SFT’s Art for Tibet II: Art for the sake of freedom

Last Saturday, several hundred people came by the Union Gallery on Broadway to check out SFT’s annual Art for Tibet exhibit. The exhibit, also a fundraiser for SFT’s campaign work, featured the works of more than a hundred artists from around the world, including several Tibetan contemporary artists. It coincided with an art exhibit featuring Tibetan artists that is taking place in Beijing, which I thought was very auspicious. The online auction is still continuing at www.artfortibet.org, and you can bid now till Monday.

This event, while different in appearance from SFT’s trademark protests in Beijing and around the world, serves the same purpose of empowering the Tibet movement while educating new audiences about the Tibet issue. It is, more importantly, an accurate reflection of the growing cultural movement in Tibet through which Tibetans are asserting their identity and expressing their desire for freedom through the use of music, poetry, literature and other forms of art.

This form of activism through art and culture has proved quite effective; the subtlety and symbolism behind artistic expression is harder for the Chinese authorities to identify as dissent and crackdown on.

We were honored to have some of the biggest names in Tibetan contemporary art including Pema Rinzin, Gonkar Gyatso, Tenzing Rigdol, Tsherin Sherpa display their works alongside internationally recognized artists Shepard Fairey, Richard Gere and Ben Baker. To our great joy we also received three artworks from Tibet!

One of the highlights of the event was a series of live performances by a New York-based artist and two Tibetan contemporary artists. Here is a short video of Chungpo Tsering’s performance piece, “Black Hat Dance,” a Tibetan ritual dance that invokes images of death meant to prepare audiences for the ultimate transition. Click here to watch the video.

We are grateful for the participation by so many artists who chose to contribute to this event. As their freedom allowed them to produce these artworks, the same artworks in return will allow Tibetans to pursue our freedom.

View photos from Saturday’s gallery event: