last friday at the rubin

greg and i visited the rubin museum this evening as they were having a special "good-bye" party. there was a good sized crowd for it.

uber rat, 2023, by shushank shrestha, ceramic and in-glaze lustre.

we walked up to the top floor as i wanted to see the piece chanda and i had participated in one last time.

field of wishes by sonam dolma brauen, with copper stupa in the center . . 

"i truly hope my art can create change. i know my art might only have a small impact, but i feel a strong responsibility for the mark i leave behind. with the limited time i have in this world, i promise to give my best effort."

video from the workshops showing how the artist painted and shaped the tsatsa . . 

and how participants wrote out wishes, inserted them into the clay, and shaped and tapped the clay out from the copper mold. (workshops chanda and i participated in can be seen here and here; and this post has the opening night of the exhibit with the tsatsa ceremony.)

this is a short video from the opening of the exhibit in which chanda and i can be seen pounding the clay into our tsatsa molds (you see only our backs).

i stopped at a table to write down a memory of picking oranges with my uncle (they had journals in which people shared stories of encountering important aromas in their lives) and then observed a group of women creating a story together . . 

calling the earth to witness, 2023, imagine/sneha shrestha, acrylic on masonite, steel.

everyone has fun banging on the gongs, each one designed by a different artist.

and on our way out we passed one of my favorite pieces in the museum, wrathful activity/fierce energy, 2018, shesad dawood, neon on black painted board.

(on the sidewalk outside of the museum was a group of demonstrators requesting that the shrine room artifacts be returned to tibetan and himalayan communities. i think the museum has returned a few items it held, but the shrine room pieces are being transferred to the brooklyn museum for six years. maybe within the coming years they will be able to have them returned.)

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we walked along 17th street . . 

to los mariscos in chelsea market . . 

for tacos (and brought two home for chanda who was in the lab working with her tardigrades).

at the rubin

chanda and i participated in the special ceremony for sonam dolma brauen's art installation, field of wishes, at the rubin this evening. we were very excited about it after having made several tsatsas for the event (which you can see here and here). we arrived at 4:30 and waited for about half an hour for the rehearsal to begin. it was good we rehearsed as there were twenty-five of us and we had to walk up four flights on a winding staircase.

photo from the rehearsal. part of the ceremony was for the artist to present us with a white shawl which we used to hold the tsatsa. we then proceeded to slowly walk up the spiral staircase to the fifth floor where, one by one, we set the tsatsa before the shrine. 

the procession . . as we set the tsatsas before the shrine, we gathered into a tight circle and were led in in a chant by the monk and sonam, supported by many of the tibetan participants of the event (dressed in their beautiful traditional clothing). it was a strong, peaceful and uplifting moment, all feeling blessed to be within it.

with sonam in front of her installation. it was dedicated to the memory of her mother with wishes for peace on this earth, made with love and care by the workshop participants.

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it felt difficult to leave, but we did and met greg on the way home. he had finished all the chores that we had left him: moving the car (which is his main chore), feeding the cats and scooping the litter boxes - and was finally having a slice of pizza at a new neighborhood pizza place. it was nice sharing our story about the ceremony with him.

another tsatsa workshop on a leap year day

there was another tsatsa workshop today which i couldn't resist participating in . . 

the artist, sonam dolma brauen, demostrating how to shape the tsatsa . . 

today we gathered on the third floor . . 

i and the woman sitting next to me at the table ended up molding and shaping three tsatsas.

walking back outside to a blue sky . . (and a chilly day) . .

porkchops, red cabbage, potatoes, sautéed kale for dinner with greg.

museum workshop

chanda and i participated in a workshop today at the rubin museum.

it's for their next exhibit in which several tibetan artists will be presenting different pieces.

today we made tsatsas . . tsatsas are votive offerings made to commemorate the dead. these offerings are made with clay that is often mixed with the loved one's ashes and then shaped into a figurine. they are placed in sacred spaces to acquire positive merit for the deceased person as well as for the one who placed the offering. for our tsatsas we rolled a piece of paper (along with a small stick of incense) on which we had written wishes for love and peace for specific friends or family or for groups of people and the world. she had several seeds we could also add to the figure. we made a cylindrical hole in the bottom of the piece into which we placed the scroll and seeds. 

we were provided with clay, a scroll of paper, incense and a copper mold of the same design as the artist's mold. we had to push the clay into the mold and pound it on the table to help it settle into the point.

chanda had to help me separate the clay from the mold.

artist sonam dolma brauen is helping to smooth out the bumps on my tsatsa. 

chris, another workshop attendee who sat next to me. 

the seeds . . (i'm not sure of their name)

the artist's tsatsa made with the mold her family brought with them from tibet when they fled in 1959 to india. she shared that she walked across the mountains when six years old with her father, mother and four year old sister, whom her mother carried. her father carried several pounds of roasted barley on his back which they mixed with water in wooden cups for their dinner when they stopped at night. in india they settled into a refugee camp where, sadly, they lost her little sister, and her father eventually died also. she finally was able to emigrate to switzerland with her mother where she was able to attend art school.

my finished tsatsas.

chris saying good-bye and thank you to sonam dolma brauen.

chanda's tsatsas . . it was a very special event that i'm glad we could attend.

afterwards, we met greg at chelsea square diner for lunch . . 

heading home (though chanda veered off to study at school for the afternoon).