Buddha in Our Time
Gonkar Gyatso
贡嘎嘉措
Production date
2007-2008
Object Detail
Media
collage, paper, stickers and pencil on paper
Measurements
framed 173 x 143 cm
Notes
Gonkar Gyatso’s series of works depicting the Buddha reflect what he calls his ‘hybrid identity’. Born in Lhasa, Tibet, to a family who served as officers in the People’s Liberation Army, later studying traditions of thangka painting in Dharamsala, home of the Dalai Lama in exile, and then spending years studying in London and living and working between London, the USA and China, Gyatso’s work fuses his interest in global popular culture with references to his Tibetan heritage. Here, the Buddha extends his hand in a mudra that represents unshakeable faith and resolve. Yet the work is comprised of hundreds of stickers, logos and cut-out words from advertisements: Homer Simpson, Winnie the Pooh and Caspar the Friendly Ghost jostle with glamorous cars and references to global brands from Tylenol to Adidas. Just as Gonkar Gyatso’s life has been one of transcultural fusion and multiple, often mutually contradictory influences, his work similarly reflects this condition of contemporaneity and the hyperlinked, constantly reproducing, frenetic global culture of the present day.
Accession number
2008.048