Although primarily a sculptor, Hamish Horsley has for the past 10 years regularly roamed the Himalayas with a camera, drawing on that vast and elemental landscape for artistic inspiration.

 

In the course of his travels, he has come to a close understanding of Tibetan Buddhism and culture – both inside Tibet, which culturally is a shadow of its former self, and outside. “Where in 1960 there were 6000 Tibetan monasteries, today only 10 exist,” he says. The rest have been systematically destroyed by the Chinese invaders.

 

Horsley’s 59 photographs [on show at Wanganui’s Sarjeant Gallery] depict the grandeur of the Tibetan land and the Tibetans relationship to it. Virtually the only intact parts of Tibet are in the communities and monasteries set up in exile, many in northern and southern India, so his work also reflects these. Images of Tibetan Buddhism found in Mongolia provide another intriguing focus for the exhibition.

 

The photographs clearly exist as art in their own right. But also shown are selected miniature bronzes [sculptures] of fire, air, earth and water that will form a part of one of his great works, a garden of peace beside the Imperial War Museum, for the Tibet foundation.

 

Written by David Young