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Eva Lee Brings Abstract
Films, Documentary to Peterborough
Experimental
filmmaker Eva Lee will show some short films
inspired by her interest in Tibetan Buddhism as part of the next
MacDowell Downtown on Friday, April 4 at 7:30 p.m. Lee will show a
short time-lapse of creation and dissolution of a sand mandala
created by Drepung Gomang
Monastery monks, discuss her interest in the form as an artist, and
present her latest abstract animation at The Monadnock
Center for History and Culture’s Bass Hall.
Part
of Lee’s presentation will include images and discussion of her
recent trip to India on a Fulbright fellowship to do research on
Indo-Tibetan mandalas from the 10th, 11th, and
12th centuries. The artist, a three-time MacDowell
Colony Fellow, traveled to the Himalayas in search of historical
murals of mandalas.
“The
Compassion Sand Mandala documentary has been a wonderful side project
for me,” she said, explaining that it was launched when the Drepung Gomang monks,
who were in the U.S. during their Sacred Arts Tour, heard the Dalai
Lama would be speaking on creativity and compassion at Western
Connecticut State University. The monks arranged to visit the college
to create a sand mandala as an offering and Lee documented the
project.
“All
these mandalas are really about cultivating emptiness and Buddha
nature,” said Lee, who trained as a painter. “It’s all about
understanding reality as-it-is – it’s the heart of Buddhist
philosophy. There’s what is called ‘conventional reality’ and
‘ultimate reality.’ Tantric practices help to cultivate a better
understanding of ultimate reality.”
Lee
will also screen one of her latest short films – an abstract work –
to show how her research and experience with Buddhist philosophy
translates into her animations.
Don’t miss the fascinating
vision of experimental filmmaker Eva Lee this Friday at 7:30 p.m. in
Bass Hall at the Monadnock Center for
History and Culture.
David
Macy
Resident Director
P.S.
Next month, MacDowell Downtown will feature the eclectic and always
stimulating music of composer, singer, multi-instrumentalist, and
actress Heather Robb, one third of the group The Spring Standards.
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