WORLD
WHEEL (Earth Mandala), is an artistic forum for global understanding
consisting of monumental stone sculptures and ceremony performance
events circling the globe.
The project focuses on spiritual
ecological issues activating an awareness of the interrelatedness
of all life. Through active participation with local artists,
performers and community, World Wheel addresses the people's
deepest personal and social concerns, working creatively with
them to resolve cultural conflicts. World Wheel provides a
transformative experience for the community.
The first World Wheel took seven
years straddling the 40th latitudinal parallel beginning in
Malibu, California and continued on to the Seneca Reservation,
New York--Alicante on the Mediterranean Sea of Spain--the
Umbrian Forest of Italy--the island of Tinos in Greece--the
desert of Egypt--the banks of the Dead Sea in Israel and Palestine--a
tiny village in West Bengal, India--a cave in Shoto Terdrom,
Tibet--a national park in Kunming, Western China--on the banks
of Lake Baikal, Siberia. In October of 1993 the culmination
of this journey was in Japan at the ancient Shinto shrine
of Tenkawa.
The second World Wheel circles
the equator forming a nine pointed star with its center as
the center of the earth. The first sites are in the Andes
and Amazon rainforest in Ecuador. The following sites are
Brazil, Nigeria, Kenya, India, Australia, South Pacific ocean,
Kiribati; culminating in California. Vijali has dedicated
this Wheel of sites to the well being of the children of the
world.
Vijali explains, “The
motivation for the World Wheel came from an experience in
the mid 70's when my perception of ourselves and the world
shifted, and the Unity of life stood revealed. The next few
years were a search for a way to live within this web of life
that connects all life. Specific ideas for the World Wheel
came to me in a dream; I saw myself carving sculptures out
of the living rock and involving people from many cultures
in a process of ritual in a giant circle around the world.
The circle itself represents Unity in the sense that each
spoke of the wheel has a quality that is unique, distinct
from every other spoke of the wheel and yet it is from these
differences that harmony arises, from these differences that
the whole is created.
As soon as I arrive in a country, I ask each person I meet,
three questions:
1. What is our essence?
2. What is our sickness, our imbalance ... personally, communally
and globally?
3. What can heal this sickness, what can bring us into balance?
Their response from these questions form the art and ritual
performance. Each earth sculpture serves as the performance
space and is left as a gift and permanent installation to
be used by the community, continuing to connect them to the
concept of Unity of the World Wheel.
The world became my studio. I was a pilgrim who made offerings
and gave voice and form to the spirit of the earth and the
people I met along the way. I kept expanding the borders of
what sculpture was, what art was, integrating it more and
more into life itself--the people around me; their problems
their hopes, their dreams of the future. I saw that at the
root of these problems is the misunderstanding of ourselves
as separate, isolated beings needing to exploit the earth
and each other for our gain. This dualistic way of thinking
is the direct cause of our ecological and social problems
which is rapidly leading us toward global disaster.”
View Vijali's personal history
Contact
Vijali by email
info@earthways.org |
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