HUGH MOSS (b.1943) Dancing with Unfettered Time The Inner Life of Strange Stones, no. 11, 2016HUGH MOSS (b.1943)Dancing with Unfettered Time The Inner Life of Strange Stones, no. 11, 2016Ink on cloud-dragon paper, with four seals of the artist. 95.5cm high x 185.5cm wide (37 1/2in high x 73in wide)The artist requests that the present lot be sold without reserve. 藝術家要求本拍品不設底價Hugh Moss (1943年生) 與無拘無束的時光共舞：奇石的內在生命，no.11 水墨紙本 鏡心 2016年作Inscription: Inside the Stone inhibition evaporates, revealed, if considered at all, to be no more than a vague memory of connected symbols that once seemed to mean something elsewhere. Inside the stone one dances freely, whether with a fellow stone eremite, an Immortal, a strange beast or alone. Although, of course, one is never alone in the Realm of the Stone; once the egoic self is transcended in the process of uniting with the stone there is no distinction between self and other and a myriad amiable companions await. Are they separate or aspects of the self? Ah! Beyond the Stage of Time questions evaporate as readily as inhibitions. Who will come dance with me? Inscribed by the Master of the Water, Pine and Stone Retreat, at the Garden at the Edge of the Universe in the Summer of 2016.Hugh Moss, also known as the Master of the Water, Pine and Stone Retreat occupies a unique position as both a highly respected dealer of Chinese art and a master of the literati tradition of ink painting. The present lot depicts what appears to be a mountain landscape, but in fact is in fact an imaginary representation of a scholar's rock. Scholar's rocks, placed on the desk, were indeed objects to meditate on and escape by imagining oneself in a mountain landscape.