TANTRIC JOURNEYS
TANTRIC JOURNEYS (1982-86)
Handmade paper acrylic m/m constructions on screen; 6 pastel drawings.
Photos and Video of Site-Specific Installation and Performance.
The Exhibition was made possible by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts.
A main theme of all my work is Transformation. The Tantra is about being “here” fully. It is “the path of continuity” where “form is form” and “emptiness is emptiness”. It is letting go of the ego, dissolving into what is there. It is the upward triangle and downward triangle uniting as sacred geometry. Focusing on it can bring a transformational meditative experience to reach higher levels of consciousness.
The Exhibit provided a physical-spiritual experience. Three “yantras” in a trapezoidal shape were suspended from a 12’ ceiling and hovered 18” off the floor as an implied triangle penetrating the earth. They were painted on both sides, as the feminine and masculine energies of life. You had to walk around them to get the whole experience.
There was a triangle painted on the floor where you could stand or sit and meditate. (Generally adults were uncomfortable doing this, but children would sit for 30 minutes and listen to a continuous loop of poetry with music composed by Mwata Bowden.)
