Page 29 - Tạp chí bonsai cây cảnh BCI 2013Q4

1 Artificial Rock No 148, 2007, Zhan Wang, photo
courtesy the artist
2 Bull’s Head, 1942, Pablo Picasso.
3 Bicycle Wheel, 1951, Marcel Duchamp
4 Monogram, 1955 – 59, Robert Rauschenberg.
5 Campbell’s Soup, 1968, Andy Warhol
Images 2 to 5 comply with fair use under United
States copyright law
6 – 9 Some stands for Chinese viewing stones are
scaled-down versions of full sized pieces of furniture
such as plant stands. Japanese suiseki display tables
allude to full-scale furniture as well. These stones
are displayed on stands that reference mid-century
modernist furniture. Collection of the artist.

are not normally thought of as being art. 2 3
Found objects were first used in paintings
and sculptures by Picasso in the early part
of the 20th century. Thus began a practice
that has continued to the present with in-
ternationally known artists such as Marcel
Duchamp, Robert Rauschenberg, and Andy
Warhol employing found objects and images
in their work.
The found object concept is relevant because
viewing stones are essentially found objects,
but with a history dating back to the Tang
Dynasty rather than to the beginning of the
twentieth century. A stone at the bottom of a
stream is no more a work of art than a bicycle 4 5
wheel on a shelf in a thrift store. However,
once the stone or bicycle wheel has been se-
lected by a creative individual and fitted with
a diaza or combined with other objects to
form a sculpture, it has been removed from
the realm of nature (or the shelf of the thrift
store) and becomes reborn as a work of art.
The creative act, for both the artist and the
viewing stone collector, is more a matter of
selection and re-contextualization than it is
one of creating something where previously, 7
nothing existed. Applying the found object
notion to viewing stones effectively serves as
a bridge between the art world and the world
of stone collecting, blurring the distinctions
between the artist and the connoisseur. It 6
also proposes a contemporary perspective
from which we can revisit traditional Chi-
nese and Japanese practices.
The past is a basis for authority and a place
for validation. We realize the full meaning
of our own creations in the context of the
traditions from which they emerge. This is
what enables us to confidently ask questions
such as “What would be the American
equivalent of a Japanese display table or the
21st century version of a suiban?”
Honoring a tradition means, among other
things, tending to its well-being, much
as one might feed and water a bonsai.
8 9
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