Ikebana Performance with accompanied music by Jessica Aszodi

Hanadayori Night: Ho Chi Minh City

国際的なミュージシャンと華道家との稀有なコラボ。２６年度は国際的に活動するオーストラリアを代表する歌姫、ジェシカ・アスゾディが登場！会場は豪州でも最高のコンサート会場。

Hanadayori is a Japanese word that means the flowers you have been waiting for have finally arrived.

Step into a realm of beauty and tranquillity with a live Ikebana Performance by Shoso Shimbo, to the accompaniment of Jessica Aszodi. Shoso finds the perfect place for each element, guided by centuries-old principles of Japanese aesthetics. As the form of the installation gradually emerges, Grigoryan's guitar infuses the space with a sense of harmony and contemplation. 

The collaboration between Shimbo's artistry and Aszodi's musical prowess invites audiences to immerse themselves in a moment of pure serenity. Through the fusion of Ikebana and singing, this performance offers a glimpse into the profound connection between humanity and the natural world, where beauty blooms in both sight and sound.

Jessica Aszodi is a mezzo and multidisciplinary artist whose work cross between opera,music theatre and experimental compositions. 

She has been a soloist with the LondonSinfonietta, Ensemble Moderne, Hamburg Staatsoper, Wiener Volksoper, NederlandsReisoper, the Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide Festivals, Pinchgut, Aldeburgh Festival, SanDiego Symphony, Tectonics, Tanglewood, Beethoven Festwoche, Vivid Sydney, National Theatre Tokyo, Aspen Festival, in radio recitals for BBC and ABC, and with the Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide Symphony Orchestras. 

Jess also holds a Doctorate from the Queensland Conservatorium. She has written articles for several books and journals and teaches the practical as well as theoretical applications of her research on vocal embodiment.

“Highlights that deserve mention include the virtuosic whimsy demonstrated by Jessica Aszodi” (New York Times) 

“Jessica Aszodi was superb as Bella, given the most lyrical music and having the widest range of emotions to express, moving believably between teasing sex kitten and committed revolutionary... [Fujikura’s Armageddon] may well prove to be the opera of 2020” (Opera Magazine) 

”...it’s near impossible to take your eyes off Aszodi, who dives headfirst into the character and sings with rich intensity across all of her range.” (Timeout) 

“…splendidly passionate. She is one of the finest actress-singers in the country.” (The Age) 

Metascent, the major sponsor of the Melbourne Ikebana Festival, has released a new perfume suite, the Hanadayori Collection, to celebrate and commemorate the Hanadayori experience.

Ikebana Performance by Shoso Shimbo with Paul Grabowsky AO at Melbourne Recital Centre, September 2022.

Ikebana Performance & Contemporary Art

Shoso Shimbo, PhD

Ikebana. One of the most important premises in the modernist art movements was to depict objects as they really are rather than the way we see them. Cubism and Abstract Art were early attempts to create a new order in the twentieth-century art. 

A similar but more meditative view was expressed in Senno Kuden (1542), one of the early texts on ikebana. Senno stated that ikebana should be created based on “omokage” of such materials as flowers and leaves. Omokage is not the image we see but is more the conceptual essence of the materials. Just like some Cubist artists moved their focus from visual representation to conceptual representation, ikebana artists move beyond the visual aspect of the flowers and seek to grasp their essence through meditation. 

Senno also said that ikebana as a product represents “onozukara naru sugata”, the essence of the universe. Just like Abstract Art can be seen to represent virtues such as order, purity, simplicity and spirituality, ikebana stands for essence of the universe, which I call Wa: Fluid Harmony in my performance. Ikebana in this sense is abstract assemblage rather than floral decoration.           

Ikebana Performance. Inspired by Abstract Expressionism, artists such as Georges Mathieu and Kazuo Shiraga used performance to show that the artist’s creative act is equally important to the artwork produced. 

Ikebana performance similarly aims to shift attention from the final piece of art to the artist’s actions. However, the process of creation is not based on a fixed plan. Art exists in real space and real time and Grigoryan's music becomes part of the materials as Shoso brings the piece together. The live music constantly transforms the whole composition of the work. Such transformation shares an aspect of chess that fascinated both Marcel Duchamp and Lewis Carroll. The emerging work is a dynamic matrix, an interplay of symmetries and asymmetries in harmony with the music.