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  Michael Whittle

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 Wabi Sabi Shima – of the aesthetics of perfection 
and chaos in the Japanese archipelago
Group show: Espace H18, Brussels, 2015

New drawings commissioned for group show in Brussels 
​
by the Thalie foundation

Left: Buddha with bird and thorns, 2015, Ink and watercolour on paper, 55.5 x 79 cm 
Right: Buddha with bones of the inner ear, 2015, Ink and watercolour on paper, 55.5 x 79 cm



" A fertile terrain for investigation, Japanese culture never ceases to fascinate in its specificities. Wabi - sabi is the very essence of Japanese beauty, 
and a concept that illustrates key notions in Japanese aesthetics: wabi represents refinement through simplicity,
while sabi explores the process of weathering over time,
and shima is the Japanese term for island. 

​The exhibition takes us in to the heart of a culture that celebrates wear, chance, refinement, and nature without eschewing politics, collective memory, terrestrial violence or the realities of the present day.
"
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Curators : Nathalie Guiot, Philippe Terrier-Hermann
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Artists: Yo Akiyama, Yukari Araki, Renaud Auguste-Dormeuil,
Nicolas Floc'h, Pierre-Jean Giloux, Marie-Ange Guilleminot,
Kawase Hasui, Camille Henrot, Mitsuheda Ikeda, ​Takuro Kuwata,
José Lévy, Shunsuke François Nanjo, Yoshihido Suda,
Hiroshi Sugimoto, Risaku Suzuki, Yosuke Takeda,
Shōchiku III Tanabe, Phillippe Terriere-Hermann, Satoru Toma,
Kaoru Usukubo, Maarten Vanden Eynde, Michael Whittle,
Miwa Yanagi, Tomotaka Yasui, Yamabe Yasushi,
Tomoko Yoneda, Ayako Yoshimura


Swan (origami series), 2013, Ink and watercolour on paper, 75 x 55.5 cm
[ A series of drawings based upon origami crease patterns of flying mammals and birds, 
depicted as ships rigging on pruned, suspended tree structures ]
Study for a fake moon, 2015, Ink and watercolour on paper, 111 x 79 cm
[ Drawing based upon NASA geological maps of the moon ]

© 2019 Michael Whittle 
     All rights reserved