'Ploughing the Bright Field' was the title of an exhibition of contemporary Buddhist art, held at the Create Centre, Bristol, in November 1997.
The exhibition attracted around 500 visitors during a fortnight. It showed the work of 20 artists from all over the country. Most were professional artists whose work is either partly or wholly inspired by Buddhist practice. A few were artists whose work is part of a process of self-enquiry, not intended for sale. I am a self-employed artist and have been involved in meditation for about nine years, practising with the Bristol Chan Group.
My idea for the exhibition was to gather together artists working in their own contemporary manner rather than those adhering to traditional forms such as Thanka painting. I could already count several of these among my friends and acquaintances and so suspected that it might be a line worth following. I duly wrote inviting them to submit slides, and asking them to pass word along to others. I also advertised in South West Arts Newsletter and wrote to several Buddhist organisations, to stimulate response from further afield.
The exhibition failed to win a grant and by the end of June had only raised £800 in private sponsorship money. I realised it would have to pay for itself somehow and, in discussion with the Bristol Chan Group, I decided to organise a poetry reading and a day of talks. I reckoned on needing to raise an absolute minimum of £2000 if the project was to be adequately publicised and a reasonable catalogue produced.
The poetry reading was given by four Buddhist poets: John Crook, James Crowden, Julia Lawless and Ken Jones. James Monks read for Ken who couldn't make it to the preview, but who did drive down from North Wales to give a talk on 'Engaged Buddhism' two weeks later. Other speakers were Peter Hardie, who gave an illustrated talk entitled 'The Diamond Thunderbolt - Buddhist Tantric Art in China' and Ninchen Khandro, a charming nun from Samye Ling in Scotland who drove all the way down to speak to us about the Holy Island project. The talks were on quite disparate aspects of Buddhist Art and Practice, but I guess there was something for everyone! The day passed very well and, I hope, stimulated discussion. It certainly spread good feeling and brought Buddhists and Buddhist sympathisers together in a creative way.
By early September I had only a dozen or so artists. Then, during September the rush started and my artists' list grew to twenty. In October I had to turn away four more who came forward too late. I was very pleased to have attracted so many artists and to think that this exhibition would be an opportunity - the first of its kind as far as I knew - for artists with a Buddhist orientation to make contact with one another, and to discover, perhaps, that collectively they had a voice with a unique and special sound. Luckily, although I was prepared to reject artists on grounds of quality or kind, this was not necessary. I simply selected from the material sent.
There were 12 painters, three sculptors, two photographers and two installation artists. There was collage, mixed media and printmaking, and one of the installations included recorded sound. There was abstract art, figurative art, arte povera (Italian modern art), impermanent installation and somewhat more permanent stone and metal sculpture. One artist was born a Buddhist - a Tibetan called Gonkar Gyatso, currently working as an invited artist at Central St. Martin's School of Art in London. The rest were Westerners.
Meditative dance performance by Parmin and Hao during the preview
The Participants
- Martha Aitchison (Beckenham, Kent) - painter/printmaker
- Bill Ball (Bristol) - painter
- Stephen Batchelor (Totnes, Devon) - collage artist, meditation teacher
- Brian Beresford (London) - photographer (deceased)
- Evelyn Body (Thorney, Somerset) - sculptor
- Michael Briar (Cornwall) - painter/printmaker
- Ann Brown (Cambridge) - painter
- Vanessa Cecil (Exeter) - painter
- Rosalind Cuthbert (Winscombe, North Somerset) - painter
- Chris Dunseath (Hinton St. George, Somerset) - sculptor
- Mary Edmond (Edinburgh) - painter
- Gonkar Gyatso (London) - painter
- Dennis Hawkins (Repton, Derbyshire) - painter
- Elizabeth Hunter (Axbridge, Somerset) - painter
- Denny Long (Bristol) - multimedia artist, Zen nun
- Tim Malyon (Tiverton, Devon) - photographer, BBC producer
- Sophie Muir (Cornwall) - multimedia artist, T'ai Chi teacher
- Caroline Paine (Bristol) - painter, counsellor
- Olivia Sanders (Crewkerne, Somerset) - sculptor
- Simon Wickham-Smith (Oxford) - arte povera artist
The exhibition catalogue devotes a page to most of the artists, including a brief biography, artists' statement and black and white photograph (Copies can be obtained from me price £2.00 + p&p). Telephone 01934-842970. The title of the exhibition was taken from Cultivating The Empty Field - The Silent Illumination of Zen Master Hongzhi. North Point Press. San Francisco.
