Prayers spoken, movements performed, artifacts created weave together a matrix that defines a spiritual tradition. Repeated at designated intervals and most often tied to their natural surroundings, they create rhythms that form both personal and social spaces. Annual festivals bring communities together. Practitioners of many belief systems mark their devotional space/time with specifically chosen rituals. This is a model of perception through action, a body-knowledge gained through rhythmic repetition.
Cast in a contemporary context, ritual spaces and rhythms that form them become radically reconfigured. No longer is our practice dictated by the cycles of nature; airplane schedules and movie listings have more relevance to our lives than do sunrise and sunset. Within this context, what is our body-knowledge? Or has Descartes' famous dictum "I think therefore I am" forever separated our minds and bodies, leaving the latter behind? Zero, one, one, zero, zero, one... is this the pulse of our multi-cultural, digitally connected world, or just the echoes of footsteps in an endless pilgrimage to yet another soft/hardware release?
While the above questions are critical of the society we live in, they should in no way be construed as indicators of a yearning for an idyllic past - especially at a time when our world is being torn apart by religious fanaticism! They are, however, a call for a greater self-awareness of the daily rituals that compose contemporary life. "Rhythm and Ritual" represents our attempt to answer this call.
Mass-market objects, John Cage-branded Daoism, intricate hand-crafted mechanisms, branding and advertisement slogans, Buddhist doctrine, microchips, irony, water, stillness, photography, hyperactivity, and sound are just some of the elements that come together to form a ritual matrix that defines this exhibition. Often contradictory, these elements point to the fluid nature of the questions that called for their inclusion. Electrical, mechanical and architectural rhythms compose the space of the show, inviting one to step in and take time to reflect on the contemporary condition.
Although no specific spiritual tradition is privileged in the show, we make direct references to Daoism and Buddhism. It is important to note that these references accompany an understanding of the inherent danger in presenting these spiritual traditions within the context of contemporary Western art world; they can easily become markers of the exotic. In other words, they can signify an idealized cultural "East" while failing to address the heterogeneous nature of contemporary reality. The exhibition starts in East Asia in order to establish a cultural dialogue with the societies that produced these thought and belief systems. It is the hope of the artists that such a dialogue can lead to a more nuanced and less mythologized understanding of those traditions and their reinterpretation and performance.
"Rhythm and Ritual" is a show of artwork by Joseph Kohnke, Yuichiro Nishizawa, David A.Parker and Dmitry (Dima) Strakovsky. It will be on view at &ArtLab space in Beijing, China from June 16th to July 1st, 2007 and at Kwanhoon Gallery in Seoul, Korea from July 20 to August 7, 2007.
For additional information please contact INFO AT RHYTHM-AND-RITUAL DOT COM.