Reflecting “Eastern spirituality ” and esotericism in the research-based art exhibition

The article reflects on the intertwining of research and curating in relation to the Eastern Spirituality exhibition and presents its main themes and theo retical starting points. The research-based exhibition, which ran at the Museum Villa Gyllenberg from April to August 2023, explored how artists in Finland imagined and depicted “Eastern spirituality” from the late nine-teenth century to the end of the twentieth century. The project brings forth artists’ conceptions of Asian religions and the more vaguely defined “East” as a positive “Other”, marked by a particular aura of spirituality. Discourses on Eastern spirituality contain many challenging and problematic dimensions, such as those intertwined with colonialism. Additionally, “Eastern spirituality” is closely intertwined with esotericism, the role of which has recently been actively discussed in relation to modern art.


2/2023
Image 1. General view of the Eastern Spirituality exhibition at Villa Gyllenberg.Photo: Nina Kokkinen, all rights reserved.
The exhibition Eastern Spirituality ran at the mu seum Villa Gyllenberg in Helsinki from April to August 2023.I curated the exhibition as part of my ongoing research on how artists in Finland imagined and depicted "Eastern spirituality" from the late nineteenth century to the end of the twentieth century.In this project, I contin ue to reflect on the role that religiosity -and especially more individualistic spirituality -has played in modern art.It was one of the central themes in my doctoral thesis, where I studied the connections between art and esotericism at the turn of twentiethcentury Finland.current research brings forth artists' conceptions of Asian religions and the more vaguely defined "East" as a positive "Other", marked by a par ticular aura of spirituality.Discourses on Eastern spirituality contain many challenging and prob lematic dimensions, such as those intertwined with colonialism, which I aim to highlight in my research, too.
Additionally, "Eastern spirituality" is closely intertwined with esotericism, the role of which has recently been actively discussed in relation to modern art.Many artists who have been in terested in esotericism have also been fascinated by Asian religions.In Finland, many artists were introduced to Buddhism and Hinduism from the late nineteenth century onwards through texts written or translated by Theosophists.Art ists also participated in different communities rooted in esotericism and Eastern religions.In this project, I am investigating how "Eastern spirituality" and esotericism are intertwined in Finnish art, and writing a book on the subject.
Curating the art exhibition is part of my research process.I have curated research-based exhibitions before, for example, on the basis of my doctoral thesis on esotericism in Finnish art.This time, however, the exhibition opened before the publication of my research, and influenced the process in a slightly different way. 2 For example, when I was selecting the works for the exhibition, I came across an important theme, Oriental dance, that I might have missed if I had not examined a significant number of early twentieth-century works of art.In this article, I shed light on the theoretical notions behind the title of the exhibition, introduce its main themes, and reflect on some of the challenges and insights involved in curating a research-based exhibition.

"Eastern spirituality"
The title of the exhibition, Eastern spirituality, was chosen consciously.It is an ambivalent notion, which has been constructed in the European and North American context over a long period, and with particular intensity since the nineteenth century.Not only nineteenth century Orientalists but also Theosophists have played a central role in this process of imagining.In his book Orientalism and Religion: Postcolonial Theory, India and "The Mystic East", Richard King has highlighted how "the East" (Asia, and India in particular) has been seen as a cradle of Western civilization, as a gateway to its ancient past, and as a romanticized realm of magic and mysticism.Colonial power relations, pseudo-scientific theories on human races, and problematic The title of the exhibition refers to these imaginative processes.The second term, "spirituality", is particularly well suited to the study of religiosity in the context of art.Many artists have approached religiosity in a way that emphasizes individuality, selecting the beliefs and practices that seem best suited to their own spirituality.Artists typically do not commit to any religious or esoteric communities, which is why I have defined them as "seekers".The concept of a seeker has been used in sociology of religion since the 1950s. 4In this exhibition and research project, my aim has been to highlight the interest of such artist-seekers not only in Asian religions but also in Theosophy, psychical research and spiritualism.
One of the aims of the exhibition and the related panel discussions was to highlight the ambivalent nature of "Eastern spirituality" to the wider audience. 5Although discourses on Eastern spirituality often approach India and other Asian countries as positive "Others", they also reproduce, for instance, stereotypical dichotomies such as the "mystical East" versus the "rational West".It is important to recognize that "Eastern spirituality" has not been imagined and constructed only by Europeans and Americans.
Recent studies have highlighted how modern yoga and perceptions of Tantra, for instance, have emerged in complex dialogues between "Eastern" and "Western" agents. 6While my own research focuses on Finnish artists, I also bring forth how their discourses on Eastern spiritual ity were influenced, for example, by Indian and Persian dancers, who performed in Finland dur ing the first half of the twentieth century.
In the exhibition, I expressed these issues through the visual material on display (the art works).I also had the possibility to highlight in the short exhibition texts the insights that emerged in my research.Communicating these complex themes in the exhibition context has obvious limitations, but an exhibition also has great potential to address a wide variety of au diences.One of the challenges of the exhibition concerned the way in which theoretical concepts could be explained to them in a meaningful way.
In the exhibition texts and while presenting the exhibition, I prominently highlighted the imag inative processes behind "Eastern spirituality" and the problematic conceptions and contexts associated with it.Yet, it is possible that the exhi bition reinforced some visitors' (already strong) perceptions of the East as an enchanting haven of spirituality, as my colleague Linda Annunen noted in our joint panel discussion. 7The forth coming publication will allow me to reflect on similar themes in depth and in a more detailed manner.
The exhibition also aimed to shed some light on the diverse, fragmented nature of the history of art in Finland.Beneath the nationalist and mod ernist avantgarde narratives, there are also oth er sorts of historical threads in which religiosity has played an important role.I will now present some of the themes that have emerged during my research process, which were also highlight ed in the Eastern spirituality exhibition.
Oriental objects as sites of eternal wisdom  In most cases, the artist cannot be identified, and information about the work's origins can be very limited.The question also arose as to whether such religious objects should even be addressed in the same way as artworks in the context of modern Western art, where the role of artists is often more strongly emphasized.
In the case of the Eastern Spirituality exhibition, I also realized that recovering the correct names and origins of the works is not a simple or easy process.Some of the Buddhist sculptures that were chosen for the exhibition had previously been named incorrectly.With the generous as sistance of two researchers, the accurate titles for the artworks were identified.It was not possible to include the correct titles in the labels shown in the exhibition, however. 9Visitors saw the in correct titles, and the cultural context or mean ing of the works was not properly presented.
The bureaucratic wheels of the museum world sometimes turn more slowly than researchers may hope.
In Akseli GallenKallela's case, the purpose of the Oriental objects in his studio was to create an enchanting atmosphere, thus reflecting the owner's fascinating bohemian personality.On the other hand, Oriental artefacts were also linked to GallenKallela's efforts to explore and discover "authentic religiosity", whose roots Ori entalists had sought during the nineteenth cen tury in India (and in the culture of the ancient Aryans, in particular).GallenKallela pursued this "true spirituality" by collecting various exot ic objects, which included, among other things, a large golden Buddha sculpture, a rune stone, a Tibetan temple lantern and a Mexican god carved out of stone.10 The underlying theme behind GallenKallela's collecting practices was the idea of philosophia perennis -the idea that at the heart of all re ligions there is one universal wisdom.Theo sophy played an important role in popularizing this notion from the late nineteenth century 9 I would like to thank Dr Ville Husgafvel and Dr Christian Luczanits for their insight into the issues surrounding the attribution of the works.Although we were unable to obtain the correct titles for the labels during the exhibition, our work was met with an open and positive attitude both at Villa Gyllenberg and at the Didrichsen Museum, which owns the artworks in question.
onwards, and GallenKallela was wellversed in Theosophical thought.From the mid1890s on wards, he also endeavoured to develop his own extrasensory abilities, such as clairvoyance and telepathy. 11 In my understanding, one of the primary rea sons why GallenKallela became so fascinated with the Fakir statue he acquired during the 1880s was his interest in clairvoyance and psy chical research.At the time, Finnish newspapers were writing about Indian fakirs, ascetics and yogis who had extraordinary abilities, including levitation and resurrection.Similar phenomena were studied in the context of spiritualist séances and psychical research all over Europe and America.In GallenKallela's case, exotic arte facts were part of the question that continued to fascinate him: What is the origin of religion and the wisdom that unites different traditions?And what are the invisible forces that guide humans, nature and the universe?Esotericism played an important role in addressing such questions.

"Eastern masters" and spirit guides
Similar topics also interested the artist Meri Ge netz  and spirituality inspired her, as did the masters -or Mahatmas, in Theosophical terms -living in the Himalayas.She was eager to meet her own spiritual teacher, whom she thought would come from Tibet and take her along.12"Eastern masters" were equally important to the artist Ilona Harima (1911Harima ( -1986)) Her fascination with Eastern spirituality was focused in particular on Indian dancers, such as Uday Shankar (1900-1977) and Ram Gopal (1913-2003), whose performances captivated the artist in the 1930s.Indeed, Asian dance and theatre were a major element in the discours es on Eastern spirituality in the early twentieth century.The importance of Asian dance and performing arts became apparent when I was looking for visual material and artworks for the exhibition.At this point, curating the exhibition also redirected my research, and I began to pay more attention to the intersections of Oriental dance, modern yoga and body culture.
For Helenius, Indian dancers were a kind of revelation.Watching them dance, she real ized that all art flows from one and the same spiritual source. 15Around the same time, Finn ish newspapers wrote enthusiastically about the spiritual nature of Indian performers -and how they danced as if in a trance.Helenius met Ram Gopal personally and apparently discussed with him how all "true art" emanated from a divine source.In his autobiography Rhythm in the Heavens, published in 1957, Ram Gopal gives an interesting description of how he surrendered to the electrifying divine power while dancing. 16 Helenius would certainly have found such an idea extremely fascinating.
In her art, Helenius often depicts spiritually evolved figures, such as angels, saints and all sorts of initiates.In many of her paintings and drawings, these figures are crowned with deco rative headpieces symbolizing their spiritual su periority.Uday Shankar and Ram Gopal, who wore similar headpieces, served as models for the advanced initiates in Helenius' art. 17On the other hand, a figure in a painting called Madon na (1929, oil on canvas, Ateneum Art Museum), with her red robe and high, golden headpiece, resembles a Tibetan Buddhist lama, or teacher.

"Eastern spirituality" as a basis for artistic experimentation
It was not until after the Second World War that the first Finnish artists started to actually trav el to India in order to seek gurus and spiritual teachers.Until then, communication with the Eastern masters had mainly taken place in spiritualist séances and through automatic writing and drawing.One of the first travellers was Anitra Lucander   Lucander was inspired by Paramahansa Yogananda's Autobiography of a Yogi (1946), and she practised meditation and yoga.18 In her art, Lucander often depicted sacred places: temples, mosques and holy cities.Such choices of subject matter seem to be closely linked to the esoteric notion of philosophia perennis -the eternal wis dom tradition that unites all religions.In Lucan der's case, "Eastern spirituality" also appears to be connected to artistic experimentation, serv ing as a vehicle for reinventing art.
In the second half of the twentieth century, dis courses on Eastern spirituality became hugely popular in the field of art.This enthusiasm was fuelled, for example, by Daisetsu Teitaro Suzuki's (1870Suzuki's ( -1966) )   A journey to India in the 1970s was a lifechang ing experience for J.O. Mallander (b. 1944), a multifaceted avantgardist and pioneer of con ceptual art in Finland.Another significant mo ment was when he met the 14 th Dalai Lama in the late 1980s."Eastern spirituality" became a cen tral part of the artist's life.In his art, Mallander repeats a limited range of themes that he wishes to study thoroughly.For him, working on these themes constitutes a sort of spiritual practice.
One of these themes relates to the socalled Wang series he started during the 1980s.The name refers to a Tibetan Buddhist ritual, a kind of initiation, which in Mallander's own words means a transmission of energy or power.The concentrated repetition of patterns is a form of meditation that opens up the possibility of spiritual insight for the artist and, ideally, for the viewer, too.The artist has told that the Wang series began as a kind of lighthearted whimwith very little knowledge of Buddhism behind it, a fact that later made him a bit embarrassed, perhaps because the debate on cultural appro priation has become so heated in recent years.Mallander's case offers an excellent example of how "Eastern spirituality" began to take on philo sophical, conceptual, and ritual dimen sions in late twentiethcentury Finland.It also became an essential part of artistic experimen tation.Theosophical interpretations typical for the first half of the twentieth century perhaps evolved into something less obvious, but they certainly did not disappear completely.Some of the esoteric themes circulating in the discourses on Eastern spirituality already in the late 1890ssuch as perennialism, longing for the Himalayas and the sages of the East -have continued to appeal to artists throughout the twentieth cen tury.These ideas have inspired artists to search for the roots and the essence of religion -and a more "authentic spirituality", which artistseek ers could feel to be their own.On the other hand, it has also been seen as a gateway to spiritual development and artistic experimentation.For most of the artists, it has not been so much a question of delving into Buddhism or Hindu ism as such but rather a more personal spiritual quest, in which esotericism has often played a significant role.
The current project, where research and exhi bition curating overlap, has demonstrated the mutually fruitful relationship between the two.Exhibitions based on extensive research possess the capability to shed light on new perspectives and popularize scientific knowledge.Converse ly, the emphasis on artworks and other visual materials in curating encourages reliance on the significance and power of visual source material.
Curating exhibitions presents practical challeng es and provokes solutions that might otherwise be overlooked.In my project on "Eastern spiri tuality", research and curating are closely inter twined and interdependent.
Nina Kokkinen works as a research doctor at the Donner Institute (Åbo Akademi University Foundation).Her area of specialization is the study of art and esotericism from late nineteenth century onwards.Kokkinen has written several articles, as well as edited books and special issues on the subject.She also curates research-based exhibitions related to art and esotericism.
respect and appreciation as Western art and cul tural heritage.Finding answers to ethical ques tions and making ethical choices are complicat ed tasks.In the context of the Eastern spirituality exhibition, one of the issues that the exhibition team had to consider was related to the attribu tion of Buddhist sculptures and thangkas -and what would be the proper way to refer to them.

Image 2 .
The exhibition Eastern Spirituality explored, among other things, the collecting habit of Oriental objects and its expression in art.Shown in the background is the Fakir statue (Gallen-Kallela Museum), acquired by Akseli Gallen-Kallela, and paintings depicting the sculpture.Photo: Nina Kokkinen, all rights reserved.

Image 4 .
The Eastern Spirituality exhibition also highlighted the influence of Indian dancers Uday Shankar and Ram Gopal on the art of Esther Helenius.Above the texts and photographs hangs Helenius' work Madonna (1929, Ateneum Art Museum.)Photo: Nina Kokkinen, all rights reserved.saintcalled AnandamayiMa (1896Ma ( -1982)), who, among other things, was known for her healing abilities.Memorabilia and tiny pieces of paper from Lucander's visit to Anandamayi Ma's ash ram ended up in a collage called Sangha (1959, collage, private collection), based on a Sanskrit term referring to association or community.

Image 5 .
The third room of the exhibition presented the importance of "Eastern spirituality" in the second half of the twentieth century.In the background, on the right, are paintings by Anitra Lucander, among others.In the foreground, Outi Heiskanen's Carousel (1968, Sara Hilden Art Museum), which relates to the artist's memory of a stupa she saw in Afghanistan.Photo: Nina Kokkinen, all rights reserved.
One of the main themes in the Eastern spirit uality exhibition was the phenomenon of col lecting.AkseliGallenKallela (1865GallenKallela ( -1931)  )is one of the bestknown Finnish artists.The exhibition draws attention to his and other contempo raries' practice of collecting Orien tal objects, which played an important role in discourses on Eastern spirituality in Finland from the nineteenth century onwards.The ex hibition includes the socalled Fakir statue (or Prayer sculpture, Gallen Kallela Museum) and a Japanese altar cabinet (GallenKallela Museum) acquired by GallenKallela in the 1880s, as well as paintings in which these Oriental artefacts appear.Both pieces can be spotted in a painting by GallenKallela depicting the room in which he lived while studying in Paris in the late nine teenth century (Axel Gallén's work table in Paris, 1889, GallenKallela Museum).Oriental objects were important to the artist, and he kept them in a central place in his home.beenraisedespecially in relation to the cultural heritage of the Sámi people, but artefacts have also been returned to Namibia and the indige 2/2023 nous peoples in America, for example.As far as I know, repatriation in relation to Asian cultures and artefacts has not been discussed.Indeed, discussions of repatriation and cultural appro priation frequently appear to concern specific areas of discomfort, which are always rooted in the cultural and historical context in question.As Leila Koivunen noted in a panel discussion at Villa Gyllenberg, the attitude towards Asian cultures in Finland has been mostly positive, and consequently there have not been the same kinds of discussions about power relations and neg ative images as there have been about African cultures, for example. 8Idän henkisyys," (panel discussion related to the Eastern Spirituality exhibition, Helsinki, May 2023).