LINES AND SURFACES

Firstly, I would like to draw your attention to a posting  by Lennart Persson in which he thoughtfully discusses the question of whether ikebana is art. I think this is of special interest to ikebanists who do large scale work including 'installations' of various kinds; for example, the works from the Melbourne International Flower and Garden show that I included in last week's posting. You will need to scroll down to Lennart's posting on Tuesday 31st March on his Nordic Lotus * blog.

I recently set my students the Sogetsu curriculum exercise of 'creating a surface with massed lines'. I think such curriculum exercises encourage us to see plant materials as having the potential for sculptural expression of our design ideas. This goes well beyond simply presenting the botanical materials in a naturalistic way.

Ellie used an unusually coloured amaranth and dietes leaves, in this two vessel arrangement.

Maureen used agapanthus stems, sticks painted a vivid blue that matched the suiban (shallow bowl) and a contrasting asiatic lily.

Christine used bullrush leaves in two vases she had made herself. She was interested to rotate the plane of the massed leaves from the highest point to the lower left. 

Below is an environmental sculpture of mine, "The way is barred (?)". It was created at Taylor Park Torquay.

In the coming week I will be participating in the preparations for an outdoor sculpture exhibition to take place at the Gasworks Art Park * in Melbourne, as well as at least three other well known ikebanists. I look forward to bringing you some photos from the exhibition in a future blog.

Greetings from Christopher

4th April 2015

* Click on the blue text for further information