Exhibition: July 1- 31, 2011
Live performance “The Art of Encounter” July 20 - July 21, 2011
During Diafaan V, I present 4 works: “Fullness of Emptiness”, “The Architect”, “Just As It Is” and “The Art of Encounter”.
Zen quote “The meaning of the nature of the awakened one is empty, transparent & clear” was the binding element between spirituality radiating from the site and the meaning of word Diafaan and glass, arising from the context. Working on site in the Great Beguinage of St. Elizabeth I was inspired by the rich history of this location and the tradition of beguines: single, pious ad independent women in the Low Countries. I articulate the meaning of Diafaan in perspective of the spirituality sensed in the space, which was translated into works using glass and my presence as two basic materials.
“Thinking Forms – how we mould our thoughts or
Spoken Forms – how we shape our thoughts into words or
SOCIAL SCULPTURE – how we mould and shape the world in which we live:
sculpture as an evolutionary process; everyone is an artist”. Joseph Beuys
July 1, July 20 and July 21 live performance “The art of encounter” (site-responsive installation/live performance, mixed media) is taking place in the side entrance of the church, transformed into a Tea Room. A situation for an interaction is created inspired by the Eastern tradition of Tea Ceremony, focusing each participant’s attention on the effort to perfect a once-in-a-lifetime encounter in the here and now.
Josephine Lee is a character, influenced by the ideas of Joseph Beuys especially his concept of social sculpture as well as tradition Japanese arts rooted in Zen philosophy, who is investigating the thin line between art and life. Josephine is trying to combine art and spiritual practice, the unity once lost in West, leaping into domain of art of living and becoming an ultimate work of art. This work is an invitation for the experience and the discourse.
“Just As It Is” (polished optical glass) is a sculpture made by using cold working technique of polishing, which is usually used to shape glass in a desired shape and polish away any cracks and imperfections. Rather than imposing an idea and sculpting a specific form out of glass, Inga took the piece of optical glass broken out of a massive block and polished the shape around the natural breaking lines. This way the form of this sculpture was extracted from the piece of glass itself and polished to the transparency merely to emphasize the beauty of the natural breaking of the glass exposing the cracks as main quality of this piece.
“The Architect” (ready-made, blown solid glass) is an installation using a found bird nest and the blown glass egg, placing it in the holy water font, which is not in use, at the main entrance the church. The glass is used to exhibit the natural beauty of the bird nest, however the glass egg is a symbol of the beginning and the higher human potential.
“Seeking but not finding the housebuilder,
I have traveled through the round of countless births.
How painful is birth over and over again.
Oh housebuilder! You have now been caught!
You shall not build a house again.<…>
(Dhammapāda, verses 153,154)
A site-specific installation “Fullness of Emptiness” (solid blown glass, various sizes) is at the memorial space at the back of the church. Three solid, transparent glass pieces were made and placed on the empty pedestals to magnify the original paint-work revealed behind the plaster by the damage on the wall caused by removing the sculptures of the saints for restoration. The glass is used for its inherent characteristics, such as ability to take any shape, transparency and magnifying quality.
Instead of making beautiful objects out of glass, solid amorphous shapes dictated by the accidental shape of the damage on the wall as well as following the logic of material while handling hot glass were created. This work emphasizes the humble beauty of these imperfections, which otherwise would be overlooked in that space. It is an invitation to focus the attention to imperfect, impermanent and incomplete, which echoes the Japanese world-view or aesthetic centered on the acceptance of transience.
No comments:
Post a Comment