Endless Knot: Struggle and Healing in the Buddhist World

Endless Knot: Struggle and Healing in the Buddhist World explores how artists and practitioners across two millennia have understood and utilized one of the core tenets of Buddhism--dependent arising, which posits that cycles of existence (samsara) arise from past actions and that everything in the world can impact everything else. Featuring an array of artworks from East, South, and Southeast Asia and the United States, the exhibition includes a never-before-exhibited work by the Japanese nun Ohishi Junkyo; prints by Takashi Murakami, Sopheap Pich, and Do Ho Suh; paintings by premodern and contemporary artists; a video installation by Yong Soon Min; and new works by the internationally acclaimed Tibetan diaspora artists Marie-Dolma Chophel and Tsherin Sherpa. The exhibition explores the ways artists across time and regions have negotiated geopolitical change and psychological or physical struggles while seeking healing. As seen in the works on view, the endless cycle of existence that leads to suffering can be brought on by different types of struggles; at the same time, many of the works point to the means of escaping suffering through the balanced combination of wisdom and compassion.