Bill Armstrong
Photographs from the Infinity SeriesHome    Statement    News    CV    Publications    Contact    Books    Other Series
Buddha

The Buddhas are made from images appropriated from books and the internet that are painted, collaged against different backgrounds, and then photographed out of focus. This process allows me to de-materialize the subjects and create ephemeral images that explore different aspects of the spiritual world. Appropriating and re-using Buddha images also references re-incarnation.

The photographs remind us that the Buddha figure is an imagined being, not a real likeness, and they address the idea of mutability versus permanence. Their soft luminosity suggests transcendence, and the auras around them support the legend that there was an emanation around the Buddha figure. Sometimes they change as one gazes into them, pulsating as if alive, and inviting an inquiry into the idea of “being" within the inanimate.

Back