Paper Garden (part of the series: zen gardens without the 'zen') by Ajaykumar
Form: Interactive installation
Date: 2006
Public Presentation
Territories - light, sound & space, group exhibition, Study Gallery, Poole, UK, Jul-Oct. 2007
ArtistsExchange, CAA, Hilton Hotel, New York, USA, group exhibition, Feb. 2007.
biblio-, Triangle Gallery, London, UK, group exhibition, Mar. 2006,
General Description
Imagine a rectangular transparent plastic paper shelving tray (à la Muji) sitting on a circular steel Indian tray: (thali). The shelving ray is stacked with pages which have text on one side and images on the other. These pages have parts cut out of them. Also on the thali are two paper 'sculptures' - like origami - seemingly made from some of the sheets on the shelving tray, a pair of scissors. Next to the thali is a note from the artist:
Feel free to take one of the sheets of paper on the tray and cut it up, fold it, sculpt it to whatever images and shapes come to mind. Then leave it by the tray, on the table, so that others can also take pleasure in it. This is the paper garden, made in part by your own imagination.
Ajaykumar's work deals with play and playfulness - how a work of art may come into 'being' through your imagination as a spectator. His work relates to Nature, about how we may connect with and think about Nature.
Ajaykumar’s art is not so much about objects but about how we inter-act socially, with the world around us. He creates little worlds - special spaces or places - to contact our playful nature, our imagination, and our feelings about the sacredness of our lives and our relationships. These relationships are as much to do with our relationship with others, as they are with objects, and with ourselves.
paper garden is the latest work in the series: zen gardens without the ‘zen’. The sheets of paper in paper garden have images on them from previous works made by the artist in this series. Ajaykumar's work is in part re-interpreting Buddhist and Tantric philosophies and art in a contemporary context, free from their original religious specificity. On the flip side of each sheet are extracts of texts, drawn from published articles he has written on the themes. Feel free to read them too if you wish. While Tantra has often been popularly misunderstood as ‘kinky sex’, its profound teaching is about individuals finding their own path to developing an understanding of the sacredness of all phenomena in the universe, and the sacredness of all activity. There are similar ideas to this in Zen and in other schools of Buddhism, which have been influenced by Tantra.
zen gardens without the ‘zen’ is a series of 'gardens' as art works: for galleries, public spaces, offices, and private homes. The art work here is less a clear art object, but rather a work that is found in an ephemeral space between an art object and your experiencing of it as a spectator. Such an idea has resonance with the Buddhist concept of 'dependent origination' which explains that all beings and phenomena exist not as separate entities but always in dynamic inter-action with each other. The concept of 'relational being' and the importance of you the spectator in the totality of a work's composition have historically figured in the art, architecture, and gardens of India, China, and Japan.
Ajaykumar's thinking and practice have been influenced in particular by: the stupendous Tantric art and architecture of rock cut edifices at Ellora and Ajanta in India; Zen gardens which were compositionally influenced by ancient Indian ideas of the nature of the Universe; the contemporary architecture of Tadao Ando, particularly the Water Temple, a site of Tantric Buddhism, in Japan. All these works have strong relationships with nature. The human-made caves at Ellora and Ajanta were art and architecture that related to a wider nature and contained empty spaces that were considered as much part of the sculpture as the carvings on the cave walls. Tadao Ando uses natural sunlight to create spectacular cathartic moments at the Water Temple. He perceives his architecture to be not the built edifice only but the edifice in relation to the human beings that frequent it and in relation to a wider landscape. Zen gardens come into being through the spectator's viewing of them: creating a kind of 'psychosphere': a space or place that facilitates contact with the imagination, the psyche, the soul: a space and place of 'being'.
Other works in the series: zen gardens without the ‘zen'
2003 foyer - a space of pleasure Riverside Studios, London
In association with The Royal College of Art and Goldsmiths University of London
An inter-active work over fifteen days, primarily of and for the Studios’ staff and regular spectators. foyer, is an outcome of research funded by the UK's Arts and Humanities Research Board (AHRB).
The delicate touch of the installation makes room for social interaction and allows us to share its humour in the present tense of the ordinary. As we move elsewhere towards something, the foyer works as a slow fuse for contemplation...
Mine Kaylan, Live Art Magazine
2005 play-station Royal College of Art, London
A space of play in play, a mixed-media installation, in group exhibition, getting to know you.
2005 cute micro gardenin People's Homes
And in group exhibition: Imagination, Function, Production The Study Gallery of Modern Art, Poole, UK
Third in the series: a micro garden for homes for people who have no garden.
2005 Nag’s Head Estate, London
A concept for a garden of the night and day, for the Peabody Trust.
An urban glade turns magically from daytime white to purple sticks that glow lilac in the nightBarbara Chandler, Evening Standard
Artist Information
Ajaykumar’s art work is not the art object but the creation of a sublime world that manifests in an ephemeral space between an art object and a spectator's experiencing of it; where art works come into being through the 'play' of others. His work re-conceives classical Buddhist and Tantric art in contemporary form; elicits notions of daily life as art; and stimulates particular ecological dynamics of the human being in relation to environment.
Ajaykumar's art practice is trans-disciplinary, intermedia, and single form, spanning the disciplines of: internet art, video art, combined media installation, sculpture, film, site-specific art, environmental art, performance/live art, design, architecture, sound art, creative writing, dance, theatre.
Ajaykumar is an academic at Goldsmiths University of London; member of the TrAIN - the research centre of the University of the Arts London, in Transnational Art, Identity and Nation; curator; and co-director of the shapes design studio: designing playful furniture, lighting, and gardens, and items that come into 'being' through the play of those who acquire or frequent them.
Artist Contact Details
ajaykumar@ajaykumar.com
http://www.ajaykumar.com/
turbulence.org/works/iPak
http://www.shapes-design.com/
turbulence.org/spotlight/ajaykumar/