Bending Perceptions

New Bamboo Podcast

Everyone knows what bamboo is – you know, that tall, green, leafy rigid stalk plant that is almost weed-like in how fast it grows. When I think of bamboo, the first three things that come to my mind are China, panda bears, and my failed 2nd grade plant experiment (which totally wasn’t my fault). My association of bamboo with art pretty much extended only to those Chinese ink paintings of bamboo forests, and maybe bamboo flutes at a stretch. It’s certainly no surprise, then, that the exhibit “New Bamboo” at the Japan Society gallery completely blew away all my expectations of what “bamboo art” could be.

To sum up the event, “New Bamboo” is an exhibit entirely devoted to Japanese bamboo as a medium for some of the most complex sculptures you will probably ever see. The show features works from 23 artists who took traditional techniques, applied their own contemporary approach, and created these (more than 90) new and wholly unique works that are, without a doubt, among the most dynamic and intricate I have ever encountered.

While my mind has a hard time comprehending the fact that these works came from traditional basket-making skills and techniques, it certainly is no stretch of the imagination to see how. The sculptures demonstrate probably every traditional technique you could think of using – some are lacquered, others steam-bent, woven, extruded, caned, ropy; one can only be astounded by the ingenuity that went into manipulating this versatile and often underappreciated material.

Of course, if you’re expecting to walk into the exhibit to find a contemporary bamboo David, you will surely be in for a big surprise. Like a great deal of modern art, and sculpture in particular, the twisted, arching forms of many of the works bear little resemblance to biological figures, and probably wouldn’t make the cut as practical objects – though there is certainly a clear organic quality to every piece. For example, one piece, Matsumoto Hafu’s Outsize flower basket, possesses a shape that seems to resemble a hollow ball of yarn, rather than what you’d think a flower basket would be. It looks almost as if the artist took bamboo belts and simply wrapped them into a ball-like shape. A few pieces – such as Honma Kazuki’s Breath – also reminded me more of mathematics and swirling computer-generated fractals, rather than traditional art pieces. Still others reminded me of everyday things, like Homna Hideaki’s Knot III— which really does look like he took a bamboo mat and tied it into a knot – and Rolling Shape II, which looks exactly like a kind of shape that you’d find in a bag of Fritos.

With the fluidity of the forms of the pieces on display, it’s easy for any viewer to forget that shaping this medium is no mean feat. I myself often forgot that these shapes weren’t just carved out of a block, but had to be meticulously shaped and carefully manipulated to become what it is. What looks like a simple curve can in fact take a great deal of time and effort to create. Although I’ve never had to work with bamboo in particular before, I know from experience that it’s anything but easy to steam a piece of wood to bend it and make a curve – it’s all too easy to snap right in half without the right timing and techniques. I can only imagine the painstaking effort put into the pieces in “New Bamboo” – but it’s certainly a breathtaking effort you can’t help but appreciate.