© Yuki Kawae (via Vimeo)
In traditional Chinese culture, the moon is a carrier of human emotions. The full moon symbolizes family reunion. Due to the Covid restrictions between China and the United States, my trip to see my family in Beijing, which was scheduled in early 2020, is on an indefinite hold. While waiting to go back for the past two years, I decided to create a video series with the general intention of bringing the moon down to me on the earth, inspired by a Chinese legend of the Han dynasty entitled, “The lake reflecting the divine moon.”
Every winter since 2020, I’ve filmed myself alone tracing moon patterns by dragging a suitcase on the snow-covered ground in the parking lot adjacent to my apartment building in Chicago, as if to create circular mantras suspended in a time of waiting. I also made two summer counterparts of the same ritual on a sandy beach by Lake Michigan. As long as I’m unable to go back to China, I will continue to film this same ritual in the summer and winter.
This installation by Yuge Zhou called Moon drawings reminds me a lot of the beautiful patterns Yuki Kawae draws in his zen garden —but in an entirely different dimension. Gorgeous, even more so when you know the background behind the piece.