Yogi Stupa

Scroll to view exhibition images, the Yogi project, followed by process.

Gallery view
2016
Atlantic Works Gallery
Boston

Yogi Stupa puts the gallery-goer inside a Buddhist-like shrine that explores a human adventure of commonalities and feelings.

Gallery view

The installation is an offering, an art antidote to violence, and an observation of breath.

Yogi Wall & Meditation Cushions

The installation begins with a series of sculptural reliefs of American yogi teachers, arranged in rows--as in a traditional stupa--around the circumference of the gallery.

Side view of Yogi Sculptures

A few of the yogi plaster casts are gently highlighted with ritual colors from India. Each

male and female sculpture, because of their nakedness, vulnerability, dignity and posturing, exposes energy and skin patterns that are visible on the sculpture surfaces.

Yogi Avatars & Listening Station

Walking clockwise around the gallery, the sculptures invite the viewer to transition from concerns of daily life to a spiritual, perhaps meditative, experience.

Gallery view, Evening

Materials and presentation weave together ancient and modern, East and West.

Breath Evidence

A sophisticated grasp of Yoga relies on understanding the power and control of breath. The wide sternums and flexible ribcages, visible on the sculptures, reveal the physicality of breathing.

Yogi trio
Atlantic Works Gallery

As a grouping, the shared common physicality opens the door to a way-of-being that is neither digital nor scientific but humanistic. Heart. Breathe. Life.

"Breath and Temple Bells"
2016
Sound engineer: Boston musician PJ Goodwin

You are invited to listen to the installation's audio. Close your eyes and breathe-along into a feeling of fullness that moves through time and space.



Yogi Stupa Opening
2016
Atlantic Works Gallery
Boston

The installation is a collective heart of an ongoing crisscross of lifetimes, cultures, and generations. Inspired by the artistʼs yoga visit to The Great Stupa in Clement Town, India, that was constructed by Tibetan monks as a place for people to go to pray for world peace. 

Yogi project

Yogini #1
2013
Plaster
22x15x6 inches

Each sculpture is realized from a torso-imprint of a Yoga teacher.

Yogi #11
2015
Plaster
22x15x6 inches

When I cast the teachers, I ask them to enter savasana, an asana of relaxation, and to allow the essence of their practice, their calmness, and most importantly their breath to penetrate into the plaster. I then transfer their atman, or essence, into the sculpture.

Yogi #11, detail
2015
Plaster
22x15x6 inches

The intention is to use the breath of present-day practitioners to pierce time; to relate the present to the past via a practice. West and East intersect; materials and traditions connect.

Yogini #17
2015
Plaster
17x13x5 inches

Individually the sculptures pay homage to the classical statuary of ancient Greece, to the French sculptor Rodin, and to B.K.S. Iyengar.

Yogini #3
2014
Tinted hydrocal
18x17x7 inches

Ancient Greeks made terracotta mold-cast figurines.The objects, called Tangara, delight in revealing the body, serve as a reminder of everyday life, and are often objects of worship.

Yogini #40
2016
Plaster
19x11x10 inches

The French sculptor Auguste Rodin, who when asked why his sculpture didn't have a head answered, "No need for a head. The head is everywhere."

Yogini #40, detail
2016
Plaster
19x11x19 inches

According to B.S.K. Iyengar, one of the world’s foremost yoga teachers: "In Yoga there

is an integration of body with mind, mind with the consciousness, and consciousness with intelligence itself.”

Yogi #8
2016
Plaster
21x14x6 inches

As an artist I was looking to archive the imprint of breath on the human body. What surprised me was finding distinct patterns on the skin's surface.

Skin pattern #1

For example, observing the navel area of this Yogi: the direction of skin and hair growth movement is downwards, from the upper torso towards the navel, where all directions converge. Additionally, there’s a more energetic pattern coming into the center from the right than from the left.

Skin pattern #2

The skin pattern surrounding the navel in this Yogini is different from the previous one: a soft upwards sweep from the hip bones and pelvic ridge moves up the center line of the front torso.

Breathing Yogini
2015
Tinted plaster
8x12x5 inches

The patterns are like fingerprints, each person's torso possesses a unique pattern. What might create the pattern on a body's surface...a particular physical practice? Genetics? Temperament? Posture? Age? Trauma? Happiness? The soul pushing up against the inside layer of skin?

Wearable Yogini Breastplate
2015
Plaster and Pune Belts
17x13x4 inches

Skin patterns can sweep from right to left, or visa versa; some bodies have scars visible only on the plaster body cast but not on the flesh. A few, but not all, reveal an upwards moving fountain pattern that connects navel to heart.

Wearable Yogini Breastplate, detail
2015
Plaster and Pune Belts
17x13x4 inches

Realism and sensuality of skin deliver a particular, intimate vitality to the sculptures.

Yoga Belly Moon
2016
Plaster
7x8x2 inches

Edition of 15 (Three sold)

Yogini Avatars Tetraptych
2015
Plaster
14x12x2 inches each

Edition of 15 (Five sold)

Process images

Casting

I cast the frontal torsos of hundreds of yoga teachers. As an artist I was looking to archive the imprint of a practiced breath on the human body.

Atman Catching

How to Atman Catch (video)

Removing torso sculpture from pod

The casting process results in a pod. After the pod is completely dry, I fill it with several layers of plaster. The next day I lift the source sculpture from the pod by gently tapping around the edges of the pod.

Lifting torso sculpture out of pod

The next step is releasing the plaster source from the pod. It’s very much like printmaking, lifting paper off the plate to discover what you caught.

Revealing work

When the sculpture source is free from the pod, I begin to see the shapes and edges that I’ll exaggerate and enhance.

Refinement Begins
2018
Plaster


If you are interested in participating as a pod model, please contact me.