Artwork Blog Post Week 8

 

Bigger Picture
of Cosmic Mount Meru

For this week's blog post, the artwork that I picked is Cosmic Mount Meru, which dates back to the 18th century. This wonderful artwork is made out of appliqué, which is needlework in which pieces of fabric of different shapes are sewn together on a bigger piece to form a picture and embroidery with silk—creating such colorful and abstract compositions to tie everything together to create a bigger meaning. The purpose of this artwork is to describe space within Buddhism, and space has multiple meanings. The definition of Mount Meru is the cosmic axis which also means the connection between heaven and earth.¹ To go into more detail, let us talk about the concepts this artwork has regarding space. The Mountain in the middle is the center of the world, and the huge building at the top is where all the gods live in their palace overseeing heaven and earth. Mount Meru is then surrounded by seven mountains and oceans with four continents: North = rectangle; West= circle; South= trapezoid; East= crescent moon which you can see in more detail in picture #2. 

This artwork is to help illustrate the aspects of space and life as a whole this is our world. The sun and moon revolve around Mount Meru to show the function of life. They created this artwork to help represent their religion, and how much meaning Mount Meru has on their culture as this is the place where all gods live, so many would pray to the gods that live in Mount Meru. The color throughout the piece stays between the neutral color of what they use most of the time within other paintings. This artwork is actually made a bit differently as it isn't painting; it is patchworks of different fabrics all stitched together, creating one big artwork, which shows the artist's dedication to describing all the levels and realms within the fine stitching and embroidery skills. Also, this labor is more intensive than most paintings, making any artwork like this expensive and desirable in their collection.

More Detail of
Cosmic Mount Meru

At the very top of this realm is called "no form," where no human can reach the top as no one can get there unless they are a god, and this is the highest part of all of the levels. It is impossible even to have any idea of what it looks like or is perceived as. After that, there are the realms of form that can be perceived through multiple states of meditation. Some people have said that they can see a bright light, coolness, and calming sights. Below these realms are called desire, and there are six levels of it. This is where we are in our lives. The six levels are to be the six paths of rebirth. And being rebirthed is a big aspect of Buddhism because they believe that individuals who choose to be reborn are to help others become enlightened. The highest realm is of the gods (deva). In between the gods and humans are demi-gods (asura). As for humans and animals, they live on the surface of Jambudvipa. Then hell is the lowest level where there is no rest from the pain and tortures they may endure. This piece is all about showing others the meaning of the universe and what the universe is made of. There is such great detail and refinement within this piece that there is no wrong. It is very powerful and eye-opening to see how texturized and detailed one piece can be when it is made up of little other parts with such fine detail all in one! It is crazy to see such detail within the artwork as it just makes it hard to believe that it is even real because I know that takes a lot of skills.

Citation:

¹Dr. Jennifer N. McIntire, "Introduction to Buddhism," in Smarthistory, August 9, 2015, accessed October 13, 2021, https://smarthistory.org/introduction-to-buddhism/.