BUDDHA'S HANDS

Michael Cardacino

SCULPTURAL IMAGE

The hands became the Buddha.

BEFORE PINDAYA

I had learned to look at the hands.

In Buddhist classes in East Hampton, I learned about mudras - the hand gestures used in Buddhist teaching.

As I traveled through Asia, I began photographing them.

At the Pindaya Caves in Myanmar, surrounded by hundreds of Buddhas, the collection grew.

The photographs became material

BACK HOME

Back home, I began taking the photographs apart and putting them together.

The hands were no longer details of separate statues. They had become material.

What if the hands themselves became the image?

THE IMAGE TAKES SHAPE

Hundreds of hands

I began cropping the photographs into circles and assembling them into the Buddha.

Individual hands became a field of images. Larger hands formed the edges and structure around them.

GO CLOSER

The hands became the face

From a distance, the face reads as Buddha. Up close, the image begins to break apart. Hands appear in the eyes, eyebrows, nose, mouth, ears and neck.

The hands became the Buddha.

At Pindaya, the hands took over.

PINDAYA

The figure began to fall away. Gesture became the subject.

Gesture had become the subject.

SCULPTURAL IMAGE

BUDDHA'S HANDS

From many Buddhas, one image.

The hands became the Buddha.