Weapons Mandala (Meditation on Warfare)
Oil on birch panel
A mandala is intended to encourage contemplation and is most often used as a visual aid to meditation.
Traditionally, a mandala is a highly decorated square or circle made up of repeated patterns and symbols of spiritual significance to the user.
This mandala uses weapons to build its repeated pattern.
The user can concentrate on the overall form of the mandala or contemplate the individual elements contained within it – bombs, rifles, knives, mines, grenades. Whatever the approach, the aim is to encourage thought about the complexity of conflict through these repeated objects.
There is, of course, an irony that a mandala – a tool for peace and spirituality – is being used for a meditation on warfare.
The irony is echoed in the aesthetic attractiveness of objects which have been created to cause death or injury.