Embracing Imperfection: Contemporary Expressions of Wabi Sabi

Embracing Imperfection Contemporary Expressions of Wabi Sabi

Adam Chapman James Melchert Leah Rosenberg Tokihiro Sato

January 22 through April 30, 2017

Acknowledgements Napa Valley Museum would like to acknowledge the artists and galleries for their participation in this exhibition: Adam Chapman and Catharine Clark Gallery, Jim Melchert and Anglim Gilbert Gallery, Leah Rosenberg, and Tokihiro Sato and Haines Gallery.

Special thanks also to Regina Coppola for her research and writing contributions.

Finally thank you to the following dedicated staff and volunteers who helped bring this exhibition to life: Betty Bortz, facilities manager Mike Cabral, Gayle Kerns, collections manager Stacey Stern, and education manager Marina Vlnar.

Curator and catalog designer: Meagan Doud

55 Presidents Circle PO Box 3567 Yountville, CA 94599 www.NapaValleyMuseum.org 707.944.0500

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Contents Essay

pg 2-7

Plates

pg 8-21

Checklist

pg 22-23

Public Programs

pg 24-25

Essay If you ask a Japanese person to define wabi sabi, he or she might slowly, silently shake their head or respond by saying, “It’s the Japanese heart” or, “It’s in our soul.”

Language is infamously limited in conveying what is best described as an aesthetic way of perceiving the world and, yet, words and their thought structures are all we have to try to discuss it with one another. Unless, of course, we are all steeped in the mindset of Zen Buddhism since wabi sabi and Zen are inextricably linked.

Zen, first introduced to Japan in the 12th century via China and originating in India, stresses direct, intuitive insight into the transcendental truth beyond all intellectual concepts. It’s stridently anti-rational and its essential knowledge over the years has been transmitted mind to mind, not through language.

One of its key concepts is that things are either dissolving into or emerging from nothingness. In Zen terms, nothingness isn’t the Western notion of an empty void, but rather a place of infinitely creative potential. This vital continuum can be understood only through intuition and wabi sabi is the attitude through which intuition can be sparked.

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Because a clear definition of wabi sabi is avoided, experience through sensory perception is the way to begin to grasp it. One of its material expressions is the tea ceremony (alternately chado, chanoyu, or sado), a highly stylized ritual that reveres simple, earthy, and, above all, authentic elements including the utensils used as well as the room’s environment and surrounding gardens.

In reading about wabi sabi, you’ll undoubtedly come across the name of Sen no Rikyu (15221591), a tea master with Zen training who was known for his use of simple implements, efficiency of movement, and paring down the ceremony to its essence, never to the point of austerity, but maintaining warmth. It’s very important for the participants to not be distracted, to feel at ease, and to establish an empathetic bond with the individual elements that contribute to the atmosphere of wabi sabi.

Crucial to this aesthetic attitude is an appreciation of the passage of time—the physical example of the eternal continuum—especially as it’s seen in transient nature and in the imperfections of material objects. These can arouse a sense of Hasegawa Tohaku (1539-1610) caligraphy by Soen Shunoku (1529-1611) Sen no Rikyu, c. late 16th century

empathy, reminding us that we’re all in-process and that is, in effect, wabi sabi.

Qualities such as aging, awkwardness, asymmetry, roughness, and disrepair are all examples of unconventional signs denoting beauty—unconventional in the Western sense of classic beauty—and, yet, they’re highly valued as being representative of a profound awareness of one’s self in the world. Even when an object, like a teacup, is broken, it’s never discarded but rather pieced together with gold lacquer (a technique known as kintsugi or kintsukuroi) with the repaired line becoming part of that cup’s unique story—part of its flawed beauty—and a trace reminder of each body’s fragility.

when the mechanics of the world flash briefly into focus.” Two other of his video drawing series, Diagram of Isolated Moments Forming a Memory (2008-09) and Diagram of Chance and Will Intersecting (2011-12), begin as abstract elements — a variety of black lines and faint patches of muted colors — floating in and around each other, slowly resolving respectively into portraits of close friends and family and figure studies in ambiguous space. In constant motion, the faces and bodies gently pulse, their features separating into ephemerally abstract compositions that then recombine to reveal another face or pose. Watching the even pace of the repetitive transformations for a long enough time can lead to a lapse in running thoughts and

An emphasis on process, an invitation to chance occurrences, and sensitivity to the impermanence of things (in Japanese, mono no aware) are all evident in the works included in Embracing Imperfection and underscore the inherent qualities of wabi sabi. In Adam Chapman’s The Starling Drawings (2008), a series of video drawings of starlings in their idiosyncratic flight patterns — called murmurations — move as one entity, concentrating in a black bulk of design and fluidly dispersing into yet another within seconds. How or why the birds take on these collective patterns is still a mystery to researchers, but their habit is a tangible reminder of life’s continuum. The artist says that he “seek[s] to capture the fleeting, euphoric moments

Adam Chapman Diagram of Isolated Moments Forming a Memory (SD), 2008-09 Single-channel, generative, HD digital works with custom electronics, custom software, computer, and artists frame 16 x 12.5 x 2.5 inches Ed. of 2 + AP Courtesy of the artist and Catharine Clark Gallery

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a concentration on the present moment. It’s much like the reason that the traditional gestures in the tea ceremony were distilled for an efficiency of movement, codified, and performed in the same

when juxtaposed. Within weeks, an entire field coalesces with the intentionally made cracks now an integral part of the work — intentional but not entirely random due to a structural phenomenon

Jim Melchert Misfits: 3-2-5-1, 2011 Broken porcelain tile (on plywood) with glaze and ink 18 x 18 x .375 inches Courtesy of the artist and Anglim Gilbert Gallery

Jim Melchert Channel Six, 2016 Broken porcelain tile (on plywood) with glaze 23.5 x 23.5 inches Courtesy of the artist and Anglim Gilbert Gallery

way for centuries: non-thinking repetition results in contemplative awareness of the ceremony, its components, and other participants.

that causes the tiles to break apart only in those spots that have the weakest molecular bonds thus exposing hidden “fault lines.”

The potential that the materials and process hold is forefront in Jim Melchert’s mind when he begins a new series of ceramic works. “I’ll have an idea of how I want to proceed,” says Melchert, “but as you go along things will happen that generally indicate a much richer vein to pursue than you started with. And I like that.” The artist is known for his unorthodox way of working with ceramic tiles that he buys prefabricated and breaks on a concrete floor after wrapping them in plastic. He then brushes the fragments with glaze or adds painted lines, sometimes using ink on parts of the unglazed surface. After firing, he meticulously reassembles the fragments by pairing up those pieces that “attract and activate” one another

Melchert admits to a debt he owes John Cage (1912-1992) the experimental musician and philosopher who used all manner of chance events in composing his music like consulting the I Ching to determine the duration, pitch, and loudness of the notes. Like Cage, Melchert welcomes unpredictable outcomes as factors in his collaboration with the ceramics. In one of the two series shown, Misfits (2011), you can see a grid of precise circles that serves as the background for the scattered stone-like shapes that the artist has superimposed along with the web of cracks that lends yet another dimension of complexity to the works. Despite their muted gray colors and faint shadows, each of the pieces in Misfits shows a subdued power—a tension

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that resides in the lighter colored “stones” being surrounded by echoing black lines at their outer edges, appearing to pop from the composition.

No less powerful but wholly different in feel is Channel Series (2015-16) in which an expanse of white has been sparely interrupted by diagrammatic lines in bold colors reminiscent of a direction-less map. Some of the lines cover the slender fissures — features to be treasured as in the kintsugi technique — while others nearby mimic their paths and interior shapes, each method bringing your eye’s attention to the incidental “accidents” that delight the artist and that let you see the traces of his mind’s intuition.

Leah Rosenberg’s Where Once Was None

Irving Street Projects in San Francisco. For the latter piece, Rosenberg painted the whole of a small storefront space — walls, floors, ceiling, chair, desk, and bottle — in one color each day, a color that was chosen from a particular object or scene that resonated with her while she was meandering through the neighborhood on her daily walks. The color could be that of a fence or car, a certain shade of the night sky or that of a stranded crab on the beach. She’d photograph her chromatic inspiration, match it with paint that she bought at the local hardware store, and then paint the entire studio space with it except for a painter’s tape width of the previous day’s color. At the end of this fifty-day ritual — and after all the tape was removed — the final work

(2015) comprises remnants of a prior installation, Every Day a Color (2015), done while the artist was in a three-month residency program at

consisted of a series of stripes that denoted a personal diary of Rosenberg’s experiences throughout the residency and was essentially a

Detail: Leah Rosenberg All stripes, 2015 Latex paint, plexiglass and frame 108 x 86 inches Courtesy of the artist

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pared-down, highly subjective landscape of the neighborhood.

Where Once Was None — the installation seen here — was born by a chance realization during the de-installation of Every Day a Color: “As I began taking the masking from the ceiling away, the layers of paint started to peel away with it,” the artist explains. “I thought, oh how nice…I can keep this bit as a remnant. And then with my cake server, I kept peeling, realizing these layers were coming down in one piece.

So, in the end, I had a cast of a space made with paint and now I needed to preserve them [sic] as a way of extending the life of a project while also the ghost of it.” In the framed works, you can see that the sheets of paint are thick

Tokihiro Sato Hakkoda #8, 2009 Gelatin Silver Print, mounted on dibond Paper: 62 x 51 inches / Image: 52.875 x 42.125 inches Ed. 1/3 Courtesy of the artist and Haines Gallery

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and flexible enough to hold the shape of the room’s moldings and the small irregularities of the walls and ceiling on which the paint was originally applied, relief-like palimpsests of the once performative work. Being in close rapport with everyday colors and the way they “carry stories and memories,” Rosenberg creates an ephemeral path between internal experiences and external encounters.

Whereas Rosenberg records her ambling around town in diaristic fashion, photographer Tokihiro Sato uses light sources to indicate his progressive movements through space.

His exquisitely produced black-and-white photographs, such as Hakkoda #8 (2009) from the Breathing Light series, picture woodland scenes with numerous orbs of radiating light that sometimes gather in sentient clusters and sometimes move from foreground to background within the composition. Playful yet mysterious, the works are the result of a process that Sato began experimenting with in the early 1980s in which he set up his large-format camera and then moved around the scene being shot while holding a small mirror that reflected sunlight toward the camera, each step being held for ten-second intervals over an exposure time of up to three hours. It’s a technique that captures the artist’s movement in space indicated by the tiny points of light within the setting, illuminated signs of his own absent image since any motion is too fast to be recorded in such long exposures.

For interior or nighttime scenes, Sato will “draw” vertical lines — straight up and down or wavering and squiggly — using a penlight that he directs at the lens with, at times, nearly anthropomorphic effects.

Originally trained as a sculptor, Sato found that medium unsatisfying because it didn’t give him the dynamic relationship he was seeking between himself, his equipment, and

his surroundings. What’s maintained, however, is his sculptor’s sense of space to which he adds a temporal dimension that’s evident in the speckled radiance set within hundreds of highly detailed shades of gray. While in the forest, Sato has hinted about an empathy he feels with the pantheism of Shinto and the reverence this most ancient religion of Japan has for the natural world. Although it predates Zen Buddhism and its metaphysical merger with wabi sabi, Shinto’s belief in the animism of all things — inert and organic — provided a receptive atmosphere for both Zen and wabi sabi to take cultural root. The artist says that his inner attitude while working reflects “a direct connection between my breath and the act of tracing light,” a meditative feeling that harbors the visceral and cyclical bond with surroundings that’s at the heart of wabi sabi.

Recombinant motion of the abstract and the representational; the creative irregularities of happenstance; distilling a day into a color and a color into subjective experience; coaxing light to be a literal substitute for temporal space: Using vastly different materials and means, the four artists included in Embracing Imperfection all work in series, a point that highlights the regenerative process and fosters an active sense of time’s fluidity, the guiding principle of wabi sabi.

Intuition, a kind of pre-consciousness held deep in the recesses of our minds, is their aesthetic agent, one that imbues their work with the characteristics of an unconventional beauty gently stirring your perceptions.

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Plates

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Adam Chapman Diagram of Chance and Will Intersecting, 2011-12 Single-channel, generative, HD digital works with custom electronics, custom software, computer, paper, and artists frame 45.5 x 29.5 x 5 inches Courtesy of the artist and Catharine Clark Gallery

Adam Chapman Starling Drawings, 2008 Single-channel, generative, HD digital works with custom electronics, custom software, computer, paper, and artists frame 45.5 x 29.5 x 5 inches Edition of 3 + 1 AP Courtesy of the artist and Catharine Clark Gallery

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Jim Melchert Channel Three, 2016 Broken porcelain tile (on plywood) with glaze 23.5 x 23.5 inches Courtesy of the artist and Anglim Gilbert Gallery

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Jim Melchert Channel Seven, 2016 Broken porcelain tile (on plywood) with glaze 23.5 x 23.5 inches Courtesy of the artist and Anglim Gilbert Gallery

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Jim Melchert Misfits: 4-5-4, 2011 Broken porcelainn tile (on plywood) with glaze and ink 18 x 18 x .375 inches Courtesy of the artist and Anglim Gilbert Gallery

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Jim Melchert Misfits: 4-5-1, 2011 Broken porcelainn tile (on plywood) with glaze and ink 18 x 18 x .375 inches Courtesy of the artist and Anglim Gilbert Gallery

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Jim Melchert Misfits: 7-4-4-2, 2011 Broken porcelainn tile (on plywood) with glaze and ink 24 x 24 x .375 inches Courtesy of the artist and Anglim Gilbert Gallery

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Jim Melchert Misfits: 5-4-3, 2011 Broken porcelainn tile (on plywood) with glaze and ink 24 x 24 x .375 inches Courtesy of the artist and Anglim Gilbert Gallery

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Jim Melchert Misfits: 1-5-5-4, 2011 Broken porcelainn tile (on plywood) with glaze and ink 24 x 24 x .375 inches Courtesy of the artist and Anglim Gilbert Gallery

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Leah Rosenberg Left: A piece is missing, 2015 Latex paint, plexiglass and frame 96 x 30 inches Courtesy of the artist Middle Left: Orange with stripes, 2015 Latex paint, plexiglass and frame 108 x 86 inches Courtesy of the artist Middle Right: All orange, 2015 Latex paint, plexiglass and frame 108 x 86 inches Courtesy of the artist

Right: All stripes, 2015 Latex paint, plexiglass and frame 108 x 86 inches Courtesy of the artist Not shown: The missing piece, 2015 Latex paint, plexiglass and frame 15 x 19.5 inches Courtesy of the artist

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Tokihiro Sato Hakkoda #9, 2009 Gelatin Silver Print, mounted on dibond Paper: 62 x 51 inches / Image: 52.875 x 42.125 inches Ed. 1/3 Courtesy of the artist and Haines Gallery

Tokihiro Sato Shirakami #3, 2008 Gelatin Silver Print, mounted on dibond Paper: 62 x 51 inches / Image: 52.875 x 42.125 inches Ed. 1/3 Courtesy of the artist and Haines Gallery

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Tokihiro Sato #149, 1992 Black and white transparency over lightbox Image: 38.5 x 47.5 inches / Lightbox: 41 x 50 inches Ed. 2/12 Courtesy of the artist and Haines Gallery

Tokihiro Sato Yura #339, 2001 Black and white transparency over lightbox Image: 20 x 24 inches Ed. 1/12 Courtesy of the artist and Haines Gallery

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Artwork Checklist Adam Chapman Diagram of Chance and Will Intersecting, 2011-12 Single-channel, generative, HD digital works with custom electronics, custom software, computer, paper, and artists frame 45.5 x 29.5 x 5 inches Courtesy of the artist and Catharine Clark Gallery Adam Chapman Diagram of Isolated Moments Forming a Memory (SD), 2008-09 Single-channel, generative, HD digital works with custom electronics, custom software, computer, and artists frame 16 x 12.5 x 2.5 inches Ed. of 2 + AP Courtesy of the artist and Catharine Clark Gallery Adam Chapman Starling Drawings, 2008 Single-channel, generative, HD digital works with custom electronics, custom software, computer, paper, and artists frame 45.5 x 29.5 x 5 inches Edition of 3 + 1 AP Courtesy of the artist and Catharine Clark Gallery Jim Melchert Channel Three, 2016 Broken porcelain tile (on plywood) with glaze 23.5 x 23.5 inches Courtesy of the artist and Anglim Gilbert Gallery Jim Melchert Channel Six, 2016 Broken porcelain tile (on plywood) with glaze 23.5 x 23.5 inches Courtesy of the artist and Anglim Gilbert Gallery Jim Melchert Channel Seven, 2016 Broken porcelain tile (on plywood) with glaze 23.5 x 23.5 inches Courtesy of the artist and Anglim Gilbert Gallery

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Jim Melchert Misfits: 1-5-5-4, 2011 Broken porcelainn tile (on plywood) with glaze and ink 24 x 24 x .375 inches Courtesy of the artist and Anglim Gilbert Gallery Jim Melchert Misfits: 3-2-5-1, 2011 Broken porcelain tile (on plywood) with glaze and ink 18 x 18 x .375 inches Courtesy of the artist and Anglim Gilbert Gallery Jim Melchert Misfits: 4-5-1, 2011 Broken porcelainn tile (on plywood) with glaze and ink 18 x 18 x .375 inches Courtesy of the artist and Anglim Gilbert Gallery Jim Melchert Misfits: 4-5-4, 2011 Broken porcelainn tile (on plywood) with glaze and ink 18 x 18 x .375 inches Courtesy of the artist and Anglim Gilbert Gallery Jim Melchert Misfits: 5-4-3, 2011 Broken porcelainn tile (on plywood) with glaze and ink 24 x 24 x .375 inches Courtesy of the artist and Anglim Gilbert Gallery Jim Melchert Misfits: 7-4-4-2, 2011 Broken porcelainn tile (on plywood) with glaze and ink 24 x 24 x .375 inches Courtesy of the artist and Anglim Gilbert Gallery Leah Rosenberg All orange, 2015 Latex paint, plexiglass and frame 108 x 86 inches Courtesy of the artist

Leah Rosenberg All stripes, 2015 Latex paint, plexiglass and frame 108 x 86 inches Courtesy of the artist

Tokihiro Sato Hakkoda #9, 2009 Gelatin Silver Print, mounted on dibond Paper: 62 x 51 inches / Image: 52.875 x 42.125 inches Ed. 1/3 Courtesy of the artist and Haines Gallery

Leah Rosenberg A piece is missing, 2015 Latex paint, plexiglass and frame 96 x 30 inches Courtesy of the artist

Tokihiro Sato Shirakami #3, 2008 Gelatin Silver Print, mounted on dibond Paper: 62 x 51 inches / Image: 52.875 x 42.125 inches Ed. 1/3 Courtesy of the artist and Haines Gallery

Leah Rosenberg Orange with stripes, 2015 Latex paint, plexiglass and frame 108 x 86 inches Courtesy of the artist Leah Rosenberg The missing piece, 2015 Latex paint, plexiglass and frame 15 x 19.5 inches Courtesy of the artist Tokihiro Sato #149, 1992 Black and white transparency over lightbox Image: 38.5 x 47.5 inches / Lightbox: 41 x 50 inches Ed. 2/12 Courtesy of the artist and Haines Gallery Tokihiro Sato Yura #339, 2001 Black and white transparency over lightbox Image: 20 x 24 inches Ed. 1/12 Courtesy of the artist and Haines Gallery Tokihiro Sato Hakkoda #8, 2009 Gelatin Silver Print, mounted on dibond Paper: 62 x 51 inches / Image: 52.875 x 42.125 inches Ed. 1/3 Courtesy of the artist and Haines Gallery

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Public Programs Dual Opening Reception Saturday, January 21 5-8pm 5-6pm Members Only 6-8pm General Admission Free for Members/$7 for NonMembers For our first opening reception of the year we’re celebrating exhibitions in the Main Gallery and the Spotlight Gallery! Upstairs will feature work by Adam Chapman, James Melchert, Leah Rosenberg, and Tokihiro Sato in the exhibition Embracing Imperfection: Contemporary Expressions of Wabi Sabi. Downstairs will be an installation of new work by local artist Boback Emad. The wine and cheese reception will begin as a Members Only event from 5-6pm, opening up to General Admission from 6-8pm.

Tour with the Curator Friday, January 27 2pm Free with Museum admission Learn about Wabi Sabi, Zen, traditional Japanese ceramics, and the artistic practices of Chapman, Melchert, Rosenberg, and Sato during a special tour with NVM’s curator, Meagan Doud.

Japanese Tea Ceremony & Lunch Tuesday, February 7 9am-3pm Members Only $50 RSVP Required Enjoy an exclusive, members only, excursion to the Sokiku Nakatani Tea Room and Garden at the University Library of California State University, Sacramento.

Attendees will experience and participate in a traditional Japanese tea ceremony (Chadô). After the tea ceremony the group will enjoy conversation and lunch at a local Japanese restaurant. Tickets are $50 and include parking at Sac State, tea ceremony reservations, and lunch. Transportation will be arranged amongst the group to carpool. Limited to 25 guests. Cars will depart promptly from the Museum at 9am for a 10:30am tea reservation.

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Tour with the Curator Friday, February 24 2pm Free with Museum admission Learn about Wabi Sabi, Zen, traditional Japanese ceramics, and the artistic practices of Chapman, Melchert, Rosenberg, and Sato during a special tour with NVM’s curator, Meagan Doud.

Pay What You Wish Day Free Family Fun activity at 2pm - Imperfect Pieces: Creating Tangrams Saturday, March 11 The second Saturday of every month is Pay What You Wish Day! Visit the Museum with your family and join us for a Free Family Fun activity at 2pm. Channel artist James Melchert as we design our own artistic paper tangrams and explore contemporary expressions of Wabi Sabi. Start with a square, draw your own designs, then cut it up and rearrange it! Learn how to embrace imperfection through Chinese puzzle making and create your own works of art. We provide all the instructions and supplies.

Tour with the Curator Wednesday, March 15 2pm Free with Museum admission Learn about Wabi Sabi, Zen, traditional Japanese ceramics, and the artistic practices of Chapman, Melchert, Rosenberg, and Sato during a special tour with NVM’s curator, Meagan Doud.

Slow Art Day with YogaNV Saturday, April 8 10am-12pm Free with Museum admission Gather at the Museum on Saturday morning for a 1-hour yoga flow in the Main Gallery with our partners YogaNV. Enter a state of mindfulness and relaxed contemplation as we prepare to look at art slowly! We will focus our attention on four designated artworks in the Embracing Imperfection exhibition for 5-10 minutes each. After a time of slow looking, we will gather as a group to discuss your experiences and impressions.

To find out more about Slow Art Day, visit www.

SlowArtDay.com. For more info about our partner nonprofit YogaNV, visit www.YogaNapaValley.org.

Pay What You Wish Day Free Family Fun activity at 2pm - Let There Be Light: Revealing Nature’s Beauty Saturday, April 8 The second Saturday of every month is Pay What You Wish Day! Visit the Museum with your family and join us for a Free Family Fun activity at 2pm. Learn about artist Tokihiro Sato and the photographic process by experimenting with light sensitive photo paper and natural shapes of leaves, rocks, flowers, and twigs. Think about how photos capture and record moments in time.

We provide all the instructions and supplies, and you search our grounds for inspiration.

Hand-built Teacups with NBC Pottery Saturday, April 15 2-4pm $50 per person RSVP required Embrace imperfection and make your own Wabi Sabi inspired teacup set with renowned local ceramicist William Callnan III of NBC Pottery. This workshop is geared toward adults and is limited to 15 participants.

Working with clay provided, attendees will learn different styles and techniques of hand-building ceramics.

Each person will create a set of four teacups that will be fired and available for pick up at a later date. $50 covers the cost of materials and 2hr instruction.

Yountville Art, Sip & Stroll Saturday, April 22 11am-5pm $20 per tasting pass On Saturday, April 22 join us for the fifth annual premier Art Festival in Yountville ~ Art, Sip and Stroll. From 11AM-5PM, Washington Street will come alive with over 40 local and regional artists sharing their talents with you. For $20, participants will receive a tasting wristband and glass granting access to tasting from over 12 wine stops along the route.

Tour with the Curator Friday, April 28 2pm Free with Museum admission Learn about Wabi Sabi, Zen, traditional Japanese ceramics, and the artistic practices of Chapman, Melchert, Rosenberg, and Sato during a special tour with NVM’s curator, Meagan Doud.

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