PORTFOLIO > Wheels of Vimāna , WIP

Collected Violence
collage: paints, papers on cardboard
27" diameter
2015
Dream Continuum
collage: paints, papers on cardboard
12" diameter
2015
Memory, and the Complications of Space/Time
collage: paints, papers on cardboard
14" diameter
2015
No Focus On
collage: paints, papers on cardboard
14" diameter
2015
Ghost Purgatory
collage: paints, papers on cardboard
16" diameter
2015
Retrograde: Contempt for Mercury
collage: paints, papers on cardboard
15" diameter
2015
Enter the Light, Exit the Darkness
collage: paints, papers on cardboard
10" diameter
2015
What We Become
collage: paints, papers on cardboard
12" diameter
2015
Tidy Proscenium
collage: paints, papers on cardboard
8" diameter
2015
(detail) Tidy Proscenium
collage: paints, papers on cardboard
8" diameter
2015
Terraforming the Moon
collage: paints, papers on cardboard
9" diameter
2015
Music in the Spacing of the Stars (SOLD)
collage: paints, papers on cardboard
9" diameter
2015
Dyutamandalam
collage: paints, papers on cardboard
10.5" diameter
2015

The series mines what is not working, what has not been used, things that are seemingly “useless”, yet have been saved for years. The work emulates a machine, underscoring the very human ability to put things back together in terms of a life, in terms of a workable fix, in terms of healing. The pieces are becoming cogs; useful, engaging parts of the whole. Created as a centering mechanism, the mandalas became something of a conceptual response to machinism.



These particular mandalas were started during the Baltimore Uprising in 2015. I live not too far from the intersection of Pennsylvania Avenue and North Avenue where much of the action was occurring. The near constant, multi-day din of multiple helicopters overhead was the main impetus for this body of work. “Vimāna”, from the Sanskrit, refers to ancient mythological flying machines; I likened them to the present day helicopter rotors/blades.

The issue (among others) was that I could not hear myself think, so this was a creative means of centering myself from the anxiety — of the pervasive noise pollution from the machines overhead, and of the violent machinations of society. While I am very used to hearing and seeing helicopters on the weekend nights, the events of 2015 brought a better understanding to me that it’s every day for some neighborhoods in the city. The perspective I had was ultimately about the effects of violence, and the tools I had as a person/artist to relieve these anxieties, to be able to reach for a sense of peace and wholeness where there was none. I recognized that many do not have the privilege of these same tools, or seemingly, the right to either “peace” or “quiet”.