The "Heart Sutra"

Paper Summary:

The paper describes how to the naked eye of the casual observer in a museum, the work looks like a rough, oblong stone with an unfinished granite-like texture. The paper portrays the overall effect upon the viewer as one of curiosity, rather than awe or power, given that the observer cannot gain full access to the meaning or even the placing of the work. The paper shows how the slab with the sutra ultimately poses more questions than answers, due to its incomplete nature. The paper suggests that this sense of unfinished texture of the stone and the word's meaning is perhaps the most powerful effect of the work.

From the Paper:

"To a Western eye, this slab looks almost like a Rosetta Stone, or an ancient artifact from long past that is supposed to encompass the words from another time or place and memorialize these words in a kind of sculpture. The stone appears ripped or extracted from something larger than the displayed artifact, as if it is an ancient bit torn from a ruin, rather than a complete and holistic work or vision of an artist. The form of the sculpture, a recreation of an archeological work, suggests that the artist wished to suggest that the work was, in some sense, ripped from the past, either figuratively or literally."

More papers on The "Heart Sutra":

• Book Review # 23153 : "The Heart Sutra"
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• Book Review # 67319 : "The Knitting Sutra"

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