The Mantra Trailer
Created out of a 1950’s camper, the Mantra Trailer invites people to chant, their mantras, prayers, creeds, aspirations and petitions for the transformation of self and society.
The interior of the trailer is a traveling meditation space and recording studio. It is a trance inducing, contemplative space, oriented toward the internal. The exterior serves as a vehicle for mysterious aural broadcast and visual presentation of the people’s mantras. The sides of the trailer host a changeable marquis, reminiscent of the church signboard. Mundane, playful and even bizarre personal mantras may take on unforeseen spiritual, cultural or political content to those who witness them. The exterior is equipped with a holosonic speaker that continuously broadcasts a mix of recorded mantras, which can only be heard within the focused range of the speaker’s path.
By-passers drawn to the Mantra Trailer are invited inside one at a time to voice and record their mantras in privacy. Meanwhile face-to-face dialogue occurs outside the trailer as people wait their turn.
What is a mantra?
The Sanskrit word mantra consists of the root man, “to think" (also in manas "mind") and the suffix -tra meaning, "tool", hence a literal translation would be "instrument of thought" or “mind tool”.
In eastern spiritual traditions a mantra is a sacred word, chant or sound that is repeated during mediation to facilitate the transformation of consciousness. In mass media a mantra is an expression or idea that is repeated, often without thinking about it, as a way of defining, simplifying and controlling complex realities. Consider how the Bush administration’s three word mantra, WAR ON TERROR, has undermined America. In pop culture the role of the personal mantra has gained significantly as an effective tool for centering, managing and self-actualization in a perpetually transitional world.
Record a mantra for this project.
At the intersection of imagination, evangelism and propaganda...
Walter Brueggemann, a contemporary Christian theologian describes evangelism as “an activity of transformed consciousness that results in an altered perception of world, neighbor and self, and an authorization to live differently in that world.” In his book The Prophetic Imagination he postulates, "The task of the prophetic ministry is to nurture, nourish and evoke a consciousness and perception alternative to the consciousness and perception of the dominant culture around us."
This is also the task of community engagement projects such as Learning-To-Love-You-More. Likewise, the Mantra Trailer provides an interface for the human voice within the enculturation of consumerism and globalization. It achieves this through an indigenous path, rooted in southern, American, bible-belt culture and the “new age.” Peddling a homeopathic remedy for the mass media slogans of the day, the Mantra Trailer focuses attention on the personal and spiritual mantras people live by, one neighborhood and voice at a time.
The Mantra Trailer deals with the terrain of landscape, globalization and isolation through the scale of the body. The physical trailer mirrors the body’s process of manifestation. It has an interior space for recording, meditation and authorship and an exterior place of broadcast, presentation, and dialogue. As voice and language pass through the operation of the trailer, the private monologue surprisingly reveals itself as social discourse.
Sherri's Bio
Sherri Lynn Wood is an improvisational quilt maker with a Master of Fine Art in Sculpture from Bard College and a Master of Theological Studies from Emory University. Most of her creative projects spring from her daily life experiences and quest for personal growth. She often invites others into the art making process as a way of sharing interior realities and exploring civic relationships that can lead to personal and social change. She has a private practice working with people in her studio, who are grieving or in transition, to make functional improvisational quilts from the clothing of the deceased and the intimate materials of life. She is based in Durham, North Carolina.
VISIT THE WEBSITE: http://www.mantratrailer.com/
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