Making sense of formal bonsai display

Carl_Bergstrom

Hello everyone,

Andy Rutledge has written an enlightening piece on the artistic logic behind the conventions of formal bonsai display.

http://www.andyrutledge.com/articles/landscapes.html

Enjoy!
Carl

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bmor

I think Andy did a very nice job of illustrating (pun intended) and narrating the considerations/perspective of bonsai display.

thanx Carl for posting that useful link.

Will_Heath

ART?

Did you say artistic? How dare you bring up such high handed, elitist, snobbish, thoughts on a bonsai forum? And just who does Andy think he is calling for artistic display? Next thing you guys will want is appropriate pots that bring out the best qualities in a bonsai. Will it never end?


Will

Attila

May be this is a good place to voice some of our questions, musings, opinions about the concept of the formal display. If Carl agrees, here is a question that I have, and not sure about the answer.

Since I don't have a japanese-style home, I wouldn't really be confortable to have a permanent formal japanese-style display in my house. I could do it once in a while, but it would allways be looked at as "exotica" or curiosity. However, replacing the scroll with a framed painting would go a long way to accomodate the taste of my family members.

Would the framed painting diminish the impact of the arrangement? Of course, it would have to be a painting that supports the centerpiece, which is the bonsai. I am not sure about the effect since I never tried it, but I wander what others think. Would that be blasphemy? It would be especially interesting to hear what the purists think?

Regards,
Attila

Carl_Bergstrom

Hi Attila,

I'm all for serious discussion of artistic display and artistic principles. So I think that would be great.



I suppose I count as one of the "purists," so here goes. My answer is basically that I struggle with the same thing. I don't have a place for formal display in my house either, and while I could build one I agree it would have this air of "exotica" if I did so.

So what to do?

While I don't have easy answers, perhaps it helps to explain why I have become something of a purist with regard to formal display. I advocate and appreciate formal display because it manifests a set of artistic principles to produce an overall composition that works. I don't feel that formal display is essential in the sense that without a tokonoma and a scroll the display is invalid --- but that said, I've yet to figure out exactly what would work as effectively.

I've thought about using a painting in this way; my feeling is that finding a Western form of formal display is unlikely to be as simple as merely replacing scroll with framed painting. For one thing, the strong vertical lines of the scroll are very important to the composition of the whole (I'm in the process of writing something about this; I'll try to say more soon.) So my guess is that it'll take a more extensive reworking of the display paradigm. I don't know what that reworking will be. I haven't found anything that works nearly as well yet, but I sure do keep looking. A big part of this, of course, simply requires studying formal display and composition theory so as to understand why formal display works in the first place.

Conversely, if your display functions artistically and compositionally as well as a formal display does, I'm certainly not going to dismiss it what for not having the traditional Japanese elements.

Best regards,
Carl

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mike_p

Would the framed painting diminish the impact of the arrangement? Of course, it would have to be a painting that supports the centerpiece, which is the bonsai. I am not sure about the effect since I never tried it, but I wander what others think. Would that be blasphemy? It would be especially interesting to hear what the purists think?

Regards,
Attila[/QUOTE]

Atilla, I believe that if the framed painting is appropriate to the display, then even the "pureistas" would approve. There's nothing sacred about a scroll. It's just another way to present and display graphic art.
Go for it, and post some pictures.

Regards

Mike

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rockm

The article is fine as far as it goes. However, the art of display is a very complex one. I understand the basics of it and enough to get me very confused. The accent plant; foreground--bonsai; middle ground-scroll; background is pretty fomulaic and followed strictly could be very limiting if considered the "only" way.

I think the Japanese contemplate display on a much more complex level. The plant doesn't necessarily have to be part of a scene, for instance. It can be aimed at creating a mood in the viewer and that doesn't necessarily have to do with scenery. In that case, the scoll could be a poel on life and death done in calligraphy, the accent plant a suiseki or even more abstract scholar stone used that looks like a man. The bonsai an old cracked plum tree. The context isn't a landscape, but life and death.

To create the same given mood, a Westerner might choose different objects and use them differently.

Also, the mood evoked by Japanese imagery viewed by a westerner could be directly opposite of what is intended, providing another wrinkle.

For instance, the image of cherry blossoms is much-used in Japan. However it's not because the flowers are beautiful and feminine. It's because they are fleeting. They die. Their short life and quick death for a greater beauty is what is admired, not the flower itself. The image of falling cherry blossoms also conjures up sacrifice and is associated with samurai. Here in the west, flowers are pretty and usually associated with the gentler sex. The connotations are different.

I'm not sure how this kind of thing translates in how a bonsai is displayed, but I do think that strictly adhering to the "Japanese" way limits how Westerners can "formally" display their trees.

Does that invalidate "formal" displays of bonsai in the Japanese tradition? Of course not, but it shouldn't be considered the end-all for bonsai display in the west.

Will_Heath

You are of course right in this statement Mike. However, we are not simply talking about displaying graphic art, instead we are talking about displaying that graphic art in relationship to the other objects in a formal display where the Bonsai is the centerpiece. As Carl pointed out, the strong vertical lines of a scroll is one of the reasons it works so well in a formal display.

Take away the bonsai and accent plant and you are correct.


Will

Carl_Bergstrom

Yes, Mark.

The beautiful thing about Andy's essay is that he finds a good starting place for people to start thinking about the art of display. Did you read the whole essay? It's very clear from Andy's questions at the end of the piece that he is not advocating a single formula, but rather he is challenging his readers to try out a certain way of thinking. His essay isn't the final word on display, it just a very shallow first dip into these artistic waters.

The challenge of traying to explain anything from the ground up is not just a matter of getting the details right, it's a matter of finding a starting point that allows you to move in a linear and directed manner into a complex and multidimensional subject. I applaud Andy for finding a clear and elegant way to make our first steps into this deep water seem far less frightening.

Best regards,
Carl

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