Entry Into the Indigenous Abode
The artwork of Bảo-Khang Nguyễn seeks to gain insights into hitherto underappreciated or unknown ontological, epistemological and temporal domains that exceed the sensible world and subjective faculties. Specifically, his work investigates the nature of intrinsic awareness, including nonduality (advaita, अद्वैत) unboundedness/nonlocality (ka dag chen po, ཀ་དག་ཆེན་པོ), trans-conceptuality (nirvikalpa, निर्विकल्प), clear undifferentiated light (prakāśa, प्रकाश), fullness (pūrṇaṃ, पूर्ण), vibration (spanda,स्पन्द), supreme word (para-vāk, परवाक्), reflexivity or self-consciousness (vimarśa, विमर्श) and self-recognition (pratyabhijñā, प्रत्यभिज्ञा).
Nonduality in this sense refers to the universal light of self-awareness (prakasha-vimarsha, प्रकाश विमर्श) that is not differentiated into the ontic and epistemic mode of subject and object perception. This nonduality is a state of reflexivity, that is, it is awareness of awareness itself rather than its internal and external contents. To know itself it must embody and be indistinguishable from what it knows, hence the distinctions between knower and known as well as ontology and epistemology are inapplicable. What reflexive awareness or self-consciousness knows is not a being’s particular nature but the universal, innermost nature of the totality of beings. This implies that nondual awareness is neither solipsistic nor localized, meaning it is not isolated within the confines of subjective consciousness. Rather, it is a pervasive field that encompasses all entities, thus it is not bounded to any specific entity or point located in spacetime. Moreover, reflexive awareness is trans-conceptual, meaning it is an epistemological mode of awareness that underlies conceptual understanding, logical progression, sensory perception and emotive states. Lastly, the universal light (prakasha) of consciousness, which underlies manifest reality, and its power of reflexive awareness (vimarsha) are not separate polarities but form two aspects of one field. That is to say the nature of light is self-awareness. The power of self-recognition sparks the primordial light to pulsate (spanda) and sound forth (vak), ceaselessly overflowing into manifestation. That manifestation is the totality of beings, which is an expression but not fully exhaustive of the luminous and sonorous power of self-recognition (pratyabhijñā).
Nguyễn creates a semiotic system that translates and compresses nondual cosmologies and philosophies to forms of diagrammatic symbolism, which explore numerous ways to render the nature of dualistic perception as well as how the inherent field of nondual awareness can be accessible. To be more specific, the diagrams inquire how the perceiver, upon closely contemplating and visualizing the symbolic language, can be incited to gain insights into the nature of conscious perception as well as the underlying field from which it originates. Furthermore, by attending in this manner, he believes there is a possibility for the mind to be spontaneously released from the recognizable contents of consciousness such that there is an unoccupied space for the direct recognition of and identification with one's fundamental nature. This is central to his investigation of visual media's capacity to evoke an unmediated awareness that is free from thought-constructions.
Nonduality in this sense refers to the universal light of self-awareness (prakasha-vimarsha, प्रकाश विमर्श) that is not differentiated into the ontic and epistemic mode of subject and object perception. This nonduality is a state of reflexivity, that is, it is awareness of awareness itself rather than its internal and external contents. To know itself it must embody and be indistinguishable from what it knows, hence the distinctions between knower and known as well as ontology and epistemology are inapplicable. What reflexive awareness or self-consciousness knows is not a being’s particular nature but the universal, innermost nature of the totality of beings. This implies that nondual awareness is neither solipsistic nor localized, meaning it is not isolated within the confines of subjective consciousness. Rather, it is a pervasive field that encompasses all entities, thus it is not bounded to any specific entity or point located in spacetime. Moreover, reflexive awareness is trans-conceptual, meaning it is an epistemological mode of awareness that underlies conceptual understanding, logical progression, sensory perception and emotive states. Lastly, the universal light (prakasha) of consciousness, which underlies manifest reality, and its power of reflexive awareness (vimarsha) are not separate polarities but form two aspects of one field. That is to say the nature of light is self-awareness. The power of self-recognition sparks the primordial light to pulsate (spanda) and sound forth (vak), ceaselessly overflowing into manifestation. That manifestation is the totality of beings, which is an expression but not fully exhaustive of the luminous and sonorous power of self-recognition (pratyabhijñā).
Nguyễn creates a semiotic system that translates and compresses nondual cosmologies and philosophies to forms of diagrammatic symbolism, which explore numerous ways to render the nature of dualistic perception as well as how the inherent field of nondual awareness can be accessible. To be more specific, the diagrams inquire how the perceiver, upon closely contemplating and visualizing the symbolic language, can be incited to gain insights into the nature of conscious perception as well as the underlying field from which it originates. Furthermore, by attending in this manner, he believes there is a possibility for the mind to be spontaneously released from the recognizable contents of consciousness such that there is an unoccupied space for the direct recognition of and identification with one's fundamental nature. This is central to his investigation of visual media's capacity to evoke an unmediated awareness that is free from thought-constructions.
