SHENPA | MORGAN MacCALLAM
FEBRUARY 17th – MARCH 11th in the East Gallery
Opening Reception:February 17th, 6-10pm
Closing Reception:March 2nd, 6-10pm
My Shenpa series is my personal memorial to a beloved contemporary street artist. Shenpa inspired me to combine impermanent street art with the archaic permanence of clay. Shenpa is attachment, compulsion, and urge. At the subtlest level, we feel a tightening, a tensing, a sense of closing down. Then we feel a sense of withdrawing, not wanting to be where we are. That’s the hooked quality. That tight feeling has the power to hook us into self-denigration, blame, anger, jealousy and other emotions which lead to words and actions that end up poisoning us. When shenpa hooks us, we’re likely to get stuck. The momentum behind the urge is so strong that we never pull out of the habitual pattern of turning to poison for comfort. We could call shenpa “that sticky feeling.” We’re in the habit of associating whatever we’re doing with relief from our own discomfort. This is the shenpa syndrome.
“Shenpa”
by Morgan MacCallum