Poetry in stone. Suiseki are naturally formed stones resembling landscapes or animals. Stones admired for shape, balance and simplicity are collected and displayed on hand-made stands as natural art pieces. But like conceptual art, they allude to loftier ideals. Like
Poetry in stone. Suiseki are naturally formed stones resembling landscapes or animals. Stones admired for shape, balance and simplicity are collected and displayed on hand-made stands as natural art pieces. But like conceptual art, they allude to loftier ideals.
Like bonsai, suiseki originated in China, then migrated to Japan over 2000 years ago.
“There are stones 1000 years old in Japan that are passed down from family member to family member,” said suiseki artist Claude Joseph of Lihu‘e. “They even name their stones.”
Joseph is part of Kaua‘i Bonyu Kai, a bonsai club presenting a bonsai and stone art exhibit opening at 4:30 today at the Kaua‘i Society of Artists exhibition space in Kukui Grove Shopping Center.
According to the book, “The Japanese Art of Stone Appreciation,” suiseki translates as “water stone,” derived from an ancient custom of displaying miniature landscapes in trays of water.
The traditional appeal of suiseki is expressed through the stone’s suggestive power. One of Joseph’s “boat” stones is a case in point: Displayed on an ebony wood daiza half hidden by sand, a “boat” floats over the reflective surface to rest partly on “shore.”
For Joseph this suiseki illustrates a childhood memory of fishermen in Alaska returning home and hauling their boats from the water to rest on the beach.
Joseph orders his stones from as far away as Italy and travels yearly to Southern California on stone expeditions, collecting from river beds and the desert. As a bonsai artist for the past 15 years, he said suiseki was a natural companion to bonsai.
Of the 400 stones Joseph has collected, he will have 15 on display at today’s show in the company of 25 large and medium bonsai, along with 12 smaller trees called shohin. This generous collection represents the work of just six bonsai artists: Abe and Linda Machado, Lance Laney, Claude Joseph, Tandu Sivanathan and Sam Lee.
One question commonly asked of Joseph during a show is how he achieved the sheen on some of his rocks.
“If I buffed it I couldn’t show it as suiseki,” he said. “The polished look is from the river and the sand or from sand blowing in the desert — that’s what really puts a sheen on the stone.”
When it comes to stones, aging is revered. Wrinkles, cracks and scars are signs of beauty and allude to impermanence and the perishability of life. Closely associated with Zen Buddhism and Taoism, suiseki is an art grounded in natural beauty and simplicity.
“The old masters believed if you cut a stone you release a spirit that lived in the stone,” he said.
• Pam Woolway, lifestyle writer, can be reached at 245-3681, ext. 257 or pwoolway@kauaipubco.com.
Want to go?
What: Suiseki and bonsai exhibit
When: 4:30 to 9 p.m. today; 10 a.m. to noon Saturday
Where: KSA exhibition space, Kukui Grove
