ninetypercentofmymindiswithyou:

Hello!

This is my first post on this blog. I will be uploading some of my works here for the next 30 days. If you want to know more about me, I wrote a little something in the Featuring Artist section above.

I will be posting old and new stuff and show you what and how I do it.

I am a…

From ‘How the East was Lost’, a Tibetan comic web series by Jamyang Phuntsok. 

ninetypercentofmymindiswithyou:

Untitled
32 x 40
Acrylic Gold on Foam Core Board

Well, here goes my last post. I want to thank The Tibetan Art Collective for this opportunity, and my best wishes to the next featuring artist Tenzin Tsering Chosang. Looking forward to all the good stuff.

ninetypercentofmymindiswithyou:

50 rupees
A person and an episode.

Acrylics on 18 x 24 canvas

ninetypercentofmymindiswithyou:

Untitled
Acrylics on 30 x 30 canvas

The inheritors of loss  - By Elizabeth Soumya
(TOI Crest Edition - September 3, 2011)

“Not every Tibetan artist is obsessed with the dilemma of exile, as an online art collective reveals.

In March 2011, Thupten K Dakpa, a Delhi-based freelance writer needed to tell a tale, had a graphic novel on his mind and was on the lookout for a designer with whom he could collaborate. A Tibetan born in exile in India, this search led Dakpa to meander through the works and minds of young contemporary artists of his community from across the globe. They all belonged to a generation who had never set foot on Tibetan soil, the memories of their homeland were second-hand and and their experience of exile was inherited from their parents. This brandnew generation of filmmakers, photographers, artists, poets and writers was negotiating a collective political history even as its members tried to forge individual identities as artists. They had different responses to the situations they confronted, different questions that arose from their creative processes, and like Dapka, they all had a tale to tell and were wondering how. 

“How is one supposed to feel about being displaced from one’s country when there was no physical displacement to begin with? asks Dakpa. “Should my Tibetanness only be defined by the community’s past (of having fled from Tibet in 1959 in response to Chinese occupation) and not include its present ? How do I relate to suffering when all I’ve known is comfort in my life in exile?” This is this central dilemma of exile-hood around which he founded the Tibetan Art Collective (TAC), an informal and loosely connected network of contemporary Tibetan artists spread out across the world. 

Tenzin Gyurmey, a young painter from the collective spends the better part of his somewhat humid day stuck in an art college in New Delhi where he’s a final-year student. His oil on canvas Lost has the haunting image of a man with pallid eyes staring out at you. Etched in the centre of his forehead is the capital letter R. Gyurmey says the ‘R’ tag of being a Refugee was forced on him. “I was born and brought up in India and had many Indian friends when I was growing up, ” he says. “I never realised the ‘refugee’ tag when I was young, but later my parents and teachers insisted that I was a refugee. “ 

Gyurmey concedes that he has never been part of Tibetan freedom struggle that for many outsiders has defined Tibetans in exile. After years of introspection and grappling with a feeling of being lost, he concludes “my identity as an individual human being is more relevant to me”. While he does pick the Tibetan community as one of his themes, his dark, expressionist portraits are far from cheerful and don’t in the least bit resemble picture perfect people resplendent in their finest Tibetan attire. He decides instead to depict his subjects as real people, often tired, weary and wrestling with unspoken burdens both within and without. 

Yeshy Sotrug of the TAC is from a different world altogether. In the picturesque Swiss plateau of Bern where he was born, raised and currently resides, the temperature at the peak of summer touches a pleasant 22 degree Celsius. Sotrung, whose family is from a place called Porong in the Western part of Central Tibet, says he has ceased to ponder on the ‘dilemmas of exile-hood’. He goes on to declare that the very notion of being conflicted about exile-hood doesn’t apply to him. His sketch of a modern Tibetan girl with the Tibetan flag veiling her face is inescapably Tibetan but as an artist he has an instinctive distrust of labels.
 
If you pan across the globe a bit more to the west, you’ll find Tenzin Tsering Chosang, a young photographer who lives and works in Toronto, Canada, and contributes to the TAC. While for many young artists the struggle is to transcend the stereotype of being refugees, for Chosang it is this very identity that lends purpose to his skills. He views his art as tool for social activism: “As part of my college coursework, I chose to do a paper on ‘Protest and art’, ” he says. “I wrote about Francisco de Goya’s Executions of the Third of May, Edouard Manet’s Execution of Emperor Maximilian and Pablo Picasso’s Guernica and how these works had a recurring theme about social injustice. “ 

His photograph The Villain from the Lores, he says, is a depiction of the duplicitous nature of the Chinese Communist Party when it comes to the issue of Tibet. “It’s saying we are doing this and that to help Tibet to the outside world, while really they are displacing and imprisoning Tibetan nomads into confined concentration camps, ” he says. 

The TAC website provides glimpses into the scattered narrative of the Tibetan exile. In the works on display, the theme of identity seems to be most prevalent. Most are figures struggling to define themselves. Compared to the traditional Tibetan thangkas, they are spare and minimal. The opulence, mysticism and attention to detail have been replaced by brasher strokes, muted colours, individual expressions and boundaries struggling to maintain their contours. 

A most atypical photograph on the website that catches one’s eye is Colours in the Sky. There is nothing obviously Tibetan about it. Clicked by photographer Nawang Tara Ghale it shows a well-dressed black woman against a white background holding on to a bunch of coloured balloons as they levitate her a few inches off the ground. She seems to be blissfully escaping the earth and headed for the sky, no longer bound by roots. How long can she hold on? When she returns to earth how will she begin to define her self? She will certainly have a tale to tell but in which language will she speak?” 

ninetypercentofmymindiswithyou:

The Facade
Acrylics on 25 x 25 canvas

Although I started the painting with an image related to the theme, it went into a different direction as it progressed. So, this painting as it has turned out, is not gonna be a part of the series.

After our first physical event, the prospects (and prerogatives) of Tibetan Art Collective has indeed expanded.  Unfortunately, due to certain circumstances, the e-zine production is still a work in progress. But, instead we bring you a rather eclectic project which highlights the premise of thought behind the Tibetan Art Collective.

“90% of my mind is with you”, an online journal cum archive will document the varied nuances and illustrations of artistic expression. For a time period of 30 days, the focus will be on a solo visual artist from any part of the world. Through pre-set tangible goals, this initiative challenges the artist-in-focus to keep drawing/painting, photographing, editing and producing work consistently. Therefore, through perpetuated innovation, re-imagination and experimentation, individual style and technique would be enhanced.

Also, through chronological documentation of the process, the artist-in-focus can use it as a benchmark for productivity in the future. And, as progressive visual artists, being prolific can be a journey of self-discovery in thematic expression. Although a collective effort, the unique creative thought process of the artist-in-focus would be highlighted, giving one insight into the mind of the individual.

The Tibetan Art Collective and the Friends of Tibet present A poet, A painter and Seeds: An evening of three new faces of Tibet. On the occasion of World Tibet Day, 6th of July is being celebrated in varied countries, simultaneously, to celebrate the unique beauty and value of Tibetan culture and thought. As part of the worldwide events, we in Delhi are presenting to you, young artists who express the dilemmas of exilehood, through their verses, brush strokes and film. So, we showcase for you:

Jamyang Phuntsok,(25) born in Chauntra in Himachal, he studied in Central School for Tibetans, in Mussoorie. A Masters in Physics from Jawaharlal Nehru University, particle physics and poetry fascinate him alike. Apart from Radiohead, he indulges in Russian literature, trekking and Test cricket.

Tenzin Gyurmey, (23) born in Paonta Sahib Himachal, taught by his father, a traditional visual artist, he was recently launched by Peak Art Gallery (Dharamsala). A final year student at Delhi College of Arts, he contributes to the Tibetan Art Collective, with raw forms which resonate with both traditional and modern roots.

SEEDS- the film, (28:37), directed by Tenzin Dazel and assisted by Tenzing Dakpa (Director of Photography), is set in Amar Colony in Delhi, a locality with Tibetans living in the vicinity, most of who are call center employees and college-goers. It follows a circle of friends in the eve of the controversial Olympic torch relay 2008 in New Delhi, over a single day. It unfolds the frustration of the Tibetan youth today living with the task of freeing their own country, yet caught in attempts to catch up with the modern world.

Working on the first issue of the TAC magazine. For at least an year (4 issues), to be released in e-zine format as it is extremely cost effective. And, quarterly makes sense as it gives enough time to generate submissions and post editing, produce quality content.

Hence, there will be no new content featured on the website for sometime.

The magazine would be mostly featuring cover stories on contemporary Tibetan arts, poetry and subculture (inclusive of unique human interest stories). My vision is for something very indie, eclectic, refreshing and progressive, which challenges the norms and pushes the boundaries of the perception of “Tibetan Art”.

Tentatively to be released in July. Any feedback would be extremely helpful. For queries and submissions - (contact@thetibetartcollective.org)

Can you feel the eclecticity surge?