Considering the relationship between ikebana and contemporary art, we need to first clarify what the contemporary art is. I found it so hard to understand even after the completion of my Master of Fine Art. During the course, I found two things.
First, many people in the art world don’t understand how difficult contemporary art is for the general public. Very few of them are willing to communicate with the general public to make art accessible.
Next, I found that the key to understand contemporary art is in its history, particularly its 20th century history. Terry Barrett’s “Why is That Art?” (2012) is an excellent introduction to contemporary art elaborating the four major approaches: realism, expressionism, formalism and postmodernism.
However, even that book may be too complicated for the people who are outside the art world. A simpler explanation would be useful for the the people who are frustrated with “nonsense" art woks in the galleries.
I think that the first step to understand contemporary art is to recognise two major approaches in it: modernism and postmodernism. Let me explain the super complicated postmodernism in a super simplified way in next issues.
This is the work I created from my garden waste. The form of the glass container makes it hard to fix flowers using the down stick method.
I have been commissioned to create a large artwork for the Archibold award exhibition at the Gallery of Ballarat in October 2015. Representational art is a new and big challenge for me.
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