Fragmented Peace

When Buddha was questioned if he was a celestial being or a god, or a magician or a man he replied, "No" to all of them. When asked what he was, Buddha replied, "I am awake."

As I sit in my studio in New York, writing about my work, somewhere in the world, bombs are dropping. There are helicopters 24 hours a day outside my window and the sounds of sirens on the streets. People ask me, "How can one create art at this time?" My answer is: "How can we not?" It may be a more difficult obligation for artists now, but it was never easy. To be disciplined, demanding seekers of truth is a hard job. If we raise consciousness or bring awareness, art is fulfilling what it was meant to do.

I named my sculpture YOUAREWHATYOUTHINK, because all that we are arises with our thoughts and with these thoughts we make the world.

The Buddha "cage" I have created in stainless steel is first empty and then filled on site with chunks of colored glass. The glass comes from the historic glass blowing workshops on the island of Murano near Venice. The idea of emptiness and fullness is central to this work. The center core will always remain empty. Without empty space, nothing new can enter. We must always leave space for new thoughts and ideas.

The wire mesh, like a net, is made up of a series of ties. Everything in this world is connected by a series of ties. A mesh or a net cannot be isolated. Each mesh or net is made up of connection wires and each wire has its place and responsibilities in relation to the others. In the world, everything is created by a series of causes and conditions and everything disappears by the same rule; everything changes, nothing remains the same.

Buddha’s Passport

To make this work a reality required the help and patience of a gifted international team, most of whom have never met one another. Their only connection is the journey of the glass Buddha. He was created in Venice, carried to New York, sent to Oklahoma to be 3-D scanned, then to San Francisco, then back to New York and back to Venice to be made in steel and filled with colorful chunks of glass. He has been washed, covered in clay, rewashed and dusted, wrapped and shipped by DHL, Federal Express, Delta and Alitalia. He has been hand carried, X-rayed, security checked, bubble wrapped and unwrapped and through all of this, he continues to smile. It is amazing what inner peace can do.

I am one who believes that the world changed forever since 9/11. My works since then have all reflected this perception: In Rhinoscimento, I compared Venice to a Rhino because they both are fragile, endangered and disappearing. Stilled Life was concerned with the transformation from suffering into art. Now Fragmented Peace expresses the same message of the fragility of life and the search for beauty.

Today world peace seems an impossible dream. Inner peace, too, seems unobtainable. Yet without the beauty, art, and belief in the world and ourselves, nothing is possible. This work is intended to remind us that it is not fragments we need, but peace in its entirety.

Judi Harvest
April 2003, NYC