Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art
It's not about being attached or not attached, but about how constructive or destructive our attachment to things and people is.
What do we hold on to, and what does it cost us to do so? A memory, a grudge, a phone call not answered, a version of ourselves we stopped being years ago. Attachment, one of the central ideas in Buddhist thought, can be one of the hardest things to notice within ourselves, it comes with its own lacuna. Which is exactly why it made such a rich subject for Awaken’s fourth season.
Hosted by actress and filmmaker Isabella Rossellini, the season unfolds over eight episodes, from Understanding Attachment and Introducing Non-Attachment, through Releasing the Ego, Opening to Love, Awakening to Interdependence, and Embracing Freedom, to Walking the Path and, finally, Experiencing Realization. Episodes open with Tibetan spoken by Tashi Chodron, and each draws on Himalayan art from the Rubin’s collection as an entry to the topic.
Along the way, neuroscientist Richie Davidson sits alongside Bön meditation master Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, and poet Ross Gay alongside chef Reem Assil, with Ocean Vuong, Fatimah Asghar, Jenny Odell, Sonya Renee Taylor, Eve Ekman, Annabella Pitkin, and artists Prithvi Shrestha and Asha Kama Wangdi each offering their own way of loosening the grip. What emerges is a practice for everyday life, and a reminder that letting go is something we forget and remember, again and again.
Client
Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art
Project
Awaken Season 4
Services
Concept Development - Creative Direction - Research - Naming - Production - Interviews - Sound Design - Post Production - Distribution Strategy
Voices
Isabella Rossellini, Richie Davidson, Eve Ekman, Jenny Odell, Annabella Pitkin, Prithvi Shrestha, Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, Ocean Vuong, Tashi Chodron, Fatimah Asghar, Ross Gay, Sonya Renee Taylor, Reem Assil, Asha Kama Wangdi, Haley Nahman
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Our Process
Learning not to hold on to outcomes.
Opportunity
The opportunity for Awaken is to delve deep into a profound topic that is core to Buddhist practice and Himalayan art, but also to the conditions that affect each and every one of us. To explore, through conversations with thinkers, practitioners, poets, and creative minds, the various ways we are unconscious of our circumstances and can, as the series title suggests, Awaken.
Insight
A little like stress, attachment can be hidden from ourselves. The series offers some insight into what it is, how it affects us, what we hold on to and why, and the steps we can take to loosen our grip, recover ourselves, and meet the world and the people within it more lightly.
Outcome
Much of our work is transformative, for ourselves, our collaborators, and, all being well, our listeners. No project exemplifies this effect on us more than our work on the Awaken series with the Rubin. The subjects, Attachment, Wrath, and Interdependence, demand of us some soul-searching. Season Four’s eight episodes became part of a Webby Honoree podcast series and, we hope, a little awakening.
