Some Faves

A compilation of some individual faces that stood out for me from one of the panels of 'Avidya'. I wanted to shoot ones from all five panels, but they're big and heavy and I've been sick with a cold for days, plus I just had a big dinner after not eating all day, and I'm tired and stressed out, because it just dawned on me that I may also have some kind of eye infection. So these few were more than enough for the time being. Maybe I'll do more at a later date...

The title of the piece, 'Avidya' is 'Ignorance' in Sanskrit; 'vidya'(knowledge)+'a-'(not). When I first started the piece in earnest I had a vague idea it was going to be some kind of a half-assed Buddhist project that I could do instead of doing something more normal but impractical, like, say, 10,000 prostrations in a row, as a symbol of my... my what? Well, I cannot say 'my faith', since I am not formally religious -- I'm just not a joiner (except when it comes to the Cloud Appreciation Society, of which I am a proud member); but I liked the idea of the expression of devotion (even if to something as yet undefined).

I initially envisioned a 6-panel piece, each panel filled with faces representing one of the Six Paths 六道 taught in Buddhism, also known as the Six Realms of Existence/Reincarnation. The Six Realms are either metaphors for states of mind, or they may be very real worlds inhabited by very real beings. These beings are: Deva 천 ('gods'); Asura 아수라 (demi-gods, aka titans, aka jealous gods); Manusya 인간 (humans); Tiryagyoni 축생 (animals); Preta 아귀 ('hungry ghosts'); and Naraka 지옥 (beings in hell).

A great idea, but as the labor went on I came to realize what a dauntingly large project this was going to be, and by and by I scaled down my initial concept until I settled for 5 panels housing 1,000 faces. I didn't know just how I was going to divide 5 panels and 1,000 faces into 6 portions -- I just went on making little faces and let the chips fall where they might.

Anyway, in the photos above, the unhappy-looking fellows are probably Asuras (they could be Pretas, but the suspicious and accusing eyes they sport peg them as titans in my book), and the happy-looking ones are definitely Devas, since pleasure is the defining characteristic of a god's life. And even though both gods and titans are supposed to be more powerful and intelligent than humans, in their ways they are just as ignorant of the knowledge that leads to enlightenment and liberation as we are, and they, too, will eventually die and be reborn, most likely in one of the lower realms -- because when you're at the top, the only way to go is down.