Queensland Art Gallery - Queensland Government

Gonkar Gyatso
Trouble in paradise
Gonkar Gyatso
Tibet/United Kingdom b.1961
Angel 2007
Stickers and pencil on treated paper / 152.5 x 122cm /
The Kenneth and Yasuko Myer Collection of Contemporary
Asian Art. Purchased 2008 with funds from Michael Simcha
Baevski through the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation /
Collection: Queensland Art Gallery
In 2009, Tibetan artist Gonkar Gyatso has made two related large-scale
works. The first, Reclining Buddha – Beijing Tibet relationship index,
commissioned for the 53rd Venice Biennale, runs to six metres in
length, while the second, Reclining Buddha – Shanghai to Lhasa Express,
measures nine metres, and has its first showing at APT6. Both works
feature the reclining Buddha as their primary subject — the Buddha in
parinirvana, or the state of ultimate bliss, released from the cycles of
reincarnation and no longer attached to the temporal world.
The elongated structure of these works references the traditional
Tibetan book, usually a continuous sheet of paper folded in
concertina style; and the Chinese hand scroll, which is rolled at either
end and viewed only in sections. The two works mark a substantial
development in Gyatso’s art, bringing together in more ambitious
forms a number of his signature motifs, including the Buddha figure,
various scripts, traditional Tibetan thangka iconography, commercial
logos, newspaper clippings, and images taken directly from popular
culture. These are drawn from sources as diverse as children’s stickers;
the lyrics from European and American pop songs; cartoon characters,
such as Pokémon and Spiderman; and the ubiquitous panda. While
these works are driven by Gyatso’s analytical interest in Buddhism’s
conspicuous rise in global popularity, the volatile relations between
China and Tibet also underscore his practice.
In Reclining Buddha – Shanghai to Lhasa Express, the surface of the
figure is collaged intensively with layers of stickers, fragments of
newspaper clippings, magazine advertisements, product labels and
promotional logos. This resting Buddha appears encrusted by a
great wave of commercial accumulation. If this work metaphorically
traces the long railway track from Shanghai to Lhasa, and we read the
reclining figure as embodying the extent of this territory, then we can
imagine that it is through the feet in Shanghai that this colourful deluge
swells to fill the sleeping form. As critic Elaine W Ng has explained:
The Qinghai-Tibet Railway was first proposed by Mao Zedong
when China established the Tibetan Autonomous Region in 1951.
The dream of connecting the once-secluded Buddhist capital
of Lhasa with the political capital of China was finally realised in
2006. Stretching over 1140 kilometres (710 miles) of land, much
of it unstable permafrost, and rising up to 5072 metres above sea
level, the rail line . . . promises to bring more opportunity to an
economically-challenged region as well as exert greater control
over a much disputed territory. 1
Access, opportunity, proximity, progress, change, exchange, loss,
conflict and flux — these are some of the words that describe the
condition of contemporary life, which apply equally to those living
in Lhasa or London, both being home for Gyatso. Having received
his formal art training in China, India and the United Kingdom, this
mobility has deeply informed his views on the histories of China
and Tibet, ensuring an opinion that is far from dogmatic. 2 According
to Ng again: ‘He is sympathetic to both the Chinese and Tibetans
living in Tibet, but circumspect of the exoticised vision of Tibet being
a spiritual Shangri-la’. 3
Although its political content is unquestionable, the structure of
Gonkar’s work juxtaposes humorous kitsch and social elements,
forcing uncomfortable contradictions. For example, in Angel 2007, the
outlined figure is of a Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara (the Bodhisattva of
compassion) while clearly also echoing the unsettling image of an Iraqi
prisoner tortured by US soldiers at Abu Ghraib. 4 Similarly, the seven
graceful standing Buddhas in Spring 2008 2009, finely drawn in pencil
on a background of gridded script, all sport horned heads like the
popular image of the devil. This later work is a response to the violent
confrontations between Tibetan and Han Chinese in Lhasa during
demonstrations in the spring of 2008.
Observing paradox, and acknowledging its place as intrinsic to human
character, Gonkar Gyatso’s images are imbued with a sensibility that
amalgamates the darkly beautiful, the kitsch, the sombre and the playful.
Suhanya Raffel
Endnotes
1 Elaine W Ng, ‘Gonkar Gyatso – Reclining Buddha’, Rossi & Rossi Ltd, , viewed 5 October 2009. Although Ng refers to
Beijing in this article, the reference should be to Shanghai.
2 Gyatso grew up in Lhasa and studied at the Central Institute of Nationalities in Beijing
before spending time in Dharamsala in north India, where many Tibetans reside,
including the exiled Dalai Lama. Here, he leaned about Tibetan art and culture,
including the technique of thangka painting. He moved to London in 1996 and
completed a Masters in Fine Art at the Chelsea College of Art and Design in 2000.
3 Ng, ‘Gonkar Gyatso – Reclining Buddha’.
4 Abu Ghraib was the chief prison in Iraq during Saddam Hussein’s regime, and
became notorious as the site of abuse of Iraqi prisoners by American military
personnel after its takeover by US forces in 2003. First reported in 2004, these now
infamous acts of physical and psychological torture were committed by members
of the 372nd Military Police Company, with photographs taken by the perpetrators
and subsequently circulated by the media.
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