Inside a sentimental enclave: The poetics of miniature landscape

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Volume Title

School of Arts, Design and Architecture | Master's thesis
Location:
P1 OPINNÄYTTEET D 2018 Zhao

Date

2018

Major/Subject

Mcode

Degree programme

Visual Culture and Contemporary Art
ViCCA

Language

en

Pages

54+6

Series

Abstract

In my master thesis research, I study the relationship between poetry ( Japanese and Chinese ancient poems) and miniature landscape (penjing or bonsai) from three different directions that lead to three outcomes: 1. Through this paper, I first look into the history of art in China and Japan (1600 BC – Late 1800 CE); by tracing the origin of miniature landscape and how it was represented in paintings and woodblock prints, I find that miniature landscape is not a mere interior decoration or a part of garden art that human appropriate from nature, it is a poetic extension where the human imaginations and emotional bonds with the world are preserved. Miniature landscape gives its viewers a strong sense of belongingness and possession, and its visual elements invite all senses to open as the nostalgic memory of the past emerges from deep within. Next, I analyse Japanese Haiku poems and Chinese Tang Poems; by paying attention to the objects and images inside the landscape where the poets let their emotions dwell, I discover that the world inside these poems is not only a place where the poets document observations of nature and express their feelings and emotions, it is also a world lived with the poetics of miniature and immensity. Finally, based on previous examinations of miniature landscape in art history and poetry, I explain my concept of creating an atmospheric landscape of memory and imagination by combining miniature landscape and poetry, followed by thoughts and questions that have occurred to me during the process of making the installations. 2. The poetry book “After Wishes Of The Waterfall, The Fallen Hair” is the second part of the thesis. This book includes poems that I wrote during the period 2014 – 2017, when I was traveling between Europe and China. The poems are edited into five themes, each of which is associated with a semi-imaginary landscape and specific emotions: Senses and Memory, You and Light, Time and Places, Fear and Saffron, Dreams and Home. 3. The third part and the final production of this thesis research is an installation work of five miniature landscapes; built with ceramics, soil, live and dead plants as well as other found materials, each is narrated by the poems from the book “After Wishes of The Waterfall, The Fallen Hair”, This experiment of combining poetry, miniature landscape and sound is based on both my understanding of the poetics of miniature landscape in history, the sentimental landscape inside poetry, and the nature of my own poems.

Description

Supervisor

Ryynänen, Max

Thesis advisor

Ryynänen, Max

Keywords

poetics, poetry, miniature landscape, Penjing, Bonsai, emotion, imagination, elsewhere

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