BARDO
Harry Martin
Exhibition of drawings, sculpture and music
Opening: 18:00-21:00, 12th March 2020
Exhibition: 13 March – 12 April 2020
In Tibetan Buddhism, the Bardo is an ‘intermediate state’, most famously the state of existence in between death and rebirth but also referring to interruptions in our usual sense of continuity and solid ground in our lives. All our structures, beliefs, interpretations of the world are arbitrary, a bulwark made of sand holding back the vast unknown. By learning to lean into this, we can find true freedom. The work explores these spaces in which boundaries dissolve: figures twist in on themselves; forms at wildly differing scales drift across shifting, nonsensical spaces; echoing vibrations from unknown sources permeate the air.
Seeing our interdependence is the key to healing our broken relationship with the natural world. The fabric pieces cascading into the space have been dyed and eco-printed on a permaculture allotment, responding to the rhythms of nature and the complex web of relationships between all life forms. They arrive here in a new way of expressing this, having previously existed as a ‘Wheel of the Dharma’ for the local Buddhist Centre, and Extinction Rebellion banners.
This groundlessness and interdependence is a way of seeing that the practice of meditation enables. By making art from this state, the late Tibetan Buddhist Chögyam Trungpa taught how it is possible to allow art to arise spontaneously as a natural phenomenon that expresses these truths. The exhibition will include a workshop and talk exploring this, as well as the relationship between meditation and viewing art, and collaborative sound-making and listening meditations.
The opening night will feature a performance of drifting, wailing melodies and textural soundscapes with Alice Karveli and Zac Pomphrey, setting an intention to open ourselves to groundlessness.
Programme of events:
7pm, Thursday 12th March (Opening night): Ambient Music Performance
With Adam Davies, Alice Karveli and Zac Pomphrey with visuals by Gabriela Rogula.
2-4pm, Sunday 22nd March, Workshop: Collaborative Sound Making & Meditation
Inspired by the work of Pauline Oliveros, who devoted her life to ‘Deep Listening’ which aims ‘to create an atmosphere of opening for all to be heard, with the understanding that listening is healing’.
2-4pm, Sunday 29th March, Workshop: Visual Expression from Basic Ground
Exploring how meditation can allow us to create visual art more spontaneously and authentically, as a natural phenomenon rather than an intellectual process.
2-4pm, April 5th: Artist talk and Q&A