Join us off-site at the Allan Gardens Children's Conservatory for Flower Planet Toronto.
Ikebana is an art form dating back over half a millennium. While codified in Japan, its circuitous origins lie in Buddhist and Hindu traditions as offerings to a variety of metaphysical beings. Its transient nature has the practice predominantly disseminated through classroom environments and printed matter. This slippery material form—at points, meant to depict otherworldly beauty approximate to what one sees upon entering Nirvana—has evolved over the centuries as a result of economic shifts, changing hegemonic structures, international trade, advancements in horticultural sciences and metalworking technologies, the introduction of Modernism, war, among other forces.
After centuries of rule-based and diagrammatic arrangements, the early 20th century saw the introduction of freestyle ikebana, an approach that liberally mixes tradition with idiosyncratic impulses. This new offshoot, only taking hold mid-century, helped lay the groundwork for developments in the practice that defined the avant-garde, post-avant-garde and contemporary modes of arranging—introducing a wide set of material and philosophical concerns. With the temporal nature of the medium limiting physical widespread exhibition, and international book distribution on the practice slowing from the 1970s onwards—arguably at the medium’s peak—there is little contemporary understanding or availability of just what sort of evolutions were taking place.
This three-hour introductory workshop helps bridge the gap between the history of ikebana and its contemporary approaches. With a historical overview opening the gathering, participants will initiate themselves to the medium and try their hand at this newer freestyle approach.
Christian Kōun Alborz Oldham is an artist, writer, and ikebana practitioner who continues Flower Planet, a studio founded by their teacher Kosen Ohtsubo, a pivotal figure in the avant-garde ikebana movement since the 1970s. The studio holds lectures and workshops, and produces writings and exhibitions on various elements of ikebana from antiquity to the present.
