Comments on: Recent Waterscapes by Herbert Dreiseitl – book review

By: Christine

Christine — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 05:20:27 +0000

It could be the light quality and the environmental context of the statutes as well as the symbolic representational qualities which determine the use of colour.
[ http://www.talariaenterprises.com/products_lg/tal109.html ] In the ancient world the use of colour was most likely also due to be the availability of pigaments.

This writer has speculated that the colour perception of the ancient Greeks was also very different to ours. [ http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/exchange/node/61 ] It would seem that our cultural epistemology has something to do with how we percieve and appreciate colour.
[ http://einquisitive.com/blog/comparison-of-the-epistemology-of-david-hume-and-immanuel-kant/ ]

Preference is a judgment. So you could tell me why you like something and dislike something else.

For example:

“It is the kind of graphic which Time Magazine might use for an article on some aspect of modern Buddhism.”

However this statement perhaps requires further elaboration on a) the use of graphics by Time magazine and b) how Time might approach an article on modern Buddhism to give it full clarity.

By: Tom Turner

Tom Turner — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 08:51:51 +0000

With regard to Buddhist sculpture I think part of the problem is that it is painted, as was the case for much sculpture in the ancient world. But I generally like the colours on Egyptian sculpture and I generally do not like the colours on Buddhist sculpture. As you say, this could be ‘cultural’. But I do not like the example of English Buddhist art either. It is the kind of graphic which Time Magazine might use for an article on some aspect of modern Buddhism.

By: Christine

Christine — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 04:27:16 +0000

I wonder how much of this is part of a cultural sensibility?
[ http://www.fwbo-news.org/uploaded_images/Aloka_Buddha_Norwich-709119.JPG ]

True, a British inspired Buddha is more aesthetically palatable than some of the other religious images which are possibly more inaccessible because of their largely symbolic content and mode of representation.
[ http://fwbo-news.blogspot.com/2008/06/major-exhibition-of-western-buddhist.html ]

However, other Buddhist art such as this wooden statute of a Bodhisattva from the Song Dynasty (960-1279) are extraordinarily beautiful for their emotional manifestation of qualities of strength, serenity and inner dignity.
[ http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/_/viewer.aspx?path=9%2F98%2F&name=Wood_Bodhisattva.jpg ]

Another difficulty as this post demonstrates is the contextualisation of scared art: aesthetically the Kalachakra Cosmology Diagram is challenging as wall painting in isolation – however contextualised with the architecture [ http://tibet-incense.com/blog/kalachakra-cosmology-diagram/ ] the composition takes on different sets of relationships.

By: Tom Turner

Tom Turner — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 06:14:50 +0000

Since Buddhist ideas originated in Central Asia (South Central and North Central) I think there has been a tendency for both East and West Eurasia to downplay its originality. Also, I think it was a landscape- and garden-influenced set of beliefs. It may be that the man:nature relationship was deeply thought out under the influence of Buddhism. BUT I often find Buddhist art rather tacky!

By: Christine

Christine — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 01:46:56 +0000

Yes Lady Murasaki in writing Japan’s first novel in the Heian era was influenced considerably by the newly introduced from China but culturally assimilated Buddhism.

Here is an interesting blog post on Wabi Sabi [ http://www.studiogblog.com/reference-history/wabi-sabi-what-the…..is-that/ ] and some theory. [ http://www.hermitary.com/solitude/aesthetics.html ].

Despite the differences between the aesthetic approaches of Wabi Sabi and Modernism listed here – I believe they sit well together as landscape/architecture.

By: Tom Turner

Tom Turner — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 06:28:32 +0000

Thank you for the discrimination. It is easy to slip into the trap of thinking that a person is ‘good’ and so their work is ‘good’, whereas all work and all people have good and bad aspects.
There is something Rudolph Steiner-ish about some of Dreisitl’s projects and I can see why you admire his Minimalist work and other Minimalist landscape architecture. It has something of the near-religious purity found in Mother Nature’s best moods.

When night is almost done,
And sunrise grows so near
That we can touch the spaces,
It’s time to smooth the hair

Emily Dickinson’s Dawn makes me think of the Prince Genji waking in a pavilion and looking out to a Japanese garden with one of his poetess mistresses – the Wabi-Sabi aesthetic was one of the sources for Western Minimalism.

By: christine

christine — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 03:06:30 +0000

My urban water aesthetic tends to be more zen/mimimalist than Driseitl’s usual work, so I have picked out favourite examples to illustrate:

[ http://www.dreiseitl.net/cms-gfx/58_Paragon/017_Paragon_bild_gr.jpg ]

[ http://www.dreiseitl.net/cms-gfx/9_Maybach_Center/009-bild-gr.jpg ]

[ http://www.dreiseitl.net/cms-gfx/30_Gartenfestival-Chaumont-Loire/014_Choum_bild_gr.jpg ]

[ http://www.dreiseitl.net/cms-gfx/2_Hannoversch_Muenden/002-rund-navi-neu.jpg ]

[ http://www.asla.org/uploadedImages/CMS/Business_Quarterly/queens_watercanal.jpg ]

Perhaps integrating external urban areas and internal lobby design would achieve something amazing?

[ http://annarborchronicle.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/DreiseitlLobby.jpg ]