Wabi-sabi and the art of imperfection
Hokusai`s Tea House at Koishikawa: the tea ceremony, the changing of the season, the absence of detail in much of the piece - all classic references to the wabi-sabi aesthetic
I was explaining the concept of wabi-sabi to a friend the other day. Him being a gardener we`d been talking about Japanese design and he got very excited when I told him about the wabi-sabi aesthetic - the notion that you can find great beauty in things that are imperfect, or incomplete. Whether he was more excited about having an excuse to leave his customers` lawns half-done or that his Jack Duckworth-style specs (held together by sticky tape) that he wears while cutting hedges could in fact be interpreted as a statement of artistic intent I`m not sure, but the conversation did get me thinking.
Where did this sensibility come from? As with most things Japanese, you may find some answers in their spirituality and their history. The gods they have venerated have never been purely good; nor have the demons they have feared been purely evil. Instead, they have been layered characters capable of both good and of evil. Perfection is not something that has been expected or sought for; imperfections and grey zones are the norm. And while much of Western life is predicated on the belief that we have tamed the environment we live in, centuries of fires, floods, earthquakes and tsunamis are a constant and humbling reminder of the transient, fragile nature of the human condition, beholden to forces that cannot be predicted or controlled.
a beautiful representation of kintsugi
The artform the aesthetic most reminds me of is kintsugi, the artisanal Japanese tradition of repairing cracked and broken pottery with precious metal lacquers. The breakage, which might be regarded as the ultimate design flaw, becomes a design strength, producing something entirely imperfect but also entirely unique that unashamedly bears the scars from its previous incarnation into its “second life”.
Acknowledging, accepting, and celebrating imperfection is not a concept that is exclusive to Japan of course; and for those of us whose work is connected to the advertising and imagery space the last few years have seen a pleasing move towards this across all forms of media across all kinds of countries. But there`s still much more to be done. Jack Duckworth won`t be around to see it more`s the pity, but if he`s looking down on us he`ll at least know there is someone out there in someone else`s garden, hedge-cutting and keeping his personal brand of wabi-sabi alive.
Jack Duckworth demonstrates the art of wabi-sabi through the medium of his specs