Dance of Death II

Monsters chronicles the autobiographical narratives of traumatic broken-open interpersonal relationship experiences where the pain is repurposed into different archetypes of cultural and mythological demonic identities and narratives. The series took inspiration from indigenous masks, world religion, theology, demonology, mythology, and folklore.

In the artist’s words: “When we feel disconnected with our source of life, with our ancestors, with our traditional values, we begin to wither and become a hungry ghost, rootless; going around and looking for something to help us revive, looking for a source of vitality. There is no real communication between him or her with the sky, with the earth, with other human beings, including his father, her mother, brother, sister and so on.

Disconnected from our spiritual ancestors, we will suffer, and our children will suffer too. We have to look deeply to see what is wrong. If those who represent our tradition do not embody the best values of the tradition, there must be causes, and when we see the causes, insight, acceptance, and compassion will arise. Then we will be able to return home, reconnect with them, and help them.

Transmission has three components — the one who transmits, the object transmitted, and the receiver. Our body and our consciousness are objects transmitted to us; our parents are the transmitters; and we are the receiver of the transmission. Looking deeply, we can see that the three components are one — this is called the “emptiness of transmission.”

Our body and many of the seeds we carry in our consciousness are actually our parents. They did not transmit anything less than themselves — seeds of suffering, happiness, and talent, many of which they received from their ancestors. We cannot escape the fact that we are a continuation of our parents and our ancestors. To be angry at our parents is to be angry at ourselves. To reconcile with our father and mother is to make peace with ourselves.”