Elliott, David: Kesang Lamdark

Born in 1963 in Dharamsala, India, Kesang Lamdark grew up in Switzerland, where he later apprenticed and worked as an interior architect. He went on to study at Parsons School of Design in New York, and he received an MA in Visual Arts at Columbia University. The artist now lives and works in Zurich, Switzerland.

Lamdark's plastic sculptures and mirrored lightboxes are evidence of his displaced and multicultural upbringing. His search for an appropriate cultural space ultimately turned inwards, as he came to understand and reconnect with his Tibetan heritage while living in the West. Through his Tibetan-Western identity, he is able to understand and strike a balance between both cultures. Combining unusual materials, from hair to plastic, beer cans to nail polish, Lamdark brings together the unfamiliar and revels in recycling everyday objects into works of art.

In 2008, Lamdark presented in the Third Guangzhou Triennial, installing a work titled Pink Himalayan Boulder - a 10,000-kilogram rock that he smuggled out of Tibet and encased in melted plastic - at SH Contemporary in Shanghai. He also participated in the annual Dharamshala International Artists' Workshop in 2012 and completed a residency at the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art in 2013.