MAUREEN DRDAK'S ARDENS MUNDI

Maureen Drdak's work has fascinated me for more than a decade. I have seen her explore techniques and ideas in ways both visually stunning and intellectually rooted in ancient and contemporary traditions. Drdak's work is at its core representative of contemporary abstraction with a strong sense of the communicative power of physicality. Tied through her studies to the traditions of Nepalese copper repousse artistry, which she has pursued with unrestrained dedication and passion, she has developed a selective mastery of the methods of her mentors in Nepal. As prophetic statement her series, Ardens Mundi, speaks to the destructive impacts of human-caused climate change, the forms of which immediately call to mind many centuries of imagery tied to the Hindu deity Shiva's climactic destruction of the world through a frenetic dance of fire and devastation. With their twisting, spiralling energies they reference mandalas, the meditative tools used in the Buddhist spiritual practices common in the Himalayan region, tracing the inevitable path from birth to death and back again as the wheel of life turns on and on. The eye follows each of Drdak's circular mandalas into the centre and back out to the periphery in an unending display of the apocalypse at the core of each work.

Repousse serves a key role as the most prominent and visually compelling element within each burning world. Copper incarnates the emphatic form and energy contained with in their spherical constraints. Thick applications of minerals and pigments provide textures and visual cues reading as earth, as sky, as land ablaze in the unstoppable conflagration. These maelstroms like the mandala, map our experience in the face of these natural forces to reveal cause horrific future we have brought upon ourselves.

Living in California and facing head on environmental disasters Drdak depicts, I find myself transfixed by these swirls of fire, of drought and never-before-seen storms. These mandalas show me the path that lies ahead. This prophetic imagery speaks to an inescapable future. While I see in these works elements Nepalese spirituality, they are equally reflective of Drdak's personal history. Trained in Philadelphia and widely travelled in Europe and the Middle East Drdak is grounded within her own heritage and traditions. What may be mandalas to me are also the horsemen of our current apocalypse. Drdak’s aesthetically sumptuous, dynamic displays of materials give these manifestations of impending doom just the right amount of sex appeal so that we welcome them in the door. It is then that their full impact can be felt and their deadly job can commence. Durer's horsemen rode in from the sky rich with the imagery of death; Drdak’s horsemen spin and twist their fiery slashes of destruction conveying the devastating power we have unleashed and that we all one day soon will feel cutting, burning, drowning all that we cherish and desire to retain.

Robert Mintz, PhD Deputy Director, Art & Programmes, Asian Art Museum of San Francisco.