| The summer exhibition this year combines poetry, Japanese calligraphy and ikebana.
'From Kyoto to Carbeth' represents the cross-cultural fertilisation of the arts of poetry, ceramics, calligraphy and ikebana, as well as showcasing the traditional arts of Japan. It also demonstrates a meeting point, not simply between the interaction of art and artists and their cultural connection with the natural world that is quintessentially Japanese, but also an interaction with another culture: that of Scotland and its love of landscape and its response to the common threads of culture.
'To walk a place day after day, season on season is to become more aware of the passing of a different sort of time from the human,' writes Gerry Loose in his introduction to the exhibition. Gerry and Takaya Fujii, thousands of miles apart, both have this privilege. Their conversations developed in walking together, in Kyoto and Scotland, in the poetry of the wild and in the formality of ikebana. Takaya selected a plant from the hills for each month of the year; a plant which had personal and cultural significance, and Gerry responded by making poems. Extended by the involvement of a calligrapher and a ceramicist, this rare Japanese-Scottish collaboration is a fitting celebration of our place in a beautiful world.
The exhibition has been displayed in the Collins Gallery at the University of Strathclyde, and the Hill House in Helensburgh. It's at Gracefield Arts Centre in Dumfries until 26 June, then at the Scottish Poetry Library from 1 August to 12 September.
Related events:
29 July, 6-8pm, Exhibition preview
Free but ticketed
19 August, 10am-2pm
Renga workshop: Renga master is Colin Will
This will be held outside in Dunbar's Close garden, weather permitting. Participants can join the workshop at any stage in the morning, but advance booking essential.
£5/£3
Thursday 7 August, 1-2pm
Haiku Aloud
Free
Book for all events at the SPL, on 0131 557 2876 or email reception@spl.org.uk
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