“BUDDHA WEARS GOLD”
Low-Fire Earthenware, Underglaze, Glaze, Gold Luster. Approx. 10 & 1/4" Height x 8 & 5/16" Width x 6 & 1/8" Depth
A Chinese saying:
“Buddha wears gold, man wears clothes -- but these are mere externals.”
I don’t know the true origins of this saying, but this is what stuck when a friend mentioned this while reacting to this piece.
Another piece from the “Anti-Mold” series.
What matters more - what is on the inside or the outside? The world has suffering and imperfection. The self has suffering and imperfection.
Too many depictions of The Buddha are clean and perfect looking. This is not a bad thing, but I feel that it does not aesthetically address imperfection, suffering, impermanence, the internal and the external - concepts that I feel are important to understanding both Buddhism and one’s self.
The only reference I could find about the saying:
Page 552- Giles, Herbert A. A Chinese-English Dictionary, Volume 1. London, Bernard Quaritch, 15 Piccadilly: Kelly and Walsh Limited, 1892.
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