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• 1 media/Screen Shot 2022-12-01 at 9.56.58 AM.png 2022-11-30T22:06:30+00:00 transience/transcendence | tayla grainger 32 gallery 2022-12-16T01:07:11+00:00 transience/transcendence, based around Mary Beierle’s Excavation Series 60 (2018), is a collection of works that deals thematically with accepting change and embracing mortality. Beierle made Excavation Series 60 with the intention of drawing a parallel between man and nature by utilizing the flower as a symbol for transformation and transcendence over suffering. All of the artists included in this exhibition portray the beauty of the natural rhythms of the world in order to convey to the audience that the ebbs and flows that they experience throughout their lives are not something to be feared, but rather to be appreciated as an innate quality of all things.
  
  The teachings of The Tibetan Book of the Dead emphasize the importance of accepting change, which is the same message at the heart of Beierle’s Excavation Series 60 and the other works on display. The Tibetan Book of the Dead has profoundly changed readers’ lives in shifting their attitudes towards death – and not only death in the most dramatic and literal sense of the word, but all of the different types of loss that a person endures throughout the course of their life. Loss is generally considered to be scary and painful, and, as such, most people do all they can to avoid it by clinging desperately to everything they hold dear. The Tibetan Book of the Dead encourages the reader to accept the fact that nothing is permanent – change is a natural and intrinsic part of life, and resisting it only causes suffering. Beierle’s Excavation Series 60 deals with this same notion of a constant flux that occurs both within our inner lives and the world around us. Her sculpture echoes the teachings of The Tibetan Book of the Dead in that it serves as a reminder to surrender ourselves to these rhythms in order to transcend suffering. Placards with quotes from The Tibetan Book of the Dead will line the gallery walls alongside artwork in order to draw the viewer’s attention to the themes underlying the works selected for this exhibition.

  Excavation Series 60 is a ceramic sculpture made in 2018 by Los Angeles native Mary Beierle. The folds of clay resemble a flower’s delicate petals that are beginning to crisp up around the edges, perhaps in time with the changing seasons. The imagery of a wilting flower perfectly encapsulates the idea that everything is in a constant state of flux. There’s no need to grieve for a flower that dies in the winter because it’ll blossom again in the spring – this is why flowers often symbolize transcendence over suffering, as they are associated with themes of rebirth and regeneration. Change can be difficult, but recognizing and developing an appreciation for these cyclical patterns can help one maintain inner strength and peace as they navigate through their life.
  
  Georgia O’Keeffe’s oeuvre is rife with animal bones, but Feather with Bird’s Bone (1942) stands out because of how delicately she renders her subject matter. For many, bones are a gruesome and disturbing reminder of their own mortality as they represent the passage from life to death. O’Keeffe, however, imbues her painted animal bones with an ethereal quality, treating them with a sort of divine reverence. Her color palette is composed of pale hues that are pleasing to the eye and the soft wisps of a feather radiate around the bone like a halo, transforming a typically macabre subject into something alluring. Beierle took a similar approach: her choice of soft colors and the delicate design of her sculpture make her representation of a wilting flower beautiful and captivating as opposed to an object of detritus. Like Beierle, O’Keeffe doesn’t shy away from the subject of mortality but rather embraces it, and even finds beauty in it. This aligns with the sentiment that readers are meant to take away from reading The Tibetan Book of the Dead, which is that they must learn to shift their perspective in order to appreciate change rather than wasting their efforts fighting against the inevitable.
  
  Marcin Rusak created Flora Vase I by casting wilting flowers in resin. He wrote that this piece is meant to serve as “an elegy of the intrinsic movement of life and nature, whose elements, though suspended in their decay, continue to decay with a slow trajectory that teaches us the passage of time and the value of its mutation” (Rusak). This piece revolves around the idea that despite his attempt to preserve the flowers, they nevertheless continue to decay as time passes. This coincides with the teaching from The Tibetan Book of the Dead that everything is temporary, and even our best efforts at achieving a sense of permanence will be futile. Change is not inherently negative, though – despite the fact that the flowers were not perfectly preserved, this vase is visually stunning and this sense of evolution actually makes it an even more compelling artwork.
  
  References:

  1. Rinpoche, Sogyal. The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying. Rider Books, 2017.
  2. “Georgia O’Keeffe.” The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 42, no. 2 (1984): 3–64. https://doi.org/10.2307/3258762.
  3. Rusak, Marcin. “Unnatural Practice.” Marcin Rusak Studio, March 15, 2022. https://marcinrusak.com/exhibition/milan-2021/.
  4. "Meet Trailblazer Mary E. Beierle." Voyage LA, January 21, 2019. http://voyagela.com/interview/meet-trailblazer-mary-e-beierle/.
  5. "About Mary E. Beierle." mebstudio. https://www.marybeierle.com/about.
  6. "Mary Beierle: An Artist's Journey." Scripps Fine Arts Foundation, February 10, 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsWqMJA1rd8.