Nirvana ShatakamNirvana Shatakam

The artwork

Nirvana Shatakam is a Sanskrit hymn attributed to the philosopher Adi Shankara, around 800 AD. In six verses, it describes the self not as mind, body or the world around us, but as pure consciousness and bliss.

Archana Ravi sings it inside a 3D-sculpted Kolkatan temple, lit by a single warm light as the sun sets beyond the middle archway.

The musician

Archana Ravi is a vocalist from Aotearoa New Zealand. She sings Indian classical and devotional music.

The artist

Jonathan Hislop is a digital artist based in Tāmaki Makaurau, and the founder of Sounds of a Sphere. He films traditional musicians and dancers, then sets them inside worlds built by hand from the visual heritage of their own cultures. No generative AI is used at any stage.

The artwork

DRAFT: A raga set against a collage built from 14th to 16th century Indian painting, sourced from The Met collection. Two figures with open space around them, so it reads simply from Aotea Square or from a passing bus.

The musicians

DRAFT: Basant Ensemble are Indian classical musicians based in Tāmaki Makaurau.

The artist

Jonathan Hislop is a digital artist based in Tāmaki Makaurau, and the founder of Sounds of a Sphere. He films traditional musicians and dancers, then sets them inside worlds built by hand from the visual heritage of their own cultures. No generative AI is used at any stage.

The artwork

A darbar was a royal court, where music and dance were performed before kings and nobility. For centuries, these courts were where India’s classical arts found their patrons.

Manjit Singh (tabla) and Jaita Singh (sarod) improvise a Hindustani jugalbandi, a duet in 17th-century style. It begins slow and contemplative, and builds in energy as it goes.

The set is built from 17th-century Mughal paintings in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The musicians

Manjit Singh is a tabla player in the Hindustani classical tradition. The tabla, a pair of hand drums, holds the rhythmic cycle of a performance and answers the melody in a conversation of its own.

Jaita Singh plays the sarod, a fretless, deep-voiced lute of Hindustani classical music, prized for its gliding, singing notes.

The artist

Jonathan Hislop is a digital artist based in Tāmaki Makaurau, and the founder of Sounds of a Sphere. He films traditional musicians and dancers, then sets them inside worlds built by hand from the visual heritage of their own cultures. No generative AI is used at any stage.