The big event this week was the participation by the Melbourne Chapter of Ikebana International in a community arts program at the National Gallery of Victoria, as part of a major contemporary art exhibition called Melbourne Now. Five ikebana schools presented works in the 'community hall' that has been created in the foyer of the art gallery. There are some photos that I took during the event on the Ikebana International blog, unfortunately the environment was exceptionally difficult for taking satisfactory photos. As you can see in the photo below, that I took a week earlier, the foyer is dominated by a very large 'waterwall window'. So, presenters and their ikebana were silhouetted when standing at the bench in the centre of this image.
However, in spite of this there was a great response from the viewing audience and the works were beautiful. In the afternoon session my colleague Emily Karanikolopoulos and I each exhibited a freestyle arrangement and then demonstrated a 'basic upright' and a 'basic slanting' arrangement. We then invited members of the public to make an arrangement with materials that we had prepared in advance. This was enthustically taken up by about 14 people.
Below are photos taken later at home of our freestyle arrangements. The first is a quirky Christmas arrangement by Emily using two agave leaves in a silver bowl.
My arrangement features dried flower stems from agave and massed Yate (eucalyptus lehmannii) open flowers, buds and seed pods. The ceramic box shaped vessel is by Yutaka Nakamura.
Seasons Greetings from Christopher
22nd December 2013
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