SEEING THE LIGHT
Chris Levine’s distinctive, ‘spiritual’ works are being displayed at his debut exhibition in Thailand
‘Equanimity”: noun [U]: a calm mental state, especially after a shock or disappointment or in a difficult situation.
The Cambridge English Dictionary explains the meaning of the word. But for those who meditate, “equanimity” is the perfect balance of the mind — the sublime state of liberation derived from pure awareness.
“I do vipassana,” said Chris Levine, who named one of his iconic pieces portraying Queen Elizabeth II, to mark 800 years of allegiance to the Crown by the Island of Jersey, Equanimity.
“I usually go on a retreat about once a year. It’s a 10-day course in silence,” the illustrious UK-based artist added further in a tête-à-tête interview the day before the opening of his first solo exhibition in Thailand.
As vipassana means insight, through the meditation technique, Levine has gained insight into inner wisdom where, he sees, creativity arises.
“You get quiet. You get still. And things just join up. The dots connect. You get clarity,” he recalled when the ideas behind Equanimity and Lightness Of Being came to him.
“I don’t go on a retreat and think of ideas but you just can’t help it. And what I found since [2003] is that increasingly my work is in a form of meditation.”
His first contact with the practice of vipassana was in 2000 when, he confessed, he was “at a low ebb”. In a breadth of one week, he received books about the meditation technique, he read it and kept hearing about it. Advised by a friend to try the practice, in the next two days he found himself sitting in a meditation centre in Kathmandu where he met the revered vipassana teacher Satya Narayan Goenka.
“I dropped everything. I went from the heart. I didn’t think about it.” Levine until now has gone to the 10-day meditation retreat 10 times. He is committed to maintaining his daily practice since he finds it’s vital to his work.
“My work, especially working with light, is a journey. It’s an exploration and the truth. As years go by, I can’t separate my life from my work. It’s an expression of what and who I am. By meditating and by getting still, that’s become a lot clearer.”
Working across different artistic media — from high-powered lasers, holographic pictures and portraiture works to collaborative efforts — the cross-disciplinary artist intends to get the viewers into the space of being. A split second between thoughts.
“Over time, it becomes increasingly that my work now is about drawing people to stillness,” he said of the underlying subtleties. “When you get still, it’s like portal to the divine.”
In his solo show in Bangkok at Nova Contemporary, Levine has selected 15 pieces of works divided into four main collections: Compassion, Equanimity, Lightness Of Being and She’s Light. The portrayals of the world’s influential figures including His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Queen Elizabeth II and Kate Moss are in 3D lenticular technology.
The process involves a high-resolution digital camera moving along a track to capture 200 images over eight seconds. The pictures interlaced together into one single print results in a convincing 3D effect. With some of the subjects closing their eyes, through the contemplative gesture, Levine illustrates the moment when they turn their attention inward.
“I don’t consider myself a portrait artist. I probably should. I probably should drop everything,” he said, admitting that the unconventional portraits of Queen Elizabeth have brought a lot of attention to his art. “But for me, it’s all the different aspects of the works. They are all related.”
Through his main artistic vehicle of laser, Levine finds that the powerful beam of light can also be as engaging and as spiritual as other art forms.
“When you look at a single frequency of light, just the laser, the attention becomes metaphysics. It’s so pure and it’s in relation to everything else. It’s a form of meditation,” the light artist said, mentioning his recent sensational light show tribute to David Bowie at Glastonbury, putting thousands of festivalgoers under a spell.
After the portrait photography of Queen Elizabeth in 2004, two people Levine most wanted to capture were the Dalai Lama and David Bowie. Although he didn’t get to shoot the late “Starman”, as he initially planned to do it this year, the law of synchronicity however brought him and the spiritual leader of Tibet together in an unexpected incident.
“I went to see a good friend of mine in Bristol,” he recalled. “And when I met him, I gave him a hug and suddenly his phone rang. It was the Tibet House, asking him, ‘You know Chris Levine, don’t you?’.”
Levine named the formal portrait of His Holiness during his 2015 visit to the UK Compassion, with all proceeds from the work being donated to charities working with communities affected by the recent earthquakes in Nepal.
“That’s what the world needs now,” he commented on the title, Compassion. “Part of it, I wanted to make an icon of the image. Something you can see immediately and feel the power of it.”
The 56-year-old confessed that he is not a religious person, but a spiritual being. Against sectarianism, he believes that the essence of all religions is doing the right thing and helping people.
“We’re here for a purpose. We’re here to do the right thing. What we do here, that really matters.” Chris Levine’s exhibition runs until Sept 15, Tue-Sun 11am-7pm, at Nova Contemporary, Soi Mahatlek Luang 3, Ratchadamri Road. Call 090-910-6863.