Otherworldly Imaginings, May 29 –Jul. 31, 2007
Clark Center for Japanese Art and Culture
Cultural News, May 2007
Sho-Kannon, Suzuki Kiitsu (1796-1858), late Edo period, Hanging scroll, ink and colors on silk. (Courtesy of the Clark Center for Japanese Art and Culture)
Daitoku Myoo-oo, Kamakura period (1185-1333), wood with polychrome, inlaid crystal eyes. (Courtesy of the Clark Center for Japanese Art and Culture)
Hanford --- In the Clark Center for Japanese Art and Culture, its summer exhibit features Otherworldly Imaginings: The Divine, the Demonic and the Human Spirit, which explores multiple facets of the Japanese supernatural, from religious speculations to popular superstitions, heavenly projections to hellish nightmares. The summer exhibit opens on May 29 and runs through July 31.
As its subtitle, The Divine, the Demonic and the Human Spirit, suggests, this exhibition explores the contrast between the inspirational and the terrifying as two forces that stir human beings to examine themselves and their worldly actions in a new light.
On the side of the sacredly inspiring are sculptures and paintings of beatific Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, works with the power to calm viewers, lift and purify their consciousness by their very example.
At the other extreme in Buddhism are the Wisdom Kings (ferocious deities) and scenes of hell, which move viewers almost instinctively with their implied threats of violence and promised torture for bad deeds.
The Human Spirit in the exhibition’s subtitle refers to ghosts, which populate a section of the exhibit, calling to mind the fact that so much of the supernatural imagination deals with death, excessive attachments and the things that haunt the human psyche.
The Clark Center is located 6 miles south of downtown Hanford at 15770 Tenth Avenue. It takes three hours to drive from Los Angeles to Hanford in the Central Valley of California on the route of Freeway I-5 and 99.
The gallery and reference library open to the public Tuesday-Saturday from 1:00–5:00 pm. Closed on July 4th. Admission fees are $5 for adults. For information visit www.ccjac.org or call (559) 582-4915.
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Members' Opening Reception will be held on Sunday, June 3, 2:00 p.m. Curator Daniel McKee will introduce the exhibition.