[Kenya Miles] My name is Kenya Miles. I'm a natural dyer, and a fiber artist. We have a garden in central Baltimore where we grow natural dyes. I initially was attracted to Guanyin through an experience that I had in bringing my son, along with his classmates from school, to see the museum And so as we were going through different areas, I noticed that a lot of the children had stopped, my son included, to sit and observe Guanyin. And I was really curious as to why these children were feeling compelled to sit and quietly observe or reflect. And so that feeling of ‘more than words’ I think is what I began to understand as we talked about it. I think because we're limited to the way that the original context would have been, I do believe that the setting to which the art comes to be rehoused is equally vital. So the Guanyin sits on a wooden platform and that wall has a cutout and that cutout has this beautiful color that is amber and cranberry and the way that the color is in the background it feels like it has a relationship to both a sunrise and a sunset, so for me, it's a connection to both a dusk and a dawn. And then the border has this sort of lattice work that sits around in front of the inset, which I think builds out these beautiful shadows. The Guanyin has this really beautiful patina, and that patina comes from the gold that is coming undone. The beauty for me of natural dyes is not their eternalness. It's their ephemeralness. And so I think that the beauty of having the Guanyin sort of aging coating allows for this understanding that we move through many many lives within one life and that there's evidence of that as with fiber, where things become frail, to have greater understanding of what we all come from, which is soil, and what we will all go back to, which is soil. There's this beauty in that, and so I think it is important to see the age of life.

[Frances Klapthor] This is the figure of the Bodhisattva Guanyin. A Bodhisattva is a being who has attained enlightenment and can therefore leave the world and enter Nirvana. But Guanyin instead has chosen to remain here in the world to help all sentient beings in their struggle to escape unceasing existence in the world of pain. Unlike the Buddha, who appears with short hair and unadorned, this figure has long, elaborate hair and strands of pearl jewelry and gold bracelets and arm cuffs. These signify that Guanyin remains in this world, whereas for the Buddha who has escaped this world, he's stripped of all jewelry and he's shorn his hair. Guanyin became especially popular in the decades as a miracle worker, and so newspapers of the Ming Dynasty, the period of the statue, would publish tales of her assistance to people in averting floods, for example, or plagues of locusts. And she was always prayed to for the birth of sons. Visual Description:  This life-sized seated statue of the bodhisattva Guanyin, made using bronze-colored metal alloy, is approximately five feet high, three and a half feet wide, and two and three-quarters feet deep. Guanyin, who here appears female, smiles serenely and casually poses with her right arm propped up on her bent right knee while leaning on her left arm, which rests on the platform she sits on. Guanyin wears intricate, flowing robes and many layered necklaces and bracelets. 

[Marta Hanson] This is a really very interesting statue from the 15th century because you can see the gender ambiguity. [Aaron Henkin] That's Marta Hanson, who teaches the history of Chinese medicine at Johns Hopkins Medical School. She explains that this Chinese Bodhisattva of compassion started out in Indian Buddhism as male. [Marta Hanson] But in the Chinese case, the value of compassion was gendered female. She's wearing a chest of jewelry. Now, this you might think is very feminine to have such rich jewelry, but in fact her chest is rather flat and a rather strong, robust, athletic masculine figure. You see a very graceful right hand over the right knee and graceful curves of the gown that she's wearing. But at the same time, you see the foot exposed on her. At this time in the 15th century it would've been quite shocking to have a female with bare feet and rather thick feet, especially at a time when they were binding their feet. So there's a very clear sense that there's male and female aspects to it.

[Aaron Henkin] This statue is made from cast bronze, which was then painted. [Marta Hanson] We have actual traces of red pigment on her lips while there's some blue pigment that still remains on the hair, so clearly in her original form, she would've been quite colorful. You might be surprised about how much she weighs. Think about it. How much do you think she weighs? Consider her size. She's made in bronze. She's quite imposing. Well, in fact, she weighs over a thousand pounds.