Page 24 - Studio Internationa - March 1971

3 Richard Long
Old Sod 1969
Completed earthworks projected at a site in
Battery Park, NYC
4 Asanas
from an illuminated palm-leaf manuscript
Orissa, c. seventeenth century
Private coll. Courtesy: Ravi Kumar

dark-age spirit obliging man to search for truth into direct experiential realization). Such implies mystical connotations which would
within the experience of his fallen condition. language is used to rediscover the state of probably be questioned by contemporary
Within the 'Living' Rite there are two schools completeness that preceded conventional artists. A brief study of the purist element in
of thought: the left-Handed' ritual (Vamacara) language and consciousness of time. The use of abstract art over the last sixty years may suggest
which is the path of extreme hazard involving Mantra' is of basic importance in the ritual. alternative replacements for the 'deity in the
literal engagement in the Five Mss, including `Whatever is pronounced in Mantra is an mandala', i.e. the content.
Maithuna; the 'Right-Handed' Ritual event... words are deeds.... '8 The essential concern of the recent formalist,
(Daksinacara) which is the moderate path Repetition is important in Mantra : japping, minimalist and systemic movements is that of
involving metaphorical engagement with the or constant chanting, 'empties the mind for reduction, wholeness and primary form. The
Five Ms. higher experience'.9 direction is towards defining the essence via the
Tantra is linked with Zen via Mahayana Within a general framework of metaphysical disposal of what is redundant. In Tantra, the
Buddhism: for example, the 'direct-pointing' analogy, I propose to use three specific Tantric functional structure of an object is described
method of Zen is basically similar to the intensive concepts as a basis for a pictorial comparison as its Yantra, the aim of which is to help
`short-cut to redemption' method of Tantrism. with twentieth-century abstract art. These meditation on the Void. Dynamics in Yantras
Both schools of practice have evolved from the three concepts are: the reductive imagery of depict the eternal flux of opposites, of active and
Mahayana Buddhist premise that Nirvan Yantra diagrams, negative language and the passive movement. This is symbolized by the
(enlightenment) springs from Samsara use of repetition. interaction of male and female triangles which
(existence). This is based on a philosophy of the The Mandala is perhaps the most familiar eventually unite in the Bindu: the nucleus
illusion of opposites or contraries; thus, form of Yantra to western perception. It is a symbolizing the union of all opposites such as
Buddhahood may be equated with Supreme cosmological diagram of the universe, a zero and infinity, creation and destruction,
Immorality because only the universal Void is, geometric projection of the world reduced to an subject and object.
everything else is without ontological reality. essential pattern. Like all Yantras, it is a tool Certain aspects of contemporary abstract
Tantra has certain parallels with the western used as an aid to meditation. 'A mandala is art tend to reject the hierarchy of parts and the
Mysterio-Sophic current, going back to a indeed the All as reflected in the ego.'" Jung interplay of relationships in order to sustain an
confluence of Gnosticism, Hermetism, recognized the mandala as an archetypal image, indissoluble whole. 'Things in their elements,
Greco-Egyptian alchemy and the ancient Greek born of an interior 'naturally religious' impulse not in their relations' (Andre). 'Primary
Mysteries. Their common insistence on the from the 'collective unconscious'.11 He used the structure ... a vehicle for the fusion of distinct
esotericism of doctrine is similar to Tantric word to designate a symbolic representation of parts into an indivisible whole, for the
secrecy and complex initiation rites. Similar to the 'nuclear atom' in the human psyche. incorporation of order and disorder' (Judd).
the eastern concept of Maya is the western Reflected in patients' dreams, or drawn The emphasis is on the absolutism of the object
mystic belief that the phenomenal world afterwards, the mandala acted as a protective (Minimalists) or the specificity of the experience
reveals only partial reality. Other analogous place preventing disintegration of the psyche (Process Art and Earthworks). The focus is on
ideas include the knowledge of the divine by and producing sensations of harmony. Tantric the immediate, the Now. For example, Flavin
initiative rather than reason; the aim to unite thought follows the traditional Hindu and has said that his work synonymizes 'its past,
the duality of man, the unity of opposites Buddhist practice of regarding the mandala as present and future states without recurring a
towards identity with the universal self and the the 'sacred domain of the gods'. However, Jung loss of relevance', a concept epitomized by
reintegration of the subject-object dichotomy.6 suggests that the central deity is replaced in Robert Morris's work, Box with the sound of its
Language in Tantra is intentionally negative such 'modern' mandalas by the 'Wholeness of own making, which integrates the process with
and ambiguous to ensure the potency and Man'.11 the object. Earthworks exist in the present
secrecy of its content for the initiate. It employs This archetypal imagery of the unconscious tense as their removal entails their destruction.
the notion of destruction and re-invention as a may suggest a hypothetical link between the This preoccupation with the present is reflected
mental exercise to create a paradoxical primary forms favoured by western abstract by Cage: 'Contemporary music is not the
situation for the Yogin (similar to Zen in which artists and the geometric diagrams of Tantra. music of the future, nor the music of the past,
bizarre imagery is used to shock the disciple Jung's concept of the 'Wholeness of Man' but simply music present with us, this moment
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