«The Great Game of Equilibrium»

Bookends

Materials:

bronze, silver, white jade, black jade, white marble, obsidian, jewelry enamel.

№ Н-21-09-395

In the wise silence of quietude and depth of thought — where motion is slower than the drift of clouds — two figures met: Confucius and Laozi. Two breaths of ancient China. Two perspectives on something that cannot be taught or expressed in words. One stands as the dawn over a grove of rites; the other – like the twilight over a river of emptiness.

The images of great sages were brought together by the jewellers at the House of Lobortas in a game played upon a xiangqi board. Each sacrificed their pieces — not for victory, but for the sake of Great Equilibrium. And here, a draw is not a defeat. It is wisdom.

Confucius, embodiment of order, gazes at the board, where sacrifice is not weakness, but the way to preserve honour. Laozi, embodiment of emptiness embracing form, bows not to win, but to let the world remain as it is. Their likenesses are rendered in minute detail, capturing the tension and serenity of the quest for the great equilibrium. Their breath curls through the clouds. In each line of those figures, the jewellers give form to a wisdom beyond winning — a quiet balance where superiority holds no meaning.

The Great Game of Equilibrium bookends hold not books, but the space between ideas — giving birth to the Universe across ninety cells.