In a 1993 essay on the relation between television and contemporary fiction*, David Foster Wallace mentions the recent "wider shift in U.S. perceptions of how art was supposed to work, a transition from art's being a creative instantiation of real values to art's being a creative rejection of bogus values."

Wallace goes on to describe how ideas such as "sincerity" and "passion" have been undercut by a new hip and disaffected sensibility.

Which brings me to my question. We've been talking a lot about bonsai as art, lately. When I think of bonsai art, I think of "creative instatiation of real values", of "sincerity", and of "passion." I don't think of hip cyncism or cutting irony.

So am I missing something? Are bonsai artists creating the sorts of artistic works that speak to these latter ideas? And if not, is that to the advantage of bonsai as an artform (in that it avoids false idols of contempory pseudoartistic fashion) or to its disadvantage (in that it is unable to move beyond an outdated sentimentalism based on positive affirmation of supposedly real values)?

I'd be very interested to hear your thoughts. And as often is the case, a picture would be worth a truckload of words. Any pictures of ironic bonsai, successful or otherwise?

Best regards,
Carl

Edit: Before someone else mentions it, one could claim that crash bonsai is an effort at irony. Though if irony is the aim here, I fear that is carried out with all the subtlety of a Mountain Dew commercial.

For its part, Lisa Tajima's pop bonsai is much better executed and indeed reflects a hip irreverence. But I think Lisa's work is too playful and much too kind-spirited to qualify as the expression of the sort of cynical disaffected irony that dominates contemporary artistic film and fiction.

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"E Unibus Pluram: Television and U.S. Fiction," reprinted in Wallace (1997) A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again.

Very interesting observation, and a tough one to answer.

I was so intrigued by it that the question in the back of my mind is distracting from my work, so I have to get it off my chest.

First I thought that the lack of any kind of social criticism, using satire, irony, or rebellion in the world of bonsai just shows that bonsai as art is not as sophisticated as the other artforms.

A good excuse would be the limitation of the medium we work with. But I don't really buy that. Human imagination has no boundaries, so if you really wanted, you could express any idea using plants and rocks.

Then it occured to me that there are other art movements expressing a world similar to what bonsai does.

Take romanticism. Romantic landscape painting, romantic music, romantic films. Idealizing the world around us. Romantic art takes us out of the drabness of daily reality into a magical world full of mystery and beauty. It can be just a sophisticated as realism, cubism, etc, as long as it doesn't cross the line into the realm of kitsch. And believe me, many claimed to be romantic artists do cross the line.

So this is the group where I think bonsai belongs to today. The mindset of a bonsai enthusiast is to seek beauty and relaxation. Starting from this premise, irony is just not what we are looking for. The ideals we are seeking to express are not outdated or old fasioned, they are simply eternal. They exist in our minds since we became humans.

Regards,
Attila

Having said the above, I would love to see bonsai expressing other that the majesty of nature. I think it would be a step forward. In fact, you planted something in my mind, that it didn't occur to me before (you know, the bonsai "taboos" and rules make it a little harder to think out of the box). But in the future, I think I will consider anything I do with my trees with a more open mind.

Thanks for the idea

Attila

Carl,
Great thread. It took me a couple of times (5 I think) to read through this post and comprehend it. So I think I understand what you are getting at. You are asking for an example of bonsai that "move beyond an outdated sentimentalism based on positive affirmation of supposedly real values" I can't find a picture of it, but wouldn't Nick Lenz' "Root over bowling ball" fall into this category? Or do I have it completely wrong? If so please explain it to me a little more.

Thanks
Adam

Hi Adam,

Now I should stress something. I don't necessarily agree that bonsai needs to "move beyond an outdated sentimentalism based on positive affirmation of supposedly real values". I simply chose these words as an attempted paraphrase of some who might criticise bonsai art as ineffectual what for being overly romantic.

That said, Nick's "Root over bowling ball" and some of his other more irreverent work might be as good an example as any.

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Attila,

Well said. I agree with pretty much 100% of your post, but could not have expressed it so well myself. Thank you.

Best regards,
Carl

Carl, wow! This is one of those thoughts that really get me going.

Course, maybe Attila is on the right track by pointing out that Bonsai represents ethernal ideals.

Now, if I can just figure out what ethernal ideals are!

More will follow as soon as I can stop laughing about "ethernal ideals"!

Fred

Come on Fred, don't make fun of my spelling (I edited to correct it).

I meant "eternal", meaning: everlasting, being around forever.

Now stop laughing!

Dang, Crow, this could be a masters thesis topic!

But I think that the "creative rejection of bogus values" and irony of modern art is all about humans, and bonsai is not all about us.

It's all about nature, or at a stretch our relationship with nature. The presence of nature removes the self-centered irony of modern art, IMHO.

Perhaps bonsai can be used as "a neotraditional reaction to, and thus doubly-ironic inversion of, the ironic modernist's creative rejection of bogus values, through a reassertion of a sincere and value-laden paradigm."

do I get my degree now?

pootsie

Damn, Pootsie! Have you read Wallace's essay too? This is more or less what Wallace is proposing as the artistic escape from the barrenness of irony (which he claims is great in a cultural emergency but ultimately unfulfilling when it becomes the dominant expressive theme over the course of several decades). Wallace suggests that we'll need artistic risk-takers, but in this case, that the risk will be the risk of being rejected as naive or sentimental for one's affirmation of sincere and genuine values.

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Interesting comments about irony and self-centeredness. I think you may be on to something there. Thanks!

Best regards,
Carl

Thanks, Mr. Crow!

My long-winded psuedo-intellectual stuff there was intended to be ironic (how ironic is that?) since I like to make fun of intellectuals (while still demonstrating that I can keep up, teehee).
But there's a real point in there I think.

You don't see a lot of irony in artworks dedicated to the glory of god, the magnificence of nature, or true human love.

You do see a lot of irony in the self-reflective whiny crud dedicated to the proposition that modern urban artists feel isolated and mistreated when they don't take their prozac

I haven't read Wallace, but if he's ready for a change in modern trends, I'm with him!

Hence, I love bonsai. To me, when I see a bonsai that I consider a work of art, it removes me from thinking about my self or humans at large, and brings me to a place where I can see that we are but a small part of the grand plan. Sincere indeed, and phooey to the artists that sneer at such sincerety

pootsie