Category: Asia
-
Ficus benghalensis
Why is the Indian fig tree with its characteristic hanging aerial roots called banyan? That’s an interesting story, which has nothing to do with its sacredness about which I contemplated in last week’s post. Banya seems to be the Gujarati word for merchant. Via the Portuguese and later the English in India the word banyan…
-
Sacredness
Banyan trees are often considered sacred. I think this is because they are really awe-inspiring, like the gods themselves. Standing face to face with an extraordinary tree, a towering Sequoia, a corpulent Baobab, a wrinkled olive tree, a ramified Banyan, we easily fall silent. These are creatures that are somehow beyond our comprehension. Maybe that’s…
-
Zen sense
Small space turned big. It is primarily a matter of the mind. Japanese Zen masters are masters of small space. Look at this little enclosed garden: a prominent rock, a stone water basin, a raked gravel surface, a few bushes and small trees, a stone lantern … cut across by an elevated passage. Each object…
-
Natura Artis Magistra
With this title I am not aiming at the Zoo in Amsterdam, but at the meaning of the words: nature is the teacher of art. Nature as source of inspiration for the arts. I took the photo just outside the wall of Chisaku-in, a temple in Kyoto. It looks like a nice piece of untouched…
-
Ruminating art
After having been exposed to a multitude of diverse works of modern art, as I was during my visit to the 2016 Kochi-Muziris Biennale, you need time to digest. Art makes you think. I have said that the beauty of a work of art may not be all-important for its appreciation and for the impression…
-
Cow dung art
At the 2016 Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Slovenian artist Aleš Šteger has built a pyramid covered with cow dung cakes. Going through the labyrinthine passageway inside, one hears a cacophony of soft voices reciting verses in the original language of the poets who have written them. They all speak of exile. Šteger has made a ‘Pyramid of…
-
Coir in Pepper House
In the courtyard of Pepper House, one of the venues of the 2016 Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Indian artist Praneet Soi had put up a number of sculptures made of coir on wooden supports. Soi had chosen to work with coir especially for the Biennale since this material has been and still is so important for the…
-
Fort Kochi
And when you have got enough for a moment of the art in Aspinwall, you open the windows and doors and look outside. Aspinwall is the name of the old 19th century trading company whose compound with deserted office buildings and warehouses in Fort Kochi is the main venue of the Kochi-Muziris Art Biennale. With…
-
Paper Bathroom
Bathroom Set (2016) is an art work by Dia Metha Bhupal that was shown at the recent Kochi-Muziris Biennale. It is life-size, and the urinals, toilet, wash basins, floor, walls, ceiling, everything is made of rolled and glued scraps of paper. Thousands and thousands of little paper rolls. They say it took her 18 months…
-
Dream Stop
is the title of the ingenious installation by Gary Hill shown at the recent Kochi-Muziris Biennale. With 31 video cameras and as many projectors, equipped with special mirrors and lenses, he creates a collage of projected images on the four walls of the big room that invites us to make a halt and start dreaming.…
καιρός remembered 