October 7 - 29, 2022
From the organizers:
““It is there but it is not there”
This is a quote by meditation master and filmmaker Dzongzar Khyentse Rinpoche pointing out the illusion of appearances, the illusion of the duality of subject and object or perceiver and perceived.
A rainbow is there but it is not there
When a rainbow appears in space there are causes and conditions which make it visible, it is colored light in space, the rainbow is inseparable from space and when the causes and conditions cease to exist the rainbow dissolves into space. The rainbow disappears
By taking the practices of architecture and meditation as a point of departure where in one practice, one uses conceptual thought to design and build objects with materials and in the other, the meditation practice, where one through awareness directs the attention from exterior perceptions of the senses to the depths of the mind, internally to the source of everything. I chose to use the visual arts to explore the process of this journey towards the interior, to travel the opposite way of the finished building as a product, beyond conception into the vast, open, bright, luminous, knowing, blissful space of the mind. The mind is that bright shining indestructible light that is the potential of love and wisdom of the human being, the life force, the light that knows, it is the conscious awareness that only exists in the present moment. When this mind is pure and free of conceptual thought like that of a young child full of wonder, it understands that there are no boundaries and only openness, that all that is perceived, our “reality”, is a display of light like a rainbow or a dream.
Some visual examples used to recognize the illusory nature of appearances are a rainbow, a dream, a mirage, the reflection of a moon in water and a fire circle. A theoretical analysis that could also be used is that of a house, automobile or a human body. A house for example is made up of thousands of parts, these parts are themselves made of thousands of parts, a foundation, structure, walls, floor, roof, doors, windows, plumbing, electrical etc., these parts are made of materials called concrete, steel, wood, glass, bricks, metals, wires, pipes, ducts etc. How many grains of earth are in a brick? According to quantum physicists and their electron microscope and meditation masters, all material is mostly space and light like swiss cheese or bread. A brick is 99% space and vibrating energy but appears hard and solid to our senses.
By understanding that the labels applied to solidify appearances and understanding that phenomena are there but not there, appearances will slowly begin to soften up to our perception and eventually dissolve into space and become inseparable from space.”
Artist talk: October 7, 2022 | 6–9 pm
915 Zaragoza
Laredo, 78040 Texas
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