Now Playing In Chicago: The Missing Peace: Artists Consider The Dalai Lama

Nestled in the heart of the Magnificent Mile of Chicago is a small little art gallery called LUMA.  It is the gallery brought to Chicago by Loyola University.

Until January 14, LUMA is the host of The Missing Peace: Artists Consider The Dalai Lama, an exhibit organized by the Committee of 100 for Tibet and The Dalai Lama Foundation.

The LUMA website says: The Missing Peace: Artists Consider the Dalai Lama is a multi-media art exhibition that brings together more than 88 well-respected artists representing 30 countries. The exhibition's goal, to create an international audience for recognizing the urgent need for world peace, is carried out by the celebrated and emerging artists that have been selected because their own work addresses themes related to compassion, peace, unity of all things, impermanence, spirituality, community, people in exile and nonviolence.

This statement did not even begin to prepare me for such an amazing exhibit.  Being an avid photographer, I was so amazed to see photographs of the Dalai Lama by some of my favorite photographers of all time.  Richard Avendon has a black and white photograph on display that is an actual contact print from a 16x20 view camera.  The photograph is of the Dalai Lama and a select group of monks.  Using the amazing capabilities of the view camera and its handle on selective focus, Avendon uses it to make only the Dalai Lama the subject of crisp and sharp focus, separating him from the crowd of tightly intermingled monks.  Using his character stark white background, this photograph is immensely powerful and even more so when knowing the difficult techniques and aesthetics that Avendon has put to use in making this print.

Another photograph that caught my attention was a superb and flawless print of a tight portrait of The Dalai Lama’s face.  A 3/4 head shot in color in which only the Dalai Lama’s eyes are in precise focus, the rest of him slowly fading out of focus, ever so slightly and comfortable on the eye.  I was even more impressed by the print when I looked to see that it was a Polaroid.  The large format, 20x24 Polaroid camera has been used by many famous photographers around the world.  This 235-pound camera is rare and difficult to use.  I had a professor once that stated that there were only approximately four of them in the world and that to use one is not only expensive, but requires a staff of around 25 people for each use.  The 20 x 24 print of The Dalai Lama that was on exhibition means that the print itself was made with a 20 x 24 view camera and that the print is the actual Polaroid image itself.  You get one chance for exposure, lighting, and techniques, and Close surely nailed it all in this fantastic image.

The exhibit was filled with amazing pieces.  One that struck me deeply was a huge wall of video installation projected upon it.  The wall had 120 small squares of projected video images of monks chanting all playing on a looping stream.  The artist, Mariana Abramovic called the piece, At The Waterfall and says that the continuous video loop were video portraits of 120 different monks and nuns representing the five different Tibetan Buddhism Traditions.  In front of the wall was a row of red beach chairs that were set out to sit in and take in the wall and its accompanying surround sound of the quiet and tranquil chanting of the monks and nuns.

There was a huge inflatable Buddha in another room, lying on the floor resting his head upon his arm.  I am not sure what the artist was trying to really say with this piece.  Though its size was immense, I have to say that to me it reminded me of those horribly tacky holiday blow-up decorations that were all the rage this year.  If the exhibit was to demonstrate what the artists considered about the Dalai Lama, to me this piece said that the artist related Buddha to a huge blow up tacky snow globe.  I wondered if he was trying to make a statement on the exploding trend of Westerners flocking to Buddhism.  I have to say that this piece really turned me off, but then again we are all free to feel any way we like about any religion and it’s followers.  And, art has always been a way to express that.  Though, this may also be one of those circumstances where the viewer of a piece brings in a completely different interpretation to art than the artist intended.  It all boils down to the age old considerations of what is art? What makes a piece of art work or not?  And that we all have our own biases that we bring along with us when viewing any particular piece of art.

There were so many other amazing exhibits, that my words could never begin to describe them all without this article being immensely long.  Just to touch on a few of my favorites for the sake of hoping that you will check out the exhibit.  There was a rack of yellow thread on the wall and the sign beside it stated that it was  The Golden Thread 2005 by Kirsten Bahrs Janssen…  By pulling out one arm’s length of gold thread from the hole in the wall and dropping it on the ever-increasing heap on the floor, visitors to the exhibit will symbolically link their arms around the world connected by the single strand.  Though this piece was simple in design and technique, it has a conceptual aspect that I was truly floored by and that I will remember and keep with me for a long time.

There was also another conceptually interesting piece at the end of the exhibit in which there was a huge canvas hung on the wall, clouds as the backdrop, and rope like clotheslines going across it on many levels.  On a table beside it there were many scraps of fabric, clipboards, and sharpie markers.  The piece was   The Peace Wall by Randy Taran and Willow Zarlow.  Taran and Zarlow invited the viewers to take a scrap of fabric sit down on the many beanbags around it and to take the time to consider peace.  Then to write a message on the fabric and attach it to the rope-like clotheslines hanging on the exhibit. 

After sitting and contemplating peace for a while, my mind kept returning to my recent visit to India and Nepal and the time that I had spent with all of the Buddhist monks and nuns that I had met along the way.  I began to become a bit overwhelmed with many recollections of stories of how many of them had escaped from Tibet, not seen their families in many years, and still this amazing bond that so many of them shared and how staying at the various monasteries were a lot like being with a very close family.  I simply wrote Tashi Delek on my flag and hung it on the wall, realizing a moment later that I had spelled it wrong but that the concept was still there.  Tashi Delek is Tibetan for hello and is kind o like the Hawaiian greeting, aloha.  I felt that was one of the simplest ways to sum up my final feelings after spending time in such an amazing and wonderful exhibit.

You can find out more about this traveling exhibit at THIS SITE If you are not in the Chicago area, check there to see if the exhibit will be visiting a gallery near you any time soon.  With a world so in need of peace and strength right now, this exhibit will definitely give new inspirations of hope for a more peaceful tomorrow, and in some ways help to show that there are still some traditions alive that stand up for nonviolent ways to reach out in the world for hope of a once again united front.