1 00:00:15,030 --> 00:00:21,300 Hello everybody. Welcome back to the second instalment of our new Teaches US Online series. 2 00:00:22,290 --> 00:00:27,450 Today we're going to have a talk by Paulina Clinique. 3 00:00:27,810 --> 00:00:38,580 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. 4 00:00:39,060 --> 00:00:47,370 And her research interests ranged from traditional Buddhist thoughts to modern issues such as diasporic identity and minority rights. 5 00:00:48,000 --> 00:00:55,110 And she gave a fantastic presentation at this year's Iets, and we've seen a few tweets about it even. 6 00:00:55,560 --> 00:01:02,430 And so I thought, well, great, let's, let's use this momentum and invite her for our lecture series. 7 00:01:02,670 --> 00:01:12,150 And so today she's going to workshop some of theses parts and components titled Tibetan Ness in Quotes in Dharamsala. 8 00:01:12,960 --> 00:01:16,680 How does the youngest generation of artists define their identity? 9 00:01:17,830 --> 00:01:21,720 Well, you know, welcome and yeah. Start just so please. 10 00:01:22,110 --> 00:01:31,160 Okay. Thank you very much. So I would like to thank the organisers so and Blake for inviting me. 11 00:01:31,200 --> 00:01:35,429 I hope everything is visible. Yes. 12 00:01:35,430 --> 00:01:47,210 So today I would like to just give a short talk about my and the topic of my thesis more or less. 13 00:01:47,480 --> 00:01:50,900 If you hear any clues in the background, it's because I have a pigeon. 14 00:01:50,900 --> 00:01:59,180 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. 15 00:02:00,200 --> 00:02:05,579 Um. So. Okay. 16 00:02:05,580 --> 00:02:10,770 So first, I would like to just talk a little bit about my research, my research, 17 00:02:10,770 --> 00:02:16,500 not this paper in particular, because it's mostly trying to just showcase what I am doing. 18 00:02:17,390 --> 00:02:26,250 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. 19 00:02:27,090 --> 00:02:33,300 The main aims and goals of my research are, as I, as I said here, 20 00:02:33,630 --> 00:02:41,460 the observation of some of the trends in contemporary art and also how they are influenced by the popularisation on social media. 21 00:02:42,300 --> 00:02:51,450 Because a lot of the artists artists choose to just showcase their works online as this is sometimes the only way. 22 00:02:51,780 --> 00:03:01,650 So how this is also kind of shaping the new topics and understanding the motives, the topics and the, the, the, 23 00:03:02,190 --> 00:03:09,360 the issues that are shown by the artists also determining how they are approaching their identity, 24 00:03:09,360 --> 00:03:15,569 their national identity, cultural identity, or Tibetan ness, especially by the diasporic artist. 25 00:03:15,570 --> 00:03:21,120 Because that's what I am focusing on and how they are showcased in this art. 26 00:03:21,150 --> 00:03:26,180 It's visual arts. I am, and I'm only focusing on visual arts. 27 00:03:26,180 --> 00:03:34,200 So like painting digital, the digital painting, some collage and sculpture and stuff like this. 28 00:03:35,370 --> 00:03:42,660 And also, I would like to provide kind of a platform for the young Tibetans, the artists, to express themselves. 29 00:03:42,720 --> 00:03:46,080 And as I am trying to mostly do, 30 00:03:46,080 --> 00:04:02,590 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. 31 00:04:02,640 --> 00:04:10,590 And I am doing it via some interviews, mostly unstructured, sometimes semi-structured, 32 00:04:10,590 --> 00:04:18,149 as I have to ask about some, some issues that are mostly interesting to me and just give them some ideas. 33 00:04:18,150 --> 00:04:22,620 But mostly it's just like a and at some graphic talk that we have, 34 00:04:22,620 --> 00:04:30,480 we go to some coffee shops or restaurants, just have some tea and talk about different, different things. 35 00:04:31,020 --> 00:04:38,700 This is also sometimes called participant observation, but definitely not in in a sufficient way so far, 36 00:04:39,360 --> 00:04:43,920 which I will also mention they also have a biographical approach as a context. 37 00:04:44,580 --> 00:04:56,030 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. 38 00:04:57,000 --> 00:05:07,500 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, 39 00:05:07,500 --> 00:05:22,710 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, 40 00:05:23,430 --> 00:05:27,720 of course, determines eastern western art is like in a more popular sense. 41 00:05:28,470 --> 00:05:36,360 I don't I don't mean to like or internalise Tibetans in any way, which here, as I said, 42 00:05:36,360 --> 00:05:43,200 I will try to use a most postcolonial perspective and reflexive reflexivity in in my research. 43 00:05:43,890 --> 00:05:49,350 And the whole work will be in the form of case studies here. 44 00:05:49,350 --> 00:05:55,820 My participants, as I prefer to call them instead of subjects as I want them to cooperate with me on. 45 00:05:55,920 --> 00:05:58,979 Does this work? I want to give them back. 46 00:05:58,980 --> 00:06:00,600 Some of the agency, like I mentioned, 47 00:06:02,310 --> 00:06:12,780 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. 48 00:06:13,230 --> 00:06:21,300 They are the cinema fans in Mila, in Goa. She took me to dark or Jessie Tensing cosine and tensing. 49 00:06:21,750 --> 00:06:28,440 Gotcha. Here I kept the transcription of their names. 50 00:06:28,440 --> 00:06:38,250 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, 51 00:06:38,260 --> 00:06:43,230 pre-existing written oral and visual sources about the biographies and the works, 52 00:06:44,320 --> 00:06:50,309 mostly from their own social media, sometimes the reports from events or some small interviews online. 53 00:06:50,310 --> 00:06:55,080 There are also podcasts and videos as those are becoming more and more popular. 54 00:06:56,700 --> 00:07:04,170 And as a background, I also have to give some and some information about. 55 00:07:04,610 --> 00:07:07,099 National and cultural identity works. 56 00:07:07,100 --> 00:07:14,860 The Diaspora diasporic identity, especially among such minorities as Tibetans that don't actually have like a controversy. 57 00:07:15,320 --> 00:07:22,969 And here I am mostly trying to choose some texts from Tibetan or Indian scholars 58 00:07:22,970 --> 00:07:30,470 or Tibet artists that do not have such a strong postcolonial colonial lens, 59 00:07:30,470 --> 00:07:34,790 of course. Right. So. And if I cannot do it, 60 00:07:34,790 --> 00:07:40,879 I just try to sometimes just talk about those things with either some Tibetans or 61 00:07:40,880 --> 00:07:46,130 some other other scholars that could help me to better understand those concepts. 62 00:07:47,680 --> 00:07:54,160 So sure, we can start maybe with the the proper presentation of today. 63 00:07:54,520 --> 00:08:06,370 So what is Tibetan ness? Here I have some some notions that were given to me by the people I talked with. 64 00:08:06,490 --> 00:08:17,830 Those aren't made up by me. So of course, I paraphrased them to, like, sound a bit more like professional and scholarly. 65 00:08:17,830 --> 00:08:24,720 But here they are. The those are, of course, not notes like co-dependent. 66 00:08:24,730 --> 00:08:28,930 Those are just given to me by different people. But here I wanted to use them. 67 00:08:29,320 --> 00:08:36,190 So, for example, national identity without the nation or among of this first group such as like the diaspora, 68 00:08:36,190 --> 00:08:41,220 as we know others, Tibetans in different countries and different continents. 69 00:08:41,230 --> 00:08:48,010 So it's hard to just call them like a nation or say that they have a national identity, 70 00:08:48,010 --> 00:08:54,010 but sometimes they prefer to call it Tibetan ness, a sense of belonging that is also connected with that. 71 00:08:55,000 --> 00:09:03,879 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, 72 00:09:03,880 --> 00:09:10,510 such as here we can see a traditional headdress and the rosy cheeks, of course. 73 00:09:10,510 --> 00:09:22,360 Right. And the the jewellery that this this girl has under under drawing elements of Tibetan Buddhism and imagery of the Dalai Lama, 74 00:09:22,360 --> 00:09:26,350 of course, but also activism and an interest in politics. 75 00:09:26,740 --> 00:09:33,700 Some of the some of the people I talked to have mentioned that for them, being Tibetan is always a political statement, 76 00:09:33,910 --> 00:09:41,440 even if they are not actually showcasing anything political in their current work or 77 00:09:41,440 --> 00:09:48,870 even just their presence is considered political because of the the situation of Tibet, 78 00:09:48,880 --> 00:09:54,520 of course. Here is one question I was asking them is do you feel Tibetan and. 79 00:09:57,080 --> 00:10:01,520 The answers were generally. Affirmative. 80 00:10:01,910 --> 00:10:09,920 But usually there was a but. So here at the cinema, for example, said, I am human before I am Tibetan. 81 00:10:10,310 --> 00:10:17,300 Which also is reflected in his nickname on Instagram, which is a stylised version of human. 82 00:10:18,320 --> 00:10:26,570 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, 83 00:10:26,570 --> 00:10:31,250 she said that if Tibet was free, not occupied by China, then I would definitely go back. 84 00:10:31,520 --> 00:10:34,550 I would go back to Tibet because I've always been dreaming about it. 85 00:10:34,910 --> 00:10:39,650 And what is interesting here is that she was born in India. 86 00:10:40,340 --> 00:10:43,550 So going back to Tibet doesn't mean. 87 00:10:44,520 --> 00:10:54,440 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. 88 00:10:55,320 --> 00:11:01,740 But for example, she is said that she does feel Tibetan, but she doesn't know about Tibet as such, 89 00:11:02,400 --> 00:11:08,340 which is caused by the fact that both her and her parents were born in India. 90 00:11:08,790 --> 00:11:19,020 So her Tibetan ness was kind of just given to her by birth, but not actually taken from her home as much. 91 00:11:20,040 --> 00:11:34,890 And in this paper I will mostly focus on the visual representation of the print topics that can can reflect this Tibetan ness. 92 00:11:35,370 --> 00:11:44,669 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. 93 00:11:44,670 --> 00:11:53,040 And I do plan to return and have the interviews and the observe my observation and participation again. 94 00:11:53,040 --> 00:12:00,089 So I will mostly be focusing on the visual, the visual aspect, and I will be showing the pictures. 95 00:12:00,090 --> 00:12:08,340 So I hope everyone will appreciate. But first, I would like to just talk a tiny bit about the online presence. 96 00:12:08,340 --> 00:12:12,530 As I mentioned, it's something that's very important here. 97 00:12:12,540 --> 00:12:25,380 The two main, main social media websites that are used by the artist but generally by young Tibetans are Instagram and WhatsApp. 98 00:12:26,250 --> 00:12:34,469 WhatsApp is mostly for communicating between them, but Instagram is just a platform to put on the visual media. 99 00:12:34,470 --> 00:12:40,860 Here we have, for example, the profile of the cinema. Like I said, human Stylise here is the nickname, 100 00:12:42,780 --> 00:12:52,050 but also some of their works or interviews or just everyday life photos of food or 101 00:12:52,140 --> 00:12:56,790 whatever they want to post online are shown on other websites such as YouTube, 102 00:12:56,790 --> 00:13:05,849 Facebook or Twitter. One thing that is definitely worth our attention is that one of them has a website which used 103 00:13:05,850 --> 00:13:12,989 to be a regular thing to do before the most known artists from the previous generation, 104 00:13:12,990 --> 00:13:25,920 such as Projets or Set in Sherpa, they all had their own websites or sometimes some smaller site that was like joined to, 105 00:13:26,100 --> 00:13:30,450 for example, the gallery sites that was representing them then, such as Rosie and Rosie. 106 00:13:32,280 --> 00:13:40,079 However, I assume it's just because nowadays websites are not as used because of all the social media that we have. 107 00:13:40,080 --> 00:13:49,350 So this kind of shifted right to the Instagram, for example, but also there is no gallery as such in my career. 108 00:13:49,350 --> 00:13:50,459 They are much more popular. 109 00:13:50,460 --> 00:13:59,910 So the neighbour, the Tibetan neighbourhood in Delhi, the only place where they can showcase their art is mostly either some coffee shops. 110 00:13:59,910 --> 00:14:02,610 There is one coffee shop that also has a small gallery. 111 00:14:03,240 --> 00:14:11,070 It's called The Other Space and it's a bit down George-warren Road, so a bit lower than maximal. 112 00:14:12,060 --> 00:14:15,780 But the space is very small and it's mostly a coffee shop anyway. 113 00:14:17,070 --> 00:14:23,520 But other than that, they kind of just show their works in restaurants or some cafe. 114 00:14:23,520 --> 00:14:26,129 Sometimes they're doing some murals, stuff like this, 115 00:14:26,130 --> 00:14:35,430 so they don't really have a permanent exhibition or permanent space where they actually exhibit even some small temporary exhibitions. 116 00:14:35,760 --> 00:14:45,690 So they have to do it in different ways, such as online. And here are some topics that they may choose to showcase mostly. 117 00:14:47,710 --> 00:14:51,910 I tried to just list the most popular ones, of course. 118 00:14:52,540 --> 00:14:57,339 They are not exclusive rights. Most of them kind of mix in in different artworks. 119 00:14:57,340 --> 00:15:06,620 But here are some that I managed to kind of extract and just kind of try to classify. 120 00:15:06,640 --> 00:15:12,520 So the first one, which is very interesting, is everyday life or some funny situations and jokes. 121 00:15:12,970 --> 00:15:23,620 This, I feel, is mostly it's something very new because everyday life is such or just like normal, funny situations were never. 122 00:15:25,510 --> 00:15:35,799 The main topic of contemporary Tibetan artists works because they were mostly showcased in galleries, 123 00:15:35,800 --> 00:15:46,930 or some of them were more a lot of them were more political or had some social commentary, so they were way more serious. 124 00:15:47,260 --> 00:15:53,590 But as those are mostly shown online, they are sometimes just to make small, funny jokes. 125 00:15:53,830 --> 00:16:01,860 So that made like a funny, funny shift in the in the topics because this is a very popular one. 126 00:16:01,870 --> 00:16:10,059 I do like some of their ones are traditional culture and also the influence of globalisation and pop culture, 127 00:16:10,060 --> 00:16:15,520 which is something that was very popular before but now is kind of losing its momentum. 128 00:16:15,530 --> 00:16:24,490 But nevertheless it is still present. Of course, politics and social critique, Buddhism and also the Dalai Lama, of course, 129 00:16:24,940 --> 00:16:28,620 but also a lot of them have some have something that was never seen before. 130 00:16:28,630 --> 00:16:33,700 So side projects such as advertisements, logos, posters, book illustrations, etc. 131 00:16:34,840 --> 00:16:42,370 And now I will just show some some pictures where you start with a bang. 132 00:16:42,370 --> 00:16:50,500 So we have some fart jokes that hilarious, but I noticed that this is something that happens here. 133 00:16:51,160 --> 00:16:54,160 Below I just put the names of the artists. 134 00:16:54,160 --> 00:17:02,170 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. 135 00:17:02,170 --> 00:17:08,970 And they are mostly works from after 2017, mostly 2020 to 2022. 136 00:17:08,980 --> 00:17:13,840 So they are very, very new works. So here. 137 00:17:14,990 --> 00:17:20,870 We can see just some, like funny, quippy little little pictures at the left. 138 00:17:20,870 --> 00:17:29,720 One of my friends in Germany is actually like a painting, like a not a digital painting, but like a physical painting. 139 00:17:30,110 --> 00:17:44,000 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, 140 00:17:45,710 --> 00:17:59,510 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 141 00:17:59,510 --> 00:18:09,979 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. 142 00:18:09,980 --> 00:18:14,540 Like for example, this old man just jumping in the streets. 143 00:18:15,020 --> 00:18:18,740 It's just something that you don't see every day. 144 00:18:19,220 --> 00:18:25,520 Those posts usually have a some small description on the side on Instagram, 145 00:18:25,520 --> 00:18:32,720 so therefore we can see what the artists wanted to say, or they just explained the little situations. 146 00:18:33,500 --> 00:18:43,820 So for example, our show here is one example, but also we have some more, let's say, contemporary or. 147 00:18:46,720 --> 00:18:58,629 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, 148 00:18:58,630 --> 00:19:04,360 like such universal things as hatreds, drugs, discrimination, greed, war, etc., 149 00:19:04,810 --> 00:19:15,540 we see COVID, which obviously is quite a time focussed little, little issue. 150 00:19:15,550 --> 00:19:29,020 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. 151 00:19:31,610 --> 00:19:46,520 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. 152 00:19:46,850 --> 00:19:53,360 So just little artworks. Some of them are done in traditional ways, some digital as we could see. 153 00:19:55,220 --> 00:20:03,650 Then a something that has always been showcased but also is gaining some popularity nowadays is traditional. 154 00:20:03,800 --> 00:20:16,100 But our culture by culture, I mean we generally visual culture mostly so like architecture, some some clothing as we see here. 155 00:20:16,520 --> 00:20:19,459 But also myths as here. 156 00:20:19,460 --> 00:20:32,270 Tenzin Girma is just think his older style because the previous previous painting we saw before was of his more contemporary colour style. 157 00:20:32,270 --> 00:20:35,460 But those more graffiti ones are a bit older. 158 00:20:36,710 --> 00:20:44,480 But here we can see a representation of the founding myth of of Tibet. 159 00:20:44,960 --> 00:20:54,140 And. Whereas, Gucci is making those little collages out of paper cut-outs that are sourced from, 160 00:20:54,440 --> 00:21:00,560 from some recycled paper and like some tinfoil and stuff like this. 161 00:21:01,280 --> 00:21:09,470 And she's actually just trying to recreate traditional dress from different areas of Tibet. 162 00:21:10,930 --> 00:21:19,550 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. 163 00:21:20,120 --> 00:21:32,720 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. 164 00:21:33,220 --> 00:21:45,500 This research are shown in her artworks, as we can see here, and that is a quote taken straight from the post from Instagram. 165 00:21:45,500 --> 00:21:52,010 So all the everything is just all the little mistakes and everything. 166 00:21:52,190 --> 00:21:58,580 We're already there. I just like straight copied it here just to live it in the original form. 167 00:21:58,880 --> 00:22:13,010 But here we can see not only the visual part is this showcasing the and a very traditional element of the Tibetan culture. 168 00:22:13,010 --> 00:22:21,919 But also we have a text that is corresponding to it and is also a historical text. 169 00:22:21,920 --> 00:22:29,090 Right, a poem by Justice Dalai Lama with a little translation by the artist himself. 170 00:22:30,500 --> 00:22:35,410 So definitely that is an element that is that is popular. 171 00:22:35,420 --> 00:22:43,819 Lots of people are painting the football or some just like Tibetans in traditional dress. 172 00:22:43,820 --> 00:22:50,720 Like in the beginning I was showing the cinema's drawing of this girl in traditional jewellery. 173 00:22:51,140 --> 00:22:54,890 But also here, for example, is this painting of Tibetan horse riding. 174 00:22:55,610 --> 00:23:00,110 And we can see it the nice picture from from conceptual. 175 00:23:00,110 --> 00:23:07,190 Yeah, but also then single songs have been shown for work before as she's doing an art 176 00:23:07,340 --> 00:23:13,130 form that is called quilting and it's the use of some very small strips of paper, 177 00:23:13,220 --> 00:23:20,660 very thin, the streets of paper that are rolled, and then this is made into some sort of figurine, as we can see here. 178 00:23:22,680 --> 00:23:28,740 And she is mostly reconstructing this figurines from people's pictures. 179 00:23:29,000 --> 00:23:41,840 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. 180 00:23:42,580 --> 00:23:50,260 So very often those are in some traditional Tibetan dress from different regions. 181 00:23:50,260 --> 00:23:57,830 So also that is an interesting thing to just to just see by even by Tibetans usually those 182 00:23:59,390 --> 00:24:07,700 either those was binga she the the other girl who made those paper Cut-outs or by Tenzin, 183 00:24:07,700 --> 00:24:13,130 they are both very, very well received on Instagram by other Tibetans in the comments. 184 00:24:14,060 --> 00:24:24,040 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. 185 00:24:24,050 --> 00:24:27,080 It's like visual representation of their culture. 186 00:24:28,400 --> 00:24:43,130 Another topic that is sometimes. Sometimes the symptoms can be seen in in different artworks is the problems of globalisation and pop culture, 187 00:24:43,490 --> 00:24:57,710 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. 188 00:24:58,010 --> 00:25:04,700 And here we can see some words like Beijing treatment of the Who. 189 00:25:04,700 --> 00:25:11,210 For example, if someone doesn't know the monkey from the right picture is from the most famous NFT. 190 00:25:11,220 --> 00:25:23,100 So Nonfungible token, which is a new phenomenon on the internet that is kind of selling the ownership to a digital picture. 191 00:25:23,120 --> 00:25:27,499 So it's definitely something that was very controversial. 192 00:25:27,500 --> 00:25:34,370 And here he dressed the monkey in some Tibetan way as a kind of joke. 193 00:25:35,810 --> 00:25:47,299 But also on the left, we see some characters from a different cartoons or games that are wearing a COVID mask again, 194 00:25:47,300 --> 00:25:55,340 but with a little, little symbol that reminds us of of Tibet, of course. 195 00:25:56,020 --> 00:26:05,630 And but here, one thing that I found very interesting is that Tenzin used the imagery of Santa, 196 00:26:05,810 --> 00:26:20,960 which is a comic by a Belgian Belgian comic artist, and which is generally known to be a little bit racist in its imagery. 197 00:26:22,040 --> 00:26:31,189 But apparently here, both curtains and people in the comments were very happy about this. 198 00:26:31,190 --> 00:26:35,450 So I guess sometimes us as people from the West, 199 00:26:35,450 --> 00:26:43,790 maybe Arctic and things too seriously and just don't understand how much representation is important in any way. 200 00:26:44,360 --> 00:26:49,010 But no, it's just my, my, my thoughts anyway. 201 00:26:49,310 --> 00:26:57,560 Yeah. This, this little booklet here is made of paper, like I mentioned, of Santa with a Tibetan flag. 202 00:26:58,460 --> 00:27:07,880 But on the left we can also see the Buddha with the Supreme T-shirt, which is a very expensive streetwear brand, 203 00:27:08,600 --> 00:27:14,429 very popular among young people, both in the US but also in Mexico. 204 00:27:14,430 --> 00:27:27,710 It's mostly in non-official reproductions, let's call it that can be found in the streets. 205 00:27:29,270 --> 00:27:38,150 Another another topic that is very popular is politics and social issues here, especially the right picture. 206 00:27:38,390 --> 00:27:40,100 Both pictures are from the cinema, but. 207 00:27:41,060 --> 00:27:51,740 One thing that definitely surprised me was that when we talked, he mentioned that whenever he is doing any sort of artworks, 208 00:27:51,800 --> 00:28:02,540 it is always perceived as political because he is Tibetan himself and how he sometimes doesn't even try to show any political statements, 209 00:28:02,540 --> 00:28:07,250 but even trying to kind of avoid avoid them sometimes because. 210 00:28:09,090 --> 00:28:15,090 No matter what he does, it is always perceived as such. And then he made the post from the right. 211 00:28:15,090 --> 00:28:23,810 That also has a very. Well, I think you can just say aggressive and aggressive. 212 00:28:23,850 --> 00:28:30,980 A little note on on Instagram, that was just like a description to the post. 213 00:28:31,520 --> 00:28:39,829 So as we see sometimes the what they say and what they make is not exactly the correspondent, 214 00:28:39,830 --> 00:28:46,070 which is also something that I find interesting and I will probably then mention in my work. 215 00:28:47,240 --> 00:28:58,190 However, here, of course, like political issues can be can be discussed as there is no such censorship as in China, 216 00:28:59,000 --> 00:29:06,010 I think in the Tibet Autonomous region. So that is something that does appear here. 217 00:29:06,020 --> 00:29:17,060 For example, the function, of course, is something that every year for the birthday is. 218 00:29:19,810 --> 00:29:29,500 It's just represented. I'm here especially to work on the right buttons and give them the truth. 219 00:29:29,500 --> 00:29:36,880 Guns doesn't seem political, but then we see the the title kind of march and immediately I think, Oh, 220 00:29:37,660 --> 00:29:45,370 why is this person not going on the other demonstrations, on the marches, on the streets in general? 221 00:29:45,370 --> 00:29:56,559 Right. That those marches, of course, the the day of the Tibetan uprising, that is always a very important event in the diaspora. 222 00:29:56,560 --> 00:30:05,220 So here. I'm not trying to to interpret the word myself. 223 00:30:05,240 --> 00:30:15,140 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, 224 00:30:15,260 --> 00:30:25,130 I think, an interesting word that definitely has a political and little political commentary here. 225 00:30:25,760 --> 00:30:34,970 Um, here another work by coincidence also this winning doing those little paper um 226 00:30:35,540 --> 00:30:42,680 in paper strips but here formed in a more flat still pretty but flat picture. 227 00:30:43,250 --> 00:30:47,870 And this is also just copied straight from the Instagram post. 228 00:30:47,870 --> 00:30:55,790 So also everything is original, the whole writing is original and which as we see, 229 00:30:55,790 --> 00:31:06,020 is just a little introduction from, from the artists to people who might not know this the story, this, this event. 230 00:31:06,590 --> 00:31:16,300 And. Even even some artists that at first glance might seem very. 231 00:31:19,160 --> 00:31:22,129 Let's say neutral, not interested in politics. 232 00:31:22,130 --> 00:31:33,680 Sometimes just make some art works that are deeply political and surprising, among others that we can see on their. 233 00:31:36,660 --> 00:31:46,110 Their portfolios or whatever websites they're using to showcase their works here. 234 00:31:46,500 --> 00:31:54,460 Another topic that is oftentimes incorporated in their works is, of course, Buddhism. 235 00:31:54,480 --> 00:32:01,440 That is something that is, of course, just everywhere. 236 00:32:01,440 --> 00:32:05,910 It is it's completely ubiquitous in in Tibetan culture. 237 00:32:05,940 --> 00:32:15,930 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. 238 00:32:16,320 --> 00:32:27,840 But some of them are just straight up Buddhist pictures like Zen miller is in this doing like a series of those more educational 239 00:32:28,020 --> 00:32:39,170 posters like here at the We Can See on the Wheel of life or that will samsara we he is just giving some descriptions. 240 00:32:39,180 --> 00:32:43,020 This is just of course a small part of it with the picture. 241 00:32:43,020 --> 00:32:48,870 But you can even see some some little arrows that are pointing there. 242 00:32:48,870 --> 00:32:55,950 And of course, those are the descriptions. It's just meant as like an educational poster there. 243 00:32:55,970 --> 00:32:59,850 Also other is from from this artist. 244 00:33:00,870 --> 00:33:11,459 And here comes the quilting artist made just a portrait of the Dalai Lama, which, of course, is a symbol of Tibetan Buddhism. 245 00:33:11,460 --> 00:33:22,230 So he is very often incorporated in different, different artworks, especially in McCloud, as this is the place where he resides. 246 00:33:23,880 --> 00:33:33,480 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, 247 00:33:33,480 --> 00:33:38,450 as they just could sell their works in the galleries and make money out of it. 248 00:33:38,460 --> 00:33:45,240 They had some some subparts from galleries, from different curators. 249 00:33:46,170 --> 00:33:54,030 However, most of those young artists that I am working with cannot afford just selling their art. 250 00:33:54,030 --> 00:34:00,299 They and they don't have a gallery, they don't have any they don't have many customers, of course. 251 00:34:00,300 --> 00:34:05,370 So they have to do a lot of the some side projects, 252 00:34:05,370 --> 00:34:15,810 either working sometimes in restaurants or doing a lot of more like advertising work or logos, as we can see here. 253 00:34:16,170 --> 00:34:21,240 The left one is for Students for Free Tibet by English here. 254 00:34:22,050 --> 00:34:27,900 It's a little postcard, but also here. 255 00:34:28,140 --> 00:34:31,380 She's also doing some jazz digital to the art. 256 00:34:32,400 --> 00:34:43,290 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. 257 00:34:44,430 --> 00:34:51,180 Like like we can see here there were just stickers on the walls in the in my cloud when I was there. 258 00:34:51,180 --> 00:34:57,089 So and that is definitely something that that we can just see around. 259 00:34:57,090 --> 00:35:06,059 Like there's also a lot of. A lot of paintings they're doing for restaurants or cafes, like sometimes some murals. 260 00:35:06,060 --> 00:35:10,520 Like I mentioned, here is a poster for Has the kitchen. 261 00:35:10,530 --> 00:35:12,000 It's a restaurant, of course. 262 00:35:12,390 --> 00:35:28,709 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, 263 00:35:28,710 --> 00:35:37,710 of course, are kind of juxtaposed that all of those are a bit of some like Tibetan identity markers that we can visibly see. 264 00:35:37,710 --> 00:35:47,050 But also sometimes they are just compiled with some Western or Indian and some like just, 265 00:35:47,100 --> 00:35:56,180 you know, just contemporary world globalised elements that that just happen in, in all societies. 266 00:35:56,580 --> 00:36:06,240 And but also a lot of Tibetan motives that are included are just elements of everyday life, such as clothing, masks. 267 00:36:07,320 --> 00:36:15,000 And one thing that's very important in in Tibet in general, but also in those artworks, is the importance of colours. 268 00:36:16,200 --> 00:36:19,680 There's a lot of humour, as I mentioned, as we could see. 269 00:36:20,130 --> 00:36:29,460 And also one thing that is mentioned by the artists themselves is how they are learning and teaching about Tibetan culture through their art. 270 00:36:30,160 --> 00:36:35,610 Um, as I mentioned, art is oftentimes a side hobby. 271 00:36:36,720 --> 00:36:41,160 They, they can't really afford to just to being artists like they would like to be. 272 00:36:42,300 --> 00:36:49,650 And a lack of censorship allows them to engage into more political topics. 273 00:36:50,070 --> 00:37:00,030 And here I would also just as maybe a conversation starter, as I say a little bit about my future plans. 274 00:37:00,030 --> 00:37:02,939 So definitely I would like to go again to that. 275 00:37:02,940 --> 00:37:11,310 I'm so glad to spend a few months, preferably with the artists, and just spend more time with them if possible, 276 00:37:11,610 --> 00:37:21,659 organise something together like maybe an exhibition or some kind of installation that we could just make all together. 277 00:37:21,660 --> 00:37:24,780 That would be definitely something that they would love to do and. 278 00:37:26,930 --> 00:37:33,920 Would be I think they would appreciate it as well. And maybe that would help us just cooperate a little bit better. 279 00:37:34,580 --> 00:37:40,280 And they will, of course, continue to make up for patients with different mythologies, but also Tibetans. 280 00:37:41,720 --> 00:37:51,020 About those different, more mythological and theoretical elements of my work. 281 00:37:51,830 --> 00:37:56,390 So here are the picture sources. They are the Instagram of the artists. 282 00:37:56,990 --> 00:38:07,760 Um, and I didn't really give any bibliography as what I was saying was based on the interviews that they conducted. 283 00:38:08,660 --> 00:38:15,709 So this I would like to thank you very much for your attention and to start the discussion. 284 00:38:15,710 --> 00:38:19,010 Here is my contact information. 285 00:38:19,010 --> 00:38:22,340 If anyone of you would like to contact me, then.