The primary inspiration for my work is my longtime interest in Eastern spirituality, shamanism, folklore and dreams. I am particularly interested in how the female is expressed through ritual and ceremony. The numinous or ‘sense of the sacred’ portrayed in imagery—from wall paintings, sculptural forms, and as manifested in nature offers me the sensations of rasa, tastes of delight.For over a decade I have photographed images taken during pilgrimages to the Dasain festival held in Kathmandu Valley in Nepal, the ten–day celebration of the Mother goddess Durga, where shakti (primordial cosmic energy) is celebrated. Sacred images are dressed and adorned with colored powders, flowers, coconut milk and other materials, and offerings such as money, incense and sweets are given to these deities imagined as both living and liminal beings. In my photographs, I also depict holy women sadhvis (renunciates), village deomas (women healers), as well as a panoply of ritualistic objects such as headdresses, bells and dorjes (thunderbolts), and other items used in the melded traditions of Tibetan Buddhism, the Bon Tradition, Hinduism and indigenous Shamanism evident in the Kathmandu Valley and beyond.
My photographs are an illustration and documentation of the unbroken living Tantric tradition that continues to exist in Nepal and serve as reminders of my connection to these figures and forces born from dreams, spiritual practices and in everyday life. Visit Art Slant website for slideshow and Surasundari website if you would like to make a purchase.
