Wednesday, May 30, 2012

"Can you show me/Can you show me/The shine of your Japan/The sparkle of your China"

While my mom was visiting, we went one place I have been longing to go:  the new Cofrin Asian Art Wing at The Harn Museum of Art.  This wing, or rather one of the pieces to be housed there, actually made international news earlier this year: the Korean Bodhisatvah.

The short version is X-rays had shown this 17th century bodhi had a mass in his head.  In the interest of finding out what that mass was, they put him in the CAT scan & soon enough had a diagnosis.  I will let the link go into the details.  Or even better, you can visit himself at the Harn.

While you are there, you can also see other objects glorifying other gods, other lives, even other trades.  But there really is nothing else so eye-catching&fixing as the seated bodhi.   I kept leaving him & going to see the ceramics, & then the garden, the other gods.  & then back to the room with his x-rays & scans & documents & of course, him.

If you had asked me, I would have said that I was most partial to Ganesha & indeed I still think I am, but the bodhi was indeed a thing of great beauty.  I can understand being tempted to sell my house in town.  Instead, my mom bought me the t-shirt.

No comments:

Post a Comment