Installation of monk's robes, camouflage texttile, handwritten notes, mat and pillow.
Statement
An installation, activated by the audience’s participation, is Prayer on the Wind. A cloth temple-like structure made from sewn cut-out squares of Burmese monks’ saffron robes inter‐dispersed with military camouflage, the piece boasts a number of pockets on its outer walls into which members of the public are asked to insert notes inscribed with their prayers, ideas and wishes. Once these scraps of paper materializing prayers have been stuffed into the piece’s outer pockets, viewers are invited to lie inside the cloth temple to experience radiant shafts of coloured light produced as sunshine filters through the installation’s textile fibers. Co-opting the public sensorially through experiential play and direct text‐based interaction, Prayer on the Wind triggers thought about the relationship between different types of state institutions and the role of religion, faith and the military in power structures. Originally conceptualised in Myanmar, Prayer on the Wind 's conceptual basis translates meaningfully to all contexts where citizens question authority’s legitimacy and its modes of operation.
