A Textmas Card 4 U

                                                                                  Photo by R Allen-Sherwood 201

Hello everyone, I'm back. It's been quiet due to a few unforeseen circumstances that needed my full and undivided attention. Thank you for your continuing patience and faith in this blog. (And for your kind messages)

I'll be back in January, to pick up where I left off - on my favourite topic of space and things related,.

In the meantime, have yourselves the Merriest Christmas & a joyous New Year 2015!  

Skies can't keep secrets / Spencer Finch

"The Skies Can't Keep Their Secret " Spencer Finch             (photo R, Allen-Sherwood)

Went to the Turner Contemporary in Margate recently and was enchanted by the light & space themed work, of artist Spencer Finch.  (My picture doesn't really do it justice.)

Using the wide open airy spaces of the building as his point of departure, he weaves together the simplest of materials to create an installation which exudes a delicate and ethereal sense of "being". As the setting sun streams light rays into the room the tones and shadows in the work subtly shift and change....... 

Perhaps a time-lapse video of the final 'Grey Out' might have helped those of us who don't have time to stay and watch the changes happen in real time? Just a thought.

The artist speaks about the thoughts behind the work here.

Rilke's Space-motion

Dancing Trees                                                 photo: R. Allen-Sherwood 2014

"These trees are magnificent, but even more magnificent is the sublime and moving space between them, as though with their growth it too increased.”  Rilke

Blank paper. Empty mind

Chinese rice paper

The recent talk I gave about the art and practice of Shodo (at Mirfield monastery), has inspired me to return to the origin of my own work. Back to blank paper, fude ink brush, empty mind and the word.

My training word is "Ku", the Japanese character for emptiness or the void. To see more images, click  here.

Space, Art & Quiet Gardens

The theme of CR Oswin Gartside's talk at Mirfield Monastery. Space!

Statue of Kuya, a Buddhist monk

Fr. Oswin Gartside

*Image from my talk. This is Shoko Kanazawa writing kanji with help from her mother

One of my own ink works from my art residency at the monastery in 2012

*Contemplative use of sumi ink by Thich Nhat Hanh

A thank you offering that was given to me after my talk. My first one ever..

Mirfield Monastery main building

A teepee I found on the grounds! It was being readied for a wedding

Inside the teepee

Monastery grounds

One of many paths on the 23 acres of land surrounding Mirfield Monastery

These are some pictures from my recent talk at the Quiet Garden day at Mirfield Monastery. It was interesting and quite eye opening to hear Fr. Oswin Gartside's talk about Japanese art and space from his point of view. I learned a lot about the history of Japanese art through the eyes of the "hidden Japanese christians" during the persecution era.

I myself am not Christian, but having lived much of my life in Japan, my section of the talk focused on introducing the Japanese concept of space through the culture of Sumi ink and Shodo.

It was a thoroughly enjoyable experience. Thank you so much to Mirfield Monastery for inviting me.

 Note: *Asterisk marked images of Thich Nhat Hanh & Shoko Kanazawa courtesy of internet.

Edible Zen Garden

I'm off to the monastery for the workshop. I leave you with this wonderful idea I came upon, courtesy of the folks at  Spoon & Tamago    Edible Zen garden. Who knew! 

See you soon.

Shodo: 100 Ways to Wield an Ink Brush

"Surrender"  Pop up exhibition  (Sumi ink, mixed media)  R. Allen-Sherwood 2012

The brothers of Mirfield Monastery  - (where I did a month-long artist residency in 2012) , have invited me back to give talks on the world of Sumi ink, my own work and the relationship to space as part of a 'Quiet Garden Day' workshop in mid-June. I'll be joined by CR Oswin Gartside, who certainly knows a thing or two about traditional Japanese art, as he lived there for some time during his younger days.. For more details please see  here.

Calligrapher Sarah Moate, demonstrating a perfect Zen circle.  Photo R. Allen-Sherwood

Truthfully speaking, one day is not enough to cover the sheer variety of brush and ink styles, trends and traditions. For example, there is a great difference between the approach of  Sarah Moate, an Englishwoman who is a qualified Zen calligraphy teacher in Japan, and the working ways of award winning calligrapher-turned- -contemporary-artist Koji Kakinuma.. Both emerged from a solid foundation of rigorous classical training, but from very different traditions.

Calligrapher/ Superstar  Koji Kakinuma in front of his latest artwork  (via Jagar 2014)

I will be talking about some of these traditions, as well as introducing a few artists currently working with sumi ink in Japan and elsewhere. Shodo roughly translates into' "Way of the Brush". In classical Shodo, the aim is to build character and strengthen the spirit. Beautiful handwriting is the by-product of the practice not the aim.. In this way, Shodo is similar to martial art practice. "Wax on, wax off." "Ink on. Ink off" 

"Space"   Pop up exhibition Mirfiled Monastery   R Allen-Sherwood 2012

I greatly look forward to giving this talk. Thanks to Mirfield Maonastery and Mirfield Centre for inviting me. Hope some of my blog readers can make it too.

(PS, If you can't come you can always invite me to speak at your next function. I'm quite reasonable!! ) 

The Martyrdom of Inflated Plastic

The initial concept drawings    by O Ramos

Breathing plastic bubble installation            photo Rachelle Allen-Sherwood

Interior view           photo Rachelle Allen-Sherwood

Artist surveys installation       photo Rachelle Allen-Sherwood

Arrtist Olivia Ramos      photo Rachelle Allen-Sherwood

Haven't been posting lately as I've been totally swamped with preparations for an upcoming exhibition in London and it opens the day after tomorrow! You can read more about it here.

In the meantime, thought I'd share an interesting pop-up installation I came across during a recent visit to Canterbury. The kinetic 'breathing' installation was created by visiting New York art student Olivia Ramos. The show was part of her practice and research studies.

The concept was simple enough and the materials basic, but the result was magical. Olivia's 'breathing creature' generated an atmospheric ethereal feel in the Eastbridge Hospital of St Thomas the Martyr - (a must see on every tourist itinerary). It was even more interesting when I climbed inside!

By juxtaposing the two disparate elements: the inflatable plastic bubble against the 12th century crypt, Olivia managed to create a complementary space within a space.

 Look forward to seeing what she does next!

For more info, see Olivia's website:  http://oliviaramos.weebly.com/

Gravity

Gravity Drawing Instrument. Takes drawing to another plane. Literally.

The Space Sessions: Prof John White "Be" (Pt 2)

Prof. White giving a talk at Three Wheels Zen Garden     photo: Dr. L. Chocron

"When asked to give a talk about Zen Gardens, or indeed about any garden, the first thing to remember is that a work of art can never be translated into words. It is by its very nature, visual and non verbal. It is a thing that has to be experienced; it lies beyond the reach of words and no amount of talk can capture it."   John White

RAS - Speaking on the visual nature of the Zen garden, in your recent talk you introduced the particularly picturesque Adachi Museum of Art gardens. A place created for the sole purpose of enjoying the 'garden as painting'. This reminded me of something the journalist and early Japanologist Lafcadio Hearn (1850-1904) wrote, regarding dry landscape gardens. He described them as  “A painting without pictures; the ideal being a garden that is both ‘a picture and a poem”, creating not merely an impression of beauty , but a mood in the soul”.

JW - Yes, in my talk, the Adachi Gardens were deliberately meant to be paintings.  It's an art museum. And it was turning the gardens into paintings and framing them in the architecture. There, they were deliberately trying to connect paintings and gardens. But that is not something that I ever wanted to do.

Adachi Art Museum Gardens 

RAS - In Hearn’s case, I think it wasn’t so much about describing a decorative place. He was using phrases like ‘painting without pictures, or a Buddhist sutra without words’, trying to find poetic and intuitive ways to describe what most people would merely see as a blank space with rocks in it.   

Anyway when most people write or speak about Zen gardens, they generally tend to romanticise them or make them into mysterious spaces and such…...

JW – Yes, well  I’ve been thinking about space for over forty years or more, before I ever saw a zen garden you know, so I knew a great deal about perspective and so on. I had a great accumulation to start with…..so I just, well, I just sat (in the zen gardens of Japan) and looked for hours on end. But the talk comes afterwards.   

(When we built Three Wheels Zen Garden), I didn’t explain to the (visiting expert Japanese) gardeners what we were doing. I said ‘put that there’ and then we twiddled it and moved it further around and then we fixed it. And initially they thought it was dreadful, as it broke all the traditional rules. But this wasn’t based on any theory. It was just how it felt it should be……

Three Wheels Zen Garden         courtesy of Three Wheels Temple

 RAS– But then in the end they realised that it was not dreadful….

JW. Yes, luckily they stayed a few days and they got used to the fact that it was different and not intended to be a copy of a Japanese garden, although the first two rocks are related to Ryoan-ji. So there are plenty of reflections, but it’s not a copy of anything. Its an extension of the idea. 

For example, I wanted every rock to have its own personality and its own living space. That’s quite different from the Chinese and standard Japanese Zen garden, where rocks touch each other or lie on each other and so on. 

RAS- Yes I see what you mean. It reminds me of one of your talks where you showed a photo of the most perfect Zen garden, made up of simply one rock and a handful of carefully raked gravel in a very small space. Yet it said everything. One rock spoke volumes. I see what you mean about needing to have some grasp or knowledge about space before creating such a garden.

Zen Garden Walkabout (Colour)                         photo R. Allen-Sherwood 2014

JW – Well, it’s a feeling. its intuition, its not logic. (With the Three Wheels garden) I didn’t work out anything logically for myself .. I just looked. And just as with art.....you can’t put a work of art into words. You can remove misconceptions and things like that, but it has to be experienced. That’s not a logical process. You have to feel it and it has to become part of your whole experience, not just your conscious bit of “logic” at the top.  Many of the people who make zen gardens have never experienced one. You need to experience it – not think about it, And look at it again and again, for five, six hours at a time.

It’s the same mistake with art. With any great art – Titian, for example, you have to look at it for hours to begin to understand what is going on. In a gallery, if you are lucky,  apparently somebody might spend a minute in front of a Titian…

RAS- I heard that it’s 30 seconds. That’s what our teacher told us when I was an art student. 30 seconds. Laughs

JW – Well, that’s it exactly. None of these people have actually ever seen a Titian!

Zen Garden Walkabout #1  (Colour)                         photo R. Allen-Sherwood 2014

RAS – Going back to the garden, there was something Reverend Sato said a few years ago, when I first interviewed him about the garden for my university dissertation on Form & Emptiness. He spoke about the invisible part of the garden, the unseen part which most people don’t think about, as they generally assume the rocks were just plopped onto the surface without realising that each one has its own 'mirror reflection' more or less beneath the gravel, hidden from view. Reverend Sato said the invisible is just as valuable or important as that which is visible. His words have stuck with me ever since...

JW- Yes, there’s an analogy in drawing. You may start and make some very important marks which then subsequently disappear. But that doesn’t mean they weren’t important in the growth of the piece. Some will remain and some will not. In most traditional paintings you can’t see the starting point any longer, but if the starting point wasn’t there, it would be one big mess!

 ------------------------------------------------------
 

On that note, laughter rings out all around and our interview, sadly, cames to an end. I would like to thank Professor White for giving so generously of his precious time and patience for this interview. And thank you, the reader for your visits and continuing support.

In closing, here is a reflection on the meaning of the Three Wheels Zen Garden by John White:
.

Zen Garden Walkabout   (Colour)                   photo R. Allen-Sherwood 2014

"If you were to ask me now if I am pleased with the garden or proud of it, it would be a question that has no answer.

From the beginning, non attachment to the outcome; doing for the doing, as far as such a thing is ever possible, appeared to be the only way to work, and non attachment is not a garment that is easily put on and taken off.

All history, all our memories of the past, are constructs, are illusions. To become attached to things done in the past - worse still to one's own actions and their seeming consequences - is no way to live in a world in which it seems that even self is an illusion.

Yet, in some sense, the garden is, I am, and you are. That is all.

As for the purpose of the garden, it is what is brought to it and taken from it that gives it meaning. If you, or anyone, see in it some particular purpose, that then is its purpose. If, on the other hand, you see no purpose in it, then there is none.

Certainly in Zen, and in Buddhism as a whole and in the Sutras in particular, words, like all the words that have flowed over you this evening, have very little meaning. So it is with a Zen garden.

However, if there must be words, an attempt at a verbal introduction in Japanese and English, which some of you may know, hangs on the walls of the viewing shelter.

Its opening lines go like this:

Here in the garden

do not ask who made it,

or why, or when.

The garden is and you are.

Be "