Buddhist practice given artistic edge in multi-sensory exhibition

Venerable Jue Hao and artist Tiffany Singh are preparing for the upcoming exhibiton at Fo Guang Shan Temple.

MEGHAN LAWRENCE/ FAIRFAX NZ.

Buddhism is at the heart of Tiffany Singh’s latest art installations.

The Auckland artist will have 12 works on display in her upcoming exhibition Mahabhuta: The Great Element ‘jointly presented at Uxbridge Centre for Arts and Culture and the Fo Guang Shan Temple.

The multi-sensory exhibition aims to bring together the diverse communities of East Auckland and explore what is sacred in contemporary society.

Singh sources her materials from Fair Trade organisations, including the 50 wind chimes which will make up an outdoor installation at the temple.

“Everything is nature based or responding to the elements. I don’t work with anything synthetic, so I work with materials such as flowers, foods, colours and sound,” she says.

But her signature work, which was made in Nepal, is an installation consisting of 900 ribbons with the medicine Buddha healing mantra written on them.

Short Film Competition Launches

Media release • 7 July 2014

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Short Film Competition Launches

A short film competition with ‘stillness’ as its focus launches at the Film Archive in Wellington, New Zealand, on 7 July 2014.

“Create a short film between 30 seconds and two minutes long on the topic of ‘stillness’ – that’s the challenge we’re offering,” said Mark Sweeney, Co-Director of a new film festival, ‘Stillness, & The Moving Image,’ which will be taking place in Wellington, New Zealand, from 14–18 October, 2014.

“The winning film will be the one judged to have best captured the concept and will be screened at the Festival launch,” said Sweeney. “It will be screened before each feature film, along with a selection of others which have impressed the judges.”

The prize for the winning film will be $300 and a signed copy of the book “Don’t Just Do Something, Sit There” by Wallace Chapman (Penguin, 2013).

“We welcome all genres of film, including animation and experimental,” said Sweeney. “The winning film will be announced and screened at the opening night launch, and if the winner is unable to attend in person we will Skype them in from wherever they are in the world,” he said.

Competition judges are actor Loren Taylor (Existence, Dancing in the Sky, Eagle vs Shark, Kombi Nation), director and producer Robin Greenberg (Huloo, He Waka Hono Tangata) and Festival Co-Director Mark Sweeney.

The closing date for submissions is 30 September 2014. Information on how to enter the competition can be found on the festival website at www.stillnesscommafilmfestival.co.nz.

“ ‘Stillness, & The Moving Image’,” said Ramsey Margolis, Festival Co-Director, “is a festival of films for people who have an interest in mindfulness, meditation, and a secular approach to Buddhism and other religious practices, films they might find nourishing.”