Maya-in-Itself.
Fashion-Dou: The Way of Losing The Way
The Spectacle Consumes All
My guess is that if I share my critique I will later find it as a new Brand or Line of Clothing: “Fashion-Do”
With catchy prints such as “This Shirt Is False” or “Ceci n’est pas un Shirt”
The Uniform: Mindfulness and Mindlessness of Signification.
My thoughts turn to the white Honda uniform which allows worker and manager alike to see which processes need attention. In its whiteness it is vulnerable - all wear their hearts on their sleeves. As Derrida says, we are all texts, evolving and open to interpretation. The text is more legible on a uniform background. Meaning exists on the frontier of Figure and Ground.
The intent of uniform apparel is to remove the need for signification through fashion. To calm the mind. But that Act itself Signifies, at least through its Pragmatics. The ultimate irony is the Monk’s Robe. It has come to signify the opposite of its intent. My understanding is that the robe originally was constructed from discarded rags of the laity. Plainness. Humility. Respect. Equality. Now it signifies Exclusivity. Secrecy. The Religious Elite.
Has the Robe become a form of Fashion?
This Buddhist Monk Is A Celebrity Makeup Artist And His Instagram Is Fierce As Hell
Meet Kodo Nishimura, Japan's badass makeup monk.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/ryanhatesthis/this-buddhist-monk-is-a-celebrity-makeup-artist-and-his-inst
https://tricycle.org/magazine/buddhist-life-kodo-nishimura/
I applaud and admire Nishimura’s desire to help himself and others find happiness. The part I am unsure of is how or whether he is able to guide the search for Self and the calming of the Mind.
Makeup is the Covering of self in order to Appear for others. At first blush it seems to be antithetical to the Buddhist Way, because it places the criteria and power of Value Judgement externally to the subject - as the indigestible and unsatisfiable but yet internalized Ideal of Other. This is the most dangerous form of Maya because the subject substitutes the foreign Ideal for their own beliefs. This is the most painful form of misery.
If he is doing this intentionally as a an extreme purging and subversion, taking Fashion to its Limits in the manner that logical positivism took Physical Science to its limits, then it is a deep exploration indeed. But it is fraught with extreme difficulty and danger, for it is none other than redefining the Blue Pill as the Limits of the Red, and vice versa. This Way is long and treacherous, but noble as it plumbs the depths of Differance: how is the Signifier different from the Signified, and how can Signification be Transcended.
My reading of Nishimura’s approach with makeup is his challenge to figure a world that is opposite to his own. Especially through using makeup which is the unltimate spectacle in the ways in which it covers the facade, which is he ultimate source & base of judgement. As he applies the makeup to his own face, it may allow him to not only discover the different way of art that not only exposes emotion and ironically concealing physical truth of your facial structure, but it may a way he rediscovers the structure of his own body, his face, his muscle & bone structure, the endless possibilities in the skills of the hand. It’s his way of meditation and self discovery.
ReplyDeleteBut I also believe his talent and skill lives because he knows himself, he knows how to learn to be whole, through being a monk and continuing to be so.
However because of his challenging and unusual background and approach to the spectacle, attracting audience, rather than doing makeup for himself, it may also have risks of a narrative where his fame potentially leads him to be “bought” by the spectacle as he works for fashions shows (the ultimate museum of the “people as objects” as models become walking mannequins/ canvases) and applies the makeup on others/ models.
I have both respect for the makeup artists and the models, and especially in the way Nishimura challenges the spectacular world, however I have concerns and hopes that his intentions are not going to be exploited and degraded my the spectacle as it usually does no matter how amazing & “whole” the person may be.
Thank you for such a thoughtful and carefully considered comment. I hope this reply can do it justice.
ReplyDeleteI interpret your reading of Nishimura’s approach to Buddhism through makeup artistry as an exploration of identity - both his own and his guidance of others in their journeys to find themselves (please correct me if I misunderstood). Although it is difficult to get a robust picture of his thought through the flat and heavily filtered snapshots in the articles I linked to, it does sound like he has genuine compassion for the people he works with, and thus serves. And my (perhaps limited) understanding of Buddhism is that it is just what you say: an exploration of identity in order to discover our true selves and therein the freedom from the painful imperative of having to live up to someone else’s unreasonable standards. To become unencumbered by the incessant desire to fill our holes with more pompous posing emptiness in order to hide our fragile and inferior egos. To not only be comfortable with, but completely transformed by the implications of our incompleteness. And through that discovery of self, to understand the struggle of others, and thereby to find humility and compassion. So if this is the direction he is heading I am very encouraged. And the Tricycle article seems to hint that he is truly starting something that will help others in his terrifying industry heal. What resonates the most with me is twofold: his description of his dedication to finding the beauty in himself, and his apparent use of his artistic talents as an opportunity to help people realize that they actually don’t need makeup any more. To me this is the ultimate key to his ministry. If he can turn makeup on itself as a tool to help people dispel the Spectacle —all people, but starting with those warm blooded walking “mannequins” who are exploited for the purpose of exploiting all the rest of us — and thereby de-fang the fashion industry he will make a major contribution indeed.
I also share your grave concern about the Spectacle’s extreme potency to seduce and subvert all. I sure hope he does not succumb to the temptation of all the fame and fortune that his difficult and unique chosen path engenders, that he does not end up getting as you said “bought,” to sell the souls all of those who follow him as a source of salvation back into the infernal dark clutches of slavery. In other words I hope he does not betray the sacred trust he has found in himself and others in him. I also hope he is not just trying to find another cynically creative way to look cool.