David Blandy: Barefoot Lone Pilgrim

David Blandy is a British artist who has contributed a couple of video works for my Body-Con exhibition. Earlier this year he was Hermit in Residence in an old hermitage in the grounds of Painshill Park, England. Dressed as a Shaolin monk, David spent his time writing a comic diary and generally keeping fit by running fast through the forests etc. He travelled to the USA as a hermit, to visit places of pilgrimage for him. There he is, peering over out across the Grand Canyon, like something out of a Caspar David Friedrich painting. Read about his hermit action here

Comments

[pern yiau]

why shaolin hermit? why not englnd hermit? or painshill hermit? based on what i read in the andrea geeson article, the concept n philosphy behind blandy's work here has little to do with shaolin, or hermits in a chinese/buddhist context. it sounds totally english in context, specific to painshill perhaps.

the concept of loneliness as a hermit is perhaps a modern thing. certainly in china in the past hermits (whether taoist or buddhist or other) r not so much lonely people, but people who actually r spiritually liberated and happy n do not necessarily pine for comunication with society.

if this is a comment on the lonely state of modern english, presenting it as shaolin hermit, with or without the garb, sounds suspicious.

that brings me to the second feeling i get from reading the article. the invitation to be watched. the need for music to while away the time. all this seems to me rather un-shaolin unhermitlike in philosophy.

shaloin is actually a community. the 'hermit' in shaolin is a state of mind of non-dependence upon social relations for personal happiness.

either this project was not explained accurately in the artcile, or it is just an easy appropriation of an exotic image, setting it up in an easy concept, saying that it explores this n that issue of modern life, and calling it art.

[David Blandy]

Pern Yiau, you make some pertinant points, not least the idea of the "appropriation of an exotic image". Of course, the intention of the artist (myself) is largely irrelevant, but the time as a hermit was meant as a way of reconciling different parts of my life, as a form of self-portraiture.

I attend Shaolin Gong Fu Ch'an classes at the Shaolin Temple in North London, near where I live. I listen to records from a period before I was born from a culture that I can never truly be a part of (American soul music). I am white, but one of my favourite songs is "Is it because I'm Black" by Syl Johnson.

How can all these disparate elements be an integral part of my self, my existence? Yes, the work, the performance, is (or was) a failure, in the sense that I didn't achieve enlightenment, or make myself clear to you, Pern Yiau, what I was doing there.

In fact, I did not call myself a "Shaolin Hermit" (you'd be surprised how little control an artist has over such things), instead referring to myself as the Barefoot Lone Pilgrim, an allusion to characters from popular culture, such as Lone Wolf and Cub and Ryu from Streetfighter.

I suppose it all comes down to- who am I? Am I just a mish-mash of all these things that I have consumed during my life? My enjoyment kung-fu movies and computer games eventually lead to me taking up the martial art, Shaolin Kung Fu, when I discovered I could learn it just around the corner. But could I ever be a true part of that community? Am I a part of any community, really?

As for it being called art, well, I just do what I do, others can call it what they like. Mostly it's making a fool out of myself. While trying to think about stuff. Like what is the relationship between the Western search for self and the Eastern search for enlightenment, the Enlightenment and enlightenment?

I hope that this answers some of your legitimate concerns. If not, don't hesitate to let me know.

[camila]

i will like to receive information considering the shaolin courses in tokyo. please, i`ll be pleased if you provide me the information requested.