Reviews: Connecticut

Sheila Rock: Sera: The Way of the Tibetan Monk
William Benton Museum of Art @ The University of Connecticut • Storrs, CT • www.thebenton.org
Through December 19, 2008

Sheila Rock, Gazing Monk 2, silver gelatin print. Courtesy of Sheila Rock and June Bateman Fine Art, NYC.

Sheila Rock gained an international reputation for her photographs of rock stars and high-end fashion models. In 1998, she visited the Sera Tibetan Buddhist Monastery in the Mysore district of Southern India and was transformed by the serenity of the place and the striking appearance of the monks. She discovered a new subject for her lens, as far from the glitzy pop and fashion demimonde as she could travel. Rock gained access to the monastery and photographed the shaven-headed, robed monks in all facets of their lives, from meditation to play. Her black-and-white studies, hung in neat rows along the walls of the Benton Museum’s Gillman Gallery, evince a respectful authority. There are some candid shots scattered among the display; but mainly, Rock has controlled the attitudes of the Sera monks in a manner similar to her material world subjects. However, she turns them into stars of a different firmament than that inhabited by the likes of Sting, Enya, Sinéad O’Connor, Plácido Domingo, and The Clash.

Rock’s chiaroscuro technique is masterful, whether focused on a floor strewn with sandals as monks sit in the background, barefoot; or catching monks, in tank top shirts, scouring out a large cauldron. Her imagery can be simple and poetic (a pair of weathered hands draped with prayer beads) or documentary (a close-up of a monk’s face, his eyes fixed on a distant point). Mysticism enters Rock’s portrait, as well, most powerfully in a study of a monk standing between the gates of a large entranceway. Most of the picture is blacked out, leaving the monk and the gateway suspended at an otherworldly distance. Rock combines the acute eyes of a skilled photographer with the instincts of an artist who has discovered a new and compelling subject. Her photographs of Sera provide a poetic introduction into an insular world whose inhabitants are not afraid of showing themselves to the world at large.

—Steve Starger

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