Linda Leslie Brown
RECENT WORK    PAST WORK    ENVIRONMENTAL INSTALLATION    |    ABOUT    RESUME    PRESS    |    CONTACT               Facebook

 

  • Drala Dancing Ground (detail)   I-Park, East Haddam, CT, 2012
  • Indra's Drala Net (detail)   Kingstown Land Trust Sculpture Trail, S. Kingstown, RI, 2014
  • Wellfleet Wind Drala   Blackfish River, Wellfleet, MA, 2010
  • Pine Drala Rooms   Hambidge Center for the Arts, Rabun Gap, GA, 2008
  • Wellfleet Wind Detector   Blackfish River, Wellfleet, MA, 2010
  • Wellfleet Wind Detector   Blackfish River, Wellfleet, MA, 2010
  • Drala Dancing Ground   I-Park, East Haddam, CT, 2012
  • Drala Dancing Ground (detail)   I-Park, East Haddam, CT, 2012
  • East Gate (detail)   I-Park, East Haddam, CT, 2012
  • Crystal Growth (detail)   I-Park, East Haddam, CT, 2012
{image.index}/{image.total}

 

Indra's Drala Net

Indra's Drala Net is a site-specific environmental work, suspended from trees along the Kingstown Land Trust Sculpture Trail in Kingstown, RI. The piece is comprised of a hand-woven network of coated copper wire connecting hundreds of crystal prisms. Shifting sunlight activates different areas of the crystals as a day passes, creating rainbow plays of color. At night, the prisms gather available light in shimmering points.

The title of the piece is taken from the Hindu Avatamsaka or Flower Garland Sutra. The sutra describes a vast cosmic network that reaches infinitely in all direction. The net's points of intersection are each adorned with a diamond jewel. Each individual jewel reflects all of the other jewels. In this way the metaphor illustrates the interdependence and interpenetration of all phenomena.

Drala is the Tibetan term for the indwelling energy of a particular place, similar to the Japanese notion of kami. My Drala series of works are all designed to respond to wind, rain, snow and other natural forces. The funnel-like form of the sculpture gathers and focuses energy — and I hope it will also collect leaves, twigs, or perhaps even a bird's nest one day.