Reimagine: Himalayan Art Now
Rubin Museum of Art, New York, USA
15 March ~ 6 October 2024
Photo by Dave De Armas, courtesy of the Rubin Museum of Art
Reimagine: Himalayan Art Now presents the art of 28 contemporary artists from the Himalayas, Asia, and diaspora whose work is presented in dialogue with objects from the Rubin’s permanent collection, inviting new ways of encountering traditional Himalayan art.
The exhibition debuted at the Rubin’s former New York City building March 15 to October 6, 2024. The second iteration of the exhibition at Wrightwood 659 features 18 commissions as well as recent works across mediums—including painting, sculpture, sound, video, and installation—that reimagine the forms, symbols, and narratives found within the living cultural heritage of Tibetan, Nepalese, Bhutanese, and other Himalayan regions.
The artists explore their personal and collective histories and call attention to themes such as the fluidity of identity, spiritual practices, sense of belonging, grief, memory, and reclamation. They also offer critical and thoughtful commentary on issues facing humanity across time.
Reimagine: Himalayan Art Now is curated by Michelle Bennett Simorella, Director of Curatorial Administration & Collections at the Rubin Museum, with guest curators Roshan Mishra of Taragaon Next and Tsewang Lhamo of Yakpo Collective.
Exhibited works:
Charwei TSAI
The Womb & The Diamond, 2021
Handblown glass, mirrors, and diamond installation
The Womb &The Diamond and the Sky Dancer series were inspired by the artist’s pilgrimages to trace the tradition of a tantric practice dating back to fifth-century India that then spread throughout the Himalayan region reaching East and Southeast Asia. The large-scale glass installation reimagines the Diamond and the Womb Realm mandalas from Koyasan, Japan.
The Womb & The Diamond comprises over a thousand pieces of glass and mirrors representing the duality of chaos and order in all-encompassing space. The Womb mandala symbolizes the possibility of buddhahood in all beings, and the Diamond mandala is the guide to the spiritual practice that can lead to enlightenment. In the Tantric Buddhist or Tibetan Buddhist tradition, Vairochana is the central deity in the Womb mandala.
For this project, the renowned Buddhist teacher Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche created the womb-like glass pieces, using his breath and the sound vibration of him reciting the Dependent Arising
mantra, which speaks to the interconnectedness of all things, to make each one. (The Dependent
Arising mantra explains that everything is dependent on multiple causes and conditions; nothing exists as a singular, independent entity— everything is interconnected. The artist placed a diamond in the center of the composition to represent indestructibility).
The making of the glass womb can be found on Youtube:
Charwei TSAI
Five Sky Dancers Series, 2021
Drawing with natural pigment extract from malachite, cinnabar, azurite and ink on rice paper
Collection of Live Forever Foundation, Taiwan
180x180cm each drawing
The Five Wisdom Dakinis, or Sky Dancers, embody both humanity and divinity in feminine form,
representing the ever-changing flow of energy. Although they are traditionally shown personified,
Charwei Tsai chose to reimagine the essence of the dakinis abstractly, using the color associated with each one with their individual mantra written within the swirl of color. For example, The red drawing is associated the Padma dakini who represents the west and the element of fire.
