80
february / march 2017yogajournal.com.sgI’M A YOGI
connect
YOGA JOURNAL SINGAPORE (ISSN #24249246) is an international licensed edition of Yoga Journal and is published by Sankia Publishing Pte Ltd. All contents in this magazine are
non-religious and not affiliated to any religious organization. The pictures have all been credited to photographers except in those cases where they were legally purchased or procured
from free online sites that allow commercial use.Art and the early seeds of a yoga practice
were very much a part of me growing up.
As a child, I was artistic, could draw easily
and always made random things—from
a toaster out of coat hangers to paper
sandals. I kept painting and drawing all my
life. I also had a mystical streak as a kid
and really wanted to visit India, so I found
my way to books on yoga and Eastern
philosophy. Yoga took precedence over art
in terms of my personal journey. But while
practising yoga in Mysore, India, I did also
take part in the occasional art exhibition in
the city.My yoga journey began, when after having
traveled to India a few times already, I
decided to take the plunge and headed
there with a one-way ticket, enough funds
to last a few years, and the intent to find
a yoga practice that felt right to me. Istudied with a few teachers, also at the
Iyengar Yoga Study Center in Rishikesh, but
eventually was led to an Ashtanga class
in Goa, which I felt was the right practice
for me. That was in 1996. I then moved to
Mysore and studied under the guidance of
Pattabhi Jois, and received his blessings to
teach in 1999.When it was time for me to dive deeper
into the world of art, the reasons were just
as compelling. I had been to ‘Burning Man’
for the first time in 2005 and was utterly
blown away by everything about it. I felt
a sense of reverence about the way the
artists had worked so hard to manifest their
expressions on such a large-scale. That
impression took root, catalyzing the
creative embers sparked during that
first visit.Art and yoga are not separate for me
because I feel I am the intersection for
both these expressions, and they reflect
the same thing—a deep, clear connection
to a stream of inspiration that expresses
many forms. With yoga, one experiences
an internal reflection, while with art, it is
externalizing objects—but the form of
experience is within the same space as
yoga. When I’m finished with my yoga
practice, I see a bright place of forms
and patterns of light that the body is a
component of, and this is what I create.My go-to healing pose is Halasana (Plow
pose). I love the upward-moving quality of
Pincha Mayurasana (Forearm balance), and
the compressed, efficient feeling of Urdhva
Kukkutasana (Lifting Rooster pose).Kirsten Berg is an artist—a builder of
massive, beautiful, surreal, art
installations, and is well known for
her displays at the ‘Burning Man’, an
art festival held in Nevada every year.
She is also a yoga teacher whose
students travel all over the world—
be it in Thailand, Indonesia, cities
in Europe or the United States—to
attend her Ashtanga classes.Kirsten was in Singapore recently
where her installation “Constellation
of One” was re-created for the “Lock
Route” show at Gillman Barracks. She
spoke to YJSG about how the artist
and the yogi in her feed each other.Kirsten
Berg
By Valerie Lee Figueira