December 2022

‘A Tapestry To The Deities’ - I recently read the novel titled Siddartha by Herman Hesse a tale based/revolving round the lives of characters originating from the stories of Buddha. The story follows the journey of Siddharthas life through all of his trials and tribulations till he eventually finds the path that leads him to his own version of peace. But unlike in the stories woven into the traditional teachings of buddha he doesn't believe he can truly understand the meaning of those words by just following and listening to the teachings created/experienced by someone else. He feels to truly understand life and what it is that he wants from it he needs to learn from his own experiences. Quite early on in the story Siddharta follows his friend Govinda to learn and listen to the teachings of buddha in the flesh. They both came away from it with such different perspectives. Govinda felt that through constant devotion and discipline towards the buddha and the life he offers his followers, he could eventually find the key to enlightenment where as Siddhartha felt “Wisdom cannot be imparted. Wisdom that a wise man attempts to impart always sounds like foolishness to someone else ... Knowledge can be communicated, but not wisdom. One can find it, live it, do wonders through it, but one cannot communicate and teach it.” and he was left with more questions than answers. He felt he could not follow in the same footsteps as his brother who had chosen to entirely devote himself and completely succumb to the practices and teachings of Buddha. So off he set on a journey that took him to the highs and peaks of a wealthy and successful businessman in the city of lust and temptation, back crashing down to a hollowed empty vessel of a man who had lost all sense of purpose and direction but it’s at that point that he was able to gain clarity through the whispers of the river that carried the woes and tales of all of whom it had encountered and through his own familiar and unfamiliar encounters. And just like in reality the seams of people/memories and moments are woven in and out like the drifters and passers by that wonder in and out of our lives some to be met again and some to be left behind as nothing more than just a mere memory but with each one a new seed is planted till slowly but surely you are nurturing a green and fruitful garden filled with many truths and fruits of knowledge that you had gained along  the way. I felt really inspired by the many lessons interlaced within this story and by how unconventional some of the perspectives were for a story which was so weighed in spirituality. The idea that there is not just one way to succeed/find happiness in life or that there is not just one end destination or timeline to get there. We all have our own path, journeys and purpose and we all have our own ideas of what that destination might look like. 

I wanted to try and recreate the visual landscape I had constructed in my mind while following Siddhartha on his journey to enlightenment, almost like an old tapestry of a map while also trying to depict and recapture the idea that all these parallel and sometimes conflicting or harmonising lives were also simultaneously rotating round their own independent gravitational and aspirational pull. When I started reading deeper into Buddhism I stumbled upon Taoism and was pulled towards The Three Purities. The three purities otherwise known as Three Pure Pellucid Ones, the Three Pristine Ones, the Three Divine Teachers or the Three Clarities. They represented the trinity of Daoism and are the pure manifestation of the Dao and the origin of all conscious beings. The first Pure One is universal or heavenly chi who can be found ruling over the jade mountains . The second Pure One is human plane chi, (energy that exists on the surface of our planet and sustains human life) and the third Pure One is earth chi (all of the forces inside the planet as well as the five elemental forces). As they are manifestations of energy, the Three Pure Ones are formless however traditionally they are depicted as men. I felt really intrigued by these characters and what they signified and found that within so many religions there seems to be this pattern of 3 in order to create a balance and harmony but I felt these forms did not fit how I wanted to perceive these forces in balance, so I decided to create my own trinity of deities as I have often felt an absence of or lack of acknowledgement presence of black figures within a lot of religious or spiritual tales. Even in religions where geographically it would make no sense for them to be depicted in any other way. I felt, just as I feel strongly about wanting to address the underrepresentation of black figures in art that I wanted to subvert the traditional/conventional idea of how we typically envision or depict our gods or spiritual beings and include figures that wouldn't typically be represented as non white.