I went to see a traditional Chinese rock garden installation at the Victoria & Albert Museum recently. That was an eye opening experience. Created by Beijing artist Xu Bing, the installation was inspired by a classic Chinese fable "Tao Hua Yuan" (Peach Blossom Spring), written in 421AD
Chinese rock gardens are quite different from the Japanese ones I am used to. In China, rocks are highly regarded for their texture, colour and forms. The oddly shaped stones which resemble mountains, animals, mythical creatures and even celebrities (!) are highly prized and collected by rock aficionados..
In my research I also found this interesting bit of info: To Chinese scholars, these rocks represented a focus for meditation of religious or philosophic principles and served for contemplation prior to writing poems or painting. Well, that may be so, but with this garden, it was purely a case of storytelling rather than contemplation.
It was only after dark that the installation came into it's own and started to make sense. The dark of night helped pull everything seamlessly together. With the help of spot lights, grand architecture and water reflections, the installation had transformed into a visually arresting in-your-face kind of Chinese rock theater.
I went to the exhibition hoping to learn something about space. And I did! I learned that when everything is intentionally geared towards making an impact or wow-effect, the whole space itself becomes like a giant mirrored disco ball. Great for a perfect photo op to send home to the folks.
But it's not a space that will hold your interest for too
long. After all, there's only so much one can take of being bombarded with blue klieg-lit
paper flowers and 10,000 reflections
I went to the exhibition looking for inspiration and found a Stone Fantasia instead. Interesting, but not quite my cup of tea. Funny thing is, I did eventually find what I was looking for. But in a completely unexpected place! (Think I'll save that for my next post).
No comments:
Post a Comment