Dewachen

AUSTRALIA

During the 1980s, the Australian artist Tim Johnson began visiting the desert area of Papunya, north-west of Alice Springs, Northern Territory, and associating with the Aboriginal artists there. At the same time he was developing his interest in Tibetan Buddhism and attended an Amitabha empowerment ceremony. The two interests came together in 1987 when he asked the permission of Aboriginal artists to fill a painting with the dots characteristic of their art and invited them to collaborate in it. They agreed on condition that he painted a subject of personal significance. He chose Dewachen, which means Western Pure Land in Tibetan, manifesting in the plane of everyday reality.
The large painting is a shimmering illusory landscape in which gold paint and white pigment is predominate. In the center of the upper register is Dewachen itself, delimited by the white native tree in the middle distance and the winding valley above it to the left. An enthroned Amitabha is visible with attendant Bodhisattvas and surrounding devotees. On the left, there are meditating figures, while to the right Aborigines go about their tasks in a patch of bright sunlight. The lower register features a mother carrying a child on the left, while on the right a traditionally broad-hatted Aborigine approaches a seated figure who is creating a dot painting on the ground.