Description

Immediate dispatch from Somerset. Book in excellent unread/unused condition. See images. Fantastic book.

About the book >.>.> With edgy humour Kesang Lamdark mixes Western pop idols and Chinese readymades with Buddhist deities to comment on the erosion of traditional values language and customs in his native Tibet. The artist juxtaposes classic Tibetan art and imagery with the crass consumer culture imported by Chinese tourists aching to find spiritual meaning in their lives now ruled more by consumerism than communism. The Han Chinese have been destroying the heart of Buddhism both wittingly through forced Sinosation restrictions on the use of the Tibetan language the exile of the Dalai Lama and the occupation of Tibet – and unwittingly through the introduction of modern bullet trains that now scar Tibet’s virgin plateau bringing pollution fast food discos and karaoke bars. Lamdark’s work explores the transformation of his spiritual homeland into a kind of Disneyland pairing seemingly antithetical images such as Kiss’s Gene Simmons with the ancient Tibetan state oracle Dorje Drakden. ‘In Tibetan folklore if you stick your tongue out and it’s red you’re telling the truth’ Lamdark explains. ‘If it’s black you’re lying. Kiss is about sex and mocking authority’. The show’s title Knock Knock derives from the repetitive sound the artist makes as he hammers tiny holes into his lightboxes and beer can bottoms. Whilst creating these micro-pointillist works Lamdark finds a rhythmic mantra for his hammer and nail. Some installations more than two and half metres wide take months to create. Describing his process the artist says ‘The “knock knock” is the drumbeat the heartbeat meditation…similar to the sounds of monks making a sand mandala. I’m making a light mandala releasing with my needles light to go through. (LL)