Date of Award
2024
Document Type
Thesis - ECU Access Only
Publisher
Edith Cowan University
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy
School
School of Arts and Humanities
First Supervisor
Paul Uhlmann
Second Supervisor
Lyndall Adams
Abstract
This practice-led research explored non-linear temporality, Buddhist emptiness and matter, and their implications on art installations in accordance with the materiality and content of the Diamond Sutra (868 CE). The sutra was initially discovered in Dunhuang, an important oasis town on the Silk Road in Northwest China. The colophon indicates that the book was printed in 868 (CE), thus making it the earliest dated printed book in the world. This book has undergone multiple restorations, both appropriate and inappropriate, first in China before being hidden in a desert cave and then by the British after it was illicitly sold and taken to the United Kingdom in 1909. The restorations have transformed the sutra into a palimpsest of repairs, altering the object to comprise multiple interventions from the past and the present, making the sutra an object of non-linear temporality.
My investigation began by examining the cultural wound inflicted by the removal of this sutra in China, as well as the unfolding of the Buddhist concept of emptiness through commentaries on the Diamond Sutra. Following this investigation, I scrutinised non-linear temporality and matter through the idea of palimpsest temporality, theories of the fold (Deleuze), and Chinese Material Art. These ideas implicate a temporality that the present can converse and juxtapose with the past while expanding matter to unlimited becoming. The research also draws from the conception of traditional Chinese materials through Chinese Material Artists. Comparing this with the notion of Buddhist emptiness, these ideas provided the context for my material translations of the Diamond Sutra (868 CE).
This practice-led research was explored through a series of exhibitions employing multimedia and traditional media approaches. Aiming to create paper installations and hybrid moving images, the research incorporated field trips and studio practice, which included observation, documentation and note-taking as methods. Exhibitions were held in China and Australia to test and for further revision of the artworks.
The exhibition Dreams, illusions, bubbles and shadows: catching eternity in a flash of light manifested many conceptual material translations of the sutra and sought to illuminate key concepts of non-linear time and emptiness while drawing attention to the need for the repatriation of this artefact to China.
The exhibition consisted of four interconnected spaces, each exploring different themes through artworks. The first space explored materiality of emptiness through water projected on glass. The second space investigated impermanence through videos. The third space interrogated the idea of conversation and conflicts. This space was where the illusory ideas were confronted with cultural wounds and history. The final space exhibited works that emerged spontaneously from this research.
The four spaces were not sequential but were closely linked to and echoed each other, creating an exhibition space paradoxically full of tension and meditativeness. The story formed in the exhibition was not a retrospective of artworks created during the research but rather a narration of the story of the Diamond Sutra (868 CE) in the present.
DOI
10.25958/qs8c-ax40
Access Note
Access to this thesis is embargoed until 12th March 2028
Recommended Citation
Xu, X. (2024). Dreams, illusions, bubbles and shadows: The temporality of objects within Buddhist perception. Edith Cowan University. https://doi.org/10.25958/qs8c-ax40