Gonkar Gyatso @ IMA

Gonkar Gyatso’s Three Realms

@ Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane

Gonkar Gyatso's pastiche of colourful collages are currently exhibiting at the Institute of Modern Art. His latest exhibit, Three Realms, questions the morals and motives of today's globalised society, drawing from his own Tibetan heritage to reflect and question. In this latest exhibit Gyatso comments directly on globalisation and the subaltern (those without a voice) all in an effort to break down Eurocentric misconceptions and ways of thinking.

Situated in the first gallery are six large paper collages, each work a word from the title (Excuse Me While I Kiss the Sky).  Inside the large capitalised block letters sit layers of stickers, news clippings and other found imagery combined with charcoal and dots, forming a pastiche of references. In the next room sits a large Buddha in the lotus position, covered similarly with symbols of modern day society. The Chakra points of the body are represented by circular black and white stickers, uniform in size, standing out in stark contrast to the bright pop symbols. The monochromatic circles range from anti-Buddhist imagery (such as an image of Buddha with a thick line defacing it), bonafide Buddhist cultural symbols, to the BBC logo and the Amnesty International logo surrounded by the words 'Made in China'. These works are in a similar style and commentary to Gyatso's previous work God Series 1, 2008 in which an OM symbol is constructed out of assorted stickers, commenting on culture as a commodity. This makes Excuse Me While I Kiss the Sky, 2011 seem as though it is a simple rehash of Gyatso's previous work and that perhaps he is commenting on himself as an artist becoming a commodity, with the push to create more of what is desired and popular. One of his works in 108 Burning Questions, 2011, features the question “APT6, Validity” also leads one to think so.

Similar themes are prevalent in the rest of the small-framed collages surrounding the adorned Buddha. 108 Burning Questions, 2011 are positioned around the room in a regimental arrangement. The number 108 is sacred in Buddhism, Hinduism and many other Eastern religions and cultures. In Buddhism it is believed (in some groups of thought) that there are 108 defilements/wrong doings. The 108 images could be seen as questioning wrong doings but they are quite varied. Images of Middle Eastern men are combined with the question “Are you with us or against us?”, a collage of Eastern deities are paired with “Stolen Goods?”. Politicised and controversial statements are placed with more universal and reflective questions such as “Can tea promote world peace?” and “Why do some have so little and others so much?”. The combination of collage and text placed within the border of the white frame eases the viewer into reflecting upon the question posed by each work.

108 Burning Questions, 2011 was the real work (in contrast to the large text based collages), re-examining issues rather than just reproducing old content in a different form. In this series he raises questions of who has power in today’s globalised society and how non-Western culture has become an economic being, a commodity, exoticised and removed, with new homogenised meaning. Through the use of found images juxtaposed against text, Gyatso invites dialogue to be opened on ideas of morals and power, questioning the cultural norms of today's world.

Sancintya Simpson