Wabi Sabi

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About In praise of shadows, here's some food for thought. The point being Tanizaki wasn't necessarily all that serious when writing that piece.

http://neojaponisme.com/2008/06/19/performance-of-east-west-discourses-in-tanizakis-in-praise-of-shadows/

[byhand]

Producing a new product with the look of Wabi-sabi is not Wabi-sabi. It's a Disnified and co-opted aesthetic to appeal to a particular design sensibility and/or a niche customer. The appreciation of age, transience and imperfection is not quite the same thing as burying leather for a year and hoping for a marred and aged look or trying to design a ring that looks as if it's been at the bottom of the ocean for 500 years.

The west has embraced Wabi-sabi as a look, as a choice among various design aesthetics. Like everything else, we ignore the nuanced philosophy that is integral to the concept. Minus a foundational understanding of Buddhism, something that may not even be possible for people raised in the western world, Wabi-sabi can be little more than a design option. Nothing wrong with that, but it ain't Wabi-sabi.

[Faust]

That may be so, but I don't see why wabi-sabi could not be a point of genuine inspiration.

[lionlimb]

I'd like to re-read this thread a bit more before saying too much, because I have a lot of feels about Japanese aesthetics. However, a couple thoughts.

On the point of plastics, I've seen some wonderful work intentionally utilizing extruded plastics in Ikebana that perhaps relates to Faust's quote from Zen &ct..



Excuse the poor image quality, I couldn't find anything online, so I had to take a photobooth snap of an illustration from a book.

While discussing aesthetics, I think it important to keep the distinction between Arte Povera and Wabi-Sabi. In this thread, a lot of the distaste for "Wabi-Sabi aesthetics" seems directed primarily towards a sense of falseness.

There seems to me to be an enormous (although, in my opinion, neutral rather than valued) difference between the creation and intentional aging by the creator of new objects for an aesthetic return (which I associate, perhaps incorrectly? with Arte Povera) and the appreciation of the wear and development of objects which has occurred throughout the duration of one's possession of them.

The element of time, rather than simply the appearance, aesthetic, or imitation of its effects, cannot be removed from the concept of Wabi-Sabi.

I think it's incorrect to discuss Wabi-Sabi only in the aspect of its ultimate end result. The item that is both crafted and purchased with an intention towards keeping and wear throughout its entire evolution is as much Wabi-Sabi when new as it is 20 years later.

It is less, to my mind, about the appearance of distress than it is about the valued condition -- an object that contains history and speaks to entropy and the ephemeral (Mono No Aware) rather than one defined by newness that proves capitalist fitness. e.g. Yohji's gabardine that is created to remain beautiful even as it softens, folds, and droops throughout the years rather than a tight white acrylic jersey made to be bleached repeatedly into an imitation of newness and then discarded when it begins to pile and stretch.

I do think it's a valuable perspective for us to explore, if nothing else, as a counterpoint to our competitive cultural obsession with newness that pervades down to the fresh aquatic scents we favor.

Perhaps I personally find this striking/important, because my entire wardrobe consists of items clearly and intentionally designed for long wear and evolution, which I am only able to purchase because they are cast-off at the first speck, rend, or new season.

I'd like to raise as an example a secondhand Ann D. shirt I recently purchased. It's made from a soft cotton/rayon blend, and it's beginning to pile. However, I noticed quickly that the fabric was made so that instead of being ruined by this, it's slowly taking on the appearance of a raw slubby silk, and remains both wearable and beautiful in this new season of its existence. Instead of being bleached crisp white, it's a soft cream color, and I expect that the flecks of green and brown that will inevitably develop as a result of my wearing it to work will give it depth and interest rather than marring it.

It is not rent, fraying, "destroyed" etc. but is, to my mind, much more in line with W-S aesthetics than an item that is crafted in the style of something greatly aged, and therefore loses its structural integrity and is ruined before much time passes.

[apathy!]

great thread.

I agree that manufactured wear/distressing can remind us of wabi-sabi, but is not an exmeplification of it. in that it doesn't allow us to truly observe the natural passage of time on that object

Just to add to the dialogue about plastics, I find it much easier to relate to basic materials. plastics/synthetics are so abstracted from natural human life. You feel a connection to the natural world when you are wrapped in wool and leather that you can't experience with plastic.