Time: 6 minute, 35 seconds
Material: single-channal video, color, sound; black steel, rusty wood, hemp rope
Vajra Warriors, whose original Sanskrit name is Vajrapanibalin, emerge as a spirituality and an ontology of bravery, protectiveness, and the dispelling of evil in service of the righteous, traversing time, geographies, and religious thought. Across the long, turbulent course of civilization, Vajrapanibalin diffuses, iterates, and transforms—both in material tangibility and in spiritual intangibility. Crafting—carving the beauty of the Buddhist icon—and dancing—performing the vivacity of Buddhist movement—stand as two primal human media and externalized aesthetic forms that carry forward Vajrapanibalin’s “xing” (form), “qi” (vital breath), and “jing” (aura/realm) through drifting eras. Moreover, the fluid temporality of humanity, region, technique, and hierarchical power has endowed Vajrapanibalin with a high degree of fluidity in its entanglement with society. In our erratic digital context, what are the transformations of Vajrapanibalin’s physicality and essence? What is its contemporary beauty? And how might we inherit this art today?
Thermal Muscle August 2023