Ikebana in Schools

Shoso Shimbo conducted Ikebana workshops for two secondary schools in Melbourne in May 2016.
The students enjoyed Ikebana a lot and learnt about Japanese history & culture through Ikebana.
https://www.scribd.com/doc/274837701/Ikebana-in-School

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Daily Meditation

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Daily Meditation

Thank you many people who helped me today.

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Ikebana Performance at the Snow Travel Expo Melbourne 2016

Japan Foundation sponsored Shoso Shimbo's Ikebana performance at the Snow Travel Expo 2016 in Melbourne.  This was Shoso's second Ikebana performance in May 2016 and he used a very different approach here from his first performance. http://www.shoso.com.au/2016/05/ikebana-performance.html   

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Ikebana Performance Presented by Japan Foundation

Shoso Shimbo will present an Ikebana Live Performance sponsored by Japan Foundation at the Snow Travel Expo 2016. Free Entry.  

When: 12pm -1pm, Sunday 22 May 2016
Where: Melbourne Exhibition Centre, Southbank
https://snowtravelexpo.com.au/

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Birthday Flower

This is a birthday flower for a lovely girl who turned 13. Her parents ordered 1 medium arrangement and 2 small arrangements. This is one of the small arrangements.

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Ikebana Performance

The Way of the Flower: Stillness in a World Gone Mad

Shoso Shimbo presented Ikebana performance with Ann Norman (Shakuhachi)  and Brandon Lee (Koto) as part of Matsudo Week.

When: 8pm, Friday 6 May 2016

Where: Box Hill Community Arts Centre, 470 Station St, Box Hill, Victoria 

Ikebana means "to bring flowers to life". Flowers in the fields are alive and in harmony with nature, but once they are cut, separated from nature, they are dying biologically as well as symbolically. Ikebana artists’ job is to give the dying flowers new life. This can't be achieved by simply copying nature. Through a wholistic engagement with the flower, the Ikebana practitioner tries to access the essential life force of the flowers on many levels, physically, psychologically and spiritually. This collaborative process with nature is always thrilling and healing. In this performance I would like to share with the audience the meditative process of creating the work as much as the end product. 

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Ikebana Today 46

I have been writing about the relationship between contemporary art and Ikebana. A key question is whether Ikebana can seek meaning through its contexts like contemporary art can. Probably there is no right answer to this question and there may be many answers.

One of the most important aspects of context is that it goes with critiques. An example is in academic discourses. A great number of PhD students every year study contemporary art for their thesis.
On the other hand, very few academic papers on Ikebana have been published. In terms of critiques, there is no comparison between Ikebana and contemporary art. It seems to be obvious that Ikebana cannot seek meanings like contemporary art does.

Nevertheless, I would like to seek the possibility of Ikebana being effective in the context of contemporary art.

This is one of the 2 works I made for the Wye River Project as part of the Lorne Sculpture 2016. I transformed my sculpture into Ikebana by adding flowers. While my sculpture demands viewers to use imagination to appreciate it, I feel my Ikebana is appealing more directly to the senses of the viewers. Compared to contemporary art, Ikebana may expect its viewers to be more passive. That was one of a few things I noticed this time.

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