We'd like to say that this week's Wat Dat is in honor of the Chinese Cultural Festival, but Don Gowing of Honolulu has been waiting a good long time to find out what this epic sculpture is at the Chinese Cultural Plaza. Poetry in epic art
Gowing called it "a handsome monument with Chinese characters on all four sides. I didn't see any interpretation for klutzes like myself who don't read the characters."
The work is actually one of a pair of works at two ends of the site, costing the city $30,000 in 1971, back when the area was known as River Street Mall. The artist is Edward "Mick" Brownlee.
This piece is called "T'Sung, after an ancient Chinese earth symbol. The other, at the other side of the Cultural Plaza, is called "Gateway."
We'd like to claim also that we're experts in Chinese calligraphy, but we happen to know that Brownlee was aided in this piece by scholar Shen C.Y. Fu of Taiwan, who contributed pithy Chinese epigrams in a variety of calligraphic styles.
According to an art review by Web Anderson when the pieces were first placed, one side reads, "Forever Spring," from the 3rd century A.D. Another side reads, "The eagle flies and reaches heaven; the fish leap in the deep," from a poem dated 750 B.C. The third side reads, "Myriad years of health and happiness," from about 1500 B.C. And the last side reads, "Within the four seas, all men are brothers," from circa 500 B.C.
We're not sure which sides these are on, but the thoughts are nice.
Curious about something you've seen? Ask us: WatDat?, Honolulu Star-Bulletin, P.O. Box 3080, Honolulu, Hi, fax at 523-7863 or e-mail at features@starbulletin.com.
Burl Burlingame, Star-Bulletin
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