By Russ Anger
ARS Arrangement Judge
Lots of disagreement
comes up when modern arrangements are to include abstractions. Most of
our arrangers, in rose shows, know how to create a modern arrangement.
They do not know what makes an arrangement ABSTRACT.
The basic premise is that an arrangement cannot include a rose which has been “abstracted.” That
means the bloom itself, or any form of that bloom (bud to fully open stages)
must remain intact. The beauty of the rose bloom must not be distorted. The
leaves may be removed, but the flower has to look like a rose bloom. The bloom
should be an identifiable form of the variety. Let me clarify the point: an
arrangement having only hard buds and no other stages of development of that
variety would lose points under CONFORMANCE. (A hard- or tight bud is not considered
a “bloom” under our judging guidelines.)
Minor Abstractions:
There are three:
(1) Wiring a leaf
(2) Painting or treating dried plant material
(3) Trimming, clipping, bending fresh and/or dried material into new form.
These are the
abstractions that most of us see in shows. Leaves are often twisted, turned,
wired, glued or trimmed to make a new shape.
Please
note there
is nothing said about the bloom. My feeling is that it is to remain
in the same form that it grew.
Moderate Abstraction:
There are two:
(1) Selection––using materials distorted by nature, insect or disease
(2) Placement––using some components in non-realistic ways.
Moderate abstraction
is often seen in shows. These are what we call “WAY
OUT.” These are the arrangements where foliage is removed
totally from the roses; roses hang upside down (perhaps inserted
in an orchid
tube with
water to keep the rose hydrated, secured to a piece of line
material with barely visible tape or wiring), or foliage skeletonized
by the
natural action
of Japanese
beetles.
Complete Abstraction:
This is where there is a preponderance of non-realistic groupings
(not everything in the design must be abstract), but abstraction
is DOMINANT.
There are six elements on which to determine whether the abstract
concept is dominant overall:
(1) Plant materials used in a way different than the plant grows.
(2) Components juxtaposed rather than transition/gradation.
(3) Inter-penetration of space.
(4) Non-radial placements.
(5) Dynamic balance.
(6) Unexpected color combinations.
In actuality,
we see complete abstractions quite often: Blooms are upside down or coming
from
many directions,
giving little
consideration to natural
growth.
Often, only large exhibition blooms are used
with no intermediary sizes; shocking color combinations
are
used. Non-conventional
containers are
used. The entire
space allocated for the arrangement is used.
The best designs of this type give consideration to
disguising the mechanics
of the
arrangement.
(Article first appeared in The Rose Leaf, July 2003, p 3, Nashville Rose Society Newsletter)