couple of samples of his work. Just imagine these at about 3x2 meters- that’s over 9x6 feet—and you’ll get an idea of how impactful the work can be. These are This Blessed Land (2004) and Heart of Mind, Heart of Body (2003)

Is it spiritual? Well- it would be hard to deny that the idea of coming together in peace—One World, One Heart—rings some bells. I think there’s more to it, though. Made seems to channel something pretty powerful. Back in 1996, the Jakarta Post (Jakarta’s English language newspaper) ran an on his work around the time that, at age 24, he was shown at the Art in Asia exhibit in Hong Kong—Made’s premier on the international stage.

“The Balinese community, which in general still believes in mystic forces, is steeped in arts expressed by, among other things, irrational ways. What is referred to as the soul, the spirit, vibration in modern artists vocabulary, is called taksu in Balinese. Although not all agree, the composition of forms, the etching and brushing of colors by Made Sumadiyasa radiate vibration…
“An attractive empiric experience on vibration is perhaps found in Made Sumadiyasa’s painting entitled Sandhi Kala (Transition from dusk to evening) dating from 1994 and belonging to an unnamed collector. The owner admitted to having strange dreams and when he consulted a medicine man [sic] The latter said to return the painting to the painter’s house. It was said that after the collector did so, he could sleep soundly…
“Made Sumadiyasa says he does not intentionally express paranormal vibrations in his works. He is a vegetarian and practices yoga diligently. Pande Wayan Suteja Neka, the sponsor for Made’s participation in the Art Asia Hong Kong confirms that Made’s works are much sought after.”

Here are two pictures of Madé at the ARMA (Agung Rai Museum of Art) , where the conference is held.

I also met I. Dewa Nyoman Batuan (Batuan), an elder of the Ubud art scene and artist community whose zany mandalas reflect his unique approach and dedication to traditional Balinese spiritual practice. Batuan is the founder of the Pengosekan
Community of Artists, which, in the 1960s and 1970s, was a hotbed of training for young artists and craftspeople in the area in painting and basket-weaving, principally. This was before university art studies were widely accessible to Balinese youth…and before most artists in Bali were earning a living wage. So, believing in the power of collaboration, this teacher—who could not feed his family—moved to Pengosekan village in the south of Ubud and began a mutual support and teaching community for artists. They developed a characteristic floral style that is today known as the Pengosekan style, but Batuan—a very spiritual man whose English fluency is outdone only by his passion and prolific production of artworks—had another mission in mind.

I’m not sure that I can do justice to the teachings that Batuan layed on me—about oneness, about love, about the essential unity of all religions and spiritual traditions, and about the “rule of threes” (there is a before, there is an after, so there has to be a now). Truthfully, I don’t understand why his mandalas reflect this Trinitarian approach, but I don’t really need to… Maybe because I am have spent so much time with them (keep reading)…or maybe because they made me laugh and cry and sometimes both…I’ll get back to you on this, dear readers, after you look at a few.

There are more. Many, many more. After our initial meeting, Batuan asked me if I could shoot more of his works for a retrospective book that he would like to publish, so I did. I spent one of my last days in Bali shooting over 70 of his pieces with a student of his assisting me. A fun and stressful day that tested my limits of natural light fine-art photography. However, his “thank you” gift- a 1987 painting depicting his response to the overdevelopment of Bali’s beaches- will be a cherished part of my collection for years to come. Pictures when it is unwrapped.

A third, extremely prominent senior (or master, depending on who you ask) artist of Indonesia I. Nyoman Gunarsa (Gunarsa) had agreed to meet with me, but was hospitalized on the day our meeting was scheduled. I didn’t get word in time, so arrived at Gunarsa’s museum (which provided me with a clue to his eminence) escorted by Made Sumadiyasa and his family, but did not get a chance to meet the artist. Try this link for a google image search to get a good idea of his work.

A local blogger at Stranger in Paradisewrote of Gunarsa: “Gunarsa is now the Napoleon of modern Balinese art and museum—building; his wife a noble and ever-youthful Josephine. Over the past decade, Nyoman has survived a stroke, slander by Idanna Pucci in her new book and, the adoration of Claire Wolfowitz (the art-loving wife of super-hawk Paul). He has emerged as Bali’s most prominent artist. His museum, near his ancestral house on the outskirts of Klungkung, now occupies a huge 5 hectares with a three-storey museum full of classical Balinese art. There are expansive gardens, pavilions and ceremonial gates.”

I was particularly interested in his recent works from a book titled “Moksa,” which refers to “the final aim of life, the ultimate dream of a Hindu..the final union of his soul with Brahma.” It has been pointed out that Gunarsa survived a stroke and gave his next major series this title without changing his style or revealing anything particularly new. Hmmm. This may deserve another blog entry at some point, but basically, I wonder whether Gunarsa is toying with us, or if he has achieved liberation only to realize that it is only here and now? Here is a link to an announcement on the exhibition for the book, released in 2004.

Two other artists I would have liked to meet- I Wayan Sika and Made Wianta escaped me on this trip. They may, in fact, have been around Bali, but I didn’t find them. With the exception of the magnetic Made, the fierce Batuan, and the enigmatic Korney and his excellent cooks and somewhat not-so-excellent dog, a lot of Bali eluded me. Hopefully next time.

This work I've been doing on the museum project has put me back in steamy Bangkok mid-summer. Honestly, I am surprised by the fact that Bangkok, for all of its lore, is not that much hotter than Washington (or Chapel Hill, for that matter) in the summer. Rains almost every day…but not so hot. I return to the States on July 9 for a couple of months at least before proceeding to India. Looking forward to seeing my many friends and those who have sent well-wishes.

Thanks for reading! This was a long one. :- )

Fine Art Magazine (Thailand) Requests Four Articles on Thai Contemporary Spiritual Art to Publish in Sequential Issues

2006-04-20T01:03:00.000-05:00

Great news from Chiang Mai. Yesterday visited Tawatchai Somkong, artist and publisher of Thai Fine Art Magazine, which published my piece on Ernst Fuchs' Bangkok visit in the April issue. The article can be viewed here. It is a 5.5 MB download, so for those with slow connections be warned! In any case, the article looks great and has led to an offer from Tawatchai to write FOUR more articles for the magazine, which will summarize what I've found in Thailand and be published in four sequential issues. I'm very very excited about this development, since it means that the basic 'structure' of the book (as I see it now) will be out there for comment and discussion sooner rather than later, and, of course, it is good incentive to get the writing done as well. Also, a productive conversation with Michael Ernst Messner, son of Ernst Fuchs, whose efforts to build a large-scale cultural attraction in Bangkok are described in the linked article has me planning to stay a bit longer in Thailand for work and learning. Michael is, in his own right, a respected arts entrepreneur specializing in visionary and fantastic art, and the possiblity to learn from him for the month of June is very exciting.

So, as of now, the schedule appears to consist of Chiang Mai for the next week, then back to Bangkok, and a trip (quick) to Singapore around the end of April. May is uncertain- Thailand or Bali, but it looks like I'll be in Bangkok again in June, with a return to the US around the 4th of July weekend- if American Airlines cooperates with alllowing my return date to change.

In any case, Thailand has been a positive and affirming place to start this experiment and research. I really couldn't ask for anything more out of a "proof of concept" trip. Thanks to all for your support and well-wishes.

The Wrap Koh Phangan, and Back in Chiang Mai

2006-04-17T05:29:00.000-05:00

The last three of weeks in beautiful Koh Phangan, Thailand have been quite different from the voyage so far. I have been experiencing art as ‘creator’ here in addition to observer. In my last post I shared my plan to spend some time at the Agama Yoga Center here. While the school’s methods are not for me, I met some really excellent people- students, ex-students, teachers, and affiliates, as well as plugging into a great community on Koh Phangan.

Two events of the past three weeks are worth mentioning around the project. One was the synchronistic way I met Tamara Bondi, a German spiritual artist whose work is probably the most intentional I have seen among the non-psychedelic movement in trying to capture the multiple realities of objects. Our meeting was synchronistic because we exchanged names only on the first day I arrived to the school. Over a week later, I saw her walking and offered her a moped ride up the road to one of the school’s studios. There was barely enough time to recognize each other in this meeting, but one series of Tamara’s work depicts the ways that people instantly scan each others’ energies and how interactions effect the human energy field change with interactions. This was how we met…

In her own words, Tamara paints (depicts) invisible entities using invisible media… More specifically, she focuses on the multiple realities of particular objects by depicting them on transparent media using multiple layers to capture the light and energy that are not visible in static, single-layer depictions. Regarding another series of her work, she observes that in contrast to the stability of past eras, in the present day, objects almost have to be moving to be perceived. Our conversation was one of the most in-depth interviews I have done so far, and evidenced Tamara’s depth of contemplation of the spiritual in art at deeply personal, experiential and at an intellectual levels. In the video which will be uploaded soon (click to begin a 112 MB Download- it will take a while, but is worth it!) hosted on the Spiros Project website, she explains her work in some depth, but admitted some hesitancy in confronting the German “Art World” with a full and complete description of the spiritual context and content of her work, and she expressed enthusiasm about joining a more deliberate effort to unite contemporary spiritual artists into a more coherent “force.” I look forward to her participation with great enthusiasm.

The picture of Tamara here leads nicely into the next report. Why, might you ask, is she shown in mirrors? And what is that thing? An effort to depict my own primary intention around personal growth came out in Koh Phangan in the form of a Mandala… Tamara’s work focuses on very refined methods of depicting light and energy to reflect the depth of human spiritual and energetic experience. My means are admittedly much cruder (I don’t really claim to be an artist and am not trained). Nonetheless, the idea of the spiritual aspect of the individual resolving its relationship with the immediacy of his or her experience—their Gestalt, in short—really came to the front of my mind while testing out the Agama School, which approaches spiritual and personal development from a much different—I would even say contradictory—perspective. So out popped the Mandala of Koh Now (the Island of Now).

Previously, I had found a great energy place in Koh Phangan- a coffeeshop called Blue Top that offered wireless internet and just had a great vibe. The day before the Mandala came to me, I suggested to the owner, Carlo, that he install some kind of Talisman or Mandala in the space to help hold the energy in. The next day I returned with a full design of the mandala and offered to build and install it in the space at the cost of materials. He agreed, and we were off. While the island placed some limitations on materials, it was eventually possible to build it pretty much as it was designed. We held a small ‘opening’ on April 9 (Sunday), and photographed it extensively. By way of futher explanation, here is my artist’s statement.

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The Mandala of Koh Now
In Vajrayana Buddhism (the Diamond Path), “the mandala is usually a symbolic representation which depicts the qualities of the enlightened mind in harmonious relationship with one another. A mandala may also be used to represent the path of spiritual development [or serve as a] symbolic representation of the universe, in which a mandala representing the universe is offered to the Buddha.”

Great teachers from the present and the past, including Eckhard Tolle, J. Krishnamurti, Ramana Maharshi, and Dzogchen master Dudjom Rimpoche, have pointed to the immediacy of our experience- the Now- as the instantly accessible portal to the eternal, formless realm of space and light. We can access our Higher Selves and the self-liberation of Enlightenment…

Not later.
Not tomorrow.
Not by an act of Parliament.
Not after arduous preliminaries, whereupon we are judged to be ready.
Not as a reward for following the rules, or for being “good.”
Only NOW.

The Mandala of Ko Now, built for the space it occupies, is offered to residents of and visitors to the enchanted island of Ko Phangan in the hope that they may reflect with awareness on the present moment- the viewer in the immediacy of his or her experience.
+++++++++++++

Above is a picture of Carlo with his lovely wife Nit observing their immediacy in the Mandala.

Today I returned to Chiang Mai to wrap up my time in Thailand. I already miss Koh Phangan- such a great place- and hope to be back there soon. I will report on new adventures and plans soon, as the near future appears to hold a lot of time sitting at this computer putting together a draft of the book structure and filling in the Thailand contents I’ve collected so far.

Ko Phangan...Close to Paradise

2006-03-26T07:37:00.000-06:00

Out of Bangkok after only 3 days (and not a moment too soon), I'm now in Ko Phangan, Thailand working on the Thailand chapter of the book, the research for which is basically complete, and enjoying a more relaxed environment. I've enrolled in a yoga and meditation course at the Agama Yoga Center, which was, I think, a good step. While Thailand is famed for its beaches and relaxing vacation spots, the last two months have been solid work, and a week of twice-daily yoga practice and a community of a hundred or so people- many of whom have intelligent things to say about what I'm writing about- seems like a good place to synthesize my recent experiences. The photo here is borrowed from the Internet, but I will send/post some "postcard shots" soon!

In the next few weeks, the plan is to get a draft of this first chapter (or the first material), together, take care of a few business details in Thailand (permission from artists to use their images, etc.), and then head back to Singapore before departing to Bali, the other "major" southeast asian center for contemporary spiritual art. My plans to spend a few weeks sniffing out similar art in Vietnam have been deferred, as a number of art collectors have concurred that it is not near as fertile a discovery ground as I had hoped. So...as soon as I can drag myself off this island, the next phase begins.

A side note- my article on Austrian Fantastic Realist painter Ernst Fuchs and his vist to Bangkok comes out in this month's issue of Fine Art Magazine (Thailand). Very excited to have already generated a publication of both words and pictures, and as soon as I have a link or a .pdf, I'll post it here.

Monthly (?!?!@!?) Report from Thailand

2006-03-15T04:20:00.000-06:00

I was back in Bangkok when I started this post, relieved to be enjoying the hospitality of Venetia Walkey and Kun Inson Wongsam, who have graciously let me stay at their Bangkok apartment for my time here. Last week I was battling some kind of very persistent illness- something like a flu that has kept me at about half-speed most of the past eight days in Bangkok- but I seem to have recovered after both anti-parasitic and antibiotic treatments. Today I'm in Nong Khai- arrived this morning. Here's a picture of the wacky sculpture park I visited today...more on the photos section soon!

After this long time away from blogging, it has a certain foreboding. There is no way I can treat all the artists I’ve met in the last few weeks in the kind of depth I have done before (which is a disadvantage to both the reader and to me, since these are some of my best notes for the book!). In any case, I am going to try to say something about why I chose to interview each of them, and put up as much art as is practical in a single blog entry.

In the next few weeks I intend to get a Thailand Spiritual Art category up on the web with an individual page for each of them. As I work my way around the world of contemporary spiritual art, I hope for this to become a pretty comprehensive “catalog” or database of artists working in the various spiritual traditions and paths.

Pierre Whittman: Francophone Swiss artist and healer living in Chiang Mai. Pierre is a practitioner of Tantric Buddhism, a Reiki master, creator of healing art and ‘light installations,’ and compelling author. His book, “A Guide to Happiness for the Third Millenium” offers insight into a wide variety of spiritual and metaphysical themes, including a succinct description of how art (like nature) presents a portal to perceiving realms of existence beyond our ‘gross’ day-to-day reality. This article is on the web here. There is much more to say about Pierre, but in the Thailand catalog, I will allow his own words and images to convey this, as he writes extremely eloquently about art, spirituality, and life. This piece, from his “Fragments of Light” series, really snapped my 3rd eye. More at his website. Visit. It’ll be good for you ☺

Phanthong Saenchun- Chiang Rai painter of devotional Buddhist art, most recently “green” series, depicting the “Legend of Chiang Saen,” which is a mythical temple in Northern Thailand, which Phanthong uses to simultaneously represent the grandeur of ancient wisdom, with flowers as light sources representing life in the present. There is clearly a lot of nostalgia at work here, but it can be better understood when linked with earlier work. In a previous series, Phanthong explored the Buddha in the context of technology and globalization- in an attempt to situate Buddhism in the present context, and to remind us not to lose sight of the Dhamma even in times of advancing technology and social turmoil. Phantong’s is interesting devotional work shrouded in traditional depictions of the Buddha, but expanded to circumstances where old meets new. Alas, I don’t have any photos of the “space Buddha” series (which I like), so here’s some of the Chiange Saen work standing alone. Hopefully we can show the future-oriented work in the final version.

Songdej Thipthong- Accomplished young Chiang Rai painter. Portraits of Faith (2001 exhibition) is on the web. There is a certain “spiral” quality to Songdej’s complex devotional Buddhist art that I have not yet pinned down for myself yet. Perhaps, like Pornchai and Arnan, he communicates something about the authentic joy of the Northern Thai lifestyle and its (pure) relationship to Buddhism- in a peaceful place it is perhaps easier to live the Dhamma. Songdej was a gracious host on my birthday somewhere near Chiang Rai, with Phanthong and Sompong (below). I include only a picture of Songdej himself, playing with his and Sompong’s kids in front of one of his very large devotional works. More when his slides (Thank you, Songdej) are scanned.

Sompong Sarasap- Chiang Mai painter, art scene leader and organizer and owner of 9 Art Gallery and architecture studio. His solo exhibition at the National Gallery in February 2000 was titled “Sompong 1997-1999” On the web is also a group exhibition titled Unity (2002). Sompong’s work focuses on the most ordinary and every-day objects of rural Northern Thailand and Asia in general, such as the rice seed, and spins from them insights about culture and spirituality. This piece, titled “Friendship” is both simple and incredibly complex in the portrayal of a higher space created by two people coming together. And all from rice seeds, the “spirit of Asia.”

Kamin Lertchaiprasert Chiang Mai artist who marches to the beat of his own drummer. Kamin is a controversial figure in Thai art whose money Buddha (a sitting Buddha image made out of paper maché using onlyThai Baht) was featured at the 2003 Venice Biennial. Kamin brings intense discipline to his artwork- and has elaborated this over time- shows us art as spiritual practice and as a method to understand the “mind” (a poor translation of the Buddhist term which is what Ken Wilber and others refer to as the “BIG MIND.” His most notorious works include paper maché sculptures made one-a-day during the course of a year, drawn from personal experience and reading of the newspaper. On each, he penned his thoughts and then, a year later, returned to each to witness its resolution. In another, more recent series, Kamin combined art and meditation over a period of four years. Each day, he would meditate for one hour with a pencil in hand, drawing the pencil over paper with each breath in and out. The result was exhibited as a stack of over 1460 pages. Kamin’s intense practice of Vipissana meditation is central to his quest to know the mind, to know the nature of illusion. Unconcerned with the aesthetics of art, Kamin has merged his artistic and spiritual path into a unique “Raja Yoga.” Below are two that I particularly like…One, from a series titled, “The Buddha is in Desire” shows the essential Buddha nature of even the most flawed part of his own personality. The other, with Kamin himself represented by the onlooking piece, observes three carvings representing greed, false piety (or moral superiority), and sexual allure that are obstacles to true understanding of the mind.

Prasong Luemuang see also 2002 exhibition. Prasong meditates several hours a day, living in the serenity of his home province of Lamphun- near Chiang Mai, but closer to the Dhamma Park Gallery. Prasong’s art and spiritual practice are also deeply linked in a form that is similar to Kamin’s—he often paints to reflect the images of samsara (illusion) revealed in his meditation practice, and therefore can be said to exploring the “nature of mind” through his art. His most recent works, large-scale Buddha faces, reflect his experience of “the Light,” which is a serious landmark in Vipassana meditation and represents the a point of breaking through to a mindset that is “beyond good and evil,” (or righteous and unrighteous) because it approaches the limits of conceptual thought(s). I have to be honest that Prasong probably has the most “range” of all of the Buddhist artists I’ve met, in particular those who continue to create devotional works. His wrathful Buddha faces (below), the serene Buddha (2nd picture), and the pure dissonence of his more abstract work are all elements of his tremendous flexibility and, I’m sure, of his success as a leading Thai artist.

Roongroj Piamyossakalso works beyond conventional Buddhist narrative art, though not without direct reference to Buddha image. I don’t know if I can fully express how important Roongroj’s art is as a method of bringing the essence of Buddhist Dhamma to “the people.” He also has a wide flexibility of styles, having mastered the traditional Lana style of painting, and his older work reflects a traditional, devotional bent. More recently, his works have taken a decidedly “experiential” turn. Many of his recent mixed media/sculpture pieces prevent viewers with a paradox, juxtaposing emptiness and forms of Buddha and of well-known monks. Experiential “Buddha Chambers” are very special, presenting viewer with a 3-d (wrap-around) representation of the Buddha image, a mirror, and a field of emptiness conveyed through a textured metallic surface generating almost no reflection. Buddha, form identity, emptiness… “Same same” as they say in Asia. Unlike Kamin’s work, it is challenging because it is experiential, but in a celebratory, direct, and almost “tender” way…

Helen Jandamit: English spiritual teacher, ordained Buddhist Reverend in the Korean tradition, committed to some very direct ways of spreading Buddhist Dhamma. Helen was a joy to spend the afternoon with when I arrived to Bangkok. She revealed in our conversation that her art had been “simmering” for a number of years, and that in fact, she had been discouraged by other spiritual advisors from creating images to narrate or share her spiritual development. Finally within the last couple of years, this “broke,” the torrent of accumulated creative energy overtook her, and she began painting (again). I think this describes an interesting issue is somewhat controversial among spiritual practitioners. Many teachers who are not themselves visual artists discourage the creation of visual representations of spiritual experience citing the risk of attachment to the images themselves. That is, focus on the divine, not on a visual-conceptual interpretation. Yet, for those of us who express and validate our progress on a spiritual path through art, or for whom our higher self (or, if you prefer, eternal emptiness) expresses itself through visual art, this can be pretty chilling. I hope Helen’s work serves as an inspiration to others to let the flow happen without attachment to the results, and without doubt in the validity of this expression.

Ahjan Thongchai Srisukprasert, Artist, professor @ Silpakorn University faculty of Painting principally working with abstract expressions of spiritual themes. Ahjan Thongchai confided that his work is “half spiritual,” (though he clarified that it is actually “half religious,”). Thongchai’s excellent work is more conceptual and abstract, though he also has achieved mastery of the visual language of direct Buddhist narrative. He has developed a visual language of semi-abstract expression that is both extremely Thai and at the same time, bold and unique. His images are fluid and dynamic, and the combination of textural surfaces with these spiraling forms composed of traditionally Thai forms are unusual among the art of Thailand. I’m going to give Thongchai short-shrift here in the text department, but will let three works show his immense talent and versatility.

Metha Kongsonthi is a younger artist who is clearly a rising star in the Thai spiritual art world. At 34, he is the youngest talent I have met, and having passed through a period of working in Buddhist symbolism, has taken some very interesting turns in the past several years. He resides near Bangkok and currently has a special Creativity Grant from Silpakorn, which artists of the caliber of Alongkorn have held in the past. Like Alongkorn, his early devotional work tends towards the fantastic, though the first image below, titled “Buddha,” hints at his future, more abstract directions. Of this, he says, “The core of Buddhism is the teaching, not the image, so I deleted all the images. Since this time, Metha has continued in a direction favoring abstract images, noting in our interview that the really important thing is the nature of mind, and mind is abstract. Two images below give you a clue of where he’s going. Direct abstract expressionism comprised his second phase, while in a third, attention turned to a mandala-esque series of round objects. In the most recent work, these meet, with the round mandala (representing the universe and dhamma) washed over by the stream of mind- not pristine (this is, after all, the nature of phenomenal existence), but eternal, essential. The three below shows the evolution of his work over several years.

PICTURES

A couple of other people that I need to mention…first and foremost, I had the pleasure of meeting Ahjan Lertsiri Bovornkitti, Proferssor at Burapha University who completed doctoral thesis in 2002 on Thai Spiritual Art (introduced by Ahjan Ithipol Thangchalok- many thanks) http://www.rama9art.org/artisan/2002/august/spirituality/index.html

If you’re interested in reading further on this topic, I suggest his two excellent pieces at the following links:

Short introduction to Thai Contemporary Art, co-authored by Lertsiri Bovornkitti

Spirituality in Art: Buddhist Values in Thailand- Published in the Journal of the Royal Institute of Thailand, by Lertsiri Bovornkitti

In addition, several Thai artist portfolios are hosted at iklektic
Ahjan Panya V.
Ahjan Ithipol Thangchalok
Taiwatchai Somkong
Ahjan Thavorn Ko Udomvit

Episode next, in which Phil is befriended by...a Goose

2006-02-23T10:32:00.000-06:00

A short entry with pictures only of my most recent visit to the Dhamma Park Gallery in Pasang near Chiang Mai...another thrilling one hour motorbike hop. I shared a long lunch with the encyclopedic sculptor and peace builder Venetia Walkey (Thai name Wanida, Buddhist name Buddhathida, which means daughter of the Buddha), and did more serious shooting of the gallery's space and installations. It was a very generative visit...I really can't thank Venetia enough for her hospitality and generous spirit...though I'm quite sure she would say, "it was nothing," and be very humble about it. So be it- a delightful afternoon. Actually, I can probably thank her quite a bit if I actually get her the shots I took on a CD before I leave Chiang Mai. Leaving Chiang Mai is actually not proving to be that easy, but that's for later. The fountain of wisdom, which I referred to in the past, is below.

On my way from the late end of our lovely lunch to the gallery to shoot, I was approached and befriended by...a Goose. Not kidding here. My last close encounter with foul was with a swan was in London over 10 years ago- close-up, when the swan told me, in no uncertain terms, to stay away from his flock. I concurred and tried to reassure him that I was not an interfering tourist (it was St. James' Park, full of tourists), and thus ended the conversation with said swan.

This time, it was quite different. He walked up to me after I shot a few pictures of him. I set my tripod down when it became clear that the goose wasn't going to take no for an answer, though the lens was set to shoot at us, and remotely using a cord. The goose walked around me, nipped at my pants, walked through my legs...really insistent. He tried to hop up on me, so I re-set the tripod, sat down and invited him up on my lap. He obliged, and here are the pictures...

Venetia swore that this goose had never befriended another like this- the whole incident lasted about 10 minutes, but was out of this world. Really a nice gift of encouragement.

On the internet last night, I looked up the Goose as an omen. This is what I found:

A goose can suggest invitations to social occasions where you'll be hearing a lot of gossip.

Not bad as a researcher/writer/phtographer. So I guess I'm going to keep going on this project. :0)

Infinity in the Lanna Village

2006-02-19T06:09:00.000-06:00

So I’ve been in Chiang Rai, in further northern Thailand, since Thursday morning. Returning to Chiang Mai this afternoon felt like a sort of homecoming- same guest house (cheaper room), same scooter rental service, same festive Sunday market atmosphere. I will catch-up and write about Chiang Rai, where I spent my birthday in the company of some more excellent northern artists, later this week. Thanks to all of you who sent birthday wishes- it was much appreciated!

There are many different kinds of spiritual paths. I loved Father Wayne Teasdale’s explanation of them in The Mystic Heart. He speaks of devotional (Bakti) paths- those in which the practitioner expresses his or her love for the deity or spirit. There are karma paths- paths of action- of good works in service of the object of devotion. There are paths of scholarly knowledge and teaching- Raja yoga. There are also noetic (or Gnostic) paths- those that pursue a direct experience or knowledge of the energies of spirit in one of its many manifestations- these are also called mystic paths. I admit that I find the later the easiest to relate to, as my own practice is fundamentally about the experience of spirit or grace or presence or whatever you choose to call it. This probably comes through in my writing so far about how artists personalize their spiritual experience through art. Yet, as I continue this exploration, I continue to find artists expressing joy and extremely personal work through paths (in Thailand, especially devotional paths) that I don’t personally understand or embrace as strongly. It is certainly an opening for me.

So, picking up where I left off over a week ago…Returning to Chiang Mai, I spent last Thursday morning with Tawachai Somkong. I had seen Taiwachai’s work on various websites, and was fascinated by his clear interest in spiritual themes, yet the complete absence of traditional Buddhist symbolism/narrative in his work- even in early work. Taiwachai is close friends with Alongkorn, whose work I wrote about in the last entry. What I knew about Tawachai before meeting him was that he is very connected in the Thai art world. On Thursday I found out two other extraordinary facts about him. First, he did not set out to be an artist, but rather, a teacher. Yet he and I share in common a difficulty with early morning appointments- and the waking up that precedes them. As a result, he left the teaching profession after a year and, like Alongkorn, went to India to continue his studies in Art and Eastern Religions, spending five years at Kala-Bhavana, Visva Brarati in Santiniketan near Calcutta.

His work deals with the travails of a set of abstract forms- particularly a lotus image and the stupa, (a dome-shaped monument used to house relics in Buddhism and Jainism), as well as an oblong (donut-like) set of “lips”- perhaps representing the masculine and feminine principles journeying through the travails of a spiritual path. His work is experiential, in a way that occasionally invokes the narrative of Buddhist spirituality, but is largely free of traditional forms and images characteristic of much Thai spiritual art. As such, his work comes across as both whimsical- he confesses a love for cartoons- and deeply personal. His Ecstasy Land works, produced while still based in India, were a gateway…more recent works continue the themes. I'm looking forward to writing more about Taiwatchai's work and perspective in the future.

Three Works by Taiwatchai Somkong...the last being the one that really drew me to his work...

Tawatchai also invited me to submit an article on Ernst Fuchs' visit to Thailand in his capacity as Publisher of Fine Art Magazine (Thailand). It may appear in the next issue, along with photos of the event from the gallery seen here.

So…courtesy of Tawatchai, I met with three artists on Friday who are somewhat more devotional in their approaches.

Ahjan Surasit Saokong is a senior artist and art teacher at Rajamangkala Institute of Technology in Chiang Mai. I visited his home studio where his wife (who speaks excellent English) provided translation for a long chat. Ahjan Surasit’s work has focused on a single series since 1979- titled “Serenity.” In fact, serenity oozes from Surasit’s pores. Exploring the play of light and shadow in hyper-real Northern Thailand temple environments is his goal, with his Buddhist faith represented in each piece by a single light source shattering the darkness of the surroundings and providing a point of emanating warmth. He commented that his interest is in creating something that is “better than real,” and that this reflect the inner state of peace that he achieves through painting and imagining these scenes. Surasit shared that many people want to visit the temples he paints- and he has to admit that they don’t exist as depicted- only in his imagination. I do not have a scan of the scene I myself wanted to visit- a cave-temple carved into the side of a mountain overhanging a lush jungle and river. It was compelling.

I asked whether Surasit had himself become more serene since he began this career-defining series and he said yes, without a doubt. Ahjan Surasit is, in fact, an adored teacher of many of the most accomplished Northern Thai artists, and a very successful and widely exhibited artist in Thailand in his own right. His retrospective book was published in 2005. Below, one of Surasit’s works from the series, “Serenity,” photographed in his home.

I was met at Surasit’s home by Pornchai Jamai, who ranks as one of the warmest, most cordial, and most genuine people I’ve met so far on this trip. Not only did he agree to meet with me, host me for lunch, and and escort me to the home of another artist, Arnan Rachawangin, but he did so with little confidence in his English language skills, telling Tawatchai, “OK…I’ll try.” Let me say that his English is thousands of times superior to my Thai, and we managed very well throughout the day. I know that he exerted a lot of effort on Friday, so I want to thank him straight away. But before we turn to Pornchai’s work…we visited the home and studio of Arnan Rachawangin, another younger Thai artist whose “Northern Style” work depicts the harmony in the practice of northern (Lanna-style) Buddhism. Arnan is pictured below with his recent work “The Young Monk.” We spent only about an hour with Arnan, but it is clear that the joy he expresses in his presentation of these scenes is authentic and natural. Almost innocent. This natural quality- purity of experience and expression- is something that is emerging as a distinct feature of Northern Thai artists I’ve met.

My afternoon with Pornchai consisted of 30 km journey to his home and studio, which sits surrounded by rice paddies, a long, slow lunch at his home/gallery studio, and a drive around the countryside north of Chiang Mai, which included stops at the the Wat (temple) he is building and at another Wat where he and Alongkorn did mural paintings in the Wat’s chapel. What an afternoon. Pornchai paints in the Lanna (Northern) tradition of Thai traditional arts, though he spent several (9 or 11- will check notes) years in Bangkok at Silpakorn University, during which time he gained some renown for his emerging style. His proudest accomplishments include the construction of a Wat near his home and mural paintings in nine Wats around the north of Thailand. He also received an award from the World Buddhist Federation as an “Outstanding Person who Supports Buddhism.”

While at Silpakorn, Pornchai explored modern and abstract painting styles, but the bulk of his work- and that for which he
has received the most acclaim- falls into two styles. First, the vivid and ethereal pieces depicting temple scenes and Buddhist Dhamma, such as the first two pictures below. I loved the elephant/Buddha piece, though the photo isn’t quite up to snuff.

The other style he has mastered- and I mean unlike anything else I’ve seen, are the Lanna-style temple and village scenes, which are characteristic of his mural work. These are big, big, big pieces- think chapel and temple wall- depicting the celebratory ongoings in a Lanna village, also mixed with Buddhist Dhamma. The detail is amazing, the continuity out-of-this world, and the unconditioned sincerity of the work is not in doubt. There is no way for me to present these in their full glory, but you may get the idea from the image below, from one of his Wat murals, and the astounding detail in the background of his picture (above). Infinity in the Lanna Village.

I have learned that building the Wat is a big milestone and accomplishment among Buddhist artists in Northern Thailand, and an important way of giving back to the communities where they find their roots. Pornchai’s wat includes a background mural and door handles by his good friend Alongkorn, but the plan, the detail, and the Lanna-style woodcarvings that are ubiquitous in the Wat are all his, and a sculpture garden that is in progress depicting the animals representing the years on the lunar calendar. Pornchai’s father (deceased) was a skilled woodcarver, and this seems to have influenced his taste for traditional arts strongly.

So again, back in Chiang Mai, I'm off this afternoon to photograph another artist and his works, and I hope to be caught up to the present (or nearly so) by tomorrow afternoon. Come back soon, and tell your friends!

Chiang Mai and the Northern Style. Art hub meets Lanna Culture…

2006-02-13T23:52:00.000-06:00

You know how it is when daily life reaches the point where it sweeps you up in the momentum and you start forgetting to answer e-mails, return phone calls, etc. This has been my experience in Chiang Mai, second city of Thailand and the place where artists go to work when they have finished studying in Bangkok or wherever…Hence, over a week since my last post.

I arrived Monday evening and my last post was Tuesday, describing the events of the previous days in Bangkok. Chiang Mai has been a relief- as Bangkok was getting hot, crowded, polluted, and generally exhausting, to say the least.

Chiang Mai is the center of the Northern (actually, Northwestern) Kingdom of Thailand. Northern Thailand is bordered to the West by Burma (a.k.a. Myanmar) and on the North and East by Laos. It is the foothills of the notorious “Golden Triangle,” where poppy/opium production has long been centered. It is a huge tourist center for many reasons—not only that it is cool and near the mountains, but also because based in Chaing Mai, one may trek- for one day or many- into the “hill tribe” villages nearby, experiencing an indigenous culture that has little to do with the rest of Thailand. This is Lanna Country- where the “Lanna Hill Tribes” are the native people, where elephants thrive (in fact, there is an elephant rehabilitation center that I hope to visit just south of here), and where (mostly) European and some American cultural and eco-tourists can’t wait to reach. One friend who had traveled here two years ago mentioned that she couldn’t wait to leave because the emphasis on trekking into indigenous villages seemed so exploitive to her. Admittedly, there are a lot of distastefully worded “come see the long-necked and big-ear women” advertisements around. But there are also a lot of artists- and good ones- living here. It is a city close to nature, and with the kind of cultural awareness that you might expect from a center of hill tribe handicrafts, and at the meeting point of Thai and Lanna culture. The village life of this region also has a big impact on the art style- the “Northern Style” in Thai art.

Arriving in Chaing Mai on Monday evening, I took a stroll from the “Safe House” guesthouse (ironically named only if you have a fear of ants!) where I am staying and immediately felt part of the flow of the city (it is a city- approximately 1.5 million people, but with a much less frenetic pace than Bangkok, or Singapore for that matter). Spending the evening with a Frenchman and later joining two hotel and restaurant students- one Austrian and one German- who were in town from Bangkok reporting on the hospitality scene. In short, I felt immediately at home in Chaing Mai- as a traveler, at least.

Tuesday was spent finding my way around…renting a moped, finding Internet access, and setting appointments for the next day. Just after meeting a monk who was enthusiastic to pose for a picture, I met a group of firey women from New York at a coffeeshop who posed for some portraits- they were fun & I hope we connect again (both the ladies and the monk!).

On Wednesday, I rode the scooter about 40 km South of Chiang Mai to the Dhamma Park Gallery in Pasang, where I had the pleasure of spending the afternoon hosted by English sculptor and peace activist Venetia Walkey and her partner, Kuhn Inson Wongsam, a Thai “National Artist” (an honorific title given to Thailand’s finest). Also visiting that afternoon were Oliver Hargrave, a Chiang Mai-based English writer and photographer, and Chadwick Gray and Laura Spector, Ameircan artists and partners who are also based in Chiang Mai, and Roz Keep, an English painter and art teacher who has lived in Chiang Mai for two years, but who is returning to Hong Kong with her husband to resume their antiques business shortly.

Venetia served us an excellent lunch and toured us around the Dhamma Park Gallery, where she and Inson have developed a garden of Buddhist Dhamma- (truth, and/or “teaching”). The park’s mission revolves around using art as a vehicle for communicating Buddhist teachings—particularly around the teachings of causal/conditioned existence and the noble eightfold path. In one small indoor-outdoor space (gallery), Venetia’s sculptural works are exhibited, while in the Gallery itself, a series of 12 sculptures depicting the “law of twelve causes” (of conditioned existence)- ignorance, craving, etc., are displayed around the edges of the building containing a floor-to-ceiling Fountain of Wisdom. The picture here is of ‘craving,’ with a concept-sketch of an incinerator that is part of the gallery’s long-term concept- a place where people can incinerate an effigy of the cravings they would like to leave behind.

A born teacher, Venetia was led to Buddhism after coming to Thailand, and has produced small- and large-scale sculpture works on a wide variety of themes. The Dhamma Park Gallery is a peaceful oasis of art and Buddhist practice, and was a pleasure to visit. I plan to return this week to photograph more extensively.

Venetia sits for a portrait by American artist Laura Spector, as Oliver Hargrave looks on...

Later, Kuhn Inson gave us a gallery and studio tour and shared the woodcuts he is currently working on. Inson’s woodcuts are widely collected, and his acclaim rose significantly after 1962 when he rode from Thailand to Italy on a Lambretta scooter, carrying on his back a roll of woodcut prints which he exhibited on the way. He spent several years in New York and New Jersey as a working artist, and returned to Thailand in the 1970s after an illness. He began working in large-scale woodcarving, eventually returning to the woodcuts for which he is most famous in Thailand. This picture shows one of his woodcuts and the reflections of several more in his studio.

He is now preparing for an exhibition in Mexico later this year, after a successful exhibition in New York last year benefiting the Dhamma Park Gallery. Kuhn Inson embodies the ferocious independence of a renowned artist who has traveled the world by his own creative power.

I’m going to finish this post now in order to get this out to all of you. More work is coming- I’m still catching up from a very eventful last week.

Liftoff In Bangkok...and off to Chiang Mai

2006-02-06T23:58:00.000-06:00

Liftoff in Bangkok! The project took an interesting turn towards the end of last week. Not only did Thai artists Alongkorn Lorawatthana and Ithipol Thangchalok both provide invaluable insight into Thai Spiritual art, but thanks to Ajan Panya's invitation, I was able to witness an auspicious intercultural event on Saturday evening with Austrian master Ernst Fuchs and family. Many more pictures in photo gallery.

Fuchs- a disciple of Salvador Dali and co-founder of the "Vienna School of Fantastic Realism" (1948) was in Thailand for the first time to oversee the bronze casting of several large (15 ft) sculpture pieces for Fuchs' Austrian art park. The work is being overseen by his sons, who reside in Thailand nearly full-time. He is also exploring establishing a similar venue at an undisclosed location in Thailand, and the evening's inviation list reflected Fuchs' desire to build goodwill among Thailand's most accomplished artists, art patrons, political figures, and others. The mood was celebratory- Fuchs' sons, daughters-in-law, and grandchildren were in attendance, and his wife and muse Uta also performed several of her original songs. It was revealed that many of the Thai Artists in attendance had been influenced by Fuchs' work early in their careers-- much to the delight of Professor Fuchs and his family. This picture is of Ajan Panya Vijisarnathan with Professor Fuchs.

I am now in Chiang Mai, in the North of Thailand, where, according to many of the people I've spoken to, most artists prefer to live after studying in Bangkok.

Let's go chronoligically, though, because much has happened since the last post.

Friday I had the opportunity to meet with two outstanding Thai artists, Alongkorn Lorwatthana and Ithipol Thangchalok, who is also a professor at Silpakorn Univeristy.

Alongkorn's work, I think, typifies one pathway of spiritual artists I've met and whose work I've seen in Thailand. His earlier work used very direct Buddhist visual language, and in a hyper-realist or perhaps fantastic realist style that would not be unfamilar to many young artists, or to anyone who has seen the early 80s anime "Heavy Metal."

Alongkorn shared with me that after several years as an artist in Bangkok, he decided to live in India for two years. While his friends and colleagues encouraged him to study in the UK or the US, he chose India because of its position as a center of world spiritual culture. During this time, his style underwent the first significant change, becoming a more personal exploration of the transformation of moods and the personal "life situation" through acceptance. In this period, he also began a serious meditation practice. Below appear one piece from his Ganesha series (1998), which was shown in India and Thailand, and a piece reflecting on the sense of internal order brought about by meditation.

Upon returning from India, and In his most recent work, Alonkorn has been using the metaphor of a tree and its root system to explore dimensions of interconnectedness, and I think has arrived at an exciting balance between artistic maturity, engaging spiritual subject matter, and a spiritual understanding transmitted through his artwork. The Phor Tree, below, is an example of his more recent work in this vein.

Ajan (professor) Ithipol's recent work "faith" appeared in small version on the site last week-- a larger version of my favorite piece- "Faith" (2004)- appears below. Ithipol's writing on his own art belies a clarity about the exploration of polarities and the relationship with natural energy. He is an artist's artist- shown at the Venice Biennial in 1972 and now nearing retirement, he is acknowledged as one of Thailand's outstanding mixed media pioneers. His exhibition, A Primal Spirit was exhiliarting on its own, but has continued to grow on me as I reflect on the centeredness of Ithipol's perspective on the polarities of planes, forms, colors, and textures. He confided in me that his work changed direction signficantly after two seven-day meditation retreats in which his Buddhist spirituality deepened, and his tow most recent solo exhibitions, Matter of the Mind (2002) and the most recent, have reflected a distinct style, which blends the ordered preparation of the surfaces characteristic of his previous mixed media works with a more freeform process of decoration and embellishment achieved placing "dots" (representative of the most basic visual form), dictated by the surface preparation, with a complex layering of colors. In this second phase, with the framework in place through surface preparation, Ithipol lets the work become itself. I think this is a great metaphor for preparation in more formal religious and spiritual practices (i.e. the many "preliminaries" in Buddhist and Tantric practices) to set the framwork for pure creation. "Faith" is presented with a geometic field that unifies the contradictions of horizontal and vertical- resolving the polarities of belief and experience into an oderly-- even celebratory-- field of color. I could stare at this piece for hours.

Ithipol and Alongkorn work in very different styles, and I think this illustrates one of the interesting things about this project- the diversity of media and approaches that can be found under the umbrella (or mosquito net) of "spiritual art." Three areas stand out: spiritual imagery, spiritual intent of the artist, and the art that is made in spiritual communities (i.e. communities of practice large or small that are not part of the 'mainstream' of institutional religion). This is my working framework for the book and the project...as of today.

Tomorrow will be meeting with Tawatchai Somkong, one of the "Dons" of Northern Thaialnd's art scene (many thanks to Alongkorn for the introduction), and I hope to have more good news later this week. I will also be visiting the Dhamma Park Gallery, near Chiang Mai, where British artist Venetia Walkey and her Thai partner Inson Wongsam have created a Buddhist art "paradise."

Love and peace to all.

Getting Hot in Bangkok, City of 25 million Buddhas

2006-02-02T09:39:00.000-06:00

It got hot in Bangkok on Tuesday...up til then, it had been quite nice, even compared to muggy Singapore. No longer.

My interview with Ajin (Professor) Panya Vijinthanasarn at Silpakorn on Tuesday yielded some great results, including an invitation to a gathering on Saturday that will bring together Thai and Austrian artists who work in similar traditions. I was very grateful for this invitation.

The same afternoon as the meeting with Ajan Panya, I had the good fortune to view another exhibition at the Silpakorn gallery by Ajan Ithipol Thangchalok titled Kindred Spirits. (PK from the Ganesh Art Gallery recommended that I view it while waiting). This was the first exhibit among the Thai work I've seen that addresses spirituality without any explicit references to Buddhism or the Buddha story. His piece "Faith" (2004) was absolutely elevating. Tomorrow morning I meet with Ajin Ithipol to discuss including his work on the site and (eventually) in the book. With his permission, it will appear here soon! In the afternoon, Ganesh Gallery has arranged a meeting with Ajan Alongkorn Lorwatthana, also at Silpakorn

Travel plans are shaping up a bit. Early next week I will head north to Chiang Mai, where, I am told, Thai artists prefer to reside after being educated in Bangkok. We'll see if the New York-San Francisco comparison holds (or London-Brighton for that matter).

For now, several photos that show, a bit, how pervasive and integrated spirituality in Thailand appears to be in daily life. This is a city of 20,000,000 (yes, 20 million) people, and I believe I've seen 25 million Buddha images so far...and counting.

Bangkok: Art While I Wait...

2006-01-30T03:21:00.000-06:00

Bangkok is growing on me- though it is a huge, huge city and cross-town traffic jams are the norm, rather than the exception, I have settled into a new guesthouse at the edge of the travellers' "ghetto" of Banglampoo in "old" Bangkok. Previously staying in "Thonglor" off of the most expatriate-friendly main commercial strip (Suhkumvit), the difference in environment and physical surroundings is palpable. The best way I can describe this is the difference between staying in New York on the Upper West Side and staying in the heart of the East Village. Silpikorn University, where the research starts, is an easy 15 minute walk, rather than an hour's commute, and the 'network effects' of staying nearer the pulsing heart of traveler culture, Khao San Road, is on balance a plus. If there was a street market at Burning Man, it might look a lot like Khao San Road, though I suspect the customers would be a bit friendlier than the average traveler couple here.

Sunday I had the good fortune to spend a few hours at an exhibition the Thai National Gallery that had been recommended to me by Nong and Juri at Pranakorn Bar. The exhibit, titled In My Mind, featured three young Thai women artists- Sutthasinee Suwuttho, Patcharin Anawatprayoon, and Metta Suwanasron.

I was particularly taken with Ms. Suwhttho's installation- at once an ethereal and nostalgic (almost mourning) look backwards into the child's experience of bedtime stories and lullabies, the displacement of which she laments as a result of technology and competitive pressures faced by parents. (Sound familar to American readers?). The mixed-media installation included, "Keep," the front-slice of a chest of drawers mounted on wood and strewn with childhood memoribielia- much like in my own childhood room. Her installation, "The Memory,"- places a twin-sized wood child's bed neatly made and canopied in sheer fabric in the center of the space, adorned with dolls and teddy bears. The bed is covered (each day?) with a "quilt" of small, neatly-arranged storybooks made by the artist, which are offered to viewers in exchange for donations to the school in which she teaches. Images are not yet online for this exhibition, which closed yesterday, but here you can see an example of her work from 2004.

At the National Gallery, I also enjoyed seeing a piece by Panya Vijinthanasarn (with whom I meet tomorrow) titled "Struggle," depicting a theme in Thai art that I expect to find treated a lot...that of the struggle for virtue to survive in a hostile world-- in a sea of mara, in Buddhist terms. The vivid serpentine images of Mara leave no doubt about the Theravada Buddhist perspective of the perils on the road to enlightenment.

In the evening, I managed to connect via the Internet to the first hour of an all-day meditation seminar held at the Washington Center for Consciousness Studies in Washington and hosted by Rudy and Sharon Bauer, the Center's co-directors, who explore and teach using meditation as a path to the natural field of awareness, as described in the world's many mystic traditions. It was good to be "home," if only virtually, and to feel the support of this great community.

Up and Up in Bangkok

2006-01-26T23:32:00.000-06:00

Great news and exploration in Bangkok the past days.

Thursday was spent on a long, long journey to explore Bangkok's Chinatown and with Jamie, a british traveler from the Hostel. We learned central/riverside Bangkok the hard way: on foot. Picture below is view of the busdriver's shrine inside front window of the bus that finally dropped us in Chinatown, after a truly intermodal journey from canal boat skytrain to several wrong water taxis on the river.

The Second photo shows the TukTuks along Chinatown's main drag as preparations for Chinese New Year grew to a near frenzy.

On Friday, a very productive and cordial meeting with Mr. Kittichote Haritaworn, founder of the Ganesh Gallery in Bangkok. The Ganesh Gallery represents over 20 contemporary Thai artists and is currently installing a large mural project in the Bangkok Airport featuring contemporary Thai artists. Mr Haritaworn has arranged a meeting with the Dean of the Art College at Silpakorn University, Mr. Panya Vijinthansarn, on Tuesday. Silpakorn is the educational home of contemporary art in Thailand. He has also offered the assistance of his very helpful project manager PK, a graduate of SCAD in Savannah, Georgia, which should be invaluable. Very excited about this development.

Later Friday, US photographer Matthew Williams and I took a 12 hour walking tour of Bangkok- somewhat more successcul than the first exploration. We spent daylight exploring temples and markets. The "Barbed Wire Buddha" below was one of the more ironic sites along the river.

In the evening we discovered the excellent Pranakorn Bar that is run by two brothers, Nong and Juri, who are, incidentally, Silpakorn graduates. The place is excellent- reminiscent of the 18th Street Lounge in D.C.- great music, live jazz, art gallery on the 2nd floor, and a roof garden bar that is quite simply elevating. This is my new favorite night spot in Bangkok. Run! Don't walk!

Last photo is a mobile "squid jerkey" shop in the Flower Market along the Klong, our daytime destination.

Next update Tuesday following the first meeting at Silpakorn.