SURA MEDURA - Kandy
Experimental 3d design inspired by Kandy and sound
Kandy is situated right in the centre of the mountainous district of Sri Lanka . It is an ancient home for world Buddhism and a centuries old sit of pilgrimage.
I found the whole place very effecting having never been part of such a mass religious ceremony. The smell of purple lotus flowers held aloft. People buzzing with the hope of a momentary blessing bestowed from seeing the relic of the Buddha's tooth in its sacred chamber. There is a deep sense of worship that emanates from the place and wraps you up in it.
In my search for a place to meditate in Sri Lanka I couldn't work out where people stop to praise. In my initial visits to temples I was surprised to find there is not a a meditation hall. Commonly, there is a stupa, a statue room and at the centre a Bodhi tree (Ficus Religiosa) lined with an octagonal wall (to reflect the Eight Fold Path) topped with gold/brass finials.
But it was Kandy in the outlying scattered shrines of Hindu and Buddhist origin that I found an ancient Bodhi tree with great steps up to it. An immense ritualistic space with fabric prayers tied to the branches. Peaceful - the anthesis of the rapture of the tooth temple.
I sat and watched people with their colourful plastic water pots make Puja and pouring to feed the tree. Such curious beautiful forms. Plastic and out of place - I felt compelled to create them in 3d.
And there, Sri Lankan's silently blissfully meditating. Here I found my space. Barefoot and welcome, I entered a trance and I imagined the roots of the tree extending down and hugging the whole of the earth - connecting me, even to rainy Glasgow. I had a vision in my jetlagged state when I arrived of a tree extending roots around an egg but now the egg had morphed in to the earth. I really need to make an extended animation of this !
As I reflected with a friend on whats app at the time: It is great to look at being British from the point of view here. We actually so rarely look within for answers. I now its my job but my culture does prevent this!
And that is the thing in the West - we are constantly projecting out busying ourselves with an ostentatious show of how well we are doing to try and have a foothold - we neglect the inner life and fail to put down roots. Not that the religious art of Buddhism or Hinduism isn't showy, it is! But I see now the alignment it attempts to provoke.
Gathering around and worshiping trees at this time feels very sensible...
If I am to reflect on my true feelings about ecology in Sri Lanka then also why keep my spiritual separate from my art. Is it a British or western thing that spirituality is somehow a weak and unemperical way of looking at things? But it is arguably an ancient spiritual connection to the earth that we need at this time if we are going to understand and repair the damage we are wrecking.
It is the same for art in general. It is easy for me to get infatuated with the image, the superficial, the surface- to forget the roots that lie behind a creation. Like the buddha imagery it is not there to be idolised it is there to remind, to point within. The great well of infinity the void space that we can access at any time.
"The Bodhi Tree is the nickname of the species of the
tree under which each Buddha awakens. All members of the ficus family lack “heartwood” or the hard inner pith found in most trees. The heart of the Bodhi tree is truly void. "
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