Contemporizing Buddha 21st Century Style

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
By Alexandro Senno

‘Bodhi Obfuscatus (Space-Baby),’ by Michael Joo
an installation that includes a Gandharan Buddha, mirrors, flat-screen monitors,
video projection, fiberoptic cable and live surveillance cameras

HONG KONG - When John D. Rockefeller III helped found the Asia Society, his donations included millennia-old Buddhist hanging scrolls and sculptures. A handful of them will be on display at the Asia Society’s new Hong Kong site, paired with, among other contemporary works, “Bodhi Obfuscatus (Space-Baby),” a Buddha statue encircled with fiber-optic cable, whose face appears on video displays around the gallery (View Slideshow). The exhibit, called “Transforming Minds,” aims to bring together ancient Buddhist art with their 21st-century descendants that, as curator Melissa Chiu says, “respond to or are informed by Buddhism.” It opens Friday and runs to May 20. “We wanted to do a show that spoke to the Asia Society’s contribution to cultural life in Hong Kong—pan-Asian, bringing the past and present together,” Ms. Chiu says. In addition to Mr. [Michael] Joo, Mariko Mori, Zhang Huan and Montien Boonma also have contemporary works on display. [link]