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Issue: 1085 Date: 6/9/2011
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2012 to be "Year of China" at MO Botanical Garden
Lantern Festival: Art by Day, Magic by Night, May 26 through August 19, 2012 |
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ST. LOUIS - The future of an international trade hub at Lambert Airport may
still be up in the air, but there will definitely be a St. Louis-China connection as of next
year.
"It's really a delight for me to welcome you all to what is a momentous occasion for the Garden, and indeed for the entire
St. Louis region," said Missouri Botanical Garden President Dr. Peter Wyse Jackson during a late-morning press conference Thursday. "We are dedicating the year of 2012 as the Year of China".
Dr. Wyse Jackson said they are doing this in part to mark the completion of a 25-year-long project during which Garden
personnel have been helping to catalog all 30,000-plus plant species found in China. Beginning on May 26th, 2012 and
running through August 19th, the Missouri Botanical Garden will host an international exhibition of 26 larger-than-life,
lighted works of art from Zigong, China. "Lantern Festival: Art by Day, Magic by Night" is expected to attract visitors
from throughout the country and even from overseas to experience one of China's most treasured events and ancient
traditions.
"As one of the region's premier cultural attractions, the Missouri Botanical Garden is delighted to bring an international event of this caliber to the St. Louis area," said Dr. Peter Wyse Jackson, president of the Missouri Botanical Garden. "The Garden has a long-tenured tradition of botanical research and collaboration with China through our Flora of China project, a significant endeavor which we anticipate completing at the end of 2012. Coupled with the presence of our beautiful Chinese Garden, the Grigg Nanjing Friendship Garden, it seemed only fitting for the Garden to host the first Lantern Festival in the country, celebrating in what will be our ear of China.'"
"Emerson is proud to be a presenting sponsor of this magnificent international exhibit," said Robert M. Cox., Jr., senior vice president - administration of Emerson. "These works of art will educate our community on Chinese history, tradition and culture."
Lantern festivals are deeply rooted in Chinese history and myth, dating back to the ancient dynasties of more than 2,000 years ago. In modern times, lantern festivals traditionally culminate the15-day celebration of the Chinese New Year. Giant, ornate lanterns of complex design fill cities with light in vivid, festive spectacles.
A team of 35 to 40 skilled artisans from Zigong in the western province of Sichuan, the center of the lantern-making industry in China, will spend two months in residence at the Missouri Botanical Garden to construct 26 elaborate, multi-piece sets from scratch. Working from reference drawings, sets begin as large outlines on the ground. Steel rods are carefully placed and welded together to fashion the framework of each figure. Structures are draped with specially-treated Chinese silk, designed to withstand outdoor display for several months. Silk is secured to frame edges with a gold trim. The final creations are lit from within or adorned with an exterior piping of lights, giving them a brilliant evening glow.
Each lantern design is full of Chinese tradition, symbolism and meaning. Greeting visitors at the Garden's entrance is a welcoming gate of dragon pillars, Hua Biao, modeled after a more than500-year-old pair at the Tiananmen Square in China. The original Chinese gates were built to activate the good luck of the Ching dynasty; similarly, the Garden's Hua Biao represents good prospect and turns bad luck into good. Standing sentry at the Linnean Plaza entrance, The Terracotta Warrior set features four ten-foot-tall figures depicting the armies of Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China. Chinese opera, an art form rich in tradition that combines music, dance and song, is celebrated with masks in The Faces of Chinese Opera, the only indoor lantern display.
Dr. Wyse Jackson pointed out the exhibition is the first of its kind and size in the United States, offering visitors a unique opportunity to witness a spectacle rarely staged outside of Asia. |
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