Last week I had intended to mention that the Sogetsu installation at the Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show could be thought of as a large scale version of a 'no kenzan' arrangement in the Sogetsu style.
The emphasis in this case is on the vertical lines with a focal mass placed high in the arrangement.
Here is an example I have shown before. I made this 'no kenzan' ikebana at a workshop I gave in New Zealand four years ago. This practise of making an arrangement in a suiban without using a kenzan is one of the exercises in the Sogetsu curriculum. A closely related exercise is 'Showing or emphasising lines at the base' of the arrangement.
In both of these exercises the space created within the suiban becomes important and draws attention to the surface of the water. In the Sogetsu School it is permissible to use a variety of fixing techniques, including wiring, as long as the fixing is very discreet and not noticeable.
One of the events at Ikebana International Melbourne's 60th celebrations a week ago was a members'-only workshop given by Mr Naohiro Kasuya, the Iemoto of the Ichiyo School. His topic was an arrangement in a suiban 'without using a kenzan'.
Interestingly, this turned out to be a subtle distinction. The Iemoto asked us to think about the exercise as making an ikebana arrangement in a suiban, or other shallow vessel, in which we were using nageire techniques. That is, the sort of fixing techniques usually used in tall vessels. Then photo above shows the Iemoto critiquing one of the participants.
All of the workshop attendees were given 4 or 5 stems of tortuous willow, salix matsudana, and then were able to choose flowers to use as an accent in the arrangement.
In my arrangement I have curved the bottoms of the stems to create arches which I braced against the sides of the traditional-style ceramic suiban. I wanted the curves to reflect the circular form of the suiban and also create an open space to show the water surface. I finally added three stems of white snapdragon, antirrhinum, which also curved well to follow the lines in the arrangement.
Greetings from Christopher
6th April 2019
Thank you to Helen Mariott for the photo of the Iemoto.
No comments:
Post a Comment