February 26, 2010 || 11:55 pm EST
by: Danny K. Ko ( info [at] shoutle.com )

Who was he? The bottom of the porcelain dish crafted by a Chinese artist, presumably a grandmaster, sports his signature via self-portrait. The signature is shaped like a crab, while decorously accentuated by a bull's horns. It is until today, this rare finding conveys that the Chinese may be ahead of the Dada and Surrealists' movements, albeit made popular into mainstream by the likes of Rene Magritte and Salvador Dali (height of his fame in the 1930s).

The mysterious splendor has always graced my family's Ko Sam June Art Collection.


Look carefully into the photo at the top, since on the dish, there is a winsome and harmonious precipice of birds and heads of flowers shooting upward from their pots (epitomizing the eyes to the beholder), kites hovering on the lowest grounds with the cloud sinking, with slithering hoses dancing to the tunes of the uber-delirious, instrumental pipe (music is upbeat, so that the viewers from the sidelines, and any beholder, become the listener), while articulating the idea of modern communications, networking and technology through the bong-like system pervading at the top, enveloping the allure of everyday objects, such as the ordinary paint brushes.

Now, look at the signature at the other side of the dish! Who does that? No classical, surrealist, modern, or post-modern era artists sign their works in this zany manner. The signature articulates his bohemian culture within the walls of China: at last he is an innovator, and while finalizing the dish with his ornamental personal touch, he ensures that posterity can benefit from his heroism. For China, he may be the precursor from the East, to what we ideally conjure up in our heads on the topic of surrealism,  as  we are only accustomed to paying tribute to the Western world for it.


"
 I should have been a pair of ragged claws
Scuttling across the floors of silent seas.
"
. . . . . (TS Eliot, "The Love Song of J.A. Prufrock")


The crab, or pair claws,  is what makes the artist; he also sees himself as a calm and peace-loving goat. 'So who was he?,' the signature then begs the question to the beholder. He need not have to stamp and sign with his name, along with a date or a known region. This magnificent, very witty surrealist reveals his identity by leaving clues for us: in the mindset of a crab, he does not engage the enemy, since under the exoskeleton of his love for worldly wisdom, he knows he is protected from harm's way and he has room in his shell to think freely about the universe around him. Not only within the walls of China, but peering outwardly into the global seas, his claws detect warring nations, he senses the hostility, he senses more wars, and skirmishes amongst people. With his mighty claws, he can only pick up a paintbrush after sprawling the porcelain dish as his drawing board  to vent out his energy and creativity, on how to make the world in tune with harmony. He is the sagacious man growing a beard, and he can only scuttle, yet is ready to dance and enjoy the kind of scene he is depicting at the very stage articulated on his dish!

Look carefully. The telephony system at the top has other salient features, such as a miniaturized mountain releasing gases of splendor (unlike the smoke from blasting canons). Very surreal, indeed. Notice that the one arm of the mystical bong is also a horizontally-lying harp (whereby females of elegance have plucked it for the rhythm), as the mass is situated on top of a pristine table, and at the end of it all, it seems as if more females of beauty have touched it.  The woman knows her incense, and to herself, she knows the perfume's mist of convivial aroma and bonhomie can be a delight for every man's happy encounter. Of course, it is a happy jamboree. Artists in this stage are satisfied with their brushes to write poetry and words of nurture and safe voyage, neither the penchant for fighting, nor any willingness to prove one's violence in a frenzy of greed, jealousy, rape, murder, or through a sea of lost hope, nor any unpleasant side of humanity is depicted here or everywhere. Why? Even the cloud can stay still and be safe on the ground. The kite doesn't have to be in the air to amuse a fight with wind, in order to be carried by the breeze. No passerby expects that kite to fly (and fight the world) either, so everyone is at their own amusement, which is that of being entertained by the pleasures of peace and harmony, and the vibrant, live music. 

Peace that is deliberately found in this stage--or on the dish, what-have-you--is now also everywhere. The strangers that pass this dish around, will be eating the food on this philosophical display of peace-promoting visuals: they will not eat to fight. They will eat to replay what is going on in the scene of the dish. The  philosopher --the crab, or the goat, whichever way you look at it--intentionally kept himself unknown with a purpose in mind. Whatever really was in his mind is still a mystery, of course. Who he really was, or means to us, is still a puzzle. His whiskers are a riddle, though, as one can safely posit that he knew the world too well, that he rather make great works of art, and be kept quiet, so he can enjoy the rhythm, the music, the paintbrushes, and more...