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

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.