Fragments of Prayers #1

This is #2 of a series of three books which were a meditation on the Buddhist chant OM MANI PADME HUM (see http://www.tibet.com/Buddhism/om-mantra.html).

I started with a sheet of white heavy-weight St Armand (http://www.st-armand.com/English/E01-welcome.php) paper and proceeded to write the words in gesso, sumi, walnut ink and white gouache, sixty different ways - thirty on each side. Then I tore the sheet into sixty pieces - fragments. After that I punched a hole into each fragment and threaded them onto a rope. I wanted to convey both the imperfection of our prayers and the endlessness of them. The rope is spliced so that you cannot find a beginning or an end to it. The prayers just go on and on. Also the pages can be rotated around the string thus changing their visual relationships to each other. I love the soft fuzziness of the torn edges.

I remember seeing some Buddhist texts in Mongolia that were wrapped in silk scarves so thought that this would be an appropriate vessel for this book.

Size: H 6" W 5.5" D 6"