Kiku and Kawana in the Big Apple

If you're in New York before November 16th you must visit the 2008 Kiku (Japanese Chrysanthemum) Flower Show at The New York Botanical Garden.

This years exhibition features a new bamboo installation by Tetsunori Kawana, installation artist and master teacher of Sogetsu ikebana. His work is closely related to the bamboo installations of the late Hiroshi Teshigahara, third iemoto of the Sogetsu school. For the installation at the Botanical Garden Kawana uses 300 pieces of 8 meter long madake bamboo. More than 30 volunteers helped assembling bamboo for the monumental installation. Kawana says he imagined a bamboo forest in the autumn mist while working on the sketshes. If you visit you can walk under the mist and experience the installation.

Tetsunori Kawana is also giving ikebana classes in The New York Botanical Garden in Januar. That would have been something! I'm arriving in New York the day after the last day of his class. What have I done to deserve this?

Tweet

Kawana in Moscow - Waterfall 2005

Nice video featuring Tetsunori Kawana, master teacher of the Sogetsu School, from his installation "Waterfall" in Moscow 2005. It's in Japanese and Russian but it's interesting to follow the construction of the installation even if you, like me, don't understand what they are saying. As usual Kawana works with a group of local volunteers on the construction.

More on Tetsunori Kawana here.

Tweet

Holiday Cinema 5: Kawana Demonstration in Camberra 2009

Video number 5 in my holiday cinema takes us to a more recent event. In this recording from 2009 Sogetsu master teacher and ikebana artist Tetsunori Kawana guides us through a 1.5 hour demonstration presenting nine stunning Ikebana arrangements and commenting as he works.

The sound is not the best (better with headphones) but the comments and the techniques demonstrated are really interesting, so it's well worth watching. My favorites are a nageire with autumn leaves and an arrangement without kenzan (at the end of the demonstration) in which Kawana uses branches with red berries, blue Iris and large with Chrysanthemum. Which is your favorite?

This video is a private recording of a demonstration at the Japanese Embassy in Canberra during autumn in 2009. It was uploaded to YouTube by Ping Block, an Ikebana teacher in Canberra, Australia, who also assists in the demonstration. Please visit her website Ikebana with Ping.

If you still want more after this long recording, Tetsunori Kawana was back for a second demonstration in 2013 and you can see the video by clicking on this link.

Tweet

Kawana Video NYC

I was too late to see the Tetsunori Kawana bamboo installation in The New York Botanical Garden, but I found this video on YouTube. It's a documentation of the process of putting the bamboo sculpture together, as well as some background information on Kawana and his work - pretty interesting. Kawana is a Sogetsu ikebana teacher and a renowned artist.

Tweet

Whimsical bamboo sculpture - Maymont Japanese Garden

This video gives another example of bamboo installation ikebana. You may also want to have a look at these earlier blog posts for a background on the subject:
Open-Air Calligraphy
Kawana in Moscow - Waterfall 2005
Five Elements: Water
Kawana Video NYC

"In celebration of the 100th anniversary of Maymont's Japanese Garden, artist Midori Tanimune and a group of Ikebana of Richmond volunteers created "Passages," a whimsical bamboo sculpture, in the garden. The temporary exhibit is on display September 21 through mid-October 2012. Tanimune is in the Sogetsu School of Ikebana, the art of Japanese flower arrangement. Sogetsu Ikebana use unconventional materials alongside fresh flowers, and follow a philosophy that arrangements can be created anytime, anywhere, by anyone in any part of the world and with any kind of material."

I also found this blog that gives a charming portrait of Midori Tanimune.

Tweet

Five Elements: Water

I found a new video with ikebana artist Tetsunoru Kawana on YouTube. Remeber the guy that made the bamboo installation in The New York Botanical Garden last winter? This is from an installation work by Kawana earlier this year in Melbourne, Australia. Again - it's all bamboo and created with the help of local volontaires. This one is named "Five elements: Water".

Tweet

Congrats LA!

Members of the Sogetsu Los Angeles branch celebrates their 25th anniversary this year. Earlier this month I had the pleasure of joining the festivities at their anniversary luncheon at Omni Hotel. It was great to be part of such a large gathering of ikebana enthusiasts. And I was so happy to finally get to see an ikebana live demo with their special guest Tetsunori Kawana. Especially since I have been a few days too early or too late to attend his demonstrations in New York at earlier occasions.

Kawana Sensei made at least ten large arrangements in vases with different kinds of branches and flowers before the finally; a Flo'Work arrangement with Cherry blossoms taking up most of the stage. I'm posting two photos of the Flo'Work arrangement so that you can get an idea of the working process. The first photo is of the structure of branches working as a skeleton for the different kinds of branches and flowers that were added to form the finished arrangement, shown in the second photo. Some of the branches were fixed to the structure with an electric drill, others were just sticked into the arrangement. Pretty impressive. I actually like the look of the bare structure even more than the finished work.

Tweet

Believing in the Power of Flowers 3

Here are more favorites from the Sogetsu exhibition "Believing in the Power of Flowers". The first three arrangements are all by iemoto Akane Teshigahara.

The next one is a pine arrangement in an enormous ceramic vase by the 3rd iemoto Hiroshi Teshigahara. I didn't get who made this ikebana for the exhibition, but it was created to honor Hiroshis efforts as iemoto.

This last arrangement is by master teacher Tetsunori Kawana. If you take a closer look at it you may notice that it has been put together by different parts of a pine tree in a quite advanced way. I especially like the way he's been using resin to glue dry twigs into an artistic shape balancing the fresh green part of the branch.

Tweet

Tanjou - A Sculpture of Rebirth

Tetsunori Kawana is back with a new sculpture at The New York Botanical Garden:

Tweet

Land Art and Ikebana

Land Art and ikebana both acquires studying nature. It has been said that while ikebana is inspired by nature Land Art works nature. I'd say the difference is not that obvious anymore since modern ikebana has moved quite a bit in the direction of sculpture and Land Art.

A few years ago Stichting Kunstboek published a series of three photo books with ikebana arrangements by contemporary ikebana artists around the world. The second book titled Contemporary Ikebana (2008) presented group work with an emphasis on Land Art projects.

In the preface Mit Ingelaere-Brandt, Sogestu ikebana teacher from Belgium, elaborates on the relation between Land Art and ikebana, stating that change and the interaction between the work and its surroundings are essential aspects in the experience of landscape art. This requires studying nature very carefully with an observance similar to that of the ikebana artist.

"The freedom of expression and monumentality so typical for Land Art, and the disciplined delicacy of traditional ikebana, go hand in hand. By making very subtle changes in the surrounding nature, by accentuating, adding and taking away small elements, the character of the work is often changed and the impact of the piece can be altered dramatically. Shifting emphasis and minimal adjustments in the landscape manage to catch, for an instant, the ever wandering eye of the beholder. In this way ikebana leads to deeper, more spiritual and contemplative consideration and understanding of nature and life in general."

Mit Ingelaere-Brandt is an experienced ikebana teacher and has taken seminars with Sogetsu artist Tetsunori Kawana, Land Art artists Helen Escobedo (Mexico) and Bob Verschueren (Belgium), among others.

The book Contemporary Ikebana can roughly be divided in large–scale Land art compositions and smaller installations. It contents 200 photographs of nearly sixty Ikebana groups of thirteen nationalities.  It's a heavy coffee table book with nice photos and many inspiring works. The book can still be bought from Amazon. Note that the US edition has a different front cover.

Contemporary Ikebana
Introduction by Mit Ingelaere-Brandt
Stichting Kunstboek, 2008

ISBN: 9789058562692,  ISBN-13: 9789058562692

Tweet

Open-Air Calligraphy

Bamboo, chestnut tree branches, hemp rope and books are the materials used in this land art installation in the garden of Noailles Mediatheques in Cannes.

The exhibition called Open-Air Calligraphy is up until September 30th, featuring works by Cannes based artist Bernard Abril. Abril has been labeled an Arte Povera artist. "Using bamboo and creating life-size poetic configurations, Bernard Abril indirectly sets his sheer slender shapes in the landscape like calligraphic forms."

Bamboo and Calligraphy can be seen as references to eastern cultures. Bamboo has been used a lot in ikebana, both traditional and modern. Hiroshi Teshigahara, third iemoto of the Sogetsu School, was famous for his large installations made from split bamboo. After him, artists like Tetsunori Kawana have continued working in this tradition, often integrating his works in outdoor environments.

Exhibitions like Open-Air Calligraphy raises questions about the influences between different creative traditions, and about the identities of art forms. What if the artist behind this exhibition were a trained ikebana artist? Would you consider it ikebana?

Opening hours:

Noailles Mediatheques in Cannes
Garden open 7am-7pm (except Sundays and public holidays)
Free entry. Telephone: 04 97 06 44 90 

Tweet