inhaling, exhaling, borning, dying, inflating, deflating

What is inhaling, exhaling, dying, borning right now?

Here is a wonderful art piece that encourages us to clarify this matter right here.

"Art That Breathes: Lewis DeSoto’s Paranirvana (Self-Portrait)

Anya Montiel

Paranirvana (self-portrait)

Maker: 

Lewis deSoto
Medium: 

Polyethylene cloth

26' (7.9 m) in lengt

     

(FOR VARIOUS VIEWS OF THE IMAGES CLICK ON THE PICTURES.)

 Lewis deSoto’s Paranirvana (self-portrait) is a 26-foot long sculpture influenced by the artist’s engagement with Buddhism. The sculpture depicts a figure reclining on its right side; its disposition closely based on a twelfth-century stone Buddha at Gal Vihara in Sri Lanka. Unlike its solid stone predecessor, deSoto’s work, made from painted polyethylene cloth, is hollow, filled only by air from a fan that keeps the sculpture inflated. The resemblance to the reclining Buddha is nonetheless remarkable, from the curls of hair to the folds of the robe, the one exception being that deSoto superimposed his own facial features, complete with goatee, on this Buddha. These alterations to material and the personalization of the piece that occurs when it becomes a self-portrait, make particular claims on this representation and shape its possible meanings......."

For the rest of this wonderful article see:

http://mavcor.yale.edu/conversations/essays/art-breathes-lewis-desoto-s-paranirvana-self-portrait