“Happiness is not to be taken for granted. It comes from our own actions.” (HH The Dalai Lama – The Missing Peace)

When you are away from the light, the darkness is teaching you about the nuances of your inside space. It is a story about a kind of loneliness, deeper then the one in the daylight. However, motifs, rhythms and patterns that remind you of the world with light are there. The shades of the color are shades of black – and codes for an emotional palette, that speaks mainly about negative emotions: lust, frustration, violence or aggression.

The exhibition Phantomatic Natural History is similar with a book with text and images. It resonates with Sebald or Edmund de Waal inserting visuality and text in color codes.  The images are in fact similar with writings, from which visuality gradually appears. The focus is on negative emotions because only when we consider the extent and depth of our problems, we decide to do something about them.

We need to be our own refuge. What does this mean ? To avoid falling into two common traps, about which talks Geshe Tashi Tsering: of self-indulgence or of self-denial- both lead by the ego. (Geshe Tashi Tsering: The Four Noble Truths; p 23)

The merit of the exhibition is that the empathy of the viewer with the presented material of the works, may make him aware of his own suffering- even when it is part of the common daily life context. It does not mean we are condemned to suffering. The problems are always temporary and they always pass, and, as Geshe Tashi Tsering says, this awareness will give us more space to find the proper ways of solving them. ” This is the beautiful part of impermanence: as the things we love do not resist forever, neither the things that create us problems do not resist.” (Geshe Tashi Tsering; 52)

WHEN YOU ARE AWAY FROM THE LIGHT  |  Author: Mirela Ivanciu