Art Work Nature
Visions of nature in contemporary art
From 6 June to 1 August, the Gate Foundation is presenting the exhibition Art Work Nature at the Pulchri Studio in The Hague, the Netherlands. Through sculptures, multimedia installations, and paintings this international exhibition presents thoughts and ideas about nature nurtured in different regions of the world. Taking the contemporary visual arts as its starting point, Art Work Nature draws attention to a subject which is important in four different continents: Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Europe.
Nine artists have been invited from Benin, Bhutan, Costa Rica, and the Netherlands: Georges Adéagbo and Dominique Zinkpé (Benin); Chimme Dorji and Kama Wangdi (Bhutan); Rolando Castellón, Joaquín Rodríguez del Paso and Karla Solano (Costa Rica); Ida van der Lee and Mariano Maturana (the Netherlands).
By Marjan van Gerwen
Up to the present time the role of nature and concomitantly the opinion of visual artists about nature have been restricted to discussing the topic from a Western point of view, in which nature and culture are represented as two different, discreet forms of expressions. Art Work Nature will show previously unknown aspects of different visions of nature. The ideas of the artists will be related back to other points of view derived from their disparate cultures, revealed in the works of those taking part.In their works, taking a critical stance, the selected artists refer from a critical vision to the position nature occupies in their culture. Their visions are mingled with local components and concerns, which gives them the role of historian, prophet, or politician. These artists work in a wide range of media, from paintings to installations, from photography to drawings.
This article chooses to take a special look at the artists Kama Wangdi and Chimme Dorji from Bhutan. For the first time contemporary works from that country will be presented outside of Bhutan in an international exhibition.
Art in Bhutan
When a country like Bhutan comes into the picture, everyone immediately conjures of the long Bhutanese tradition on Buddhist art.
The artists invited from Bhutan have adopted an atypical position to mainstream art in Bhutan which has a distinct stylized character. Its tone is set by the disciplines of Zorg Chusum, the 13 traditional crafts taught to each new generation of Bhutanese artisans. The tradition of Zorg Chusum-especially for painting, woodcarving, and sculpture draws heavily on the values and precepts of Himalayan Buddhism which exalts humility, devotion, and serenity.
In this context the overriding aim of art, often taught to young monks as part of their religious training, is to inspire Buddhist sentiments in the viewer, as well as to calm and discipline the mind, paving the way for meditation and spiritual contentment. Creativity and artistic satisfaction come from precision and the beauty of form; an approach that is somewhat different from the Western ideal of non-conformity, irreverence, and the constant re-examination of accepted norms.
'If Western art promises change, excitement and vitality, Bhutanese art strives for peace, serenity, and grace. In former times, the two styles may have remained mutually exclusive of each other but not today. In this age of widespread information and global emancipation, a meeting of the two styles heralds unlimited opportunities for Bhutanese artists willing to experiment and eager to tap into this creative yin-yang energy of East and West. Bhutanese artists today can pick the best of both worlds and yet mature in directions that are inimitable and uniquely their own', writes Karma Singey, journalist in Thimpu.
The artists who are participating in Art Work Nature, Kama Wangdi and Chimme Dorji, are both members of VAST (Voluntary Artist Studio of Thimpu), an artists' initiative with an interest in the development of contemporary art in Bhutan and a mission to promote the importance and value of art. VAST guides and assists young artists.
Kama Wangdi
Kama Wangdi (1958) first encountered Western art as a young boy studying at one of the first and most exclusive schools in Thimpu, the capital of Bhutan. Leaving his conventional 'English' (the school was started by a British educator) school at the age of 18, he spent several years as an apprentice studying the religious and mythological art of Bhutan at the Thimpu School of Traditional Painting and Fine Arts.
As a young man Kama entered the service of the Royal Government of Bhutan, working as an illustrator and designer for the Development Support Communication Division. In 1991 Kama won a scholarship from the British Overseas Development Administration to study Western art and graphic design at Kent University, earning a bachelor's degree and acquiring the international sophistication which so complements his traditional Bhutanese training handsomely.
In a sense Kama can be said to have had the best of both worlds and has been instrumental in combining the rigorously structured Bhutanese styles with the more easily flowing and expressive forms of modern Western art. In the process, Kama has brought the esoteric art of Bhutanese temples and homes to a wider audience among Bhutanese urbanities as well as the international community living and working in Bhutan.
In his photo-installation in Art Work Nature Kama Wangdi shows man's alienation from nature at various levels. Three sets of classical Bhutanese-style window frames, look out onto several colour transparencies depicting various elements of the natural world, such as pebbles, leaves, water, and trees.
In the Buddhist view, the eyes of the viewer separate you as the viewer from what you are viewing. One step further the glass window panes, although transparent, physically separate the person from the artwork. The installation hints at the moral ambiguity and the nameless dread most of us feel when our thoughts turn to nature and the state of the natural environment today. It leaves the viewers with a sense of guilt and the urge to clean the window panes the better to view the transparencies better. This final impression provides a fitting parallel for all of us who feel we should do something to help save our planet, but rarely undertake any serious actions to do anything about it.
Chimme Dorji
Chimme Dorji comes from a deeply religious farming community in the fertile west Bhutan valley of the Paro, an area in which the mountainsides are dotted with some of the most sacred shrines and temples in the country. Vajrayana Buddhism, the religion of Chimme's ancestors, teaches a reverence for the natural world and all forms of life, a philosophy based on the inherent understanding that all beings experience suffering, and that to inflict suffering on other life forms can induce bad karma and an unpleasant future for oneself.
As cultivators, the survival of Chimme's community depends on the ability of its members to follow the rhythms of the seasons closely, a way of life which allows them to be highly attuned to the invisible movements and shifts in nature. This subtle understanding of the natural world is something that Chimme has inherited from his forebears, and a theme that surfaces repeatedly in his work as an artist living and working in Thimpu.
Chimme Dorji's video-installation 'Conversations in nature' is a short video-documentary: a fixed image of a large group of prayer flags fluttering in the wind. The sound gives the impression that the prayer flags are people conversing among themselves, sometimes murmuring, then rising, sometimes faster, sometimes slower, simulating the rise and fall of sounds one encounters in human conversation. Dorji's work leaves the viewer with the distinct feeling that there is life in nature and natural elements (in this case the wind) which we often consider to be inanimate.
Art Work Nature, 6 June until 1 August 1999, Pulchri Studio, Lange Voorhout 15, The Hague, the Netherlands, tel: +31-70-346 1735, fax: +31-70-356 1341.