All Lead To Thee

Partial Mock-Up of Jitish Kallat’s Public Notice 3 on the Woman’s Board Grand Staircase of the Art Institute of Chicago

by Claire Esker, IPS Student

“As the different streams having their sources in different paths which men take through different tendencies, various though they appear, crooked or straight, all lead to Thee.”

– Hindu Hymn, as quoted by Swami Vivekananda

At times, a spirit of hubris dominates modern thought.  We like to think that we are more learned, more advanced, and more capable than those who came before us.  We like to think that we are wiser and that our ancestors, even our most recent ancestors, have made their contribution.  It is easy to overlook the fact that a contribution made does not exist within a finite moment, but, under the right conditions, can extend infinitely.

These were my thoughts as I looked at Jitish Kallat’s Public Notice 3, an immersive environment created on the Women’s Board Staircase at the Art Institute of Chicago.  A site-specific piece of art, Kallat’s work remembers both the terror of September 11, 2001 and the hope of September 11, 1893.  This hope is best exemplified by a speech given by a Hindu teacher, Swami Vivekananda, who would later become instrumental to the introduction of Eastern spirituality to the West.

Approaching the piece, the viewer passes through a hall lined on every side by artwork drawn from the Hindu and Buddhist traditions.  At the end of that room, the viewer is gradually faced by an amazing sight – and apropos sight: a monumental stone Buddha seated in front of a wall of illuminated text on a black background.  It is only on closer examination, though, that one realizes that the colors of those LED lights are the same as the Department of Homeland Security’s Terror Alert System.

The importance of the work, though, is not political.  Rather, it is spiritual and emotional, a unified work.  On the steps, children and young people stop to read the words of Swami Vivekananda, which begin with the ringing cry, “Sisters and Brothers of America,” as if it was a plea addressed to a very modern audience.  Young art students with cameras kneel to touch the work and feel the texture of the electrically-charged words; families sit on benches, surrounded by the text of the speech (interspersed with quotes from the Bhagavad Gita, Hinduism’s interpretation of God’s message to Man), simply meditating.  Public Notice 3 is a piece of such profound and quiet power, it is difficult not to cry at the realization of how much better a people we are called to be.

Today’s spirit of hubris also tells us that our technology has allowed us to master our environment. This is much the same attitude that dominated at the Columbian Exhibition, where Vivekananda delivered his famous address, the text of which can be found here.  But is this really true? How useful is technology if we only fear it as an instrument of terror instead of, in the words of the Prayer of St. Francis, “an instrument of peace.”  It is incredible to comprehend, though, that lines, dots, curves, and words formed from the simplest of technologies – an electrical light – can be such an instrument.