Organic Machinery, Part Two: Moments Before Enlightenment
A day at the Bangkok Biennale
This is a series on my travels in south east Asia. Previously published:
Organic Machinery, Part One: Routines and Patterns
"Many people say they see boob", the man said gleefully while standing between two spherical stone sculptures with round tennis ball-like protrusions. The sculptures are above his chest when he stands between them. I am inside a temple. The Wat Pho, or the temple of the reclining Budha, is in the middle of Bangkok, a couple of hundred meters away from the imperial palace. The map of the Bangkok Biennale said there are a couple of exhibits inside. This one is Eyes by Louis Bourgeois. "What do you see?" the man asked with a glimmer of mischief in his eyes. "Eyes, I see eyes," I said, even though I saw no such resemblance in the spheres and the protrusions. "Ah, you've looked at the description, haven't you?" the man replied.
Another lady who spoke broken English had joined the conversation by now, and she repeated the same question, "What do you see?" This time, I hesitated. I did not want to give away that I had read the description nor disclose what I actually saw. I needed something more profound to tell her. Watching the gears turn in my head, the woman said, "I'm not asking you for a metaphorical meaning. What do you see in the reflection?" This is when I noticed that the round protrusions on the spherical black rock were reflective - they formed the pupil of the eye. The eyes reflected the banyan tree behind me. The protrusions were turned at an angle away from me, and you could also see the reflection of the temple on them. "The temple holds a large sculpture of the reclining Buddha, and the eyes reflect his feet", the woman continued. "This is what you see when you wake up after enlightenment: the Bodhi tree and the feet of Buddha," she said.
Later while staring at the large feet of the reclining Buddha, I thought to myself — mortals like me have only one enlightenment: the moment of first consciousness — and I suppose we do see boobs in the first moment of waking.
