The Art of Zen

Melbourne March 2016 (7 photos)

One of the design features of the National Gallery of Victoria is the large Water Wall at the front entrance.

A large glass wall, water flows down it continuously. It creates a lovely painterly effect when looking through it, and also creates a very pleasing visual sense of harmony.

Many people I watched had a desire to touch it.

Next to the Water Wall was a Chandelier sculpture by Ai weiwei, the artist responsible for the Forever Bicycles sculpture in my previous post.

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One of the exhibits, which naturally exudes the Art of Zen.

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Céleste Boursier-Mougenot is a French artist and composer who creates large-scale acoustic installations and environments which draw upon forces of nature and the rhythms of everyday life to produce new forms of art and music.

His work, Clinamen 2013, features white porcelain bowls floating upon an intensely blue pool. Circulating gently, swept along by submarine currents, the floating bowls act as percussive instruments, creating a resonant, chiming acoustic soundscape, marked by complexity, hidden patterns and chance compositions. Working in a tradition established by American composer John Cage, Boursier-Mougenot’s installation promotes chance and indeterminacy in musical composition, as well as the use of unorthodox musical instruments.

At the far end was a gentle jet that produced a current which moved the bowls directly toward where I was standing. The bowls would then go either clockwise or anticlockwise and then reunite in the middle at the far end, producing their music.

The resulting “music” was very pleasing to listen to, again creating a wonderful sense of harmony.

Here’s a video I found on youtube:

With this and the previous post, I hope you’ve enjoyed this visit to the National Gallery of Victoria.