This work is a response to a framework based on an ancient Hua-yen Buddhist parable of Indra’s Net described as a universal net, at each juncture lies a jewel; each jewel reflects all other jewels in a cosmic matrix.

I choose fabric to reference a way of knowing, based on a comfort that is connected to what is my own familiarity with cloth and the lasting impression cloth has had in my life. Sari silk speaks of my identity. The intense color passages in these works reflect memories of my mother and my vivid color memories, specifically the array of unashamed vibrancy of the saris the women wore in my life.

The idea of a universal grid structure has transformed materially into nets made of silk, specifically, using the image of an Interference Wave where there is the interaction of two waves colliding. This happens with light, with sound or you can visibly see this with water droplets. This interaction can be either constructive or destructive as the waves can amplify or cancel each other out. I thought this a useful metaphor for the interactions and events that happen in space-time. Events don’t happen in isolation; the decisions we make reverberate throughout time and throughout history and how these decisions affect our present and future.

This interference wave pattern can replicate our interconnectivity with regard to social, environmental, and economic consequences of decisions made resulting from our perceived separateness from people and from nature.

SERENA BUSCHI

SERENA BUSCHI