Renee Prisble Una

This project began when I visited The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston in 2005 where I was very moved an exhibit of Buddha heads and one headless Buddha body.  All of the heads were from different countries and regions, and although all were recognizable as the Buddha, each was different.  The headless body reminded the viewer that the Buddha heads were in fact disembodied, and not created that way.  This vandalism has resulted in a new aesthetic of the Buddha head as mnemonic for the whole.

The experience of this project, although visually very much like my inspiration, has brought me very far my original experience.  As each volunteer came to my to my studio to be cast for the project the piece and I began to acquire an important aspect of community.  Although I am sure that every volunteer had a different reason for participating, they became a unified community in this exhibit without ever meeting each other.

Additionally, this exhibit illustrates the challenge of meditation, which is to unify the mind and body in the present.  The incomplete figure of head and body is the human experience, and it is the brief moments of unity that enlighten the present.  As I covered each volunteer with wet plaster gauze slowly into isolation, each of them was having an unexpected experience of meditation ranging from calm pleasure and relaxation to mediations to cope with claustrophobia and boredom.

This installation mimics the aesthetic of the museum.  The heads mounted on the walls become artifacts, and the figure seated on the floor grounds the space.  The experience is contemplative, quiet, and curious.  The white objects in the white space force their form, and reject decoration in favor of minimalism.  The hollow of the plaster and gauze construction reveals both the making process and the exhibits the quality of emptiness inherent to all things.  The use of iconography in this installation asks who is the Buddha?

Puja is a Hindu word for religious ceremony or act.  I used this word to describe this mandala created by silhouettes of US war planes and the passenger planes used in 9-11, which are poised in opposite directions to and from the direction of Mecca.  I also use this idea of religious act to describe the war and the actions of each side.  Both sides of this war are blind with their devotion and beyond rational.  The use of spices to create this mandala makes use of an ancient source of trade between the east and the west that continues today.