MID-AUTUMN FEST: MOONCAKES AND MANICURES

If it wasn’t for the markdowns of mooncake gift boxes at the Asian grocer, I would have never believed that fall is around the corner. Today is Mid-Autumn Festival, and though I don’t formally celebrate the coming together of family, friends, full moon and harvest, I rarely refuse cake: especially if custard or red bean is involved. Boxes are piled up like the season’s other staple – apples – varieties overtaking the produce aisle until mid-winter’s indicator – Cara cara oranges – return in January. This cycle of fruits and abundance has got me thinking about their significance: as some Chinese pronunciations of the word “apples” is a homophone for “peace” and “safety,” and for “mandarins” and/or “oranges,” is “luck.”

Tradition aside, when it came to selecting the altar offering for the installation, “Indoor Fireworks,” oranges were an obvious choice. Visually, I needed their repetition to keep the viewer’s eye moving across the works. Plus, like cake, who would deny good luck? Exactly! Their function as a visual tool might also be why the photographer Xunling (ca. 1880-1943) selected apples to do the same in his portrait of Empress Dowager Cixi (1903-1904) held in the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art Archives.

FSA A.13 SC-GR-254: The Empress Dowager Cixi, dated 1903-1905 | Photographer: Xunling, 1874-1943 | Cixi, Empress dowager of China, 1835-1908 | Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art Archives, see: Smithsonian Institution, Smithsonian Online Virtual Archives

In this photo, we have a classic breaking of symmetry – split down the middle – between two, neat conical piles of what looks like gold-dusted apples atop two Louis XIV pedestal tables. In their midst, the Empress Dowager – as the young’uns would say – is “giving.” Though, symbolically, the apples may suggest she comes in peace, she takes it, her mooncakes (the flaky “fan mao” coined by the Empress herself) and matters, seriously. I mean, who with long nails doesn’t? (Have you seen fashion designer Marc Jacobs’ mani lately? He came at it like a new collection!)

This Mid-Autum fest, I’m wishing you all a very “giving” harvest. Piles of Galas (apples) and later, Cara caras. (For the queenly among us, Met Galas and cake too.) Of course, that which is always in season: peace, luck and more great sales!