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What happens when you take a traditional bonsai tree that has been in training for over 25 years and plant it in a contemporary ceramic container that looks like a crushed cardboard box? Well, whatever preconceived notions you ever had about the display of bonsai before seeing the exhibit Bonsai inSites: Collaborations Between Tree and Container, this show will definitely change those perceptions!
Historically, in bonsai display, the tree and container complement one another, with the tree generally assumed to be the star, while the pot plays a supporting role. This is not the case in this exhibit, which will open at the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum in May 2003. The curator of the exhibit, Ron Lang, chair of the Ceramics Department at the Maryland Institute College of Art, juxtaposes the two art forms of bonsai and ceramics in a very nontraditional way wherein both the plant and the pot command attention. What happens, he believes, is that a new conversation between tree and container emerges and for the viewer this dialogue opens new possibilities, new ways of seeing both.
The genesis of this exhibit was Langs love of ceramics, as well as bonsai, and an idea that new ties of compatibility between these ancient art forms could be forged. As a ceramic sculptor, he understood that the site of the artwork, where it is placed, transforms the art itself, while the art object itself is changed by its placement at the site. By extension with bonsai, he believed that if he asked ceramic artists to design an object which is the site for the display of the art work, or bonsai, then a similar transformation would take place, altering both the plant and the ceramic piece or container.
To achieve this end he approached two groups. The first was a cross section of international ceramic artists for the creation of the pot component, and the other was the Potomac Bonsai Association for the tree element. The challenge that he put to the bonsai artists was to rethink traditional methodologies and to the ceramic artists to envision a place within the realm of their artwork to accommodate a miniature tree.
Ten members of the Potomac Bonsai Association offered mature, styled trees for this venture with the understanding that the ceramic artists would have the liberty to interpret how the tree was to be displayed in the container. Then fifteen ceramic artists chose trees and let their creativity roam free. Once the containers were complete, it was up to the bonsai artists to place their trees in these new pots, completing the circle of collaboration.
At the same time, Lang looked to two very different hosts to represent
the two dimensions of the exhibit. Baltimore Clayworks (www.baltimoreclayworks.org),
a ceramics studio and exhibit space in Baltimore, Maryland, displayed the
exhibit in May 2002, while the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum at
the U.S. National Arboretum will host the event in May 2003.
Visitors to the exhibit at the Arboretum will have an opportunity to
decide whether or not Lang achieves the collaboration he sought in attempting
to open a new horizon for a “tree in a container.” Dr. Thomas S.
Elias, Director of the U.S. National Arboretum, in the Foreword to the
exhibit catalogue, asks the critical question posed by this event: Can
the pot be equal in importance to the tree and together with it form an
exciting art piece where two different artisans, the bonsai master and
the ceramicist share the stage? As he admits (t)his point will be
briskly debated.
Come to the exhibit with an open mind and experience the debate.
Then you decide: Does it work?
Bonsai inSites: Collaboration Between Tree and Container will open on Friday, May 2nd in the Special Exhibits Wing of the International Pavilion at the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum. It will be open from 10:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. every day until Sunday, May 11th. A catalogue is available from the National Bonsai Foundation for $12.00 ($10.00 for members of NBF and FONA.) Visit the NBF web site at www.bonsai-nbf.org.
*Johann F. Klodzen is the Executive Director of the National Bonsai Foundation, which has offices at the U.S. National Arboretum. The National Bonsai Foundation is a membership organization that supports and raises funds on behalf of the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum.
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Last Updated January 17, 2003
URL = http://www.usna.usda.gov/Education/insites.html
