nontraditional and postmodern bonsai

[tantric]

i'm new to bonsai, i owned a tree long ago, but i'm just now learning how to create them. my normal passion is aquariums and vivariums. i developed a theory of aesthetics for aquariums, pretty simple, but useful:

naturalistic - imitating nature as much as possible - which may mean few fish, but biotopes, for sure.

impressionistic - gives an impression of being natural, but is a synthetic ecosystem.

expressionistic - no attempt to replicate a natural setting, a pure artistic project using life as a medium.

back twenty years ago, i majored in japanese lit and i know ridiculous amounts about wabi-sabi, mono-no-aware, iki, tsu, etc. i *adore* the aesthetics of classical japan (haiku is modern trash). but i'm wondering why i don't see postmodern bonsai. even something as simple as roots over rock - could that not work over a red clay brick or some bit of urban debris? it would be a powerful statement. why not wrap around a deer antler or a bone? that's tame - i was actually looking for a way to replicate a tree on my grandmother's farm that had an iron basketball hoop embedded in it. is this just blasphemy or am i failing at google-fu?

peace

 

[fredtruck]

There are postmodern bonsai. Check out the work of Nick Lenz. Sean Smith had a wonderful mechanistic creation at the last Nationals show.

 

[JudyB]

Also look for a member here named crust. Take a look for his threads, much to ogle there.

 

[Eric Group]

Anybody have a pic of that tree from earlier this year that had the chromed out Jin? I think that was sort of what he is looking for here... I cannot recall what show it was at, but I think it was an American show.

 

[fredtruck]

Anybody have a pic of that tree from earlier this year that had the chromed out Jin? I think that was sort of what he is looking for here... I cannot recall what show it was at, but I think it was an American show.

That was Sean Smith's work.

 

[tantric]

y'all da bomb! seriously, what i'm seeing is fantastic. postmodern in changing the form and elements, but not the aesthetics and sentiments - you can still feel the mono-no-aware. i also found mambonsai, which i don't completely hate. when i was a kid, i played D&D and used beautifully painted minatures for our characters. how about this:

a dryad emerging from a tree, painted with extraordinary skill. that could work, and there are thousands of RPG minatures. it starts as bare metal (tin alloy, no lead) about 25mm=2m scale.

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

From the Nationals last year.

 

[0soyoung]

y'all da bomb! seriously, what i'm seeing is fantastic. postmodern in changing the form and elements, but not the aesthetics and sentiments - you can still feel the mono-no-aware. i also found mambonsai, which i don't completely hate. when i was a kid, i played D&D and used beautifully painted minatures for our characters. how about this:

a dryad emerging from a tree, painted with extraordinary skill. that could work, and there are thousands of RPG minatures. it starts as bare metal (tin alloy, no lead) about 25mm=2m scale.

This is just a carved piece of lumber. What does it have to do with bonsai?

 

[William N. Valavanis]

Check out my newest article "Naturalistic & Classical Bonsai" in the current, 2015/NO.1 issue of International BONSAI. The five page article discusses naturalistic bonsai, classical bonsai and bosai basics. According to the Japanese there are two forms of bonsai: Naturalistic and Classical. Very interesting reading you will not find anywhere else.

 

[tantric]

This is just a carved piece of lumber. What does it have to do with bonsai?

no, it's just VERY well painted. that's a 25mm tall tin alloy figurine that's been painted. mambonsai uses little human figures, but it's very pop and silly. i was suggesting using the miniatures used by RPG's instead - the above is an example of a dryad, a tree spirit, from the dungeons and dragons game. or how about this - dragon and torii

 

[jk_lewis]

Y'know? I think we all should consider learning how to make good "traditional" bonsai before we strike out and try to out Kimura Kimura.

So many of these "postmodern" trees are just gimmicks -- tricks -- gee whiz moments with no lasting value as bonsai.

 

[tantric]

i'm building an expressionist aquarium as a hearth shrine for my dead mother. she loved roses and hummingbirds so i'm taking grapevine and training Anubias spp and Java Fern to it, like leaves. then i'll buy one clear and one stained glass rose to go on the bush. to compliment this, i'll suspend two glass hummingbirds, one clear, one stained, life and afterlife. i'll use Endler's, a kind of tie-dyed hippie guppy, as the dither fish, meaning those that wander around aimlessly in the midspace. i have a glass dish with a blue glass lid that belonged to my mother's mother - i'll grow a waterlily in it, if i can find a viable bulb. well, i'm building the ecosystem now - its in a 20gal. i use non-destructive water flow generators only, so if you turn them off and wait for a while, you can see the meiofauna, like daphnia and hydras. today i'm going to add 3 kuhlie loaches, which selectively eat tiny snails and dig around in the sand, for aeration. they're cute as bug's shirt, too, and i've had them sneak off and breed before. anyway, this is meant as a response to the above.

 

[tantric]

hmm, i'm not sure what i just posted was meaningful, so let me try again. i majored in japanese lit in the early 90s. when i graduated HS, i got a copy of '100 Poems from the Japanese' by Rexroth and fell in love. as a freshman, there's a language requirement and in 1990 japan was 'the next superpower' so i took japanese as a part of a linguistics major. then my mom got cancer and i bailed on the hard, science stuff and did complit, reading shit like the Genjimonogatari and the Man'yoshu. i have a blog post on useful terms from japanese aesthetics: here. if you continue reading beyond that post, you will likely be offended in some manner. i'm making the structure like the zen novel Essays in Idleness, supposedly written on a sheath of papers, an episode per page, then scrambled. the final version of my blog will present the entries in a random but consistent order for each reader (well, IP address).

i'm just past old dead japanese people. i love the art, i do, but its not mine. whatever mine is, it's a large part classical japanese, but i ain't no Lady Murasaki (i once had an aquarium with goldfish named Lady Murasaki, Hitomaro, Empress Gemmu and dammit, i can't think of the irongray oranda's name...). hell, you want mono-no-aware?

in the empty mountains
the echo of a stag's cry
answers him as though it were a doe

after 20yrs, i still remember a dozen, at least. so yeah, i paid my dues, just not in sap. i'm here to learn technique and skills, and i hope to create many classical bonsai - but even my classical bonsai are a postmodern statement. what else could they be? ah, zen.

 

[Anthony]

Tantric - don't forget to breathe

Just try, and observe nature, draw from life or off of self-taken images.
The memory will handle it.
As Sorce says - welcome to crazy.
Good Day
Anthony

Started around 2014 or so. The stone is porous pottery, hand made, with a porous glaze and the pot is also hand made.
Grown considerably since then.
Traditional and perhaps not traditional.
Rock designed to hopefully have exposed roots running down sculpted channels.

Anthony

 

[amcoffeegirl]

I recognize the description of your aquarium from the aquarium forum.
Good to see you over here.
I too am a fan of aquariums and bonsai.
I really don't know which hobby I like better.
I believe I am better with the aquariums. My planted tanks grow faster than my trees.
There is a lot of ways to be creative with bonsai but in the end you want to be able to imagine yourself sitting under or near the tree or viewing it from a distance on a cliff or in a field. You want it to look like a real tree that has seen many seasons a perseveres through all the years.
At least that's just me.
Yes search for nick lenz
This is one of his.
The folks on this forum are very visual they love to see your work.
Do you have any trees that you would be willing to share a pic of?

 

[rockm]

The issue with MOST (almost ALL) "postmodern" bonsai designs is that wind up being "tin eared" and ineffective as bonsai. They are not really bonsai, they are anti-bonsai. They are not subtle, they're not quiet, they're not all that relaxing to look at. At their worst, they're mostly symbolic only to the people making them. They try too hard to "say" something, or make a lot of effort being precious for no apparent reason. Or their "message" is about as subtle and cliched as a sledgehammer.

At their best, they're engaging, sometimes compelling and interesting to look at--but not as you would bonsai.

What Bill Valavanis has posted what I think is the more effective approach, taking a more subtle tack on older ideas. Same goes for Nick Lenz in his better moments (if you haven't found pics of Nick's work online, seek it out.)
http://www.artofbonsai.org/galleries/lenz.php

Walter Pall also has a unique take on postmodern, non-traditional bonsai

 

[jk_lewis]

The issue with MOST (almost ALL) "postmodern" bonsai designs is that wind up being "tin eared" and ineffective as bonsai. They are not really bonsai, they are anti-bonsai. They are not subtle, they're not quiet, they're not all that relaxing to look at. At their worst, they're mostly symbolic only to the people making them. They try too hard to "say" something, or make a lot of effort being precious for no apparent reason. Or their "message" is about as subtle and cliched as a sledgehammer.

I was gonna append a "like" to this post, but it deserves better:

LOVE IT!

 

[GrimLore]

Be careful as it sounds like you might be headed a little off course -

Grimmy

 

[0soyoung]

Is this expressionistic?

 

[amcoffeegirl]

Non traditional in many ways
And could the lower photo be considered steampunk?