EVENTS

Buddhist Sculpture in Asia Events

These events celebrate the opening of The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Gallery of Buddhist Sculpture in Asia. The new gallery demonstrates the many ways in which the Buddha has been represented in the arts of Asia. Highlights include the majestic gilt bronze Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara from 14th-century Nepal, a monumental gilt bronze seated Buddha from Tibet, a protective standing Buddha from Ayutthaya in Thailand, and a 6th century marble torso of the Buddha from Tang China, as well as associated images of Bodhisattvas Guardians and Taras. Events including dances, talks, films and tours, are listed below.

 

Buddhism and the Arts Today Seminar

Saturday 25 April
Hochhauser Auditorium, Sackler Centre
14.00-17.30

Investigate the ways in which contemporary art practice resonates with Buddhist thought at this international forum marking the opening of the new Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Buddhist Sculpture Gallery. The forum aims to develop a shared and stronger understanding of this area and explores the use of the mind in the process of creation and perception; the role of Buddhism in the modernist impulse to integrate art and life; artists whose work is linked with their own Buddhist practice; artists whose work reflects the themes of Buddhism; and the potential of Buddhist theories for the teaching and presentation of art.

Programme

13.00 Registration and Private View of the new Buddhist Sculpture in Asia - The Robert H. N. Ho Gallery

14.00 Introduction - Ho Foundation

14.15 Sanford Biggers - Buddhist Philosophy and the Arts

15.15 Tea/Coffee

15.45 Lin Hwai Min - Buddhism and Dance

16.15 Kimsooja - Buddhism and Art Practice

17.00 Panel Discussion

Notes on Speakers

Sanford Biggers was born in Los Angeles in 1970 and has resided in New York since 1999. Biggers received an MFA from The School of the Art Institute, Chicago, after begin awarded a BA from Morehouse College, Atlanta. Living in Nagoya, Japan, in the early 1990s, he became interested in the potential of Buddhist philosophy for artmaking, while also studying African culture. Since that time the syncretism and interconnectedness of spiritual traditions has formed the ideological core of his art. In celebrating cultural and spiritual diversity, Biggers fuses aspects to Buddhism and religions of the African Diaspora, with global pop culture and hip-hop to transform found, mass-produced objects, banal utilitarian items and empower them with new meanings. Among these works, he became known for his participatory installations that took the form of floor mandalas and became activated by break-dancing, music, and video. Enveloping the audience into the experience of his work, Biggers weaves disparate cultures into a larger whole, thus allowing for a more holistic view of humanity. A major exhibition of video works, titled 'both/and not either/or,' was organised by the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 2004.

Lin Hwai Min is a choreographer and founder of Cloud Gate Dance Theatre, a modern dance group based in Taiwan.  According to legend, Cloud Gate is the name of the oldest known dance in China, a ritual dance dating to some 5,000 years ago. In 1973, Lin Hwai-min adopted this classical name for the first contemporary dance company in any Chinese speaking community.  Cloud Gate's rich repertoire has its roots in Asian myths, folklore, and aesthetics, but it brings to these age-old beliefs and stories a contemporary and universal perspective. The company is made up of two-dozen dancers whose training includes Tai Chi Tao Yin (an ancient form of Chi Kung), meditation, martial arts, Chinese Opera movement, modern dance, ballet, and calligraphy. Known for its extensive international tours, Cloud Gate has performed in Europe, Asia, North America, and South America. The organisation has two branches other than its main dance company.  Cloud Gate 2 tours communities and works with and helps develop young dancers and choreographers. It was founded in 1999. The other, Cloud Gate Dance School, was founded in 1998 with a view to making dance education more broadly available.

Kimsooja was born in 1957 in Taegu, Korea, having pursued graduate studies in painting at Hong-IK University. She has lived in the United States since 1998 when she participated in the artist-in-residence program of the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council at the World Trade Center. In Korea in the mid-1980s she began working with her grandmother's bed sheets as an investigation of personal history and life experience. Later cloth as medium and image took the form of bottari (bundles of personal belongings wrapped in a huge piece of fabric).  This modest traditional method of transporting one's life quickly was known to the artist from her own experience of displacement, growing up along the Korean Demilitarised Zone; for Kimsooja, each bundle is an energy source: when open, it is life; when closed, it is death.  From 1999-2001 she performed motionless among crowds in eight cities around the world, leading to the major video installation 'A Needle Woman'.  Recent site-specific works have engaged the contexts of parks, cemeteries, memorials, and historical structures to activate memory and meaning. Her most recent traveling exhibition, 'Conditions of Humanity' (2004), was organised by the Musée d'Art Contemporain de Lyon, France.

Meredith Monk is a composer, singer, director/choreographer, and creator of new opera, music theater works, films, and installations. A pioneer in interdisciplinary performance and what is now called extended vocal technique, Monk creates works that thrive at the intersection of music and movement, image and object, light and sound, in an effort to discover and weave together new modes of perception. Her groundbreaking exploration of the voice as an instrument, as an eloquent language in and of itself, expands the boundaries of musical composition, creating landscapes of sound that unearth feelings, energies, and memories for which we have no words. During a career that spans more than 40 years she has been acclaimed by audiences and critics as a major creative force in the performing arts. In 1968 Ms. Monk founded The House, a company dedicated to an interdisciplinary approach to performance. In 1978 she formed Meredith Monk & Vocal Ensemble to expand her musical textures and forms. Her music has been recorded and performed by numerous soloists and groups, including The Chorus of the San Francisco Symphony, Musica Sacra, The Pacific Mozart Ensemble, Double Edge, Björk, and Bang On A Can All-Stars, among others.  Monk is a pioneer in site-specific performance, creating works such as Juice: A Theater Cantata In 3 Installments (1969) and American Archeology #1: Roosevelt Island (1994). She is also an accomplished filmmaker who has made a series of award-winning films, including Ellis Island (1981) and her first feature, Book Of Days (1988), which was aired on PBS and shown at the New York Film Festival and the Whitney Biennial. Recent projects include a new work for the Western Wind Vocal Ensemble, and recording the music from her latest music theater work, impermanence.

This event is presented in association with The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation as part of the programme, The Many Faces of Buddhism: Visual Arts, Dances, Films, Artist Talks and more. For more information please see www.rhfamilyfoundation.org

£15, £10 concessions, £5 students
Book online or call +44 (0)20 7942 2211

Buddhist Dance Traditions - Lunchtime Talk

Joseph Houseal
Executive Director of Core Culture Dance
Wednesday 29 April
Hochhauser Auditorium
Sackler Centre
13.15-14.00

Mr Houseal will discuss the four Buddhist dance traditions which will be performed 1 May at the V&A in honour of the opening of the Robert. H.N. Ho Family Foundation Gallery of Buddhist Sculpture in Asia. These are Noh Theatre from Japan, Vajrayana nuns from Ladakh, Charya Nritya from Nepal, and Kandyan dance from Sri Lanka.  Houseal will talk about the mutual illumination of art and dance, being twin expressions of the same Buddhist worldview, and how observing this rare opportunity to see ancient Buddhist dance traditions enhances an appreciation for Buddhist art.

This event is presented in association with The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation as part of the programme, The Many Faces of Buddhism: Visual Arts, Dances, Films, Artist Talks and more. For more information please see www.rhfamilyfoundation.org

The talk will be followed at 14.15 by the world premiere of The Untold Story of Buddhism, a short film written and narrated by Benoy Behl, about Buddhism and its historic relationship with other Asian religions.

Free

 

A Day of Rare Buddhist Dances

Friday 1 May
Raphael, Room 48a
11.00-21.00
Free, drop-in, (Limited seating available on a first come first served basis)

The V&A celebrates the opening of The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Gallery of Buddhist Sculpture in Asia, with a day of performances of sacred dance by international groups spanning Theravada, Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhist traditions from Sri Lanka, Japan, Nepal and Ladakh. Performances will be repeated in two cycles at 11.00 and 16.30 

Some of these performances will be audio described.  Call 020 7942 2211 for more details.
This event is presented in association with The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation as part of the programme, The Many Faces of Buddhism: Visual Arts, Dances, Films, Artist Talks and more. For more information please see www.rhfamilyfoundation.org

The Dance performances will take place in the following order:-

From 11.00:

11.00-11.30 
Charya Nritya performance, 'Mayanjala' and 'Vajrayogini' by Newari Tantric Buddhist priest, Prajwal Ratna Vajracharya. Prajwal first portrays a sadhu holy man, feeling compassion for the world's suffering. In 'Vajrayogini', he brings to life this well known female Tantric deity.

 

 

 

 

11.45-13.30 
Japanese Noh play 'Kayoi Komachi'.  The story is based on the life of the ninth century noblewoman, sole female among Japan's "Six Immortal Poets". A great beauty and a cruel lover, she grew to a great old age losing her looks and wits. She was unable to escape the cycle of re-birth and the wheel of life and death. A priest comes to try and save her from this cycle and so enable her to reach enlightenment. Her lover Shosho emerges from hell to complicate the process. This is the first time the play will be performed in a western country.

14.00-14.30
Drikung  Kagyu Nuns from Samtenling Monastery, India perform the 'Mudra of Vajra Vairocana' and 'Chod'. These are meditation visualisations of our ultimate nature, performed with fluid hand gestures called, Mudra, and using drums and bells.

15.00-16.00
Dehimaduwa Bandara Clan of Kandy, Sri Lanka perform the first half of the Suvisi Vivaranya, Danced Ritual of the 24 Previous Buddhas. This is an electrifying performance of eight dancers and four drummers in which dance itself is offered to the Buddhas.

From 16.30

16.30-17.30 
Dehimaduwa Bandara Clan of Kandy, Sri Lanka perform the second half of the Suvisi Vivaranya, Danced Ritual of the 24 Previous Buddhas.

18.00-18.30
Drikung Kagyu Nuns from Samtenling Monastery, India perform Shawa Cham (Deer dance) and Mahai Cham (Buffalo dance). These rare animal-masked Cham dances are part of an elaborate rite of mystical understanding of the illusory nature of reality.

18.30-19.00
Charya Nritya performance, 'Vajrapani', by Newari Tantric Buddhist priest, Prajwal Ratna Vajracharya. Prajwal embodies the ferocious protective deity Vajrapani, bringer of skilful means.

19.30-21.00
Japanese Noh play, Atsumori. Atsumori tells the tale of a beautiful young warrior slain at the hands of mighty samurai, Kumagae. He feels such remorse that he becomes a monk, dedicating his life to praying for Atsumori's soul. In this play, Kumagae, now a monk, encounters the ghost of Atsumori and they re-live the fateful battle, joined as students of the Dharma.

The Day of Rare Buddhist Dances is produced by Core of Culture Dance Preservation with grateful acknowledgment to Serendib Gallery, Sri Lanka

 

Sculpting the Mind: Buddhist Sculpture in Asia

Intercultural tour of the Robert. H.N. Ho Family Foundation Gallery

Marion Drew, practicing Buddhist V&A guide
Sunday 17 May
Meeting Point, Grand Entrance
15.00

Buddhist art serves many purposes and functions. This talk will focus on a few of these, including: celebrating beauty as it transcends the world of everyday experience; enhancing and making possible the central Buddhist practice of meditation; and the way in which Buddhist sculpture offers models of spiritual conduct in the person of important figures, and even the Buddha himself, as a way of supporting an individual, personal pursuit of spiritual growth.
Free, drop-in