I wished to present a body of work that visually represented my own meditative process of managing stress and anxiety. Towards the end of studying for my undergraduate, I began preparing for my Final Exhibition Show, and with these preparations, my life, as well as my work, changed drastically. Within the past two years, my drawings began to take on a meditative therapeutic process. It was this development that then helped manage my growing stress levels and well as the symptoms that stemmed from high levels of anxiety and bloomed from losing control in my day to day life. It was then conceived, through this carefully crafted systematic means of creation, the notion that my mind could relax and take time to resolve the matters that plagued it, while at the same time, construct something artistically productive. While drawing, I achieved a juxtaposition of varying means of visually representing the idea of control and order within my work as well as within my mind and body. It was this, the creation of these drawings, that hence became my meditative escape in managing my stress and anxieties as well as my obsessive compulsive tendencies, where; without structure, had the potential to turn self-hindering and painful.

Cette recherche vise à éclairer le phénomène, dans l’art contemporain, de la création d'« espaces méditatifs » destinés à induire un certain état d’esprit fait d’intériorisation paisible. Nous l’étudions chez des artistes dont la plupart sont inspirés par la pensée extrême-orientale. Il s'agit des Coréens Kim Ho-deuk, Kim Kichul, Kimsooja, Kim Sung-bae, Yee Sookyung, des Japonais Miyanaga Aiko et Yamamoto Motoi, de l'Allemand Wolfgang Laib et de la Française Tania Mouraud. L'espace méditatif est réalisé au moyen de l’élaboration de divers genres d’environnements sensoriels, souvent poly-sensoriels, qui incitent le spectateur à s’y plonger et le conduisent ainsi à une certaine méditation. Dans la création de cet espace particulier, ce qui est essentiel, ce n’est pas seulement l’idée et le concept de l’artiste, mais aussi le soin qu’il met à réaliser son oeuvre. Soin dans la manipulation et l’exécution, recourant tantôt à des techniques artisanales traditionnelles, tantôt à d’autres, complètement inédites. Toujours l’attention est première : on la voit dans leurs actes lents, répétitifs, ascétiques, qui ressemblent même parfois à un rite. Ils ouvrent à une autre dimension de l’art, que l’on peut qualifier de spirituelle. On passe ainsi de la réflexion à la méditation, et parfois on rejoindra l’artiste dans l’intuition d’où est née l’oeuvre. Des questions fondamentales sont ainsi soulevées, sur la vie, la mort, le temps. Églises et temples sont aujourd'hui moins fréquentés, mais beaucoup cherchent une sorte d’espace ouvert « vers le haut », ou « vers le profond », un « espace méditatif ». Trouveront-ils cet espace à la galerie ou au musée ? / This study attempts to shed some light on the creation of what might be called “meditative spaces” in Contemporary Art, spaces which seem to engender a special state of mind induced by peaceful interiorization. Most of the artists we study are inspired by Far Eastern thought: Kim Ho-deuk, Kim Kichul, Kimsooja, Kim Sung-bae, Yee Sookyung from Korea, Miyanaga Aiko and Yamamoto Motoi from Japan, Wolfgang Laib from Germany, and Tania Mouraud, from France. This meditative space is created by the elaboration of different kinds of sensory environments, often poly-sensory ones, which incite the spectator to immerse themself, leading them thereby to some kind of meditation. What matters here is not only the artist’s idea or concept, but also the care the artist takes to create their work. Care in the creation and performance which, sometimes, uses traditional craft techniques, sometimes wholly different, very original ones. The quality of attention always comes first: it can be seen in their way of proceeding, using slow, repetitive, ascetic movements, which sometimes even look like a ritual. Thus they open Art to a new dimension that could well be called spiritual. From reflection one slowly moves to meditation, and perhaps even—when the spectator joins the artist in his/her intuition—to the very source which gave birth to the work. Fundamental questions are thereby raised, about Life, Death, and Time. Churches and temples are less and less attended today, but many people still look for a kind of place, an “uplifting” open space, or an “inward” one: a meditative space. Will they be able to find it at the gallery or in the museum ?