Scholar's Rocks

A scholar sets a stone on his desk and sees a mountain. Chinese gongshi, known as scholar’s rocks or spirit stones, grew from a deep veneration of nature shared by Confucian, Taoist and Buddhist thought; the stone stood for a mountain and the forces that shaped it. Gongshi divide into abstract stones, the classic scholar’s rocks of perforated, wrinkled and folded limestone, and representational stones that suggest a figure, a creature or a landscape. Each sits on a carved hardwood base cut to fit its underside exactly, the stand as much a part of the work as the rock.

Stone, crystal, agate and jade appear, along with mu gongshi carved from root wood, landscape crystals from China and stones from Tibet. Dark Lingbi and gray Taihu forms hold a silhouette against any wall. Set one on a walnut desk or a bathroom shelf: a mountain range, reduced to its argument.