Skip Ribbon Commands
Skip to main content
Seattle Art Museum (SAM)
menu
Skip Navigation Linksvisit

Mandala: Zone of Zero

Photo: Jueqian Fang

Mandala: Zone of Zero

2003

Kimsooja

Korean, born 1957

The jukeboxes emit three different religious chants: Tibetan Buddhist, Gregorian, and Islamic. Although kitschy and commercial, here they paradoxically stand in for mandalas, diagrammatic images of religious cosmos. As the title suggests, different beliefs merge and eventually reach the “zone of zero.” This call for embracing religious diversity feels more relevant and needed than ever.
Three-channel sound installation with three jukeboxes, 9 min., 50 sec.
Audio duration: 9 min., 50 sec.
Gift of William and Ruth True in honor of Chiyo Ishikawa and the reopening of the Seattle Asian Art Museum
2020.13
Provenance: The artist; [The Project, New York]; purchased from gallery by Bill and Ruth True, Seattle, Washington, 2004; to Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, 2020
Photo: Jueqian Fang
location
Not currently on view

Resources

Exhibition HistoryNew York, The Project, Kimsooja, Mandala: Zone of Zero, 2003.

Seattle, Washington, Western Bridge, WOW/The Work of the Work, 2004-2005.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Asian Art Museum, Be/Longing: Contemporary Asian Art, Feb. 8, 2020 – ongoing.

Seattle Art Museum respectfully acknowledges that we are on Indigenous land, the traditional territories of the Coast Salish people. We honor our ongoing connection to these communities past, present, and future.

Learn more about Equity at SAM