as grand as what (2018-2020)

Drawing on research into Himali’s namesake, the Himalayas, and its animistic rituals and remedies, mystical geometries, old new materialism and spirit realism, ancestors of the blue moon is a collection of flash fictions from the perspective of remote or forgotten deities, deities protected by rites of secrecy or left out of the archives, deities invisible and formless and deities incarnated as ruined objects, dangerous aspects or shadowy energies. They flow through our contemporary timescape, recounting the world they witness. A total of 13 dispatches–signifying the Tibetan Buddhist conception of the astral planes of existence as well as the rare blue moon that transforms linear time into mythical time –will culminate in a live multi-media performance combining text, film and music called as grand as what. Shot overlooking Mt. Vesuvius, these made-up-rituals conflate these Himalayan deities with Napoli black magic.

by himali singh soin and david soin tappeser 

3 channel video, color, sound, 2 hour performance 

as grand as what is a reimagination of the structure of the kalachakra mandala, a geomantic diagram in which the drawing, the body, the city, the earth and the universe mirror each other in a grand cosmic architecture. the main artery of the story is a search for the lost bla, a subtle life force that runs through the world. bla, a term borrowed from tibetan medicine, but one which translates into prana, or qi, ruh or mana across cultures, has lost itself amid the crisis of the present moment. This is expressed both in the weary body and the parched earth. A drummer calls upon li, a spirit manifestation of the human and non-human consciousness, to conduct a series of remedic rituals, to recall bla into our bodies and into the planet. In a series of transmissions and receptions, the palm leaf masked figure embarks on a journey of grounding, circulation and regeneration according to the chakras of the body which in turn reflect the elements of nature. We flit between the inner, outer and other wheels of time, drawing seismic lines from the Himalayan mountains to the Vesuvian volcano. We seek to reconnect to the anima of the earth, and in doing so with the resonance of sound and the force of the word love, heal ourselves.

in the spirit of the fountain

We carry our Nagada drums along a seismic line, from a nuclear mountain in the Himalayas to the volcanic remnants of Pompeii. On the way, they accumulate the myths and tremors of the lands they encounter. They receive the rhythms of the ocean and the particles of promise in the air. They become carriers of desperation and dreams both. Inspired by the Himalayan Jagar, a ritual in which ancestors are woken up to heal their kin, we call upon the spirits of place to conjure remedies for the contemporary crisis of lost presence. We call upon them, also, to exorcise us from the toxicity that they left us with. At Casa Della Fontana, the House of the Large Fountain, a source of life, guided by the improvised sound of the drums, we indicate a path, channeling water and fire both. A cymbal replaces the bronze oracular disc found at the cult of Here, who presided over functions that sounded the spirits of the dead. Listening as a way of connecting to molten time. Reaching out from within the mantle. Learning how to be after. Longing for the median where matter and spirit become interpenetrable. The medium through which we retrieve a collective life-force.