Coconut Processing. Ben Tre, Vietnam. 2011 (A picture package out-take from a larger narrative I am developing from Vietnam under the working title The Long March)
Photographs © Copyright 2011 Seth Butler. All Rights Reserved.
Tadanori Yokoo. Shambhala #9 of 14.
Japanese, Shôwa era, 1974. Silkscreen with offset text, 85cm x 57cm.
everything becomes illuminated
On a recent trip to the North Shore in Massachusetts as a visiting artist to the Photography Department at Montserrat College of Art, I was fortunate to reconnect with a number of old friends & artist colleagues—finding great inspiration in doing so.
In addition, I was able to study the Seeking Shambhala exhibition at Boston MFA:
Shambhala is a Sanskrit word describing a mythical land whose exact location is hidden behind mist of snow-capped mountains, where peace reigns, wealth abounds, and there is no illness. The West was first introduced to the concept as “Shangri-la” in the 1930s book and film Lost Horizon, but Shambhala, in both physical and spiritual senses, has been part of Tibetan Buddhist art and culture for centuries.
Beyond having an opportunity to revisit the poignant work of Gonkar Gyatso in this exhibition—a contemporary artist dealing with issues of Tibetan identity in exile—and view a varied collection of 17th century Thangka paintings, I was introduced anew to the work of Tadanori Yokoo, a prolific Japanese graphic artist and painter.
a synesthesia of symbolism
Fascinating enough, Yokoo is said to have stumbled upon the concept of Shambhala while researching UFOs. In his edition of the same name, 14 vividly hued silkscreen prints from 1974 are on display in sequence. In Shambhala, Yokoo cleverly interplays underlying rhythms of Buddhist, Hindu & Occult iconography—all in a visual framework built upon appropriated incense box images, rich pop-art alchemy and various inter-linked visual metaphors. The mixture of iconography and relationship suggested by both form and proximity in his work is quite evocative—the multi-layered execution an inspiring exploration of media, representation & meaning—transcending the sometimes literal limitations of graphic design and print making mediums with great depth in both concept and execution.
against the great defeat of the world
THEY WAIT
We’re going to begin the fight again / the enemy
is clear and we’re going to begin again /
we’re going to correct the errors of the soul /
its pain / its disastes / so many little friends
wasted / little sons wasted / we’re going
to begin / day has come
with its documentation
of death / night with its documents /
death itself has come with its documentation /
we’re going to take up again
the struggle / again we’re going to begin
again we’re going to begin all of us
against the great defeat of the world /
little compañeros who never end / or
who burn like fire in the memory
again / and again / and again
Transcribed from Unthinkable Tenderness: Selected Poems By Juan Gelman
Edited and Translated by Joan Lindgren. University of California Press, 1997.
_____________
First realized via the essay “Against the Great Defeat of the World” by John Berger in Chapter 22 of The Shape of A Pocket. Pantheon, 2001.
Excerpt from Against the Great Defeat of the World:
The culture in which we live is perhaps the most claustrophobic that has ever existed; in the culture of globalisation, as in Bosch’s hell, there is no glimpse of an elsewhere or an otherwise. The given is a prison. And faced with such reductionism, human intelligence is reduced to greed.
—John Berger
UPCOMING WORKSHOP
Vietnam 2011: Exploring the Travel Narrative
Flag in distress position. Beverly, MA. 2002. ➔ United States Flag Code, Title 4, Chapter 1, Section 8 (a). The flag should never be displayed with the union down, except as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property. ⚑ TATTERED: Investigation of an American Icon is now on display at First Light Studios in Randolph, Vermont. Twenty Percent of all gross sales from the TATTERED exhibition & all proceeds generated from the artist’s proof print raffle to be donated to The Veterans Place, Inc. in Northfield, Vermont.
