Hello everybody. Welcome back to the second instalment of our new Teaches US Online series.
Today we're going to have a talk by Paulina Clinique.
Maybe I mispronounced it. I'm very sorry. She's a Ph.D. candidate and a lecturer at the Faculty of Oriental Studies at the University of Warsaw.
And her research interests ranged from traditional Buddhist thoughts to modern issues such as diasporic identity and minority rights.
And she gave a fantastic presentation at this year's Iets, and we've seen a few tweets about it even.
And so I thought, well, great, let's, let's use this momentum and invite her for our lecture series.
And so today she's going to workshop some of theses parts and components titled Tibetan Ness in Quotes in Dharamsala.
How does the youngest generation of artists define their identity?
Well, you know, welcome and yeah. Start just so please.
Okay. Thank you very much. So I would like to thank the organisers so and Blake for inviting me.
I hope everything is visible. Yes.
So today I would like to just give a short talk about my and the topic of my thesis more or less.
If you hear any clues in the background, it's because I have a pigeon.
So just don't be alarmed. So today I would like to just talk a bit about, as I call it, Tibetan this in that I'm.
Um. So. Okay.
So first, I would like to just talk a little bit about my research, my research,
not this paper in particular, because it's mostly trying to just showcase what I am doing.
I'll be showing some examples, of course, but mostly I just wanted to present my work and maybe get some feedback and some some fruitful discussion.
The main aims and goals of my research are, as I, as I said here,
the observation of some of the trends in contemporary art and also how they are influenced by the popularisation on social media.
Because a lot of the artists artists choose to just showcase their works online as this is sometimes the only way.
So how this is also kind of shaping the new topics and understanding the motives, the topics and the, the, the,
the issues that are shown by the artists also determining how they are approaching their identity,
their national identity, cultural identity, or Tibetan ness, especially by the diasporic artist.
Because that's what I am focusing on and how they are showcased in this art.
It's visual arts. I am, and I'm only focusing on visual arts.
So like painting digital, the digital painting, some collage and sculpture and stuff like this.
And also, I would like to provide kind of a platform for the young Tibetans, the artists, to express themselves.
And as I am trying to mostly do,
I can add some graphic way as I will maybe show right now I am focusing on just trying to give the the artists themselves the their voice back.
And I am doing it via some interviews, mostly unstructured, sometimes semi-structured,
as I have to ask about some, some issues that are mostly interesting to me and just give them some ideas.
But mostly it's just like a and at some graphic talk that we have,
we go to some coffee shops or restaurants, just have some tea and talk about different, different things.
This is also sometimes called participant observation, but definitely not in in a sufficient way so far,
which I will also mention they also have a biographical approach as a context.
This is both done in a way of reading already pre-existing texts and also just taking the information from the the interviews with the artists.
I am also doing a bit of an iconographic analysis based on the visual copies of the works, but I am trying not to look at it with my western eye,
especially that I am also an art historian and I know how hurtful it can be to to like to look at eastern art via Western lens,
of course, determines eastern western art is like in a more popular sense.
I don't I don't mean to like or internalise Tibetans in any way, which here, as I said,
I will try to use a most postcolonial perspective and reflexive reflexivity in in my research.
And the whole work will be in the form of case studies here.
My participants, as I prefer to call them instead of subjects as I want them to cooperate with me on.
Does this work? I want to give them back.
Some of the agency, like I mentioned,
are young Tibetan artists from mostly from the country and that I'm Ceylon but also from Delhi, which I talked with in May 2022.
They are the cinema fans in Mila, in Goa. She took me to dark or Jessie Tensing cosine and tensing.
Gotcha. Here I kept the transcription of their names.
That is the most popular that is used by them on their social media, etc. And I am also as sources using, like I said,
pre-existing written oral and visual sources about the biographies and the works,
mostly from their own social media, sometimes the reports from events or some small interviews online.
There are also podcasts and videos as those are becoming more and more popular.
And as a background, I also have to give some and some information about.
National and cultural identity works.
The Diaspora diasporic identity, especially among such minorities as Tibetans that don't actually have like a controversy.
And here I am mostly trying to choose some texts from Tibetan or Indian scholars
or Tibet artists that do not have such a strong postcolonial colonial lens,
of course. Right. So. And if I cannot do it,
I just try to sometimes just talk about those things with either some Tibetans or
some other other scholars that could help me to better understand those concepts.
So sure, we can start maybe with the the proper presentation of today.
So what is Tibetan ness? Here I have some some notions that were given to me by the people I talked with.
Those aren't made up by me. So of course, I paraphrased them to, like, sound a bit more like professional and scholarly.
But here they are. The those are, of course, not notes like co-dependent.
Those are just given to me by different people. But here I wanted to use them.
So, for example, national identity without the nation or among of this first group such as like the diaspora,
as we know others, Tibetans in different countries and different continents.
So it's hard to just call them like a nation or say that they have a national identity,
but sometimes they prefer to call it Tibetan ness, a sense of belonging that is also connected with that.
They need to express what it's like to be Tibetan. And this is done by a few ways, such as an inclusion of traditional Tibetan elements in art,
such as here we can see a traditional headdress and the rosy cheeks, of course.
Right. And the the jewellery that this this girl has under under drawing elements of Tibetan Buddhism and imagery of the Dalai Lama,
of course, but also activism and an interest in politics.
Some of the some of the people I talked to have mentioned that for them, being Tibetan is always a political statement,
even if they are not actually showcasing anything political in their current work or
even just their presence is considered political because of the the situation of Tibet,
of course. Here is one question I was asking them is do you feel Tibetan and.
The answers were generally. Affirmative.
But usually there was a but. So here at the cinema, for example, said, I am human before I am Tibetan.
Which also is reflected in his nickname on Instagram, which is a stylised version of human.
Later on we will be able to see it's because they give the links to the Instagrams, but later on in the same in the same park,
she said that if Tibet was free, not occupied by China, then I would definitely go back.
I would go back to Tibet because I've always been dreaming about it.
And what is interesting here is that she was born in India.
So going back to Tibet doesn't mean.
They, you know, explicitly going back to where he was born, but going back to his father's land and mothers villages, as we said here.
But for example, she is said that she does feel Tibetan, but she doesn't know about Tibet as such,
which is caused by the fact that both her and her parents were born in India.
So her Tibetan ness was kind of just given to her by birth, but not actually taken from her home as much.
And in this paper I will mostly focus on the visual representation of the print topics that can can reflect this Tibetan ness.
Because I only had a month because of the COVID restrictions in India, and I feel that one month of field study is definitely not enough.
And I do plan to return and have the interviews and the observe my observation and participation again.
So I will mostly be focusing on the visual, the visual aspect, and I will be showing the pictures.
So I hope everyone will appreciate. But first, I would like to just talk a tiny bit about the online presence.
As I mentioned, it's something that's very important here.
The two main, main social media websites that are used by the artist but generally by young Tibetans are Instagram and WhatsApp.
WhatsApp is mostly for communicating between them, but Instagram is just a platform to put on the visual media.
Here we have, for example, the profile of the cinema. Like I said, human Stylise here is the nickname,
but also some of their works or interviews or just everyday life photos of food or
whatever they want to post online are shown on other websites such as YouTube,
Facebook or Twitter. One thing that is definitely worth our attention is that one of them has a website which used
to be a regular thing to do before the most known artists from the previous generation,
such as Projets or Set in Sherpa, they all had their own websites or sometimes some smaller site that was like joined to,
for example, the gallery sites that was representing them then, such as Rosie and Rosie.
However, I assume it's just because nowadays websites are not as used because of all the social media that we have.
So this kind of shifted right to the Instagram, for example, but also there is no gallery as such in my career.
They are much more popular.
So the neighbour, the Tibetan neighbourhood in Delhi, the only place where they can showcase their art is mostly either some coffee shops.
There is one coffee shop that also has a small gallery.
It's called The Other Space and it's a bit down George-warren Road, so a bit lower than maximal.
But the space is very small and it's mostly a coffee shop anyway.
But other than that, they kind of just show their works in restaurants or some cafe.
Sometimes they're doing some murals, stuff like this,
so they don't really have a permanent exhibition or permanent space where they actually exhibit even some small temporary exhibitions.
So they have to do it in different ways, such as online. And here are some topics that they may choose to showcase mostly.
I tried to just list the most popular ones, of course.
They are not exclusive rights. Most of them kind of mix in in different artworks.
But here are some that I managed to kind of extract and just kind of try to classify.
So the first one, which is very interesting, is everyday life or some funny situations and jokes.
This, I feel, is mostly it's something very new because everyday life is such or just like normal, funny situations were never.
The main topic of contemporary Tibetan artists works because they were mostly showcased in galleries,
or some of them were more a lot of them were more political or had some social commentary, so they were way more serious.
But as those are mostly shown online, they are sometimes just to make small, funny jokes.
So that made like a funny, funny shift in the in the topics because this is a very popular one.
I do like some of their ones are traditional culture and also the influence of globalisation and pop culture,
which is something that was very popular before but now is kind of losing its momentum.
But nevertheless it is still present. Of course, politics and social critique, Buddhism and also the Dalai Lama, of course,
but also a lot of them have some have something that was never seen before.
So side projects such as advertisements, logos, posters, book illustrations, etc.
And now I will just show some some pictures where you start with a bang.
So we have some fart jokes that hilarious, but I noticed that this is something that happens here.
Below I just put the names of the artists.
The works usually don't have titles because they're just posted on Instagram, so whenever they do, I do put them, but most of them just don't.
And they are mostly works from after 2017, mostly 2020 to 2022.
So they are very, very new works. So here.
We can see just some, like funny, quippy little little pictures at the left.
One of my friends in Germany is actually like a painting, like a not a digital painting, but like a physical painting.
And so that's also interesting that even though it is a traditionally considered artwork, let's say it is still it has quite a humorous topic,
but also especially a JCR object which the dark the the probably the most popular of them and the young group that we can meet in my club he
is doing a lot of those small digital arts about just everyday situations and just showcasing some like things that he can see every day.
Like for example, this old man just jumping in the streets.
It's just something that you don't see every day.
Those posts usually have a some small description on the side on Instagram,
so therefore we can see what the artists wanted to say, or they just explained the little situations.
So for example, our show here is one example, but also we have some more, let's say, contemporary or.
Time focussed elements such as the cockpit rate we can see on the picture by the cinema and this is just called problems, but among others,
like such universal things as hatreds, drugs, discrimination, greed, war, etc.,
we see COVID, which obviously is quite a time focussed little, little issue.
So we can see that sometimes they are trying to just use elements of their life that just happen and try to kind of like.
Maybe do a visual journal, but via their Instagram here we also have to see a self-portrait by Samson Miller and and his friend as musicians.
So just little artworks. Some of them are done in traditional ways, some digital as we could see.
Then a something that has always been showcased but also is gaining some popularity nowadays is traditional.
But our culture by culture, I mean we generally visual culture mostly so like architecture, some some clothing as we see here.
But also myths as here.
Tenzin Girma is just think his older style because the previous previous painting we saw before was of his more contemporary colour style.
But those more graffiti ones are a bit older.
But here we can see a representation of the founding myth of of Tibet.
And. Whereas, Gucci is making those little collages out of paper cut-outs that are sourced from,
from some recycled paper and like some tinfoil and stuff like this.
And she's actually just trying to recreate traditional dress from different areas of Tibet.
Gucci is the one that mentioned that she doesn't know so much of Tibet as such, but she did tell me how she is trying to actually learn.
She's reading a lot about some traditional visual culture of Tibet, a lot about dress and jewellery and different accessories and the effects of this.
This research are shown in her artworks, as we can see here, and that is a quote taken straight from the post from Instagram.
So all the everything is just all the little mistakes and everything.
We're already there. I just like straight copied it here just to live it in the original form.
But here we can see not only the visual part is this showcasing the and a very traditional element of the Tibetan culture.
But also we have a text that is corresponding to it and is also a historical text.
Right, a poem by Justice Dalai Lama with a little translation by the artist himself.
So definitely that is an element that is that is popular.
Lots of people are painting the football or some just like Tibetans in traditional dress.
Like in the beginning I was showing the cinema's drawing of this girl in traditional jewellery.
But also here, for example, is this painting of Tibetan horse riding.
And we can see it the nice picture from from conceptual.
Yeah, but also then single songs have been shown for work before as she's doing an art
form that is called quilting and it's the use of some very small strips of paper,
very thin, the streets of paper that are rolled, and then this is made into some sort of figurine, as we can see here.
And she is mostly reconstructing this figurines from people's pictures.
A lot of them are for gifts. Sometimes it's the parents or for the some grandparents, of course, but also, for example, wedding, wedding pictures.
So very often those are in some traditional Tibetan dress from different regions.
So also that is an interesting thing to just to just see by even by Tibetans usually those
either those was binga she the the other girl who made those paper Cut-outs or by Tenzin,
they are both very, very well received on Instagram by other Tibetans in the comments.
So definitely that is something that is needed not only by the artist themselves but also by the other Tibetans that feel the need of that.
It's like visual representation of their culture.
Another topic that is sometimes. Sometimes the symptoms can be seen in in different artworks is the problems of globalisation and pop culture,
how it's mixing with the traditional Tibetan culture, or even comparing Tibetan culture, and how it kind of changes the gist of Tibetan ways.
And here we can see some words like Beijing treatment of the Who.
For example, if someone doesn't know the monkey from the right picture is from the most famous NFT.
So Nonfungible token, which is a new phenomenon on the internet that is kind of selling the ownership to a digital picture.
So it's definitely something that was very controversial.
And here he dressed the monkey in some Tibetan way as a kind of joke.
But also on the left, we see some characters from a different cartoons or games that are wearing a COVID mask again,
but with a little, little symbol that reminds us of of Tibet, of course.
And but here, one thing that I found very interesting is that Tenzin used the imagery of Santa,
which is a comic by a Belgian Belgian comic artist, and which is generally known to be a little bit racist in its imagery.
But apparently here, both curtains and people in the comments were very happy about this.
So I guess sometimes us as people from the West,
maybe Arctic and things too seriously and just don't understand how much representation is important in any way.
But no, it's just my, my, my thoughts anyway.
Yeah. This, this little booklet here is made of paper, like I mentioned, of Santa with a Tibetan flag.
But on the left we can also see the Buddha with the Supreme T-shirt, which is a very expensive streetwear brand,
very popular among young people, both in the US but also in Mexico.
It's mostly in non-official reproductions, let's call it that can be found in the streets.
Another another topic that is very popular is politics and social issues here, especially the right picture.
Both pictures are from the cinema, but.
One thing that definitely surprised me was that when we talked, he mentioned that whenever he is doing any sort of artworks,
it is always perceived as political because he is Tibetan himself and how he sometimes doesn't even try to show any political statements,
but even trying to kind of avoid avoid them sometimes because.
No matter what he does, it is always perceived as such. And then he made the post from the right.
That also has a very. Well, I think you can just say aggressive and aggressive.
A little note on on Instagram, that was just like a description to the post.
So as we see sometimes the what they say and what they make is not exactly the correspondent,
which is also something that I find interesting and I will probably then mention in my work.
However, here, of course, like political issues can be can be discussed as there is no such censorship as in China,
I think in the Tibet Autonomous region. So that is something that does appear here.
For example, the function, of course, is something that every year for the birthday is.
It's just represented. I'm here especially to work on the right buttons and give them the truth.
Guns doesn't seem political, but then we see the the title kind of march and immediately I think, Oh,
why is this person not going on the other demonstrations, on the marches, on the streets in general?
Right. That those marches, of course, the the day of the Tibetan uprising, that is always a very important event in the diaspora.
So here. I'm not trying to to interpret the word myself.
I will definitely ask Tenzin next time I meet him to just tell me more about it, but I wanted to showcase that as a very important,
I think, an interesting word that definitely has a political and little political commentary here.
Um, here another work by coincidence also this winning doing those little paper um
in paper strips but here formed in a more flat still pretty but flat picture.
And this is also just copied straight from the Instagram post.
So also everything is original, the whole writing is original and which as we see,
is just a little introduction from, from the artists to people who might not know this the story, this, this event.
And. Even even some artists that at first glance might seem very.
Let's say neutral, not interested in politics.
Sometimes just make some art works that are deeply political and surprising, among others that we can see on their.
Their portfolios or whatever websites they're using to showcase their works here.
Another topic that is oftentimes incorporated in their works is, of course, Buddhism.
That is something that is, of course, just everywhere.
It is it's completely ubiquitous in in Tibetan culture.
So elements of it are were also present in some previous works, like the Buddha that was in the Supreme T-shirt and stuff like this.
But some of them are just straight up Buddhist pictures like Zen miller is in this doing like a series of those more educational
posters like here at the We Can See on the Wheel of life or that will samsara we he is just giving some descriptions.
This is just of course a small part of it with the picture.
But you can even see some some little arrows that are pointing there.
And of course, those are the descriptions. It's just meant as like an educational poster there.
Also other is from from this artist.
And here comes the quilting artist made just a portrait of the Dalai Lama, which, of course, is a symbol of Tibetan Buddhism.
So he is very often incorporated in different, different artworks, especially in McCloud, as this is the place where he resides.
And here's some side projects I just wanted to show, which is something that never happened in those in this previous generation of artists,
as they just could sell their works in the galleries and make money out of it.
They had some some subparts from galleries, from different curators.
However, most of those young artists that I am working with cannot afford just selling their art.
They and they don't have a gallery, they don't have any they don't have many customers, of course.
So they have to do a lot of the some side projects,
either working sometimes in restaurants or doing a lot of more like advertising work or logos, as we can see here.
The left one is for Students for Free Tibet by English here.
It's a little postcard, but also here.
She's also doing some jazz digital to the art.
Those are some posters. I could also just find them in in that I'm sell out that we're out of posters about violence towards women.
Like like we can see here there were just stickers on the walls in the in my cloud when I was there.
So and that is definitely something that that we can just see around.
Like there's also a lot of. A lot of paintings they're doing for restaurants or cafes, like sometimes some murals.
Like I mentioned, here is a poster for Has the kitchen.
It's a restaurant, of course.
So a lot of those little side gigs and I probably talked or I thought, okay, so to go to some concluding remarks and elements that we could see,
of course, are kind of juxtaposed that all of those are a bit of some like Tibetan identity markers that we can visibly see.
But also sometimes they are just compiled with some Western or Indian and some like just,
you know, just contemporary world globalised elements that that just happen in, in all societies.
And but also a lot of Tibetan motives that are included are just elements of everyday life, such as clothing, masks.
And one thing that's very important in in Tibet in general, but also in those artworks, is the importance of colours.
There's a lot of humour, as I mentioned, as we could see.
And also one thing that is mentioned by the artists themselves is how they are learning and teaching about Tibetan culture through their art.
Um, as I mentioned, art is oftentimes a side hobby.
They, they can't really afford to just to being artists like they would like to be.
And a lack of censorship allows them to engage into more political topics.
And here I would also just as maybe a conversation starter, as I say a little bit about my future plans.
So definitely I would like to go again to that.
I'm so glad to spend a few months, preferably with the artists, and just spend more time with them if possible,
organise something together like maybe an exhibition or some kind of installation that we could just make all together.
That would be definitely something that they would love to do and.
Would be I think they would appreciate it as well. And maybe that would help us just cooperate a little bit better.
And they will, of course, continue to make up for patients with different mythologies, but also Tibetans.
About those different, more mythological and theoretical elements of my work.
So here are the picture sources. They are the Instagram of the artists.
Um, and I didn't really give any bibliography as what I was saying was based on the interviews that they conducted.
So this I would like to thank you very much for your attention and to start the discussion.
Here is my contact information.
If anyone of you would like to contact me, then.