My father had a passion for the arts, especially paintings, sculpture and photography. As his eldest daughter, I had in him not only a devoted father, but also an enthusiastic and informed teacher of culture. He had a large librairy with art books from many different countries. One of these books had magnificent photos of Chinese art, and I would spend hours discovering the marvels of these beautiful art objects so exotic for a young adolescent in a small Flemish village. I especially remember the photograph of a screen in black lacquer that showed a moon that seemed made out of crystal and that was suspended like a magical object between branches of bamboo, on a night that gave the impression to have escaped from a fairy tale in a scene of dizzying beauty. Seeing this exotic scene, so different from the natural world around me, had awoken in me a profound feeling of desire, of melancholie, of curiosity, and I remember this sensation to this day. At night, I always look for the stars and the moon, and I am always looking for this Chinese moon from my father's art book.
The nature photographer of Lolo Pics, Kurt Lolo, shared a photo today that piqued my interest. It is a photograph of a massive rockwall, seen from below, that gives it the impression of a fortified castle. The sky that dominates the background of the photo is a solid bright blue, and looks as if it was made by a single stroke from a large smooth brush, and on the left appears this almost transparent moon, half hidden by the rockwall. The colours of the rock give it a sculpted impression in shades of green and light brown, that are a wonderful contrast to the brilliantly blue sky, and the transparent moon, that looks like a rare object forgotten by an extraterrestrial artist. It is a scene that fascinates with its precision and the unexpectedness of the tableau. All of a sudden, I had found my father's art book back, I had found its crystal moon that had hypnotised me with its piercing silence, coming to me from the vision of a Chinese artist born hundreds of years before me. After all these years, I wanted to understand the symbolism of this crystal moon. The photograph of Kurt Lolo had this interpretation of the crystal moon that was modern, new, and I wanted to understand once and for all the history of the crystal moon. I was thrilled to learn that there is in fact a crystal moon at the Museum of Art of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This moon dates from the late 19th century - early 20th century. It is not known who is the artist, but it is known that this moon is sculpted out of crystal rock, a transparent form of quartz mineral. The ancient Chinese writings called it " water essence " because of its appearance that is similar to ice. There are ancient Chinese recipes that often used it as an ingredient for magical potions. The date of this Chinese crystal moon is 1795, which is the last year of the reign of Emperor Qianlong, a successful military leader, who presided over the enormous expansion of the vast territory of the Qianlong Dynasty, and who was a great supporter of the arts. The crystal moon is 27.6 cm by 24.4 cm, so 10.8 inches by 9.6 inches, and is from the Qing Dynasty ( 1644 - 1911 ), of the Qianlong period ( 1736 - 1795 ), and has a poem by the famous poet Xie Zhuang ( 421 - 466 ) carved into it. Xie Zhuang wrote poems based on several Chinese myths, and one of them spoke of an emperor separated form his lover, who would find consolation when he looked at the moon, because he knew that his beloved would be looking at the same moon at the same time. Another myth speaks of a divine rabbit who stole the elixir of immortality and hid with it in the moon, where he would mix the elixir every day. The Chinese crystal moon combines these two myths, as can be seen by the crystal rabbit at the base of the art piece. It is beautiful how this enchanting photograph by Kurt Lolo has managed to lift the fog of one of my most cherished aesthetic memories. His photo has made clear as the crystal of this Chinese art piece and its transparent moon, a powerful memory of my explorations of the exotic art books in my father's librairy. It is genius, this danse of sharing, of which Kurt Lolo recently spoke by quoting a Kabyle saying : " Sharing is like dancing in group, better than dancing alone, which is like dancing in the dark. " His sublime photograph of the moon and its rockwall and its azure sky are ample testimony of this wisdom. I feel a sense of peace and joy towards this photograph that has managed to bring together the past and the present when it comes to my passion for the visual arts. From China to a Museum in Philadelphia, with a stop over at the memory of a librairy in Flanders, and a visit to the unique nature of Kabylie in Northern Algeria, to end up at my small office in Olympia in Washington State. What a marvelous group dance.
Trudi Ralston.
The information for the research on the Crystal Moon and the Museum of Philadelphia, courtsey of Wikipedia.
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