info

Towards the last two months of my last visit to India in the spring of 2012, I encountered the Tibetan community in exile in India experiencing painful news of their people self-immolating in fire one after another in China-occupied Tibet. My experiences in the past visits in India (drawing a cremation site in Varanasi, documenting fire pits, cremation alters, and contemplating on life and death around fire) synchronized with this particular movement, an extreme way of ‘offering’ their bodies to ‘fire’ for asking freedom and peace.I could not help drawing large and small drawings as emotional response and with a sense of mourning.

After coming back to Vancouver, the self-immolation kept happening and I felt that my personal and professional task is not finished.

I have come back to India to continue to document and draw under the same theme. tomoyoihaya@hotmail.com

29 February 2016

Sketch - Impression on 'Ninjye'   スケッチ・ニンジェー(共苦)



Ninjye - this  Tibetan word means 'compassion' or 'feel compassion'.  If you are with Tibetan people, you will hear this word quite often.  When there is a story of somebody's misfortune or somebody doing a compassionate work,  listeners will say 'Ninjye', often with 'e' stretched( Ninjyeeee).

The other day I saw a Japanese translation for it in different version. Instead of translating it 'compassion' (慈悲), one Japansese scholar translated it literally 'sharing suffering'(共苦).
This Japanese in Chinese character struck my heart.

ninjye - 共苦 - empathy - resonance - compassion - Sharing suffering of others like ours with compassion.

Such a beautiful translation that one image emerged.

note:  The scholar's name is:  Dr. Yasuhide Tujimura ' Philosophy of Ninjye and Dala Lama'

チベット語のニンジェーの日本語訳 ’共苦’から浮かんできたイメージ(辻村優英さん訳)に 。 人の痛みを自分の痛みのように 慈悲を持って感じるのが 共苦





参考文献
___________________________
辻村優英
ダライ・ラマ共苦ニンジェの思想

2016323日刊行予定 本体定価2800四六判・上製266
ISBN978-4-906791-55-2 C0015 

http://www.pneumasha.com/2016/02/22/%E3%83%80%E3%83%A9%E3%82%A4-%E3%83%A9%E3%83%9E-%E5%85%B1%E8%8B%A6-%E3%83%8B%E3%83%B3%E3%82%B8%E3%82%A7-%E3%81%AE%E6%80%9D%E6%83%B3/


24 February 2016

Form of Prayers 祈りのかたち

My dear friend offered an opportunity to draw a drawing.
His requested themes were prayer and votive lights.

I remembered countless memories of being among flickering flames of butter lamps and candles.
I remembered so many faces of people praying and shedding tears.
Their faces were illuminated by the light of the lamps and candles.

Ocean of lights. Form of prayer. These words came up while I was painting a red flame on each vessel and candle.

心友から 絵を描く機会をいただきました。
灯明と祈りが 感じられるイメージをと。

灯明と祈りという言葉で浮かんできたのは 数え切れぬ記憶、
薄暗い空間に無数にゆれているバターランプや蝋燭の灯
揺れる灯に照らされた涙を流す祈る人々の顔でした。

描いた 容器と蝋燭に、ひとつひとつ 赤い絵の具で灯を描きいれているとき、
言葉がうかんできました。

灯の大海 祈りの形





9 February 2016

Performance and Art Video Screening in Vancouver March 5 2016

On Monkey Fire Losar, my prayers are with my near and far brothers and sisters who are in prison, in pain, and in suppression for their expression of human dignity.  My wishes are for all living beings to be released from pain and closed dark places to green pasture under the blue sky, where they can feel fresh air and drink pure water.  In another word, freedom. Peaceful wishes on Losar.

In the winter of 2015, I had worked on a short art video piece which is titled 'Eyes Water Fire'.  The first draft will be screened for the first time @NOT SENT LETTERS & GUESTS organised by Jeremy Todd( please see the detailed info below). 
Much gratitude to Jeremy for including me in his event, to Jose and Mona for editing the video, and my Tibetan art sister who agreed to perform for me in this event.

 I would like to share the poem that I composed for the video instead of describing the content. I hope once it is complete, I can share this with wider audience.

Eyes Water Fire

Thousands of Eyes
Shedding tears
Vessels floating
On rough water
 Legs crossing glaciers half frozen
In the snow mountains
Keep flames burning to show
That we are here and we have here to live
To reach the light
Tears of light

Note:The title ‘Eyes Water Fire” can be three nouns or water as a verb as if Eyes shedding tears to calm the flame.
________________________________________

NOT SENT LETTERS & GUESTS

interdisciplinary works by
STEPHANE BERNARD
TOMOYO IHAYA w/ KUNSANG CHOEKYI

AHMAD TABRIZI

DAMLA TAMER & JEREMY TODD

digital shorts by
LAURA BUCCI
FILIP GORECKI
GRAHAM MEISNER
RAFAEL ALBERTO ARGUELLO RUIZ

a not sent letters set by
JEREMY TODD, BEN WILSON, ERIN SIDDALL, SARAH SHAMASH & CYNTHIA FLEUR BRONAUGH

@ Dynamo Arts Association,
30 East 6th Avenue, Vancouver
Saturday Night, March 5, 2016
$5-$20 suggested sliding scale donation
(toward event production costs)
No one will be turned away due to lack of funds.
The programme begins at 8pm 


"TOMOYO IHAYA (井早、智代), a Vancouver-based artist often working abroad, presents a letter written to a friend living in a politically sensitive place.  The letter can’t be sent without compromising the addressee’s safety and will be read aloud at NSL&G by KUNSANG CHOEKYI.  The first draft of a new animated short will be screened immediately following the reading, dedicated by the artist to everyone caught up in similar circumstances."



NOT SENT LETTERS & GUESTS form public constellations of engaged interdisciplinary practice, unmediated by the realpolitik conditions of contemporary art as a competitive professional sphere. The interrelatedness of art, society and everyday life is critically explored amongst a diverse plurality of artists and publics. Jeremy Todd instigates each event as an extension of his ongoing Not Sent Letters Project, an entanglement with the production of meaning, self and cultural memory, involving image/text epistolary detours online (since 2005), digital shorts, interdisciplinary performance works and cooperatively realized public events.  This is the twentieth NOT SENT LETTERS & GUESTS event.