The Seventh Bardo

A meditation on the modern journey, The Seventh Bardo features intimate portraits and monumental landscapes shot while driving on American interstates. I present the interstate as a unique liminal space where we can step outside of time and geography.

Interstates.  Not innately interesting. No one looks at an exit ramp and thinks, ’wow, that’s gorgeous!’ The word brings up images of endless concrete, featureless structures, and bland landscapes. But I find the interstate to be a fascinating liminal space, unique to contemporary America. The sealed environment of our cars, the high speed of travel, and the limited access of the interstate itself, all serve to separate us from our fellow travelers, the landscape we traverse, and the responsibilities of our busy lives. I feel I step outside the confines of time and space and can let go of demands on my attention and just be; with the thrill of speed and my forward momentum, with the illusion of freedom from responsibilities, or with an internal journey of contemplation and reflection.

“The Seventh Bardo” was shot entirely while driving on the interstates of the Southeast. I grew up in the Southeastern cities of Charlotte, North Carolina and Atlanta, Georgia during the 70’s, a time when the new interstate system was a major agent in the transformations going on in that region. As a young woman, the interstate symbolized freedom from isolation and was a doorway to exciting new experiences.  As an adult, I often turned to the interstate in times of uncertainty, seeking the kind of introspection that I could only find on a long drive through its empty landscapes.  ‘Bardo’ is a Tibetan term, meaning ‘an in-between space’, and usually refers the state of existence between death and rebirth.  I am proposing that driving on the interstate is a kind of bardo.  It’s in between the place we left but hours before we reach where we’re going, a place that feels outside of time and space. A meditation on the modern journey, the landscapes comprising The Seventh Bardo re-envisions the view outside the window as a no-man’s land beyond normal time and space.  It’s the external projection of restless souls caught up in an internal world.