Is it the Art of Bonsai, or Bonsai Art?
In a rather lengthly conversation back in 2004,
A
discussion about art came up. The question asked by Carl, “Is this art”? The Kusomono shown had all the earmarks of a very artistic Photo. A Pulitzer Prize winning photo.
Artistic Photo’s
My argument had to do with the photo being an artistic piece, while the grass planting taken out of the artistic and photo ready environment rendered the grass planting as wonderful craft. My point was seen as trying to somehow take away from this artistic Photo. When we look at a photo, we look at a place in time. The fourth dimension captured on film or disk.
Was the photo artistic?
Yes the photo was artistic.
Is the grass planting still artistic?
Who knows. For that moment, Carl captured a very evocative image on film. He created art with the photo, not the grass. He could have just as easily have planted the grass in the container the moment before he snapped the photo. ( I know he didn’t since I posted an earlier photo of the same composition) Carl made art with how he displayed not by how he grew it. The grass grows that way the world over, but not many people will have captured it on film the way he did. Living plants change all the time. Owners change, plants are not cared for in the same way. Bonsai are not looked at in the same way on the bench as they are in a photo.
Craftsmen or artist?
Consider the titles we give to many aspects of day to day life. The art of bee keeping, The art of beer making, The art of stamp collecting. While all these activities have “The art of” as a prefix, how much art is involved in the actual collecting of stamps. I think in this case as well as the two other examples I have given is in the way the three would be displayed. The art of a bee keeper may be the way he presents his finished product, the honey. The jars, the labels and the way it may be displayed at the local market. Maybe a special cap or a piece of comb in the jar, or a flower from which it was made. The beer maker may have a special bottle blown just for his beer. The label may be a piece of art work on its own and an ongoing, never changing package. The stamp collector may have special cabinets made with back lighting and glass shelves. There may be focal spotlights on very rare stamps. Now in each of these cases I have not mentioned the actual products in these examples. What if the honey is terrible, what if the beer is green and tastes terrible. What if the stamps came from an introductory grab bag of stamps from a toy store. It does not matter! The art is in the display. Oh granted a display is much better if all these things are in the proper order, like tasty beer, clear honey and valuable stamps. In the big picture it is not necessary to have the best to make a wonderful presentation. Would we do ourselves a favor by calling ourselves craftsmen of bonsai untill the proper artistic display is built. I have my feeling on this…. Its time I heard yours.
Yours most artistically, Al