Can you expand on the notion of non-duality and how it manifests within your work?
In language, in order to be a thing, you need to not be all the other things. We often tend to think in this way, however, non-duality reminds us that this perceived “otherness” is actually interdependence. For example, in Martial Arts, you are dependent on the opposing force of your opponent to make you better. Without conflict, you cannot participate in the process of becoming.
If you look closely at any relationship you can see there is no opposition at all, just a continuum of interdependence. Even what we take to be our bodies are not solid entities. Our DNA was given to us by our human and non-human ancestors so that we are each walking accumulations of many lives. Our cells are made up of atoms and molecules from our food, and in this way too, we are made up of many lives. Most of the cells in our body aren’t even human, but microbial. So many lives. All of these elements are constantly in flux, so taking all this into consideration, what actually is an individual life? I think about this a lot when I hear people talk about the difference between human and animal life.
If a lion eats a buffalo, what survives, the lion or the buffalo? In a sense, the lion is now made from the buffalo. Two lives that were not solid to begin with have been woven together. There doesn’t seem to be a clear idea of death, just constant transformation. These ideas are simplified here for the sake of brevity but they are the contemplations that led to “Ghost Dance (Triumph of the Dead)”, “Making me, Making you (Sparring Sessions)”, and many other of my pieces.
