Category: Asia
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Tasmania in Kerala
Tasmania in Kerala Among the artists invited to take part in the Kochi-Muziris Biennale there are always some that feel the need to make a site-specific installation. For this year’s Biennale the Aboriginal artist Julie Gough has filled a room with rather loosely connected elements that build on her experience as a visitor to Kochi…
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KMB 2018
KMB 2018 The curator of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2018 has given the exhibition the motto “Possibilities for a non-alienated life”. I think that many of the selected artists are indeed actively trying through their work to keep, repair or establish meaningful close links between life, art and the world. The artists that figured in my…
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Art in nature
Art in nature Lying down on the ground is what Sonia Khurana does in her performances. Lying down on a busy town square for example. In a video at the KMB2018 one can take note of her on-going lying down project. I was actually more intrigued by another part of her installation: the cut-out shapes…
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Nature in art
Nature in art The art works of Priya Ravish Mehra shown at the Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2018 speak of life. The fibres of paper and cloth, the colours used, they all come from nature. As do the twigs, roots, leaves and other elements that she has integrated in her sheets and hangings. Their collective, overall impression…
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Spare-ribs
Spare-ribs That’s what I thought they were. Relics of the skeleton of a gigantic prehistoric animal. Casually placed against a wall. Or are they remains of the skeletons of palm leaves? Plant and animal world (including us) are of the same nature after all. Photo of the week: Margao, Goa, India 2012
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I know where I’m going!
I know where I’m going! A deserted beach. A flag on a pole in the wind. A woman walks with unfaltering steps straight to the point. What point? Where? Why? “I know where I’m going!” says her body. For us who only have one image and not the whole film, it will remain a mystery.…
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Sand fish
Sand fish A small crab made a hole on the beach of Dona Paula. The sea came in to have a look, came in and retreated. The crab, the sand and the sea they played together. They made a lovely fish. What shall we eat today? Photo of the week: Beach at Dona Paula, Goa,…
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Gyantse Kumbum
The biggest and best preserved pyramidal multi-chapel monument of the kind in Tibet. It has more than 70 – dark – chapels inside, almost all decorated with murals and statues. We can look at the kumbum as a three-dimensional mandala: when you project the whole building on its ground-plan, it represents a visual metaphor of…
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Gyantse Dzong
The castle (dzong) of Gyantse of which the oldest parts date back to the 14th century, is towering above the city on the high clifs of the mountain. At the time Newari artists came from Nepal for carrying out the decoration of the buildings inside the fortress with murals that would influence later Tibetan painting…
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The Tibetan plateau
Lying north of the Himalayas, the Tibetan plateau has an average altitude of 4000 m. It is mostly dry and bare. Hardly any of the monsoon rains from India and Nepal manage to cross the barrier of the high Himalayan mountain ranges. So the average yearly rainfall in Tibet is only about 40 cm. That…
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