Ikebana Performance with Paul Grabowsky

国際的なミュージシャンと華道家との稀有なコラボ。１９年度は全席完売でした。２2年度はジャズ界の巨匠、ポール・グラボウスキー（オーダー・オブ・オーストラリア受章）が登場！会場は豪州でも最高のコンサート会場。

Shoso Shimbo will create an Ikebana installation with live music by internationally renowned Paul Grabowsky AO.

In the 16^th century, a seminal ikebana artist Senno Ikenobo raised the idea that Ikebana should be created based on the essence of flowers rather than their image. The aim is to represent the essence of the universe, which Shoso calls Wa: Fluid Harmony in his performance. Ikebana in this sense is abstract assemblage rather than floral decoration.           

Some contemporary artists used performance to show that the artist’s creative act is equally as important as the artwork itself. Ikebana performance similarly aims to shift attention from the artwork to the artist’s action. Art exists in real space and real time and Grabowsky’s music becomes part of the materials as Shoso brings the piece together. The emerging work is a dynamic matrix, an interplay of symmetries and asymmetries in harmony with the music.  

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 Grabowsky’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.