Hi Fred,
Yours was an interesting and disturbing post, depending on how one chooses to take it. I notice that you make absolutlely no distinction between growing bonsai, shaping bonsai and, most importantly, displaying bonsai. Do you not recognize these distinctions or do you merely hold that they're unimportant?
You write:
"At the same time, I'm starting to think that something just as bad is happening in the West: The increasing "mystification" of Bonsai with a heavy overlay of complexity which results from thinking about Bonsai within the framework of Western art traditions."
I don't begrudge your opinion that such things are bad, but I hope that you do realize that to the extent that artistic conventions are discussed about bonsai, there is nothing different between "Western art traditions" and Japanese bonsai styling/display conventions. We (they and us) both are using the same conventions to achieve the same results; we merely describe the reasons differently (or not at all - disguising these conventions as "rules"). You may view these Western explanations to be overly-complex, but they're part of what makes art art.
I think that many have no regard for the fact that growing bonsai for personal pleasure is one thing, and exhibiting bonsai as art for others' enjoyment is something entirely different. What satisfies the one activity does not necessarily address the other activity. An excellent bonsai that is "exhibited" by just putting it on a table is a bonsai that is poorly displayed. Greatly unappealing and lacking the beauty and impact as compared to a mediocre bonsai that is exhibited well so as to tell a story and bring the viewer into the "world of that tree."
However, there is, I believe, a vastly important element of the Japanese definition of bonsai that westerners are largely unconcerned about or merely ignorant of - that of the importance of
wabi and
sabi. A friend of mine who is a long-time practitioner of Japanese arts points out, as top Japanese artists also cite, that bonsai is diminished greatly without embodying
wabi and
sabi. These elements are what make the Japanese arts Japanese. Now that bonsai is, as is widely agreed, no longer a Japanese are, but rather a worldwide art, it is diminished because so few "artists" are concerned with or aware of of these essential qualities.
I suggest that if you do not understand
wabi and
sabi, you are missing much what makes bonsai so impactful and engrossing. I dislike using esoteric terms in describing art, preferring to use widely understood conventions, but I have to agree with my friend that without these Japanese
"mystical, estoteric, complex" elements, bonsai is not only "not Japanese," it is also somewhat diminished.
Now, whether
wabi and
sabi are essential to merely the Japanese aesthetic or the "human" aesthetic is perhaps a matter for debate. But, though I say I dislike esoteric terms in discussing artistry, I use these basic Japanese terms now to help make a point - that if we're unfamiliar with the concepts embodied by these terms, maybe we're not so prepared to shoot down their necessity in our art. Just a thought.
Kind regards,
Andy Rutledge
www.andyrutledge.com/palaver/main.htm
zone 8,Texas