"What's left of kisses? … Wounds, however, leave scars". 

Bertolt Brecht 

The Japanese «wabi-sabi» philosophy celebrates imperfections and simplicity. It is concerned  with the passage of time, the way all things grow, age and decay. It suggests that beauty is hidden beneath the surface of what we actually see, even in what we initially perceive as broken. 

For over 500 years, ceramics in Japan have been given a new lease of life through the traditional  Japanese art form of sealing cracks with lacquer and gold powder. This technique of repair  embodies the «wabi-sabi» aesthetic, which embraces the beauty in imperfection. 

«Perfection» is simply a concept, hence it is fictional, unreachable and therefore a source of stress and  frustration… a lost battle. In our western world, all that is not «perfect» has a negative  connotation: «Flawed», «corrupt», «inferior»… when in fact «imperfection» is the true nature of Nature!  

André Le Nôtre was the French landscape gardener of Louis the XIV. He designed the magnificent  gardens of Versailles which represent the height of the  «jardin à la française» concept, based on  symmetry and the principle of imposing order on Nature.  

Originally, the land chosen to build Versailles mainly consisted of swamps, making it less than ideal for construction. Workers had to drain and level the land, thereby destroying  massive  swamp life. The Sun King's gardens and palace were  based in the destruction of Nature. The «jardin à la Française» is the opposite of what Nature is and epitomizes the dominance of Man over Nature.  

The widespread separation of humans from Nature in Western culture started with the rise of Judeo Christian values. Prior to this, paganism dominated and preserved the sacred nature of Nature, and  considered humanity being as part of it. 

Monotheism placed humankind outside of Nature. God made humans in his own image and gave them  dominion over every living thing upon the earth. René Descartes saw humans as superior to Nature. He was hugely  influential in shaping what science is today, and he boosted the rise of the Anthropocene, the era of  man's  domination on Earth.  

This morphed into a civilisation exploiting Nature for profit and contributing to the planet’s  downfall, driving climate and ecological breakdown. It took a long time for Western mainstream society to perceive its own nemesis and question its belief system: Viewing humankind as detached from Nature becomes ethically problematic and empirically false. 

Other cultures, traditional and indigenous groups however, see humankind as part of nature, emphasising the non-existence of an independent self and that all things depend on others. 

As a French man I've followed the Western path and I've always been an admirer of science and "harmony" as in les "jardins à la française". But lately, living on a farm for a year, close to Nature, far from the city of Johannesburg (where I have lived for over 30 years), I have had time and space to question myself and my Western belief system.  

A belief system that privileges "reason", that has undeniably liberated Man from his fear of forces he did not understand, but also left countless wounds and scars in our planet. 

Rural life has given me the opportunity to observe nature, introspect and ground myself. It has allowed me time to observe and embrace my own scars and lick old and more recent  wounds. 

Scars have the  power to remind us that our past is real and far from being perfect. One then comes to see that imperfection is normal and inherent to life.  

The Isibazi series is influenced by this confluence of situations and thoughts. Each work could be seen as a skin telling imperfect past stories, infused with an inherent Wabi Sabi aesthetic quality. 

We carry our skin as a tapestry that tells our story to those who can read it. 

Philippe UZAC 

February 2022  

(*) Isibazi = scar (Zulu)