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The Feast of Belshazzar is a multi-slide projected visual and sound installation. Five slide projectors interweave images and texts from Buddhist, Hindu, Judaic, Islamic, and Christian religious ceremonies onto building of ruins, of wall and structure, filling up a raw-abandoned space. Images of varying sizes are combined to enact irregular composition. Pre-programmed slide projectors dissolve in and out at different speeds accordingly, making any image appear momentarily in the background, and seconds later to appear in the forefront, depending on the time allowed for its dissolution. Simultaneously, rhythms and related religious music are constructed in overlapping and displaced forms. As a whole, the piece is intended to be perceived as a transparent, multi-dimensional, dynamic, audio-visual environmental collage.
The piece runs fifty minutes and is divided into five parts which are introduced below:
I. Prayer II. No God But Only One III. Fulfillment IV. Death and transfiguration
V. Ode to Gods
The literary content of the music is arranged to highlight allusions through juxtaposition and semi-dialogue. Out of these juxtapositions a conflicting, chaotic, yet constructive narration is created. For example, in the beginning of Part IV (Death and Transfiguration) the music starts with a calm, stable (almost unemotional) Buddhist death chant; then the vibrating, sensual sonority of a violin sneaks in, softly and emotionally, followed by a bitter, anguished voice of St. Mary:
"Have Mercy, my God for the sake of my tears, etc. See here before Thee, heart and eyes weep bitterly..." (Bach's Matthaus-Passion Part II, No.47, Aria. contralto)
Along with this emotionally-charged melody, very quietly, yet suddenly, there is a crystal India flute piercing through Bach's music with a translucent quality, followed by a man's voice. Here is Lord Krishna chanting:
"...He is not slain when the body is slain." (Bhagavad-Gita, chapter II, Text.20)
This is woven between:
"Have mercy! Have mercy! My God..."
And
"All created beings are unmanifest in their beginning, manifest in their interim state, and unmanifest again when they are annihilated. So what need is there for lamentation? " (Bhagavad-Gita, chapter II, text. 28)
And
"Stabat mater dolorosa juxta crucem lacrymosa, dum pendebat filius" (Stabat Mater)