SHIFTING AESTHETICS

I don't know why I find myself attracted to old, abandoned houses, but I do. Perhaps it's my admiration for the wabi-sabi aesthetic of finding beauty in what architect Leonard Koren has described as things imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete. There may also be something else at work here — a sense of profound sadness that these myriad decaying structures once sheltered people with hope, unnoticed dreamers who struggled valiantly but finally succumbed to the harsh realities of life. Whatever the case, I look upon these old places much as William Carlos Williams does in his nostalgic poem Pastoral (When I Was Younger).  I continue to find beauty in whatever life remains,  whether it be the "properly weathered" colors of old wood or the changing angles of a leaking roof that will surely collapse in time, but which is holding its own today.  As Williams concludes in his poem, these things may not be "of vast import to the nation," but they always deserve our attention, for they remind us that most things — even our own lives — continue to yield beauty, even as they surrender to the ravages of time.

                                          Pastoral (When I was younger)

                                               by William Carlos Williams

                                              When I was younger

                                              it was plain to me

                                              I must make something of myself.

                                              Older now

                                              I walk back streets

                                              admiring the houses

                                              of the very poor:

                                              roof out of line with sides

                                              the yards cluttered

                                              with old chicken wire, ashes,

                                              furniture gone wrong:

                                              the fences and the outhouses

                                              built of barrel staves

                                              and parts of boxes, all,

                                              if I am fortunate, 

                                              smeared a bluish green

                                              that properly weathered

                                              pleases me best of all colors.

                                              No one

                                              will believe this

                                              of vast import to the nation.

From The Collected Poems of William Carlos Williams: 1909-1939

WABI-SABI REVISITED

WABI-SABI
celebrates
the beauty of things imperfect, impermanent, or incomplete;
the beauty of things modest and humble; 
and
the beauty of things unconventional.

Walk through a boatyard, 

preferably an old one that struggles

to survive yet another harsh winter, 

and you will discover the essence of wabi-sabi:

nothing permanent, everything in beautiful transition.

The once proud bow of an old sloop
has now become a semi-abstract painting
which beckons me to look across a snowy landscape
in search of the timid winter moon.

The ancient boat lift 
can hardly serve its original purpose,
but finds new life as a sculptor, 
reminding my eyes of the loveliness
and necessity of negative space.

The corroded 
rudder of an aging ketch
is no longer just a steering utility.
It's a quiet embodiment of Zen simplicity 
 that invites the heart to stillness and meditation.

Paint from a shed
flakes, peels, takes flight
on the winter Chesapeake winds,
 leaving its message that man's best devices
can never hold together what nature is destined to alter.

What appears
to be raw corrosion
is simply a new birth,
 a creative act of destruction
born of wind and water, grit and grime, 
bringing nascent beauty to an unexpected place.

From Wabi-Sabi: For Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers
by Leonard Koren

Wabi-sabi suggests that beauty is a dynamic event that occurs between you and something else.  Beauty can spontaneously occur at any moment given the proper circumstances, context, or point of view.  Beauty is thus an altered state of consciousness, an extraordinary moment of poetry and grace.

For previous postings about wabi-sabi on this blog, see:

http://transit-notes.blogspot.com/2010/07/wabi-sabi.html and 

http://transit-notes.blogspot.com/2010/07/wabi-sabi-and-modernism.html.

WABI-SABI AND MODERNISM

As my last posting indicates, I have been reading Wabi-Sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets, and Philosophers, which was written by Leonard Koren and published about sixteen years ago.  This small, elegant volume is a great introduction to the Japanese aesthetic ideal of wabi-sabi, which celebrates the beauty of things that are imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete; the beauty of things that are modest and humble; and the beauty of things that are unconventional.

Based on the comments I received on the first wabi-sabi posting, it's clear that many people are interested in exploring wabi-sabi as possible alternative to the western aesthetic ideal that dominates our modern world.  To that end, I think it's helpful to consider Koren's side-by-side comparison of the ways in which wabi-sabi stands in sharp contrast with modernism.

Modernism                                wabi-sabi

Primarily expressed                  Primarily expressed
in the public domain                  in the private domain

Implies a logical                        Implies an intuitive
rational worldview                     worldview

Absolute                                    Relative

Looks for universal                    Looks for personal,
prototypical solutions                 idiosyncratic solutions

Mass-produced/                        One-of-a-kind/
modular                                     variable

Expresses faith in                      There is no progress
progress

Future-oriented                          Present-oriented

Believes in the                           Believes in the
control of nature                         fundamental
                                                   uncontrollability of
                                                   nature

Romanticizes                              Romanticizes
technology                                  nature

People adapting to                      People adapting to
machines                                     nature

Geometric                                   Organic
organization of form                    organization of form
(sharp, precise                            (soft, vague shapes
definite shapes                            and edges)
and edges)

The box as metaphor                  The bowl as  metaphor
(rectilinear, precise,                    (free shape, open at
contained)                                   top)

Man-made materials                   Natural materials

Ostensibly slick                           Ostensibly crude

Needs to be                                 Accommodates to
well-maintained                           degradation and
                                                    attrition

Purity makes its                          Corrosion and
expression richer                        contamination
                                                    make its expression
                                                    richer

Solicits the reduction                  Solicits the expansion
of sensory                                   of sensory
information                                  information

Is intolerant of                              Is comfortable with
ambiguity and                              ambiguity and
contradiction                                contradiction

Cool                                             Warm

Generally light and                      Generally dark and
bright                                           dim

Function and utility                      Function and utility
are primary values                      are not so important

Perfect materiality                       Perfect immateriality
is an ideal                                    is an ideal

Everlasting                                  To everything there
                                                     is a season

Most people, I suspect, are not willing to completely abandon everything that is valued by modernism.  I, for one, plan to keep using my computer, camera, and cellphone -- and, much as it saddens me, I do find it necessary to occasionally visit the rational and logical part of my brain, if only as a tourist.  The great thing about wabi-sabi, however, is that it makes no demands. It simply invites us to move at our own speed toward a world that is more authentic and better connected with reality. Some may wish to practice wabi-sabi in every aspect of their daily lives.  Others may find that a middle way -- one that avoids extremes -- offers a better solution. What is undeniable, however, is that wabi-sabi offers an antidote to the modern ideal that finds beauty only in the perfect, the permanent, the completed, the grand, and the conventional.

This is a fascinating subject and I would welcome further comments on how wabi-sabi values have shaped your lives, without regard to whether you knew you were practicing wabi-sabi at the time.

WABI-SABI

Old Peacock Feather

One of the books that has captured my imagination in recent weeks is Wabi-Sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets and Philosophers.  Published in 1994, this small book was written by Leonard Koren, a trained architect who, according to the publisher's note, had never previously built anything, except an eccentric Japanese tea house, "because he found large, permanent objects too philosophically vexing to design." 

Wabi-sabi is a Japanese aesthetic ideal that is rooted to some extent in Zen Buddhism.  Like Zen, it is difficult to precisely define because it abhors structures, criteria, and formulas. According to Koren, however, wabi-sabi encompasses --

     the beauty of things imperfect, impermanent,
     and incomplete;

     the beauty of things modest and humble; and

     the beauty of things unconventional.

Looking around the outside of my home in the last few days, I have found several objects or groups of objects that seem to radiate wabi-sabi beauty: the remains of a weathered peacock feather that was arbitrarily stuck in a flower pot several years ago; odd pieces of colorful sea glass gathered by my wife from various beaches; a weathered stone with interesting patterns; a bird's abandoned nest still containing a broken shell that once contained new life; and a metal lattice strip succumbing to rust. Each of these objects is imperfect and each is a testament to the impermanence of all things.

Pieces of Weathered Sea Glass

In its celebration of things that are imperfect, impermanent, incomplete, modest, humble, or unconventional, wabi-sabi stands in opposition to the western aesthetic ideal.  With its Greek heritage, the western ideal reveres perfection and disparages "flaws"; venerates that which is perceived to be permanent and frowns upon that which is perceived to be transitory; and favors "completed" things over those that are slow works in progress.  Westerners may occasionally find the modest and humble to be charming, but we seldom equate it with beauty.  Nor are we inclined to ascribe beauty to unconventional things; more often than not, the unconventional is suspected of "ugliness," the cardinal aesthetic sin.

Weathered Stone

Understandably, the western aesthetic ideal may seem more rational to westerners, particularly Americans. Like Zen, however, wabi-sabi is decidedly anti-rational, which is to say that it abhors any habit of systematic, conditioned thinking that separates the thinker from the reality of the present moment.  As a result, the focus of wabi-sabi is never on some abstract, intellectual notion of what could be or should be, but rather on the singular beauty emanating from that which is at any given point in time.

Bird's Abandoned Nest with Cracked Shell

While wabi-sabi is often associated with ambiance, the physical environment, or the beauty of things, it is anchored in larger philosophical propositions that can also provide the framework for one's entire life.  Those propositions, as I understand them, would include the following:

-- One should accept and embrace impermanence, not only because it is the undeniable state of all things, including the universe, but also because it is the condition that gives value to anything at any given moment.

-- One should see and appreciate the beauty of every stage of transition, the old no less than the new, the broken no less than the whole, the tarnished and tattered no less than the slick and fine.

-- One should discover wonder and beauty in unexpected places and things, perhaps even places or things that are suspected of being "ugly."  As Koren says, "beauty can be coaxed out of ugliness," and is often found in "the minor and the hidden, the tentative and the ephemeral: things so subtle and evanescent they are invisible to the vulgar eye."

-- One should live simply, modestly, and frugally by getting rid of everything that is unnecessary, including nonessential material things as well as illusions of wealth, success, status, power, and luxury.

-- One should always favor the intuitive over the logical, nature over technology, the present over the future, natural materials over the man-made materials, modesty over ostentation, and the inner life over the outer life.

None of this is meant to suggest that wabi-sabi would require one to live in a perennial state of austerity or deprivation; indeed, Buddha himself advocated "the middle way."  The key, as Koren essentially states in his book, is to pare down to the essence of life without removing its poetry.

Rusting Metal Lattice Strip