ONAMATAPEA (2006), TIM JOHNSON, KARMA PHUNSTOK, BRENDAN SMITH, SYDNEY, SYNTHETIC POLYMER PAINT ON CANVAS, 183.0 X 61.5CM (EACH PANEL) , GIFT OF THE ART GALLERY OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA CONTEMPORARY COLLECTORS 2006; WHITE TARA, EASTERN TIBET, MID-18TH CENTURY, WOOD, LACQUER, GOLD LEAF, SEMI-PRECIOUS STONES, 88.9 CM (H), ELIZABETH AND TOM HUNTER FUND 1994 – TAASA Review December 2013
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This article was originally found in the December 2013 edition of TAASA Review (Volume 22, Issue 4, Page 24).
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Beside these works are contemporary photographs, prints and paintings, which portray Australian artists’ engagement with the Himalayan region, together with artists of the Tibetan diaspora living in the west, who negotiate their place and identity within Tibet’s rich and formalised artistic legacy.
As Gonkar Gyatso (b.
1961, Lhasa), the ‘transnational’ artist and founder of the Contemporary Tibetan Art Gallery, Sweet Tea House, has stated, his artistic project is ‘modernising the visual culture of Tibetan Buddhism’ (Masters 2010: 24). The title of the display was inspired by the Indian poet and dramatist Kalidasa (5th century CE), who described the Himalayan region ‘as a stairway to heaven’ in his Meghaduta or Cloud Messenger...