Category Art

Oct 10 2015

At Maple Bridge we moored for the night

楓橋夜泊

moon setscrows cawfrost fills the sky

river maplesfishermen's firesfacing sorrow, I sleep

Gusu townoutside its wallsCold Mountain Temple

at midnightthe bell's soundreaches the traveller's boat

This poem by Zhang Ji (張繼 c.800, Tang Dynasty) is a seven-character quatrain, consisting of two pairs of parallel couplets. It has long been regarded as a masterpiece in that genre.

Gusu, now part of the modern city of Suzhou, was the capital  of the ancient state of Wu in southern China.

Around 500 BCE, the states of Wu and Yue contended for supremacy. According to the legend, the King of Yue presented the King of Wu with the beautiful Xi Shi. The King of Wu was so beguiled with her that he was unprepared when the King of Yue attacked and defeated him. Part of the melancholy of the poem is the evocation of the well-known legend in the name of the old city.

The first Cold Mountain (Hanshan) Temple was built in the Liang Dynasty (502-557).

These ATCs have been traded but are available as 4″ x 6″ prints.

Sep 27 2015

To the Mid-Autumn Moon

Chang-E in her moon palace; Mid-autumn festival 2003

Chang-E in her moon palace; mid-autumn festival 2003

 

Mid-autumn festival, sipping osmanthus tea and nibbling on lotus mooncake.

The Song poet Li Qingzhao 李清照 (c.1083-aft.1149) posed a riddle:

Naturally, it ranks first among flowers.
The plum surely is jealous,
The chrysanthemum should be ashamed;
It opens by the painted railing, capping the mid-autumn.

自是花中第一流．
梅定妒，
菊應羞，
畫欄開處冠中秋．

(from “Partridge Sky” 鷓鴣天, 暗淡輕黃體性柔)

Another Song poet Su Shi 蘇軾 (1037-1101) raised his wine cup, and, thinking of his brother far away, sang to the full moon:

We can only hope to live long,
And across a thousand li, together cling to its beauty.

但願人長久
千里共嬋娟

(from “Prelude to the Water Melody” 水調歌頭, 明月幾時有, written in 1076 )

Translations by Lena Tan

May 25 2015

Pictures from an Exhibition

The Transience of Value

April 24th to May 31st, 2015, in the Salon Shop at Gallery Gachet, an artist-run centre in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.

Photo: Graeme K. Nix
Photo: courtesy Gallery Gachet
Photo: Graeme K. Nix
Photo: courtesy Gallery Gachet
Photo: courtesy Gallery Gachet
Photo: courtesy Gallery Gachet
Photo: Graeme K. Nix

Photo credits: Graeme K. Nix and Gallery Gachet.

Apr 22 2015

The Transience of Value

Gallery Gachet

Salon Shop exhibition: The Transience of Value by Lena Tan.

oneday4-3x2

Opening reception: Friday, April 24th, 7.00 – 10.00 pm
Exhibition runs: April 24th – May 31st, 2015

Lena Tan carries forward forgotten traditions into a contemporary society that leaves a trail of increasingly obvious destruction behind it. Hand-worked lace, based on the pattern work of Irish women crocheting for survival through the Great Famine of the mid-19th century, meld with the flotsam of the daily commuter. Repurposed bus tickets & crochet become micro meditations on transit and transformation. Permanence fused on to transience. Can the invalidated be made valid again through art?

Feb 12 2015

Squares

block1-a

block1-a

Tiny areas under high magnification – mind machine meld – lose your self in here.

“Only those who love color are admitted to its beauty and immanent presence. It affords utility to all, but unveils its deeper mysteries only to its devotees.” The Art of Colour,  Johannes Itten