Impermanence, the time of man
Our project recreates an experience we had a few years ago. Although we are not Buddhists, we watched Tibetan monks engaged in the creation of a "mandala" sand painting. First, they spent about ten days building a beautiful artwork out of thousands of grains of sand. Then, they celebrated the painting in an elaborate ceremony, after which, surprisingly enough, they swept it into a pile. They then distributed some of the sand to the audience and threw the rest into the ocean. We found the idea of creating a beautiful yet transient artwork both significant and arresting. It seemed to celebrate the notion that nothing in life stays the same, and that it's attachment, rather than change, that we should avoid.
Our installation conveys to its audience a similar sense of the impermanency of things and the importance of letting go of the transient objects in our lives. To achieve this, we use something we call "temporal theater." It involves short films about emotional topics that pertain to different stages of a human life. By drawing our viewers through this experience, we hope to distill an awareness of the impermanency of the things that surround us.
It is not our intention to be obscure. The films consist of interviews with people from different countries, ethnicities, and religions—all giving their impression of the emotional trek that we describe. In the end, the experience is informative and thought provoking, raising as many questions as it attempts to answer.
Our project recreates an experience we had a few years ago. Although we are not Buddhists, we watched Tibetan monks engaged in the creation of a "mandala" sand painting. First, they spent about ten days building a beautiful artwork out of thousands of grains of sand. Then, they celebrated the painting in an elaborate ceremony, after which, surprisingly enough, they swept it into a pile. They then distributed some of the sand to the audience and threw the rest into the ocean. We found the idea of creating a beautiful yet transient artwork both significant and arresting. It seemed to celebrate the notion that nothing in life stays the same, and that it's attachment, rather than change, that we should avoid.
Our installation conveys to its audience a similar sense of the impermanency of things and the importance of letting go of the transient objects in our lives. To achieve this, we use something we call "temporal theater." It involves short films about emotional topics that pertain to different stages of a human life. By drawing our viewers through this experience, we hope to distill an awareness of the impermanency of the things that surround us.
It is not our intention to be obscure. The films consist of interviews with people from different countries, ethnicities, and religions—all giving their impression of the emotional trek that we describe. In the end, the experience is informative and thought provoking, raising as many questions as it attempts to answer.
