You might know that I am drawn to all things Japanese (here are some links to my posts about my trip to Japan in 2015) and have been most of my adult life. So when I saw a course at a highly respected art school entitled Abstract Painting and Wabi Sabi I just had to book a place.
You can Google ‘Wabi Sabi’ to find a definition and will get a few different results, I fear it might lose something in translation but in the context of abstract works of art this is my own best shot: the Japanese concept of Wabi Sabi, briefly/loosely translated as the celebration of materials and imperfection, leaving things unfinished for the viewer to complete it in their own experience of the piece.
I learnt by doing, that it is also about immersing oneself in the materials, the properties of the materials and about how ones body and inner senses respond to the materials.
After booking this course, I heard about an exhibition in which a blogging friend, Alastair Duncan was exhibiting his interactive weaving, which I talked about in this post.
AND THEN!
ANTONY GORMLEY at the Royal Academy – I just had to go and see that!
To fit all this in I stayed in an Air BnB in Horsham in West Sussex, which had free parking and was just a 10 minute walk to the train station. In just over an hour I could be in Central London.
I drove the 3 hours to Horsham last Saturday.
Visited the Espacio Gallery on Sunday – which I will tell you about in a future post.
There I met with 2 other members of the Stitchbook Collective – Oh SO lovely to make these creative connections!!
On Monday I travelled up to the Royal Academy for the Antony Gormley exhibition, which was absolutely amazing of course, but not quite so impactful as his exhibition in 2007 at the Hayward Gallery which I often think of and stays with me on some deep inner level.
And then on Tuesday I started my Wabi Sabi voyage of discovery with Helen Turner in Partridge Green, just a 20 minute drive each day from my cosy self-catering pad.
I loved every minute! I got home yesterday.
So much to tell you about. So many photos to sift through!
You clearly made the most of your trip!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I had a great time. It has become part of my Permaculture mentality to make everything as multi-functional as possible – especially when making journeys
LikeLike
Oh yes, me too. Don’t think I can make it to London before 3rd December, sadly
LikeLiked by 1 person
😦
It should be there for at least a year!
LikeLike
This experience will now take your creativity to another dimension Sandra
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, I think it will Denis.
LikeLike
Wonderful! Love the concept. Also loved how everything came together for you on your art outing.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It took a bit of research and planning but it all worked out beautifully in the end – where there’s a will there’s a way!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Absolutely!
LikeLiked by 1 person
You have been busy. Looking forward to seeing more
LikeLiked by 1 person
There is a lot to tell! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
You had quite an art adventure this week, and I can tell from your post that you loved every minute of it!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I did! It took a bit of planning to fit everything in but it was so worth it!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Good heavens, we used to live in Horsham! I do hope you visited the museum there where I used to volunteer. Looking forward to seeing more of your Sussex adventure.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Did you!!! Wow!
No I didn’t get to see any of Horsham itself – if I had known I would definitely have gone to the Museum. Maybe some other time.
LikeLike
Another thought I meant to include – your description of Wabi Sabi relates well to my tapestries with interactive audio as the idea is that you, the audience, take part in the work. The sensors can be activated multiple times with the effect of layering the sounds and to an extent this gives you a creative role in the piece, finishing it off as with the Wabi Sabi approach.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Wow YES!!!!! Absolutely.
I did that when I was there – I played pieces multiple times and overlayed them with other sounds – like weaving sound together.
SO good!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Fantastic! So pleased it worked for you in the way I intended.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It made me laugh too!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Good good good. The background soundscape was a bit heavy (deliberately so) and I wanted to allow people to “lift” it a bit. Sounds like it’s done it’s job 😊
LikeLiked by 1 person
Sounds like you had a fabulous time Sandra and thanks very much for the mentions and links. In the end we managed to get up to London for just the one day and the Heallreaf 3 opening which went very well. I hope you enjoyed the exhibition too.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I absolutely LOVED it! what a fabulous exhibition of weaving. I will post more about it. I enjoyed your weaving so much but ….. what!?? no squeaky gates!!!???
I voted for your weaving! 🙂 😉
Good luck.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you Sandra- you are very kind 😊👍
LikeLiked by 1 person