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ASIA SOCIETY PRESENTS AN EXHIBITION EXPLORING
THE SENSORY EXPERIENCE OF BUDDHISM
MONTIEN BOONMA: TEMPLE OF THE MIND
FEBRUARY 4, 2003 THROUGH MAY 11, 2003
Media Preview: February 3, 2003, 10:30 a.m. – 12:00
noon
The Spring 2003 season at the Asia Society is dedicated to
an exploration of Buddhism and its expression in traditional
and contemporary art and ideas. The inaugural presentation
of this initiative is Montien Boonma: Temple of the Mind,
a solo exhibition of the work of Thailand’s most celebrated
contemporary artist – Montien Boonma – whose life and art
were rooted in his Buddhist faith. Boonma’s untimely demise
in 2000 at the age of 47 marked a great loss for the global
contemporary art community. This exhibition is the first U.
S. retrospective of this brilliant artist’s most important
works, which reflect his distinctive, modern vision of the
synergy between religion and art, as well as the rich cultural
and religious heritage of Thailand and Southeast Asia. Following
its opening at the Asia Society and Museum, the exhibition
will travel to the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, the
National Gallery of Australia in Canberra, and venues in Tokyo
and Bangkok.
Montien Boonma is widely regarded as one of the most significant
Asian artists of the late twentieth century. His work may
be characterized as a bold and contemporary articulation of
traditional themes, both in conception and visualization.
A devout Buddhist, he found his creative voice in the depth
of Buddhist ideas and forms. A central feature of Boonma’s
art is its unique tactile and sensuous quality. Inspired by
Buddhist ideas about healing, he incorporated traditional
herbs and meditative practices in his works, juxtaposing them
with contemporary industrial materials such as cement and
steel. The result was the creation of a poetic and powerful
body of work that addressed a deeply personal spiritual quest
and at the same time presented viewers with a sublime and
sensory experience of art. Boonma’s works are participatory
in their nature and viewers are invariably drawn into a reciprocal
relationship with the sacred, contemplative spaces that he
creates.
According to Vishakha N. Desai, Senior Vice President of
the Asia Society and Director of the Museum and Cultural Programs,
“Boonma’s dramatic installations create an exquisite aura
of fragility and impermanence, and yet they resonate with
an inner strength and an utmost confidence in the execution
of form. Indeed, the basic awareness of the impermanence of
life and the realization that suffering is an intrinsic part
of human existence is something that Boonma had internalized
in his life and work. This exhibition underscores the Asia
Society’s efforts to present diverse strands of contemporary
Asian art, bringing to the forefront works that develop new
visual forms out of ongoing Asian cultural expressions.”
The Exhibition
Montien Boonma: Temple of the Mind comprises 35 major
artworks including charcoal sketches, soil drawings, candle
and perfume paintings, mixed-media works, brass sculptures
and herbal and sound installations. The exhibition traces
Boonma’s artistic response to his Buddhist faith while charting
his remarkable development as a contemporary artist whose
work has universal resonance. The result is a display of some
of his most creative works, which create timeless and sensory
experiences of Buddhist culture.
In Buddhist teaching it is believed that sacred enclosures
are cosmic centers of contemplation and concentration for
the mind. Boonma translates this concept into an exceptionally
imaginative installation entitled House of Hope (1996–97),
a fantastical creation that plays with scale, gravity and
illusion. This work incorporates meditative practices and
stimulates the senses though an innovative use of materials.
Low wooden stools covered with red clay oil lead into a space
containing thousands of strings of medicinal herbal beads
that are suspended like a curtain from the ceiling and fall
in coils upon the floor. The piece was inspired by the process
of counting prayer beads that slip one by one through a devotee’s
fingers during meditation. To Boonma, this work was a metaphor
for hope, faith and healing through the thousands of meditative
chants symbolized by the fragrant beads, seemingly raining
down from the heavens. Viewers experience a heightened feeling
of awareness and perception as their senses respond to textures
of sight, smell and touch in this serene and aromatic space.
While drawing its inspiration from tradition, this piece is
a remarkable expression of modernity in its conceptualization
and inventive use of materials.
Herbs and healing practices have a long association with
Buddhism and have played a central role in much of Boonma’s
art since the mid-nineties. In Buddhist teaching, the healing
process is seen as a metaphor for spiritual growth and enlightenment.
Boonma has used a wide variety of herbs – sea-holly, sicklepod,
nutgrass, black pepper, leadwort, turmeric and many others
– in his works. Works such as Perfume Painting (1997),
a circular painting infused with herbs, and Nature’s Breath:
Arokhayasan (1995), an installation made from perforated
metal blocks infused with herbs, all symbolize healing and
religious devotion and transport viewers to a sacred and spiritual
realm. The fragrance of the herbs soothes and heals both body
and mind from within.
The contemporaneity and multi-dimensionality of Boonma’s
concepts is especially evident in his paintings, which include
mixed media such as soil, wax and ash. His notion of the inseparability
of form and content are illustrated in works such as Black
Stupa (1989), a painting composed of soil and ash taken
from the debris of archaeological sites such as the ancient
pagodas at Chiang Mai in northern Thailand. Mixed with rice
glue and pasted on five panels, the piece creates a haunting
silhouette of a sacred structure worn down by time. Such works
not only defy flatness and illusion, but also utilize the
symbolism of the material itself to create a conceptual space
where the re-erected ruins are emblematic of impermanence
in traditional societies that are undergoing rapid industrialization
and transformation.
Boonma’s edifices embody myriad complexities and oppositions:
between interior and exterior, longing and belonging, life
and death, permanent and impermanent, which are at the heart
of all Buddhist teachings. His installations also incorporate
the qualities of quietude, illusiveness and lightness that
are inherent in the connection between sacred architecture
and Buddhist thought in Thailand. His fantastic spaces of
immersion for shelter or meditation are matched by beauty
of the sculptural units, and their ultimate objective is to
induce powerful states of inner reflection within viewers.
Montien Boonma: Temple of the Mind is curated by Dr.
Apinan Poshyananda, Professor of Art, Chulalangkorn University,
Bangkok. He has also authored the catalogue accompanying the
exhibition. Dr. Poshyananda is a renowned international curator
and leading scholar of contemporary Asian art with special
emphasis on Thai art. His close personal friendship with the
artist was instrumental in the conception and realization
of this exhibition. Dr. Poshyananda shares an intimate association
with the Asia Society for over a decade, ever since the institution
began pioneering the recognition of contemporary Asian art
in the U.S. He was co-curator of Traditions/Tensions
(1996), a groundbreaking exhibition at the Asia Society featuring
the work of leading contemporary artists from five Asian countries.
More recently, he was involved in the selection of eight contemporary
art commissions by prominent Asian and Asian American artists,
which were installed in the renovated Asia Society and Museum
in 2001.
Related Programs
Montien Boonma: Temple of the Mind is part of The
Buddhism Project, a New York City-wide series of exhibitions
and programs exploring the impact of Buddhist thought on contemporary
art and culture in America. As part of this yearlong undertaking
which begins in February 2003, twenty institutions located
throughout the New York City region will host public forums,
exhibitions, educational and literary events allowing audiences
fresh insight and multiple views of the extraordinary influence
of this Asian philosophy and way of life. The Asia Society
will host a full schedule of public programs in conjunction
with the exhibition, focusing attention on Buddhism and art,
with special reference to the culture of Thailand and Southeast
Asia. Highlights include: Montien Boonma: Art, Life and
Faith, a discussion about the major themes of the exhibition;
Socially Engaged Buddhism, a lecture on the contemporary
spiritual and social aspects of Buddhism; a series of recent
popular films from Thailand; and Buddhist meditations that
will be conducted in the galleries.
Montien Boonma: Temple of the Mind is made possible
with generous support from the National Endowment for the
Arts, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.,
Blakemore Foundation and New York State Council on the Arts.
Other Exhibitions
Also on view at the Asia Society will be The World of
Buddhism: Selections From the Asia Society's Mr. And Mrs.
John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection, opening on March 11
and running through October 19, 2003. This exhibition will
explore the key concepts and imagery of one of the world’s
great religions. From its origins as an austere philosophy
in which the historical Buddha was represented only by symbols,
Buddhism developed into a complex religion with a large pantheon
of Buddhas and bodhisattvas (enlightened beings) that
became the visual focus of worship and meditation. A highlight
of the exhibition will be a room hung with Buddhist paintings,
which will also be used as a visitor meditation space. This
historical exhibition will offer a striking, indeed provocative
contrast to Temple of the Mind. While Boonma’s installations
are far removed from the traditional Buddhist art of the Rockefeller
Collection, both draw inspiration from the same source. By
presenting these exhibitions jointly, the Asia Society is
encouraging visitors to expand their notion of what Buddhism
and Buddhist art can include in today’s world.
About the Asia Society
The Asia Society is America’s leading institution dedicated
to fostering understanding of Asia and communication between
Americans and the peoples of Asia and the Pacific. A nonprofit,
nonpartisan educational institution, the Asia Society presents
a wide range of programs including major art exhibitions,
performances, media programs, international conferences and
lectures, and initiatives to improve elementary and secondary
education about Asia. The Asia Society is headquartered in
New York City, with regional centers in Washington, D.C.,
Houston, Los Angeles, Hong Kong and Melbourne, Australia,
and representative offices in San Francisco, Manila and Shanghai.
Asia Society and Museum
725 Park Avenue (at 70th Street), New York City.
(212) 517-ASIA, www.asiasociety.org
Hours: Tuesday - Sunday, 11:00 A.M. - 6:00 P.M.; Fridays extended
evening hours until 9:00 P.M.; Closed on Mondays and major
holidays.
Admission: $7; $5 for seniors and students with ID; Free for
members and persons under 16; Free to all on Friday evenings,
6:00 - 9:00 P.M.
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