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Searching for a Better Understanding of Mentally-Disordered Perpetrators of Violent Crime |
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Two New Computer Labs in McCormack Hall: Students Networked for Success |
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Wide "Awake" At Harbor Art Gallery |
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The Harbor Art Gallery is showing a terrifically original show titled "Awake: a group exhibition which explores the intersection of contemporary art and the Tibetan Buddhist tradition" now through March 18. UMass Boston is the exclusive stop for this collection of works by ten Boston-area artists, all of whom either practice Tibetan Buddhism or have stylistic ties to Tibetan art. The works are startlingly different from each other and, as curator and gallery director Noel McKenna points out, the exhibit was difficult to lay out because they vary so much... "But I think it fits together pretty nicely and has a sense of flow," he says.
At first one might wonder about any possible connections among the pieces being exhibited, other than the ties to Tibetan Buddhism. The digital works by Linda Brown&emdash;"Hearing What I Said," "Saying What I See," and "Seeing What I Mean"&emdash;seem a far cry from the Buddha heads of Paolo Savarino. Yet seeing "Awake" creates many conscious connections. McKenna surmises that "a link is that the work is so strong and very resolved." There is "a consistent strength," he said. "This is an area where the path of making art is similar to the spiritual path. It takes looking at things over and over from different perspectives to begin to figure out what's going on."
The curator explains these similarities best when he says, "In Buddhism there is a term called 'dharma' which has a couple of meanings. Dharma is the word for Buddhist teachings. It is also the word for 'truth.' For these artists the word dharma might refer to the various truths of their lives, truths which come out in the work."
"Awake" also includes the work of Ilona Anderson, David Brown, Mary Lang, Connie Bigony, Audrey Goldstein, Rachel Paxton, Kris Snibbe and Paul Stopforth. The gallery hours are Monday-Friday, 12:30-6pm, and Saturday, 1-4pm.