Abstract

This thesis investigates transcultural exchange expressed in architectural and conceptual spaces as well as visual and material culture through the case study of HappyTree Yoga, a popular downtown Montreal studio. Through images and objects within these spaces, I explore how the modern postural yoga studio is designed as an escape from, or antidote to, the stresses of modern Western lifestyle through the integration of spirituality from an imagined, ahistorical Orient with Western socio-cultural norms of health, gender and bodily
regulation. The studio interior and the objects housed therein are considered from the perspective of material culture in order to understand how the practice of yoga is constructed and authenticated through ‘exotic’ objects such as images of gurus and small shrines and how practitioners encounter and experience the agency of these objects. I discuss the hybridity of modern yoga’s performance as both openly progressive and Western but aware of a need for legitimacy and authorization through the presence of Hindu imagery, ultimately creating new meanings for both these artifacts and those who participate in the highly ritualistic and performative use of these interiors.