Taipei Cultural Center in New York is very pleased to announce that video and installation Taiwanese artist, Wang Yahui (王雅慧) will be participating the MandaLa Lab of the Rubin Museum of Art.
Inspired by powerful Buddhist principles, the Mandala Lab features five thought-provoking, playful experiences—including videos, scents, sculpture, and curated percussion instruments—that guide visitors along an inner journey focused on self-awareness and awareness of others. See, smell, touch, and breathe your way through the space, designed to inspire connection, empathy, and learning.
The Scent Library, where Wang Yahui’s piece of scent video will reside. Participant will encounter this simulated library and experience the scent created by the master perfumer Christophe Laudamiel. A digital installation leads the participant through a series of questions, screens the artist’s video of their memory about the scent, and prompts guests to record their memories and emotions. By watching these videos and reading previous visitors’ memories associated with the same smell, guests will perceive how diverse—and sometimes radically different—our reactions can be to the same stimulus. Their feelings of association and attachment to a memory start to shift to a more empathetic awareness, the wisdom of discernment.
Wang Yahui’s works include videos, installations, and photographs. Her work has been shown internationally and she has held residencies at Location One (New York, 2006), Cité des Arts (Paris, 2007), and the Helsinki International Artist Programme (Helsinki, 2010). She has exhibited or screened her work in international film festivals and biennials, including the Taipei Biennial (2002), Shanghai Biennale (2006), International Film Festival Rotterdam 2008, and the Hors Pistes Film Festival at the Centre Pompidou (2008). For the 2010 Taipei Biennale (Taipei Fine Arts Museum), she designed a large-scale sculptural installation, entitled Artist Cinema—The Dark Side, as a venue for screening videos by other artists. She participated most recently in the exhibition Finding Time, held at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum in Taipei in 2020.
The Mandala Lab experiences have been created in consultation with cognitive scientists, Buddhist teachers, and contemplative humanities researchers, and feature contributions from a diverse group of contemporary multidisciplinary artists including video and installation artist Wang Yahui and other 13 artists.
“Our society is struggling right now,” says Jorrit Britschgi, the Rubin’s executive director. “We are navigating a pandemic, we are grappling with a climate crisis, and we are confronting longstanding inequities and deep divisions in our society. With the Mandala Lab, our hope is for the Rubin to be a Museum where art, ideas, research, and our emotions connect.”
The museum originated from a private collection of Himalayan art which the funder, Donald and Shelley Rubin had been assembling since 1974. The Rubin Museum of Art offically opened on October 2, 2004 and is a museum dedicated to the collection, display, and preservation of the art and cultures of the Himalayas, the Indian subcontinent, Central Asia and other regions within Eurasia, with a permanent collection focused particularly on Tibetan art. The New York Times commends it, “one of the biggest thinking small museums in Manhattan.”
Exhibition:
Title: Mandala Lab
Date:
Opening, October 1, 2021
Opening Night Celebration, October 1, 6:00 PM
Opening Weekend October 2, 3, Free Admission
Venue:
The Rubin Museum of Art, 150 West 17th St. New York, NY 10011
www.RubinMuseum.org