For my money the real super bowl this weekend is the Hanakago (flower basket) exhibition at the Portland Japanese Garden. It features bamboo basket masterpieces from Portland collector Peter Shinbach's bamboo art collection, further brought to life with the ikebana art of Mrs. Etsuho Kakihana. Kakihana is a master teacher of ikebana of the Saga Goryu School at Daikakuji, Kyoto. It is one of the oldest and most revered Buddhist Temples in Japan. I think it is important to remember there are things to be gained from 2 different things working together... if only the world could follow this modus operandi more, eh? The exhibition encourages a closer look in an age lacking much of that.

For a long time the Garden has arguably and consistently put on the strongest craft exhibitions in Portland (if not the West Coast) but what I love is how each exhibition are treated as living, iterative and evolving practices... like Jazz. Instead of some simple collector's vanity show the Garden's efforts are charged and expanded through the inclusion of flower art in the baskets.

I am not a football fan, and in contemporary art (and this is contemporary) this use of vessel and object has been of prime interest to so many artists like Eva Hesse, Anish Kapoor, Lee Ufan, Damien Hirst, Rachel Harrison and Michael Heizer. Locally MK Guth, Midori Hirose, Ellen George, Laura Fritz and so many others also focus on the display support as part of the object... an interrelated charge that goes beyond surface and support. It is often a delicate visual ecosystem that can be traced to Asian traditions that Brancusi then brought to modern art museums and furthered by Noguchi. hat I like is the way life animates art, it tells us that art history is still made in the present, besides what could be better than spend the super bowl in quiet contemplation?

Hanakago | February 3 - April 1, 2018
Portland Japanese Garden
611 SW Kingston Ave