Wabi-Sabi: Beauty In The Imperfect

Wabi-Sabi: Beauty In The Imperfect

Blog Post By: Anabia Jamshed

Note to reader: These are the thoughts penned by one of our registered Artists.

Each of my creations presents a story in itself. It must never be out of any context at all! After all, it is the era of personalizing, storytelling and emanating a nostalgic, cozy, snug and homey vibe! This one in particular is closest to my heart, mainly because it’s based on the Japanese design philosophy of ‘wabi-sabi’ - beauty in the imperfect, incomplete and the impermanent. As I studied more of it for my thesis, which was part of my Masters Degree in Interior Design, it grew on me and I started relating more and more with it. That is when I attempted to encapsulate the gist of this beautiful philosophy in the form of this ‘shadow box wall hanging’. Some of the core spiritual pillars of the primitive/ancient Japanese ideology and belief include the belief in harmony, respect, purity, tranquility, anti-rationalism, transcendental truth and leading an unencumbered life. This shadow box in particular, attempts to embody the essence of the ancient ‘Japanese tea house’ - the Japanese tea ceremony in spirit, principle and as a moment in time creating experience. The tea-making process itself is as simple as fetching water, collecting firewood for boiling, preparing tea and ultimately serving it. Instead of expensive/conventionally beautiful utensils, warm bamboo tea scoops made of virtue of their age for example, and handcrafted bamboo vases are employed; a whiff of the ‘perfectly imperfect’, ‘age’ and ‘patina’. A successful ceremony is to leave its participants with a feeling of ‘jaku’ - tranquility and ‘Sei’ - Purity. In creating this shadow box I have humbly attempted to reflect upon all the aforementioned. Amongst other mediums, I used wax and patina pastes to create the rusted and ‘aged’ look; also I used tools to create cracks in the wood in certain places to reflect the wabi-sabi imperfection.