Sunday 29 June 2014

sandpainting rationale




Sandpainting is an evolution from my studies of Indian Art and my work with complexity and dynamic systems theories. 

Dynamic systems theories (closely related to chaos theories) seemed to me to provide a science-based, theoretical articulation of many of the insights and principles that fascinate me in Indian philosophies and Indian theories of aesthetics.

From Indian philosophy: cyclical time, constant movement and change (impermanence), the natural realities of endless creation and dissolution, the world as fundamentally interconnected on all levels, the world-creating possibilities of sound and vibration (particularly the human voice), the changeable and problematic nature of the human mind. 

From dynamic systems theories: the reality of constant change and evolution (repetition and novelty), the interconnectedness and unpredictability of living systems, the mystery of emergence and sudden collapse (feedback, resonance and amplification), the world as an interconnected web of multiple ecologies. 

From Indian aesthetics: art as a contemplative act, aesthetic perfection as a means of stilling and focusing the mind, stillness as a means of perceiving interconnectedness with all of life.


In a world dominated by the goal of technological and medical progress, obsession with the culture of celebrity, myriad forms of displacement activity, and increasing personal alienation, it seems to me that many people are longing for a deep, resonating, visceral reconnection with themselves as interconnected elements of the natural world. This is the intention of sandpainting as performance.



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