AN ONLINE EXHIBITION

There was much excitement and rejoicing in the household this week with the return of "Spike", the Echidna, to the garden. Spike had not been seen since early in the year. 

Wednesday was especially warm and sunny. Undoubtedly the warm weather contributed to Spike's appearance.

Of course our garden is especially attractive as there is no grass to be mown. Only ground covers and a lot of leaf and bark mulch which is home to ants and many other small insects. This second photo was taken two days later. I surprised Spike who had been digging for ants where there is a nest below two of these rocks.

*          *          *          *          *

In September, the Victorian Branch of the Sogetsu School had planned to join Wa Ikebana Melbourne for an exhibition at the Abbotsford Convent. However, it became another Covid casualty and had to be cancelled. Undeterred, the organising committee decided to change presentation and move to an online exhibition. Many of the participants had already partially, or fully, prepared their work.

I had begun my preparation in late August when I noticed some branches on a "Manchurian Pear", Pyrus ussuriensis, that I predicted would be pruned this season. With permission, I cut two strong vertical branches that I thought would make a good framework and stored them in a bucket of water. 

Some weeks later when I began to prepare my main framework I noticed that a single, very small, flower had opened.

This is the structure I created by placing the two branches with their growing ends toward each other and interlocking the side branches. The size of the structure was suitable to use with one of my large vessels, a ceramic half-pillow, created by Graeme Wilkie.

I wanted to have it floating above the vessel. The length of the structure was too great for the width of my back-drop; so in this image it is angled away from the camera.

Here is the finished work. I have added a large mass of Golden Wattle, Acacia pycnantha, blossom, placing it within the cage of the framework. In 'real life' this rather sculptural ikebana worked; however I was not happy with the photograph. 

Frustrated but determined, I proceeded to "Plan B". Placing the structure in a large cylinder, also by Graeme Wilkie, worked better as a photograph because it is does not recede from the camera plane so much.

The online alternative exhibition (mentioned above) is called "From Melbourne" and can be viewed through this link.

Greetings from Christopher.

2nd October 2021