|
|
|
 |
EMPTINESS AS THE ORIGIN OF ARTISTIC PHENOMENA
The article is available in Italian and English only. The Spanish version will be soon available.
written by Chiara Padrini
|
|
We are often caught out by the many art forms of the Orient, in particular of China and Japan.
Bonsai, Suiseki, Ikebana, Karesansui, the Tea Ceremony - are these art? Haiku (17 syllable poetry) and Sumi-e (ink drawings) can pass as art forms as they are indeed considered to be in the West, but what about the others? Thus attempts are made to reach more or less improvised and artificial explanations, which are never really appropriate. It is said that in Japan the word art is also used for activities which in the West are considered crafts, and so we simply apply our own meanings to the words art or craft.
To tell the truth, we do not actually want an explanation nor do we investigate in any depth. Rather, we simply disqualify. WE, implying those who really know what ART is, do not allow ourselves to qualify something as art, even if it is technically refined and expresses excellence, if it is beyond the scope of our western classifications and of the concept of aesthetics which produced them. |
This is because we lack that initial link, a means for deciphering those metaphysical concepts which lie behind what we erroneously define as “Oriental aesthetics”. Erroneously because one should instead define them “the aesthetics of emptiness”.
The two philosophies of life which stemmed from ancient Buddhism and developed in China (Chan Buddhism) and Japan (Zen Buddhism) have had a major influence on all art forms, cultivating the function of emptiness, which has had such a pervading influence on them.
The problem of emptiness is fundamental to all Oriental art; however does our word “emptiness” correspond conceptually to those used in the East?
According to M. Koyama (1) there are various ideograms that mean emptiness. For simplicity’s sake, we will only consider MU here. He claims that “First of all, Mu has a meaning of deprivation, i.e. it indicates the non-presence of something, the denial of something, its not being any longer.”
It is therefore not an absolute value but, rather, a dynamic and a method which cancel out prejudice and create a void in which all is revealed in its true manifestation.
|
 |
The texts contained in the “Buddhist Cannon” give rise to numerous reflections on emptiness which can be summed up as follows: “Contemplate the world with emptiness, always continuing to remain present in recollection”. The practice of meditation is expressed by the meaning of “contemplating”. It is an action which leads to ascesis: transcending and modifying what is contemplated, where “emptiness” is the result of vigilant and “recollecting” meditation.
This attitude is fundamental for understanding why, when creating artistic forms a state of deep concentration is striven for that can exist only achieving emptiness, attainable by practicing meditation.
Thus, emptiness is the primary source of art forms which arise from “experience” rather than from “theories”; an experience of emptiness attained through the practice of meditation.
It is difficult for people from western cultures to understand how so many vivid and living art forms can spring from these experiences. However one should not try to identify the creative functions of emptiness, which are a void that cannot be filled. |
 |
To define aesthetics in this way is no mean feat.
Speaking of aesthetics, it must be borne in mind that in the West aesthetics is considered a discipline while both in China and in Japan this concept has never existed. It has only recently been introduced following the widespread westernisation of these countries. |
The “scientific” and “theoretical” connotations which are part of western aesthetics are not found there. For example: perspective, the golden ratio, the rule of thirds, the Fibonacci sequence and so on are theoretical developments of a “regulated” aesthetic which is unthinkable and does not exist in the cultures in question. It would be a distortion to apply these rules in an attempt to adapt oriental thought to ours and would not only be incongruous but would lead us away from the “heart” of oriental aesthetics.
|
Theory and practice are cultural phases linked typically to western thought while in the East: “every thing is already an action and each action is imbued in itself with energy and spiritual values” (2)
G.C. Calza, one of the most important Italian experts on Japanese culture wrote: “Japanese civilisation is a receptacle for half-tones and nuances, of empty spaces which are not to be filled immediately but enjoyed as they are, of an infinite number of arts, the purpose of which is not the aesthetic product but the action enriching a relationship.
|
 |
A relationship with people, a relationship with nature, a relationship with things” (3)
We must therefore avoid considering Taoism and Chan or Zen Buddhism as doctrines from which forms of aesthetic experience can be extracted. “The science of beauty”, in theoretical guise, makes no sense in this context. In the Chinese and Japanese cultures the idea of “beauty” does not exist because it is not possible for there to be an individual who contemplates or creates, or a beauty to be contemplated or created.
It is necessary to find a way to reach the essence of these religions, to discover their “heart” from which the energy generating forms of aesthetic experience emanates. |
 |
EMPTINESS is this centre, its nucleus. Not the IDEA of emptiness but the EXPERIENCE of it.
This experience is made through a form of meditation which is the foundation where the activity of aesthetic creation and the forms it produces begin. These considerations bring us face to face with a dilemma. If, in order to create and understand artistic works and experiences, one must experience emptiness, attainable through meditation, a large number of people who would like to “understand” Oriental art and aesthetic forms will be excluded. Who can claim that meditation is necessary in order to assimilate these art forms? |
It would be even more untenable to believe some people would be willing to undergo the strict discipline of meditation practices in order to understand the forms and contents generated by these experiences better.
Even without going to such extremes, however, the fact remains – far from our usual concepts – that these arts are in themselves an exercise in meditation because the centre of their attention is emptiness, with its great effectiveness and strong presence.
The calligraphy theoretician Cheng Yao Tian (Ching dynasty) claimed that, “The foundation of the path towards calligraphy is having grasped emptiness. It is thanks to emptiness that the sun and the moon move and that the seasons follow each other; it is from emptiness that the ten thousand beings issue. Nevertheless, Emptiness only reveals itself and only functions through Fullness”.
It is thanks to emptiness, that we have or create within and outside ourselves , that we can “comprehend”, that is to say take from within. Thus, emptiness is life, pulsating and creative
|
 |
EMPTINESS IN SUISEKI
In Japanese stones, emptiness is a lack of colour, a lack of movement, a lack of representative movement. Through chromatic reduction the richness of the colours of the mineral and vegetable world is not visible. The variety of greys through to black and the various other chromatic combinations to be found, substitute the infinite hues in the panoramas of the changing seasons “in a humble manner”.
The art of suiseki is close to that of the karesansu gardens as well as the art of sumi-e ink paintings.
The connection with monochrome painting is evident not only because of the white(empty) spaces that receive the greys and blacks, which can be compared to the monochromatic empty space of the background – tokonoma – on which the form of the stone is inscribed and party because the stone offers itself as “something to be seen” and to be contemplated just like a painting or calligraphy.
Furthermore, stones, which unlike a garden cannot be passed through or entered, obliges us to empty our minds so that it can enter them.
What can this signify? A stone can be observed from various viewpoints, from various angles. While remaining still, at the same time I walk, I climb up and I descend. I can enter the details - caves, gorges - go up rivers or dwell on the shores of a lake or of the sea. Then, where the sand meets the stone, I can perceive the shadows it produces and penetrate the unknown. All this allows me to substitute “physical” walking with “mental” walking. However there is still more to it.
|
 |
A stone is an object of meditation, that is to say something on which to meditate. It is a “test” for assessing the ability reached by the person contemplating and observing the stone to have an empty mind.
The more one is able to make room through the cleansing action of meditation, the more room there is to receive the stone. This emptiness of mind is essential in order to be able to introduce the stone into one’s experience.
|
That the art of suiseki interprets Zen discipline almost perfectly can be deduced from the danger of becoming fixated with a goal to be reached that so many Zen masters warn against. Such efforts are contrived, since they require technical expedients and sometimes having a result as one’s goal obscures one’s vision and makes one focus solely on an end. “Attainment is non-attainment” says Lin Chi . What is important is to attain without being obsessed with the desire of attainment. To be fixated in this way could interfere with the work of the bonsai artist by making him strive for a technical or aesthetic result. In the art of stones we must accept a work of nature without elaborating on it.
Human beings are too presumptuous to take the directly obvious things which surround them into consideration.
The stones are not battered, worn or exhausted objects but impregnated with life, not only with their own existence but also with all that exists and with all the contacts that have touched them. Contacts which have served not only to wear them down but to cleanse them as well.
(1)Mayumi Koyama - Elementi di storia dell’arte ed estetica giapponese – Milan 1987
(2) M. Granet, Il pensiero cinese, Italian translation. 1971- W. Th. De Bary et al. Sources of Japanese Tradition New York 1958)
(3) Calza:Junichiro Tanizaki, Libro d’ombra, Milan 1982
|
|
|
| Artículos |
^ Volver principio página |
|
|
|
|
