MOONSquare
We all know what happens to mooncake tins after the mooncakes are eaten. They become treasure boxes of small things, memories, and a preserver of wishes. What can take shape in the space of a mooncake tin? In our annual open call group show, Think!Chinatown asked our community of artists to use mooncake tins as the starting point for new works of art dedicated to the spirit of the mooncake tin.
This year, our incredible community of artists have reinterpreted mooncake tins in so many exciting ways… from ceramics to film photography to needle felting and more!
Learn more about each piece below and participate in the silent auction later in December.
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“Food serves as a powerful conduit for cultural feelings, evoking memories and traditions that shape our identities, especially in diasporic communities where relationships can be weakened by a loss of language and reduced contact with cultural norms. Not only does food satisfy hunger, but it also fosters a deep sense of belonging and connection, transcending time and place.
The piece features traditional Mid-Autumn Festival dishes, such as pomelos, duck, and lotus root, alongside modern additions like snow skin mooncakes, which first emerged in Hong Kong in the 1960s. Housed in a mooncake tin wrapped like a gift, these foods symbolize important ties to cultural identity, particularly within Chinese overseas communities. Just as mooncakes are exchanged to celebrate connections and heritage, this piece encapsulates the idea that culinary traditions and shared moments are treasured memories that endure across generations.”
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“This is ongoing derivative work from tiny grains, a photographic document of Manhattan's Chinatown from covid until the return to ‘normalcy’.”
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“My ancestors immigrated to Mulberry Street at the turn of the 20th century. I've lived full-time in the Chinatown-Little Italy neighborhood for the past 30 years and am the last generation of my family to do so. I’m grateful for the multicultural artistic inspiration the area has provided me throughout my life. I work in many art mediums, but my favorite creations are my small, upcycled pieces housed in sardine cans, jar lids, and tin boxes, called House Blessing Shrines. They bring luck, protection, and prosperity to homes and businesses, containing elements that help manifest goals, and attract love and abundance. Depending on the creation or commission, they contain elements from various cultures, such as nazars, horseshoe charms, and cornutos.This repurposed mooncake tin lid was gifted to me, and inside, I’ve created a House Blessing Shrine. The shrine features a familiar Neko Cat at the center, a local business staple. I’ve added other upcycled elements from the neighborhood, including sequined flowers from house slippers, painted embellishments from discount stores, vintage decorations, and a Lunar New Year envelope, collaged within a plastic butter container lid. The tin comes from a closed bakery from the past. The good luck message is to all, for the future.”
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“As a child, my dad would drive us to my aunt’s house in Queens to celebrate 中秋節. On the way back, it always seemed as if the moon was following us back home. And so with my dad’s CDs playing in the background, we would race: us versus the moon. This is how I would fall asleep every time, Teresa Tang playing in my ear, the moon in my periphery, and parents right in front. In my mind, we always made it home before the moon. Although Chinese was my first language, I’ve found myself forgetting much of it as an adult. Though it has been difficult for me to retain fluency, I will always remember falling asleep to those lyrics in the car.
Continuing the use of mooncake tins as memory boxes, I made my own memory box. In mine, I created a night sky reminiscent of what the world looked like outside my dad’s car window as a child. With the same CDs my dad played in the car, I crafted a moon mosaic. It hangs on a piece of string to give it movement. Memory can be so ephemeral, so it is fitting to me that his favorite songs live on forever on the moon and are given a physical location. It is also a reminder to me that language is not always about fluency, but about connection and care as well.”
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“My artwork "Mirror Blooms ~ Water Moon" reflects my past (through sepia toned analog photos of my life growing up in Hong Kong); my present (experience as AAPI photojournalist) and my future (dreams and aspirations of a world empowered).”
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“My ongoing process acts as a channel of my experiences. Growing up partially in a Chinese orphanage and later adopted into an American family, unpredictable moments were felt to be reflected in found materials. Owing to my constant curiosity about the world of unknown, I pursued experimentation. The results can be unappealing or alienating. In my work, I hope to express the uncertainties and reveal the way it affects our daily choices and create an intuitive form of visual poetry.”
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“Translation cannot be a direct one-on-one form of communication. It has no cultural context. With a one-to-one translation, the nuances within the form of communication would be altered, misleading, or misinterpreted. Translation needs human input, biases, and all.
This piece is an interpretation of “The Legend of Cuội,” one of the Vietnamese folklore celebrated during the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival, that I translated from my father reading aloud to me in his native tongue. With my limited Vietnamese language skills, I wrote an English translation that became a graphic representation. “A picture is worth a thousand words,” and with my written text only 400 words, I wanted to convey the story in a single image. The essence of the narrative, the setting, the characters, the relationship with nature - and connections to existing stories - Adam & Eve, Three Bears, Man on the Moon - all remained. It becomes a question of accuracy.
The translation from written text form to graphic imagery, the distillation of the story into visual elements, and the decisions on graphical representation.
Every translation affects the reading of the story; the current translator imbues their perspective.”
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“I keep trying to make the perfect pot, and my idea of that keeps changing. Along the way I’ve been making some that aren’t bad, so I set up in city parks to find new homes for them.”
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“This piece reimagines traditional mooncakes using felting wool and googly eyes, blending whimsy with cultural. The soft texture invites interaction, while the playful eyes give each mooncake a unique personality. Together, they create a sense of play and warmth, reminding us that art can celebrate tradition while bringing comfort and delight.”
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“The Mid-Autumn Moon Festival is a time to celebrate our loved ones. With this artwork, a heart as full as the moon rises into the night sky full of stars while surrounded by a rainbow flock of cranes, which are considered signs of auspiciousness and longevity. There are also silver lilies in the piece since these flowers represent harmony and unity.”
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“In "Happy Lunar Year of the Dragon," I celebrate the vibrant spirit of the Mid-Autumn Festival through a dynamic 3D composition that captures the essence of renewal and prosperity. The dragon, a symbol of strength and good fortune, glides through a wave of shimmering blue and gold hues, embodying the elegance and majesty of this mythical creature.
At the heart of the piece, a large golden moon casts a warm glow, surrounded by an intricate floral frame, inviting viewers to explore the intricate relationship between nature and culture. The layered cutouts, crafted from cardstock, evoke the fluidity of water, while the backdrop of recycled dark blue paper serves as a nod to sustainability.
The dragon's body, constructed from yellow cotton and adorned with layers of netting, creates a rich interplay of color and texture, while cotton cords provide dimension, giving life to its sinuous form. The dragon’s head, painted in acrylics and detailed with wispy cords and bead eyes, gazes eastward, embodying hope and new beginnings. Light blue clouds above add a touch of whimsy and movement.
Using a mooncake tin as a foundation for this mini 3D sculpture symbolizes the unity of tradition and creativity. Through this work, I invite viewers to embrace the endless possibilities that the Mid-Autumn Festival inspires, celebrating heritage, joy, and togetherness.”
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“Through my work, I’m creating a fictionalized material history for my mixed-race, white and Chinese/Taiwanese American family. My pieces are the set dressing of our saga, examining the memories, generational baggage, happiness, and confusion of diaspora. My work is a public diary of navigating and marrying opposites: east and west, traditional and modern, nostalgia and grief, childlike wonder and adult cynicism.
I create pieces in a variety of mediums and forms: rug tufting, needle felting, weaving, and ceramics. But a through line is paying homage to my culture and lineage by referencing traditional Chinese handicrafts. I reference motifs and symbolism from Buddhist incense urns, embroidered Emperor’s robes, fine ceramics, Taiwanese temples, and folk art.
I’ve begun making miniature needle felted worlds whose scenery is modeled after embroidered tapestries and illustrations of Chinese myths and fairy tales. Each world is an entire vivid memory condensed. These pieces explore how memory is imperfect and is always a fictionalization, a story we tell ourselves.For this piece, Leopard Badge, I recreated an extant rank badge as a miniature needle felted diorama inside of a mooncake tin. Tins like these are often used to store supplies once they’re initial sweets have been eaten, but I always use mine to store memorabilia. The scene is a childhood memory preserved and kept safe inside the walls of the tin. You can tuck the memory away under your bed for safekeeping, and pull it out whenever you want to reconnect to times past and places faraway.”
Artwork not for sale
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“This assortment of mooncakes celebrates their capacity to connect us to our collective memory of events, people, and time. Geographic and gastronomic fragments of Chinatown were reassembled into my “emotional maps” of the city, inscribed onto the face of a mooncake just like the secret messages of the past. Each cake presents a unique theme: growth from belonging to institutions and a community, rejuvenation from pausing in parks and plazas, and nourishment from sharing communal dishes. One may spot familiar figurations: Seward Park High School, Columbus Park Pavilion, and other landmarks alongside much-loved dim sum. These cakes are my memory boards; they do not map addresses, but my interior journeys through the neighborhood.”
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“In Chinese mythology, the Jade Rabbit is Chang O's companion on the moon meant to provide the Moon Goddess with comfort and prevent loneliness. In this piece, I wanted to highlight the Jade Rabbit as we all need a companion to help us get through the lonely and dark times. In my piece, the Jade Rabbit is interpreted through the artistic style of Pointilism which up close may not look clear, but from a distance the image is sharp and clear. This is similar to how we view the moon as a round smooth surface from a distance, but up close is full of craters and valleys. This work is created with acrylic paint, diamond dust, colored crystals and a used mooncake tin. I hope you find this piece to be a source of comfort and peace!”
A look back at MOONSquare 2023
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"Autumn Moon is Hibernating : See You Next Year" by Bonita Lei
"My 2023 MOONSquare artwork represents artifiacts from my past, a 2024 wall calendar pages decorated with my Hong Kong and NYC Chinatown photos; all contained in a yellow mooncake box."
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"Celestial Confection" by Felicia Yao
"While [mooncakes] have been considered a specialty treat for thousands of years, there has been, in recent years, a boom in “luxury mooncakes.” The missing piece of 'Celestial Confection' is meant to ask the viewer to pause for a moment, and to be mindful in the face of today’s relentless pressure to commercialize."
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"Found & Been Found" by Pamela Kwong
"Found & Been Found is a collection of notes and snail mail I've received for the past few years with an addition of ephemera and stickers I love. Every interaction with friends and family has inspired me to become true and brilliant. These interactions reflect upon the nights of folding stars, coming from my summer 2019 journal entries and flower wrapping paper I cut up into strips."
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"Let's eat!"
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"Mid-Autumn / 中秋" by John Cheng
"This collage piece is created to illustrate the Mid-Autumn's characters - 中秋 to celebrate the festival. I recreated the full moon with a recycled plastic dome painted with glow-in the dark yellow paint and glued it in the middle (中), with cotton balls as clouds that runs across it and within the moon. The character Autumn (秋) is shaped by maple-leaf-shaped paper crafts, illustrating Autumn and its signature fall leaves."
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"Mooncake Bunny 2023" by Elim Mak
"Mooncake Bunny 2023 is inspired by the mystical Jade Rabbit who is the sole companion of Chang’e, the Moon Goddess in Chinese mythology. As a child I was obsessed with stuffed animal dolls, especially rabbits. As an artist I enjoy the tactile experience of making one-of-a-kind handsewn dolls that symbolize the transitional space of play, imagination, inspiration, and creation."
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"Pau Pau's knitting" by Christine Wong
"This Maxim's snowskin mooncake tin is perfect for storing both noodles and yarn shares a memory from my childhood of my Pau Pau (maternal grandmother) teaching my sister and I how to knit at a family dinner in a restaurant in Hong Kong."
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"Rabbit Lanterns Celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival 兔" by Sharlene Chou
"In everything I do I try to challenge myself to perfection. As to fabric constructions, paper cutting to mixed media, I have done hundreds of designs. These projects present people around world. I want to show people, especially the young ones that those designs are all beautiful and that we are all living on the same earth, so be friendly to each other."
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"tiny grains work in progress" by Edward Cheng
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"Tribute to Teresa Teng" by Edward Kai Chiu
"My intention for this piece was to create an elegant sculptural work, elevating the mooncake tin into something ethereal and timeless, both qualities embodied by the music of Teresa Teng. In her song 'The Moon Represents My Heart', the moon is a reflection of her love, which inspired this piece. I hope that people can look at this piece and reflect on the Love and Beauty they have inside."
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"Warmth of Love" by Sydney Lee
"This piece was inspired by a recent nature trip taken in Utah. I was born into the year of the rabbit so it felt fitting to have two together to symbolize the love between two (rabbits) sharing moon cakes which symbolizes the way Asians show love, through food."
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"海上升明月 (Moon Rising Above the Sea)" by Xin Lian
"Moving water is a motif and metaphor for the condition of constant transformation as in the process of drawing. My work serves as my attempt to investigate and to reflect on our relationship with a fluctuating world, and on the remnant of events and energy."
