the mountain

In 2009, Ricardo Mazal and his wife, Fabiola journeyed to Tibet to make the 54 kilometer kora, a meditative pilgrimage circumambulating Mt. Kailash, the holiest mountain in the world. Boxes (cajas) of brilliant ground pigments, masses of prayer flags reflected in a lake, the truly devout who circle the mountain in successive prostrations, and Mazal’s rare opportunity to witness a traditional sky burial are all reflected in this series. A unique physical intensity can be felt in Mazal’s painterly response to the mystic impasse and gateway that is Mt. Kailash, the sacred mountain of Western Tibet. Mazal’s complex and powerful abstractions are based upon his experiences journeying to the foot of the mountain and his subsequent pilgrimage trek around it. His process involves transferring and digitally manipulating nearly each piece of the final image from a photographic or videographic source and from former or ongoing paintings. This expanded field of image building and the resultant visual feedback loops are part of what makes Mazal’s process unique.