SLEEPING VISHNU TREE

2005 | site-specific installation with in situ Buddha statues and a gilded folding screen painting: SLEEPING VISHNU TREE | 2005 | henna, milk, water, gold leaf, gesso, clay bole, animal glue, vegetable glue, torinoko paper on 4 antique Japanese gilded folding screens | 174 x 704 cm | Kiyomizu Temple Sutra Hall, Kyoto, Japan - Kyoto Art Walk

supported by: Kyoto Art Walk Association, Agency for Cultural Affairs of Japan, Kyoto City | special thanks: Kiyomizu Temple, Kyoto City University of Arts Japanese painting conservation/restoration studio, Michio Miyamoto, Mie Nakao, Nagisa Nomura, Yuko Kotetsu, Toru Ohta

Statues depicting Buddha and his two attendants seated on lotus flowers dominate the sutra hall at Kiyomizu Temple. At the center of this space I created an enclosure using four antique Japanese gilded folding screens. On their verso, working with henna, I drew a supine tree that enfolds the created space in its embrace. The tree floats in a sea of gold leaf applied using the Byzantine technique. A universe of small convex mirrors surrounds the tree, recalling the convex surfaces seen in Byzantine-Russian icons, and emanating the light of Vishnu's dream. Visitors are invited to envision their own flowers, their own universe inside this gold space between Buddha and the Sleeping Vishnu Tree.

Kyoto, 2005