LANDSCAPES IN ART: CREATING HEAVEN ON EARTH

Suzanne Perrin, independent lecturer for the Arts Society, Cultural Director of Japan Interlink London    I

Tuesday 16–Friday 19 January 9.15 am COURSE FEES R440; Staff and students R220       T

Real, imaginary, and symbolic landscapes and their meaning come together with many popular landscape artists who have tried to capture their countryside and create a national pride. From John Constable to Chinese masterpieces, Japanese prints, and Hokusai’s ‘Mount Fuji’, artists have striven to capture landscape in all its beauty and nature for centuries. Landscape vistas can be recreated in gardens and parkland estates, as with Chinese gardens of the eighth century, Capability Brown in the eighteenth century, and rooftop gardens of the twentieth century. Chinese and Japanese scholars promoted the fine arts of painting, poetry, and garden design, and brought beautiful landscapes into their places of residence in screens, sliding doors, furniture, and paintings. Architects in Japan and Europe are now required to create areas for ‘green space’ in any new building development, and these have initiated a new way of thinking about how we live our daily lives. Architectural space on rooftops, car parks, balconies and courtyards, creating a personal green space however small, can make a huge difference. It is becoming recognised that landscapes, gardens, plants, and natural environments are a necessary aid to promoting mental and physical health. Using concepts of landscapes to calm the mind and gardens for rest, recuperation and reflection, specially designed hospice gardens provide a way to bring healing space for mind, body, and spirit.

This course will explore how we respond to landscape and natural environments, and how we can incorporate these responses into our daily lives.

Lecture titles

  1. Landscape vistas
  2. Bringing the outside inside
  3. Contemporary landscape
  4. Healing gardens

TO BOOK:

https://www.webtickets.co.za/performance.aspx?itemid=1534474548