Visions of Essence - The Art of Christian de Vietri’s Trika Mandala Prakasa

With Christian de Vietri, Lawrence Rinder & Emily Pott In this public conversation, artist and author Christian de Vietri joins curator and writer Lawrence Rinder to explore the artistic and philosophical dimensions of de Vietri’s recent publication, Trika Maṇḍala Prakāśa: Illuminating the Mandalas of Abhinavagupta’s Tantrāloka (The Magnetic Citadel Press, 2024). A first of its kind, de Vietri’s book gives visual form to the complete sequence of maṇḍalas described in Abhinavagupta’s tenth-century masterpiece, the Tantrāloka—a cornerstone of the non-dual Śaiva tradition of Kashmir. Through a synthesis of scholarship, artistry, and contemplative insight, his work rekindles a luminous body of sacred geometry long unseen, revealing its profound resonance for the present. A link to the book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1763555321/ Biographies Christian de Vietri is an artist whose work bridges sculpture, sacred art, and spirituality. Internationally recognised for both his monumental public commissions and his engagement with traditional Indian knowledge systems, he has explored how art can serve as a vehicle for awakening and transmission. Drawing from the Trika Śaivism of Kashmir and the canons of Śilpa Śāstra, de Vietri’s practice brings ancient principles of form and consciousness into living expression today. Christian is currently a doctoral researcher at the King’s Foundation School of Traditional Arts. Lawrence Rinder is Director Emeritus of the UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive. Previously, he served as the Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Curator of Contemporary Art at the Whitney Museum of American Art and Dean of the College at the California College of the Arts. He wrote the introduction to Franck Andre Jamme’s catalogue of drawings, Tantra Song: Tantric Painting from Rajasthan and has organised exhibitions of artists including Baua Devi, Agnes Martin, John Cage, and Cecilia Vicuña. The discussion will consider the role of tradition in guiding this extraordinary endeavour; de Vietri’s creative process of intuitively and systematically reconstructing these lost forms; the contemporary significance of such imagery; and the ways in which the book itself may be regarded as a work of art—an act of both revelation and creation.