REFLECTIONS ON CHINESE LANDSCAPE PAINTING AND GARDEN
I am fascinated by the way Nature is depicted in Chinese landscape paintings. The world of Chinese landscape painting can be described as one of configurations, a tension of relations oscillating between inward potentiality and outward actuality. These configurations are set against a field of dynamic patterns of concealment, permeable boundaries and interactions. Movement is embodied at all levels, from the external physical act of painting, breathing to the internal appreciation of the work. Nature is depicted as a process of formation and change, of becoming rather than one of enduring presence in time. Mountains are shaped by flows of water while human figures meander among the landscape, traveling through the mountain arteries. Hierarchy between elements is scalar. That is to say, one can perceive a similar structure in trees, rocks, buildings, etc. amidst different scales. Smaller configurations are nestled among larger organizations.
In the 17th century Mustard Seed Garden Manual of Painting, elements such as rocks, trees, mountains, clouds, houses and figures are carefully outlined. Grouped and described. The ordering, placement and relationship pf each element within the field of painting follows a set of principles. However, the manual is not a closed system of instructions but offers a multiplicity of formal possibilities, which the artist can interpret. The role of the artist becomes that of a mediator who will arrange and organize the loose configurations of elements into a meaningful whole. Despite the limited palette, the result is not homogeneous or reductive. In fact, it proposes another way of looking at organization based on the recognition of force, movement, change and differences among similarities. Elements co-exist within the painting, suggesting the possibility of subtle interdependence and complementary of form, pattern and function. There is no absolute paradigm, by which the painting is conceived, except the importance of allowing the viewer to dwell or to linger among the configurations of surface patterns. Participation by the viewer completes the painting, albeit momentarily, as interpretations evolve and grow over time. The careful placement of artifacts like bridges, houses and pavilions in the landscape act as “attractors” within the network of configurations, drawing and transforming the surrounding flows and movements. They are points of exchange and negotiations among landscape, artifacts and the body.
The Chinese landscape garden is conceived in a similar manner. The garden is not organized in relation to perspective. Rather, it is planned with a continuous change of surfaces and movements of the body, offering multiple viewpoints where one folds and overlaps into another. Boundaries are permeable, unclear. Walls separate and connect. Screens conceal but allow a gentle breeze to pass through. Footpaths are labyrinthine, weaving between gigantic rock formations and soft bellowing trees. The phenomenon of scale transformation occurs at all levels. Rocks placed in the garden can be found in smaller configurations on the scholar’s table. Leaves become lattice screen patterns, sometimes painted on a glass panel or used as a floor pattern.
The garden is the embodiment of absolutely fluidity, created to lead the mind and body in a perpetual state of movement. Ironically, the garden is also pure artifice, a construct of man. The Chinese landscape garden lies somewhere between the natural, the imaginary and the artificial. One cannot clearly distinguish between culture and nature but underlying its naturalness is a subtle tension.
Thomas K Kong
Fall 1997
Bloomfield Hills
I am fascinated by the way Nature is depicted in Chinese landscape paintings. The world of Chinese landscape painting can be described as one of configurations, a tension of relations oscillating between inward potentiality and outward actuality. These configurations are set against a field of dynamic patterns of concealment, permeable boundaries and interactions. Movement is embodied at all levels, from the external physical act of painting, breathing to the internal appreciation of the work. Nature is depicted as a process of formation and change, of becoming rather than one of enduring presence in time. Mountains are shaped by flows of water while human figures meander among the landscape, traveling through the mountain arteries. Hierarchy between elements is scalar. That is to say, one can perceive a similar structure in trees, rocks, buildings, etc. amidst different scales. Smaller configurations are nestled among larger organizations.
In the 17th century Mustard Seed Garden Manual of Painting, elements such as rocks, trees, mountains, clouds, houses and figures are carefully outlined. Grouped and described. The ordering, placement and relationship pf each element within the field of painting follows a set of principles. However, the manual is not a closed system of instructions but offers a multiplicity of formal possibilities, which the artist can interpret. The role of the artist becomes that of a mediator who will arrange and organize the loose configurations of elements into a meaningful whole. Despite the limited palette, the result is not homogeneous or reductive. In fact, it proposes another way of looking at organization based on the recognition of force, movement, change and differences among similarities. Elements co-exist within the painting, suggesting the possibility of subtle interdependence and complementary of form, pattern and function. There is no absolute paradigm, by which the painting is conceived, except the importance of allowing the viewer to dwell or to linger among the configurations of surface patterns. Participation by the viewer completes the painting, albeit momentarily, as interpretations evolve and grow over time. The careful placement of artifacts like bridges, houses and pavilions in the landscape act as “attractors” within the network of configurations, drawing and transforming the surrounding flows and movements. They are points of exchange and negotiations among landscape, artifacts and the body.
The Chinese landscape garden is conceived in a similar manner. The garden is not organized in relation to perspective. Rather, it is planned with a continuous change of surfaces and movements of the body, offering multiple viewpoints where one folds and overlaps into another. Boundaries are permeable, unclear. Walls separate and connect. Screens conceal but allow a gentle breeze to pass through. Footpaths are labyrinthine, weaving between gigantic rock formations and soft bellowing trees. The phenomenon of scale transformation occurs at all levels. Rocks placed in the garden can be found in smaller configurations on the scholar’s table. Leaves become lattice screen patterns, sometimes painted on a glass panel or used as a floor pattern.
The garden is the embodiment of absolutely fluidity, created to lead the mind and body in a perpetual state of movement. Ironically, the garden is also pure artifice, a construct of man. The Chinese landscape garden lies somewhere between the natural, the imaginary and the artificial. One cannot clearly distinguish between culture and nature but underlying its naturalness is a subtle tension.
Thomas K Kong
Fall 1997
Bloomfield Hills