Public Lecture

Dr. Gert Jakobus van Tonder

Topic: More than a blank: The shape of Empty Space in Japanese Gardens

Abstract: A founding ideal of garden design in East Asia over the past two millennia has been to capture the ‘essence of nature’. In Japan, this art form was influenced by the aesthetic of Zen Buddhism, achieving an unprecedented level of abstraction and minimalism. Today, these gardens remain as examples of how the essential visual signature of complex natural forms can be captured and presented in a sparse and stylized manner. As a consequence, a significant proportion of space in such gardens is left ‘empty’. The shape of empty spaces compliments the forms of rocks, trees and moss to convey naturalistic structure. In our everyday visual experience of the world, we hardly concentrate on looking at the shape of empty space, partly because object form predominates the content of perception. Sharing some insights from more than twenty years working in Japanese gardens, the presenter here shows how a bit of mental origami can guide an understanding of these otherwise enigmatic empty spaces.

Location: Chong-Hua Hall, Li-Hsin Campus, National Cheng Kung University