Upon first passing through the curtained-off entrance to the exhibition patrons are met with the exhibition’s title — in English and Tibetan.
This purposeful acknowledgment of Tibet in its own words is one of several ways that curator and associate professor of Asian studies Dr. Fuyubi Nakamura sought to better create an exhibit about a country that was frequently only seen from the outside.
“Tibet has been represented by so many different people in different ways, but we don’t really know so much about what’s happening now in Tibet,” said Nakamura during a guided tour of the exhibition.
Entangled Territories: Tibet Through Images is the Museum of Anthropology’s (MOA) newest exhibition, focusing on the historical and cultural identity of the area. This was done in an effort to push back against the inundation of content focusing on the region exclusively through the lens of Tibetan Buddhism which, while an important part of their history, is not the only story Tibet has to tell. Nakamura worked with two Tibetan-Canadian artists as well as two community collaborators from the area, but the objects featured in the exhibition, she said, were chosen by students from the Tibetan Language School at the Tsengdok Monastery in Vancouver.
“It was their selection. And they selected objects they wanted to talk about,” said Nakamura.
These high school and first-year university students helped pick out the objects like robes and dishware. They also wrote short reflections on why they selected each piece — these are displayed in English and Tibetan on pieces of cloth throughout the exhibition.
Nakamura has been interested in Tibetan culture and history for over 30 years, since 1995 when she first visited the Tibetan government-in-exile in Dharamshala. She was also interested in curating this exhibit as the MOA’s Asian collection is their largest — at 40 per cent of the museum’s total items — and she wanted the opportunity to feature some of the items.
While Nakamura had initially hoped to work with an artist in Tibet, she explained that the artist changed her mind, saying she did not feel safe displaying work in a Canadian exhibition. This, Nakamura said, is the reality for many people living in Tibet.
One of the artists featured in the exhibition, Lodoe Laura, was present at the event and introduced her featured artwork. Based out of Toronto, Laura is primarily a photographer whose work concerns themes of ancestry, family and identity. She explained that she was very drawn to Nakamura’s project when she was first approached about it two years ago.
“Often Tibet is depicted by outsiders, and I liked how [Nakamura] was working with the community to show work that the community was interested in showing,” said Laura.
The first of Laura’s pieces in the exhibition is a pair of photos titled Colonizer, Colonized. The photos are of Laura in her Toronto studio, decorated in one photo with objects from her father’s childhood, and in the other with items from her mother’s. As a woman of mixed Tibetan-British heritage who was frequently asked about her personal interpretations of her identity, Laura sought to respond to these questions with a sense of humour.
“It is kind of a cheeky way to separate the two and imagine what those two kind of identities separate might look like, maybe very superficially,” said Laura during the tour.
The exhibition also contains copious amounts of archival photos and letters acquired by lieutenant-colonel Eric Parker. A British military commander with the Indian government, Parker led an expedition to Tibet in 1921. While there, he conducted infantry training of Tibetan soldiers and communicated with a variety of people, including the 13th Dalai Lama. He also took several photos that showed how Tibet looked at the time.
Next to this, a film by the other Tibetan-Canadian artist featured in the exhibition, Kunsang Kyirong, played on a screen. This film, Letters from Tibet, was constructed thanks to these archival materials, and was made specifically for the exhibit. It is a combination of fiction and documentary work, and integrates Parker’s photography and letters from the archival collection. The story of the films concerns a fictional archivist going through the materials, accompanied with a voice-over and the letters and photographs, with the intention of showing how Tibet has been showcased by outsiders.
In the room next door were patterned robes and a brown cape suspended in the centre of the ceiling. One robe was patterned with dragons, while the other had floral and geometric designs. Nakamura acknowledged that these articles were particularly significant.
“Those robes and brown cape are from one particular family. They are from Tibet [and they] migrated to Canada [and]they are descendants of the 10th Dalai Lama,” said Nakamura.
In the next room, Laura’s photography lines two walls, a display case containing two small items at the centre. This room heavily features Laura and her father, Tibetan community collaborator Jurme Wangda. One set of photographs were taken by Laura in Nepal, while she lived with her father at the monastery he administered.
On the other wall are three photographs in sequence at the monastery, one of Wangda, one of him and Laura, and one of just her. This piece, Laura says, symbolizes the feelings of future and inheritance she feels as her father’s eldest daughter.
“I’m just kind of thinking about what happens in a few years, and thinking about inheritance in that way and what’s my relationship to this space that my great uncle and my father were so much a part of,” said Laura.
In the centre of this room were two objects, chosen by Laura and her father to symbolize Tibet. Wangda chose a small wooden bowl; Laura chose a teapot. These two objects, she said, were a significant part of ordinary everyday life in Tibet.
“In Tibet nomads travel around the countryside, and if you have your bowl you can go to someone — they can give you tea or give you some food, and then you can clean and take it with you,” said Laura.
But what was perhaps the most emotionally affecting piece of the exhibition was Laura’s final work, a series of screen-prints entitled 169. These portraits were made with ink created from burnt incense, and were a series of portraits of Tibetans who have self-immolated to protest political repression by the Chinese government in Tibet.
Ultimately, Nakamura hopes that this exhibit teaches Canadians more about Tibet’s past, and its present.
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