Silence and Noise at the No-Eyes Viewing Wall

2012

 

The No-Eyes Viewing Wall at Brooklyn Zen Center is proud to present Silence and Noise, a new multidisciplinary project that will open on Friday, April 13th from 7pm to 10pm.

In the Zen Buddhist tradition, each silent meditation period begins and ends with the striking of a bell. The sound waves emanating from the vibrating body of the bell fill the room, envelop the sitters, and slowly pulse to silence. The silence that abides is in fact not silent at all, but filled with the sound of breathing, noisy thoughts, and street traffic outside of the meditation room. From this non-silence, the bell emerges once more. The sound of the bell, as Shunryu Suzuki Roshi notes, is both objective and subjective. Objectively, it is the movement of the air in the vicinity of our ears and body; subjectively it is the transmitted effort of the bell striker encouraging our efforts to encounter silence, peace, and freedom.

Silence and Noise is a boundary-crossing project for the No-Eyes Viewing Wall. A group of artists that includes sculptors, sound-designers, musicians and researchers has been meeting for several months, meditating and sharing ideas together, and slowly soaking in the unique silence of the Brooklyn Zen Center space. From this experience, they have created a series of organically evolving sculptures that will be displayed on the No-Eyes Viewing Wall from April 13th through mid July. Like the striking of a bell, this exhibition will be being to pulse and resonate on April 13th with a very special evening performance reinterpreting the traditional Zen form for sitting, walking and chanting.

Participating artists: Serra Victoria Bothwell-Fels, Terence Caulkins, Vanessa Cronan, Billy GombergAnne GuthrieElizabeth HendlerRaúl HottLili Maya, Mike O’Toole, James Rouvelle, Mica Scalin.

Curated by Terence Caulkins and Noah Fischer.

please note: Silence and Noise, is also the title of an unrelated book by Ivan Richmond. The full title is Silence and Noise: Growing up Zen in America. You can purchase Ivan’s book on Amazon here.