Floriade 2009 Theme: Mind, Body and Soul
- Posted: 28 January 2010 (Permalink)
Written by Ping Block
Floriade is Australia’s premier spring festival and a major tourism drawcard for Canberra. Each year in Spring, one million tulips in various colours and shapes, together with many annual and biannual plants and flowers are planted in Commonwealth Park to celebrate the arrival of Spring in the Southern Hemisphere. It is also the biggest tulip show in the Southern Hemisphere.
For the past five years, Sogetsu School of Ikebana together with some other design schools participated in the floral display, which is open to the public. This year’s theme, Mind, Body and Soul, fits in very well with the basic concept of Ikebana as a philosophy and as an art form. Just to give a few examples here:
Practising Ikebana requires a creative mind and in the process of creativity we find beauty and satisfaction.
The essence of Ikebana is the use of nature to express something personal; it is the expression of an individual’s soul and passion through flowers.
Through conscious activity, plants and flowers are given a new form, new life, new beauty and meaning.
My students and I created 23 arrangements for display. Here are just six of the displayed arrangements for you to enjoy.
