Thesis: Visualization of Emptiness
Exhibition title: Made in Emptiness
Title of the performance: Non-Self
Since 2019, the Made in Emptiness project has been continuous, developing, and improving, and it is directly related to my DLA thesis titled Visualization of Emptiness.
The principle of emptiness is an important aspect of Buddhism; yet emptiness does not imply void. This is not to say that it does not exist at all. Emptiness is not equal to being empty. Emptiness is an interpretation of Nagarjuna’s philosophical system that articulates the idea through a middle-way philosophical perspective. It is a relativistic interpretive concept that something is interrelated, lives in dependent origination, and has an essence that seeks ultimate truth. I studied and focused more on the Non-Self aspect to portray emptiness through performance art. It is a performance in which non-objectives are expressed through non-objects. The human body contains both real and unreal essences; it is exactly where it exists. When and where it exists was part of my artistic research.
Emptiness is another type of objectlessness.
Non-objects combine to create objects, and objects combine to create objects. The process of combining the non-object to create the non-object was more interesting. Non-objects are, in a sense, the essence of things. The performances are experiments that express the philosophy of emptiness, “non-self” through shamanic rites in the context of the European art or natural places. A part of the shamanic ritual sought to represent the moment when the spirit descends from the sky, temporarily enters or borrows the human body, performs the ritual, and then returns. I interacted with the place, felt the energy of the environment, and made it more clear through the improvisation of making sounds and performances with feelings in that situation. There is no one there and no self exists there.
These performances can be called “Nomadic performances”.
It consisted of features and performances by going to various natural places, performing independently, connecting with that place, interacting with living and inanimate objects, memories, and the future in a cemetery, and doing things at that time. Where am I? Where do I exist? It is a validation and expression of experimental endeavors to discover one’s existence, to articulate how one exists in the moment between memories and the future. It also contains demonstrations of working with inanimate items and visiting graves.