Walking with the Dalai Lama

Sometimes in life, the missing piece is the missing peace.

"The Missing Peace: Artists & the Dalai Lama" was sponsored by the Committee of 100 for Tibet and the Dalai Lama Foundation, traveling throughout 2007. More than 88 contemporary artists from around the world offered works inspired by the the Dalai Lama. Artists included Chuck Close, Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Tenzing Rigdol, Jenny Holzer, and Richard Gere.

Each piece aimed to chart the artists' personal journey toward peace. As the Dalai Lama said of the project, "I am convinced that if more of us could spend a few minutes every day trying to develop a sense of inner peace, eventually it would become part of our lives; then everything we do will contribute to peace in the world."

(Evolution into a Manifestation, by Chase Bailey, 2005. Oil on linen 59 x 53 inches.)

Paranirvana

By Lewis deSoto, 2000. Mixed media with nylon, painted cloth 7 x 25 x 6 feet.

In Buddhist scriptures, Shakyamuni Buddha remained on the earth after attaining enlightenment to teach others his insights into achieving salvation. At the age of 80 he came to Kushinagar, where he preached his final sermon and died.

This episode is the Paranirvana, the physical death of the historical Buddha and his entering into Nirvana, the state of oneness and perfection. This work by deSoto was inspired by the loss of his father; he has superimposed his own face on the Buddha as he asks the universal question, "How will we all face the moment of our death?"

Om Mani Padme Hum

By Bernard Cosey, 2005. Black and white cartoon on heavy paper, 20 x 16 inches.

The work reverberates with the Buddhist mantra, Om Mani Padme Hum, which translates roughly as "The jewel of compassion and the lotus of wisdom dwell in the innermost heart." The notion that ultimate wisdom and compassion are already within each of us is communicated.

IT IS IN YOUR SELF-INTEREST TO FIND A WAY TO BE VERY TENDER

By Jenny Holzer, 1983 to 1985. White danby imperial marble footstool.

The Dalai Lama

By Chuck Close, 2005. Digital pigment print, 50 x 40 inches.

Close is known for his large, iconic portraits such as this photograph of the Dalai Lama. The artist achieved his international reputation by demonstrating that a traditional genre, portraiture, could be resurrected as a challenging form of contemporary expression.

Untitled

By Yoko Inoue, 2006. Mixed media, dimensions vary.

"In watching the ever-changing mists and clouds rising about the mountains, I can lose all sense of time. In my paintings also, change is ever-present. From moment to moment, a different emotion is revealed. Catching hold of the delicate balance of these emotions as they appear, I attempt to bring out a condensed expression of these brief moments." - Yoko Inoue

The Golden Thread

By Kirsten Bahrs Janssen, 2006. Mixed media, 60 x 60 x 26 inches.

Through touch and physical interaction, viewers physically link their arms around the world, connected by a single golden thread.

At the Waterfall

by Marina Abramovic, 2000-2003. Continuous video loop projection.

"After 20 years of visiting Tibetan monasteries in India, the director of Tibet House in Delhi asked me if I would be a choreographer for Tibetan lama dancing and chanting. I was supposed to compress the performance into one hour and 20 minutes, without losing its essence.

I ended up working in the monastery with 120 monks, using a megaphone to teach them how to come on stage, go off stage, remember the positions of the lights, how to change their elaborate costumes in less than 30 seconds, etc. I decided to project all 120 videos simultaneously on a large wall. Then I was hit with a realization: When you hear all the prayers from different monasteries and traditions at the same time, they sound like a huge waterfall."

Blue

by Pat Steir, 2005. 10-color screen print, edition of 40 56 1/2 x 43 inches.

Steir's image of the waterfall, like a chant, evokes stillness. Over the past ten years the stillness in her work has become more dense. She makes her marks by flinging, pouring, and dripping paint. Steir has said that she creates her work with the attitude of a gymnast, "first the meditation, then the leap." In her art, she has given up chasing the self in favor of "something larger."

Bodies of Light

By Bill Viola, 2006. Video diptych, 2 minutes., 6 seconds.

Male and female torsos are tracked by a light, which traverses the bodies vertically, moving over the chakras - internal points of physical and spiritual energy. In the course of this process, we witness the dissolution of the figures into emptiness.

Through his work Viola strives to connect the viewer with the image via the body as well as the intellect. Believing that a special form of knowledge can only be gained through a direct and visceral experience of an event, he uses the video medium as an avenue to self-knowledge.

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