The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
‘FLAMES OF MY HOMELAND’ EXHIBIT FEB. 23 OPENS
MIDDLETOWN — “Flames of My Homeland: The Cultural Revolution and Modern Tibet” with works by Tsering Dorje, Tsering Woeser, and Ian Boyden,” opens Feb. 23 in the Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery at Wesleyan University.
The exhibition is curated by Ian Boyden, William Frucht and Associate Professor of Religion and East Asian Studies Andrew Quintman, and continues until April 1.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the campus gallery is open to Wesleyan students, faculty, and staff.
From the gallery: The exhibition “Flames of My Homeland” brings together for the first time the work of the extraordinary father and daughter Tsering Dorje and Woeser to highlight their contributions to Tibetan visual and literary culture, reveal new forms of Tibetan self-representation, and explore the complex interplay of artistic, political, and religious expression in contemporary China. The exhibition features photographs by Tsering Dorje and Woeser, and a set of original collaborative works by Woeser and Ian Boyden, featuring multimedia installations including Woeser’s poetry in her own voice, and the video “The Birds Might Not Come.”
“The highest form of courage is simply saying or showing what’s true,” said co-curator William Frucht, Executive Editor for Political Science at Yale University Press. “Perhaps the most important thing Woeser inherited from her father is the courage to speak truth, and the ability to make it memorable.”
“There is an archaeological character to Woeser’s writing,” said co-curator, visual artist, poet and translator Ian Boyden. “Throughout her work she often focuses on loss, on the disappearance of things, especially elements of the Tibetan cultural landscape—the Dalai Lama, monasteries, language, even people themselves. In this exhibition, we highlight this archaeological, fragmentary quality of her work, placing it in the context of her father’s photography documenting the destruction of Lhasa during the Cultural Revolution.” Boyden is completing an English translation of Woeser’s collected poems. His work was previously included in the exhibition “The Alumni Show II” on display in Wesleyan University’s Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery from September through December 2013; as well as the exhibition “Tripod Complex” on display in the College of East Asian Studies Gallery at Mansfield Freeman Center from September through December 2015.
A dedicated website for the exhibition launching this spring will feature additional images, text, poetry, and online events.
The works of Tsering Dorje and Tsering Woeser document the ravages of Tibetan society brought by the Cultural Revolution and their ongoing effects in Lhasa today. Tsering Dorje (c. 1937—1991), a native Tibetan, served as an officer in the People’s Liberation Army. His black and white photographs provide a rare visual record of the violence perpetrated in Tibet during a period of book burnings, political rallies, and public struggle sessions. His daughter, widely known by the single name Woeser, is a poet, essayist, and photographer, and is a leading Tibetan public intellectual in China whose work ranges from political criticism to reflections on Buddhist belief and practice, and the challenges of inhabiting both Chinese and Tibetan cultural worlds. Together, Tsering Dorje and Woeser are among the most important contributors to our understanding of Tibetan religion, history, and culture in the post-Mao era.
Related online events are free; registration is required. Programs are on Zoom .
Feb. 23, 4:30 p.m.: “Flames of My Homeland” Talk: Ian Boyden and William Frucht
March 30, 4:30 p.m.: Burning for Buddhism: Art, Memory and Resistance in Tibet - Robert Barnett and Barbara Demick
April 20, 4:30 p.m.: Photography and Tibet: Widening the Frame with Clare Harris.
For details and registration go to https://www.wesleyan.edu/cfa/ galleries/zilkha-exhibition/index.html