Reflective writing of <In praise of shadow>

Chelsea College of Arts GradDip Interior Design

Xinrui Li(Ariel)

13/11/2020

In praise of shadow in an unprecedented visual angle interpreted the charm of Oriental culture, as an Oriental, and I like Japanese culture, also have been to Japan’s Kyoto, Nara Several times, I saw the author described the dark elegant scene on my own, but what a pity that I haven’t been to the toilet which he talked about, I can strongly feel the author’s idea of that kind of scene, it’s deep roots in Japanese culture, Oriental culture, implicative, elegant and poetic chanting.

A book was written by a lot of Japanese materials, for example, Japanese paper, lacquer, brushes and ink, also mentions the Chinese Xuan paper. In fact, I think what the author mentioned and the white space in the Chinese traditional landscape painting has the same feeling, with Chinese poetry and painting are also have many connections, here refers to the Chinese freehand brushwork in Chinese traditional landscape painting, it projected our spirit, which is the heart, temperament, soul, and a look of the self, the painting pays attention to virtual-actual combination, between ink and white space there’s a sing of rhythm, give a person the aesthetic feeling “lingering sound waves, hanging by a thread”, as written in the book the toilet experience, the dirt is immersed in the green moss silently, listening to the rain falling on the stone lamp, which is just as pleasant as looking at Chinese landscape painting.

There is no doubt that eastern culture has a lot in common, whether it is painting, poetry, or the essence rooted in the deep national nature.

It also reminds me of a Japanese architect named Kengo Kuma, and the history and culture in Japanese architecture, he is a leading architect in Japan today, advocates a blend of classical and modern styles. His thinking is not limited to the building itself, but more focused on the relationship between architecture and human & nature. His architecture exudes Japanese zeitgeist and Oriental zen. Using natural materials such as wood, mud-brick, bamboo, slate, paper or glass, he combines water, light and air to create a “weak building” that looks weak but is shock-resistant and feels the warmth and beauty of traditional architecture.

His work is different from many modern buildings, even with the concept of Tadao Ando, this also is another trend of Japanese architecture, such as the architect Shigeru Ban, created a lot of “paper architecture” works, through his research, we saw the potential of the paper building, and the consistency of Japanese architect, are looking for their understanding of architecture and environment, and the symbiotic relationship between people, from the soil we come, will finally return.

Return the contents of the book, after reading it really affect me a lot, also let me review the eastern aesthetics, especially the shadow dark part, I think this will affect my creation of “window of meditation”, I can relate to the scenes mentioned in the book, but don’t know where it came from and now I understand this is the nature of a nation, an implicit elegant beauty, deep in the heart is also the charm of Oriental culture.

References

Ban, S. 2019. Cortesia de Voluntary Architects’ Network. Available at: https://images.adsttc.com.qtlcn.com/media/images/5c8f/9a1b/284d/d14c/8200/02c9/slideshow/Cortesia_de_Voluntary_Architects’_Network_2.jpg?1552914965.

Ban, S. [no date]. Works. Available at: http://www.shigerubanarchitects.com/works.html [Accessed: 14 November 2020].

Locher, M. 2012. Traditional Japanese Architecture: An Exploration of Elements and Forms. Tuttle Publishing.

Tanizaki, J. 2019. In Praise of Shadows. Random House.

Woo, Y.-Y.C. 1979. Chinese Poetry and Painting: Some Observations on their Interrelationship. Monumenta Serica 34(1), pp. 403–413. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02549948.1979.11731141 [Accessed: 14 November 2020].