Pagoda of Desire

Pagoda of Desire is part of Berend Strik's exploration of architecture, desire, and cultural translation. The pagoda form references Buddhist architectural traditions but becomes something else entirely in Strik's hands — a site for investigating how buildings come to symbolize complex cultural desires and identities.

Strik's method involves photographing spaces and then enhancing them with textile interventions that add new layers of meaning. The "pagoda" becomes a lens through which to examine how Western culture has simultaneously idealized and misunderstood Eastern forms — a theme of cultural appropriation and mistranslation.

The title's play on "desire" connects to the Buddhist concept of craving as the root of suffering — a paradox for an artwork that is itself an object of desire. This kind of productive contradiction is characteristic of Strik's approach to titling and meaning-making.

Sources: Wikipedia · Livingstone Gallery