Montien Boonma

The Hand, the Eye & the Heart | 1 October 2011 — 12 February 2012 | GOMA | Free admission

Moved by the experience of wandering in Buddhist temples and hearing the resonating sound of bells ringing in the wind, Montien Boonma attempts to recapture a feeling of inspiring awe overwhelmed with reverence. In Lotus sound, hundreds of terracotta bells are delicately stacked to form an enclosure or barrier, partially obstructing the viewer’s access to gilded lotus petals bursting forth across the gallery wall. Instead of the petals opening to disclose Buddha seated on the lotus pericarp, or the bells creating sound, there is a blank stillness and silence. Boonma’s installation creates instead a secular space for reflection and contemplation; the imaginary sound serving to invoke an expression of silence within oneself. For Booma, these objects can signify certain symbolic formulas to imagine anattã – the separation of self from the no-soul, selflessness or not-self attainable through mediation.