Garuda Tara 伪唐卡迦楼罗

Garuda Tara is a crafted visual work inspired by Tibetan thangka painting, reinterpreted through a speculative and critical lens. In Buddhist iconography, Tara is traditionally understood as one of the manifestations of Avalokiteshvara. In this work, however, Garuda Tara is reimagined as a young girl who is reborn amid adversity, echoing the imagery of a phoenix. This transformation functions not as a religious depiction, but as a constructed myth through which hidden histories and silenced experiences are explored.

The project emerged from my engagement with contemporary news relating to Tibetan Buddhism, which led me to investigate historical narratives, ritual practices, and visual traditions surrounding female figures within religious contexts. While thangka paintings often depict female deities, their presence is frequently embedded within complex systems of symbolism, authority, and spiritual hierarchy. My work questions how such visual and ritual structures can obscure lived experiences, particularly those of women, and how religious narratives may intersect with systems of power and control.

Drawing on the visual language of thangka painting and Chinese shadow puppetry, the work constructs a symbolic narrative in which a young girl is subjected to ritualised violence under the pretext of spiritual recognition. Rather than presenting a documentary account, the image operates as an allegory—examining how innocence, belief, and authority can be manipulated within closed systems. Following her death, the girl is transformed into a deity, reclaiming agency and becoming a protective force for others who might otherwise share her fate.

After completing the painting, I intentionally aged the surface using tea staining and employed traditional framing methods to evoke the appearance of an ancient pseudo-artifact. This process reflects my interest in how women’s suffering can be historically recorded, concealed, or erased over time. By presenting the work as something unearthed rather than newly created, I aim to suggest that such narratives have long existed but have often been buried within dominant historical and religious discourses.

Through Garuda Tara, I do not seek to offer definitive historical conclusions. Instead, the work proposes a visual space for questioning how belief systems, ritual authority, and myth-making can shape, distort, or silence female experiences—and how alternative narratives might be reclaimed through speculative reconstruction.
《迦楼罗度母》是一件受藏传佛教唐卡绘画启发，并以思辨和批判视角重新诠释的视觉作品。在佛教图像学中，度母通常被认为是观世音菩萨的化身之一。然而，在这件作品中，迦楼罗度母被重新构想为一位在逆境中重生的少女，呼应了凤凰的意象。这种转变并非宗教描绘，而是一种构建的神话，借此探索那些被隐藏的历史和被噤声的经历。

该项目源于我对当代藏传佛教相关新闻的关注，这促使我去探究宗教语境中围绕女性形象的历史叙事、仪式实践和视觉传统。虽然唐卡绘画经常描绘女性神祇，但她们的存在往往被嵌入到复杂的象征体系、权威和精神等级之中。我的作品质疑这些视觉和仪式结构如何掩盖真实的生活体验，尤其是女性的体验，以及宗教叙事如何与权力和控制体系交织在一起。

这件作品借鉴了唐卡和中国皮影戏的视觉语言，构建了一个象征性的叙事：一个年轻女孩在所谓的“精神认可”的幌子下遭受了仪式化的暴力。这幅作品并非纪实性的叙述，而是寓言式的，探讨了在封闭的体系中，纯真、信仰和权威是如何被操纵的。女孩死后，被化身为神祇，重获自主权，成为守护其他可能遭遇同样命运之人的守护神。

完成画作后，我特意用茶渍做旧，并采用传统的装裱方式，使画面呈现出一种古老仿古文物的质感。这一过程反映了我对女性苦难如何在历史长河中被记录、掩盖或抹去的关注。通过将作品呈现为出土之物而非新创作，我意在表明，此类叙事由来已久，却往往被主流历史和宗教话语所掩盖。

通过《金翅鸟度母》，我并不试图给出最终的历史结论。相反，该作品提出了一种视觉空间，用于质疑信仰体系、仪式权威和神话创造如何塑造、扭曲或压制女性的经历，以及如何通过推测性的重建来重新获得替代叙事。