Thursday, February 21, 2013

What is Valuable?


The bowl is from Japan and the rice is from Italy and this photo was taken in my kitchen.  This is the beginning of an homage to Al Weiwei.  If you don't quite get it, you will have to read the prior post for help.  As I look at this photo I remember driving by a busy corner as I was entering the city of Jogjakarta in Indonesia and seeing a totally naked and very thin woman who looked well into her 60's with an empty rice bowl held out in her hand.  Others stood around her trying to cross the street and truly appeared not to see her.  That image will never leave my consciousness.


If you  look closer at this photo above you will realize that these two bowls do not contain rice.  The bowls are made of the finest porcelain from China and the shiny objects are a half-ton of freshwater pearls.  (Weiwei 2006)  The bowls are exactly one meter in diameter.  I think I am in sync with Weiwei by putting these two photos in the same blog.  Which do you think is worth more?  Depends on who you are and how full your belly is I guess.


  I was very tempted to let my hands feel the tactile sensation of of these shiny orbs.

"The choice of materials and the use of traditional techniques show his determination to highlight in these artworks both his “Chineseness” and his active subversion of it, as in Bowl of Pearls (2006). This sculpture consists of a pair of bowls one meter in diameter filled with freshwater pearls. While abundance of pearls can symbolize wealth and provoke a strong desire, the large number displayed in the bowl is such that it triggers an opposite feeling. The feeling of value and preciousness commonly associated with pearls, when displayed in a small quantity, is replaced by an ordinary feeling despite the pearls’ inner beauty." Review from Mori Art Museum.


This is my small personal collection of both freshwater and salt water pearls, and since some were handed down from an elder relative, their value is much greater to me emotionally than practically.

12 comments:

  1. Interesting how much alike the contents of these two bowls look.

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  2. Looking at the two bowls reminds me of a game played at baby showers: finding a pin(?) or something in a bowl of rice. It was as much fun as kids have playing in the pit of balls at an arcade, which I've also done. :) Both were valuable experiences.

    A naked lady with a bowl... My first thought was, why would someone not have given her some sort of garment? Then I wondered if she thought her chances of getting fed were better if she looked totally pathetic.

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  3. Now that image is in my head..the lady with the bowel. How sad and that no one saw her! The world can be so indifferent!
    So blind!
    Love all you pics!!
    Hugs
    SUeAnn

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  4. Value is so subjective. Good for us to remember.

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  5. Your pearls look priceless! It's very interesting to look at the two images of things that are valuable to us in different ways. Needs and wants. I'm just wandering around Linda Reeder's sidebar and have enjoyed your blog.

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  6. What an interesting juxtaposition, and a great question, "which is more valuable?" Value is not one dimensional.
    Great post.

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  7. Weiwei is a genus in this case. So powerful. Thanks for making me think and feel this morning and turning me on to this. I'm going to google him and learn more.

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  8. What a heart breaking image and an interesting idea to contemplate. The value of "stuff" vs. the values we hold as human beings...

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  9. Some things
    that might not seem priceless
    to others
    are priceless to us.
    I have a few simple items from
    my grandmother
    and priceless they are...

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  10. I'm so glad to read this. Living where I do, art shows are a rarity to me and I seldom get insights from people who respond as I do to art work by making some kind of personal connection and attempting to pick up hidden meanings. So thank you.

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  11. The rice for me.

    I still retain the memory the stacked rebar from the schools in the earthquake zone best.

    Imagine having a choice of galleries...all free. Heaven. I would live at the portrait gallery. :)


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  12. RYN: Nope, clothes that are worn and tired and never put on, they need to go to someone new. Mine, being larger, will rapidly find a new place.

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Take your time...take a deep breath...then hit me with your best shot.