The launch of Tashi’s revolutionary ‘Soulhouette’™ project [previewed exclusively at the Urban Spirit exhibition] heralds the start of a unique and fascinating journey for the artist and each of his subjects. A collection of thirty, life-size ‘Soulhouettes’™, the project is a strikingly-original, visual representation of spirituality in people from across the globe, spanning boundaries of race, class, culture, gender and faith. The exhibition, which includes un-named, descriptions of the subject next to each painting, will be the subject of a major international book and documentary film at the end of 2004. Each subject’s holistic character is recorded, interpretively, by the artist, as a life-size ‘Soulhouette™', incorporating a series of symbols, patterns, textures and colours - unique to that individual – which represents the multiple elements of their nature, personality, and ‘essence’ - from the depths of their spiritual life, to their, outward, physical appearance. After creating a full-body outline, during the first sitting, each work is developed by TASHI MANNOX, through a unique process of interaction between artist and subject, to create the final image. Once completed, the drawn outline is removed, leaving the subject as an unbounded, free-standing icon. Allowing for time initially spent by the artist to familiarise himself with the subject, each ‘Soulhouette™' takes between two and four weeks to complete. The artist’s subjects, selected from a highly-personal, cross-section of contemporary British society, include a past lover, leading figures from the world of fashion, music and film and the artist’s own mother. What interests the artist, in the ‘Soulhouette’™ project, is, quite literally, the ‘embodiment’ of two, very different worlds - the world of traditional Eastern philosophy and the material world of the West – and the confluence of these two ideologies in the final image.