Keywords

Natrual objects, religion icons, bones, rocks, toy animals

Abstract

At the edge of nothingness and invisibility is the materiality of collecting. These reminders of what cannot be seen include reliquaries containing the bones of saints, Buddhist shrines, and boxes designed to capture the fleeting experience of a day together. On a mountain in Nepal, I gathered green granite crystals, along with scraps of prayer flags, rusted pitons, and old coins. Later, these become a shrine to an ineffable experience of living in the clouds, which I named the Meditation Space. The Meditation Space includes natural objects, religious icons, bones, rocks and toy animals. It brings up many questions. What do we collect and why do we collect? How do these collections represent knowledge? Why include dice and toy dinosaurs? Is Batman the strength to fight inner fears, a consumerist icon, or the voice of the inner hero we long to be? The Meditation Space is about the power of chance, coincidence, silence, and life’s inner forces. The space also makes reference to the cabinet of curiosity. It is curious. It could make people wonder. It is a Wunderkammer, a microcosm or theater of the world, and a memory theater.

Original Publication Citation

Graham, M.A. (2014). The Meditation Collection Space. Visual Arts Research 40(1).