Contextual misperceptions in display

Treebeard

Recently I have been researching multi-element bonsai displays, and the thought has occured that there can be differing interpretations of such displays depending on culture and knowledge.

Some examples.

I might want to display a forest bonsai, depicting woodland scenery. I could use a scroll with a badger on it, because badgers live in woods. But, because of the association of badgers with Tanuki, might a viewer misinterpret the display?

I might want to plant a rolling hillside landscape, and I might want to allude to the chalk substrate under such rolling hills by using a very shallow white glazed pot. White signifies water in Penjing so again, might a knowledgable viewer misinterpret?

I might choose to set up a winter display. I might pick a plant that flowers in the winter as the image on a scroll, and display with a bare deciduous tree. People who do not know that the plant on the scroll blooms in winter could get confused.

Thoughts?

Regards,

Chris.

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mike_p

Chris, I would answer your questions by saying that you should let your art reflect your perceptions.
Thinking about this brought to mind something that happened at the GSBF 1987 convention in Southern California, the first time Kimura came to the U.S.
The story as I heard it. Kimura brought a friend with him who was, or is a suiseki master. Of course there was a stone display at the convention, and many of the stones came from California, Arizona and Nevada. The stones were a reflection of the land they came from. The master was less than impressed, to put in mildly.
After the convention, the 2 masters were taken on a tour of some of the country where the stones came from. When they saw the landscape, then they understood that our stones celebrated our landscape and our perception of it, as do their stones in Japan. They came to teach, and returned home having learned.
BTW, are you going to play with the English landscape photo and post the results? I'd like to see it, and learn how you did it.

Regards

Mike

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Penn State

I do see how some things that are no icons but multi-meaning symbols could confuse audiences when they view a display you've created. But i think that bonsai displays aren't like text books. One isn't trying to get a point across, one is displaying a thing of beauty. If i look at a 3 point display with a semi-cascade juniper that looks rugged, I might relate it to a rocky cliff back home that the owner (or person who created the display) might have never seen.

I think the display should reflect what you see in the tree, a place you can imagine. But that isn't necessarily what i'm going to imagine and feel. Sure we may agree on some basics, but when viewing trees the feelings i have are my own. The artist might be trying to ellicit these feelings, but he might not.

If i see a scroll with a tree that blooms in the winter, and i don't know this. It might not take away from the idea at all.

Well that wasn't very well written, and i don't think i got my point across. But all in things considered, I think that different interpretations are good. We don't all have the same eyes. What i see isn't going to be what you see. And i think that is A-O-K. So i guess i see how people from different backgrounds might imagine things differently, but in my book that is fine. Art isn't personal, but the feelings it ellicts are.

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Treebeard

Mike, thanks for your thoughts, and an interesting anecdote.

Penn, I understand what you're saying, thanks.

Regards,

Chris.

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"Do not be hasty, that is my motto"
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Treebeard

Just to clarify, I wasn't intending for this discussion to be specific to the examples I gave and to my own displays, but to displays in general and the problems thereof.

Of course, if no one has much to say on the subject then that's cool.

Regards,

Chris.

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-JRR Tolkien, The Two Towers.
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Alasdair

This thread has stimulated me into thinking, but i'm not quite sure what my brain is telling me.

Personally i think that you should put displays together based upon your interpretation of the image and the circumstances in which it is being displayed.

Taking the white tray; If you are putting a 3-point display together consisting of a willow, a pebble from a river and a scroll along the same lines, then the white tray is going to be water. But, if you use a scots pine, have a scroll with an alpine scene and a third object such as a block of ice then the white tray is going to be snow.

I think that the images portrayed should match the whole composition in such a way that anyone gazing upon it would be able to tell what it is. This way you have nothing to worry about when creating the display for a show or competition.

When it comes to having a display in your own home, do what you want! if you want a badger, have a badger. As the only people likely to visit you and see a display in your house people are of your own culture and local area, they would understand your display at first glance. Treebeard, if you used a badger in your display i would see why as i come from a part of england where there is plenty of woodland and badgers and foxes and moles and rabbits and kesrels so it would make sense with a woodland group.

Different images mean different things to different people. You should therefor put a display together based on the majority of your audience.

Just what i think.
Alasdair

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rockm

I think Chris has opened an interesting area of discussion.

I this what he's talking about is one of the "intangibles" that turns alot of people off of display, makes for scads of misinterpretations and needlessly clutters up the "art of display."

There is a veneer of "Japanese", or worse "mystical Asian" interpretation that interferes with many people's initial efforts in making a display. Infusing Japanese interpretations into everything misses the point of what's being done. The badger image is a good one to use. Who, outside of Japan, really associates a badger with a Tanuki? This is Japanese folklore that really has no bearing on a Westerner's, or Easterner's attempts to create art. The badger in the west doesn't carry any of the connotations it does in Japan. It is a symbol of wilderness in the U.S. and even something different in the U.K. It varies from place to place. Display, like politics, is local, I think.

The viewer, unless he/she is steeped in Japanese esoterica and is a bonsai purist, doesn't know, or care, what a tanuki is. They're in it for the feeling generated by the scene. That feeling is going to be very specific, depending upon who's doing the viewing and the feeling. I guess what I'm trying to say is, don't secondguess yourself because of the various cultural baggage that comes with some elements, unless, of course, you're aiming for a specific audience.

Alasdair

just going into the badger thing, i'm prety sure that it is the symbol of the british wildlife commission or something like that. Also, in the harry potter books it is the animal of hufflepuff, one of the houses. Nothing sinister here. If anyone knows why it is the japanese associate the badger with tanuki, would they let me know? i'm curious.

Thanks.

Edit: i've found the badger legend thingy. For anyone else who's interested...

http://www.onmarkproductions.com/ht...ki-story2.shtml

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I can feel another "I wish that was my tree" moment coming on...
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mike_p

I've posted this image before, but since it ties in to my previous comments, I'll post again.
I had this scroll painted by a Japanese artist in our local Japantown, especially to be used when displaying California junipers, which come from the Mojave desert.
In this display, the scroll evokes a desert landscape feeling, and the stone is complimentary. Nothing like this would be seen in Japan, but I think that the 2 gentlemen I referred to in my previous post would understand.
To put it into another context, maybe we need the eye of the child to help us understand. To illustrate, many years ago when my daughter was 3 or 4 years old, I showed her a picture painted by a modern artist whose name I've forgotten. I asked her what it looked like. She replied right away, "It's a man"
I showed her the same picture again when she was about 10. It made no sense to her.
Go figure!

Mike

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__________________
Bonsai is not a hobby.
Bonsai is a way of life.
MP@BBB Studio

There is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way
Gautama Buddha