The STARS ARE HIs BONES is an East-West Project that juxtaposes black and white images from India of people, places, and things with “found haiku”, extrapolated by an early translation of Upanishads. These are widely considered to be some of the greatest fountains of wisdom in the world.
Gabriel Rosenstock is a haiku master and a bilingual poet. He has written Haiku Enlightenment, and edited The Awakened one: Buddha-themed Haiku From Around the World. Both volumes are published by Poetry Chaikhana. Haiku has become a global phenomenon. It is not only popular in Japan but also India and Ireland.
The STARS ARE His Bones offers audiences a unique experience where image and text are contemplated both separately and simultaneously. This work, in a world still troubled with political and religious tensions suggests a transcendental vision beyond borders, class, ethnicity, politics and religion differences. The images and “found haiku” in THE STARS are HIS BONES, far from being fuzzy or abstract, give their real flesh and blood reality to those who remain in their aura.
Some Photographs from the Book
Artists’ Statement
What do Gabriel Rosenstock and Debiprasad Mukherjee have in common?
The first is an Indian photographer based in Kolkata, and the second is a bilingualIrish writer based in Dublin. Both artists are highly creative and steeped within their respective cultures, but they both believe that what brings them together is greater than anything else. Was it by chance that they met or did The Stars Are His Bones take aeons of waiting to be created?
Debiprasad Mukherjee
Gabriel Rosenstock
Both artists are committed to the integrity of their respective art forms. They live and promote it on a daily base. They both envy each other, so they say, “Put your small-mindedness to the side!” Let’s combine all our talents to create something new and spectacular. Gabriel re-shaped Debiprasad’s photographs from a translation of an early Upanishads into a striking haiku. The photos, taken in a specific place and time, now have a universal context. These “found haiku” remind Gabriel of the three-line pearls from ancient Gaelic tradition, known as triads. This is the cycle, or life cycle, of the old becoming new.
Their creative, spontaneous, and joyful collaboration was carefully polished and honed over a period of three years. This is not a coffee table book for visual and poetry delights, but rather a new edition of an ancient text that allows us to dip in to the Self.
Gabriel: “Annie Besant was a legendary supporter for both Irish and Indian Self-rule. She had a deep insight into the ancient wisdom that the Self, according to Vedantic thought, is one, omnipresent and all-permeating. It’s the only reality. . . The Self exists everywhere, is conscious everywhere, and is blissful everywhere. . “” (An introduction to yoga, 1908).
The Stars Are His Bones does not have a missionary bent, whether it is a book or an exhibition. Both photographer and author acknowledge that their work was inspired by the One unending Self, the core teachings from the Upanishads, and that they have created something that has surprised them at first and continues to amaze them. This is a tale that, like the Self, has no beginning or end.