Japanese Contemporary Garden - Mirei Shigemori 重森三玲

Ryoanji, Kyoto

Tofukuji, Kyoto - Mirei Shigemori

枯山水 - Karesansui

I had never questioned the meaning of Karesansui, one of the three types of traditional Japanese garden. It is described as "rock garden" in western world but it is literally means "withered mountain and water garden". It is interesting to see the contradiction behind its concept. The garden is described as "the death of nature" uses non-life materials to represent a range of imaginative live features like water and surrounding landscapes in motion.

I love this power of abstraction through dialectical representation between optical observation and imaginative perception, unlike Moholy-Nagy's work or any cubistic art. (may be because motif is not figurative...)

I thought of it when visiting a photographic exhibition on modern Japanese Garden by Christian Tschmi and Christian Lichtenburg at Bibliothek Basel today. It is all about Mirei Shigemori whose work influenced Isamu Noguchi and other modern artists and architects.

I noticed in most of his work that the abstraction of the image from which he was inspired, are represented, in such a way, to directly communicate with the observer. The pattern making of the garden can be very expressive that sometimes looks like they are on a verge of kitch and extravagant.

But few of his works like in Tohukuji are exceptionally beautiful, an imaginative composition of stones within a thick carpet of moss directing your attention to and from. It has such a power that it triggers many thoughts in different areas. How the moss is grown around the edge of stone creating convexity and concavity on the ground surface, eventually disappearing into the sea of white stone and trees. It looks as though you are viewing a vast landscape from a high point looking down at some human settlements in the forest and the disappearing topography fading into the sea. This is only my perception of this garden and it is super fantastic the way it draws out your imagination.

I am starting to think I might like the thing that has a small morphological transition on a surface which is able to draws out a vast topography of imagination.