Courtesy of Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum. Universality and Difference Expressed through a Tile

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1 Courtesy of Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum Universality and Difference Expressed through a Tile Christopher Dresser s Japanese Cranes on Waves tile will be analyzed in relation to Kwame Anthony Appiah s writing on cosmopolitanism. Kwame Anthony Appiah writes about cosmopolitanism in his book, Cosmopolitanism: Ethics In A World of Strangers. The seventh chapter of this book, Cosmopolitanism Contamination, will be the focus of this analysis in relation to Dresser s tile. 1 Before this analysis is mentioned, Christopher Dresser, the tile, Kwame Anthony Appiah, and cosmopolitanism will be introduced. Let us begin with Christopher Dresser! In 1834, Christopher Dresser was born in Glasgow, Scotland. In youth, he would paint and draw. At thirteen years old, his parents enrolled him into the Government School of Design in London, where he learned ornamental design, which included botany courses. The art and design theories 1 Appiah, Kwame Anthony Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers. 1

2 of Henry Cole, Owen Jones, and Richard Redgrave were integrated into his learning experience. Dresser had a history of writing and lecturing on botany. After not securing a chair in botany at the University College, London, he began to focus on studying and producing work on design theory and began to practice design. However, his interest in botany remained. He used science to create designs on work such as, "carpets, ceramics, glass, furniture, metalwork, textiles, and wallpaper." Within his lifespan, he created work for at least fifty manufacturers, and sometimes acted in the role of "art advisor." Japan became an interest for him after viewing objects within the collection of Sir Rutherford Alcock, British diplomatic representative to Japan. While in Japan, he viewed objects created within various workshops. In 1879, Dresser and Charles Holme founded Dresser & Holme, a London based firm focusing on importing a myriad of domestic goods from around Asia, including Japan. 2 Christopher Dresser wrote about being inspired from foreign lands. In the book Japan: It's Architecture, Art and Art Manufactures he wrote, "I do not wish to destroy our national art, and substitute for it the Japanese style...we may borrow what is good from all peoples; but we must distil all that we borrow through our own work." 4 In Chapter II of Studies in Design, he elaborates. He mentions the fact that he sometimes uses scholarship to inspire his designs. He emphasizes the importance of knowing what has been done to produce for the future. He encourages those who are inspired by creations from foreign lands to become "scholar[s] of that country." He asks for inspiration from another culture's art and design to "comprehend the spirit of [that country s] ornament." , "Truth, Beauty, Power." Ronkonkoma, New York, 6. 3 Dresser, London. Studies in Design, 3, 4. 2

3 For the International Exhibition of 1873, Christopher Dresser organized a Japanese display. Dresser focused on abstract, simple, and geometric productions for this display. He became an advisor to the Japanese government on how they could modernize their art industries, including decorative arts, such as pottery. Over time, after having a greater understanding of Japanese culture, Dresser began to accept asymmetry. 4 He was an artist who examined his own way of thinking to leap into new forms of thought. In 1877, Christopher Dresser travelled to Japan to study its arts and industries. During a four-month visit to Japan, he took 1,000 photographs and visited 100 temples. 5 Delving deeper, let us investigate the tile: Japanese Cranes on Waves. Christopher Dresser s tile looks to Japan for inspiration. Its execution provides a synthesis of Japanese visual culture into British design as opposed to mimetically copying Japanese visual language. Manufactured by Minton, Hollins and Company in 1870, this tile is made of glazed earthenware. It was acquired into the Cooper Hewitt Design Smithsonian Museum in Christopher Dresser, the first British industrial designer, was inspired by nature and Japan. He studied art and botany in his youth. He was a crucial figure of the Aesthetic Movement. 6 There are two ways that depth is presented from this object by Christopher Dresser: through line and through compositional perspective. The waves appear to be closer to the surface of the tile, the cranes closer to the moon, and the clouds between the cranes and the moon. The moon is closest to the background. Near the mid-eighteenth century, Denzen and Hokusai would 4 Oshima, October 2004, The Evolution of Christopher Dresser's 'Art Botanical' Depiction of Nature, London, Whiteway, Michael, Christopher Dresser, Augusto Morello, and Massimo Valsecchi Christopher Dresser, Milan: Skira Editore. 6 Lambourne, Lionel The Aesthetic movement. Oxford: Phaidon. 3

4 introduce European ideas of perspective to Japan. In Hokusai s thirties and forties, he absorbed lessons of European-style perspective. Hokusai saw Mt. Fuji, which can be seen in his iconic, The Great Wave. 7 Numerically, it is noticeable that the objects decrease in quantity as the objects within each image appear deeper within the surface of the tile (four waves, three cranes, two clouds, one moon). The Japanese imagined that cranes lived for thousands of years, which lead to the crane becoming a symbol of longevity. Cranes would crowd around the shallows of a river near Sapporo, Hokkaido s capital; these shallows were called the River of a Thousand Years. Monogamous creatures, cranes also symbolize marital fidelity and love, which has led to them being embroidered on wedding kimonos. 8 At this point, it is evident that there was a cultural dialogue between Britain and Japan. Appiah s Cosmopolitanism analyzes relationships countries have to one another. His writing produces snapshots of how cosmopolitanism plays out in different cultures. The main relationship Appiah explores is universality and difference. Universality explores cultural characteristics that exist throughout humanity. Appiah writes, Homo sum: humani nil a me alienum puto (I am human: nothing human is alien to me). This statement expresses the universality that Appiah addresses in his text, specifically in chapter seven of his book. Difference is also described by Appiah. An example is when Appiah describes difference through self-mutilation earlier in the book. A female circumcision is relatable to tattoos because 7 Forrer, Matthi "From Optical Prints to Ukie to Ukiyoe: the Adoption and Adaptation of Western Linear Perspective in Japan". Mediating Netherlandish Art and Material Culture in Asia / Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann and Michael North (Eds.) Britton, Dorothy The Japanese crane: bird of happiness. Tokyo: Kodansha International. 4

5 they are both forms of mutilation, but at the same time they are perceived as different, dependent on the individual or culture that observes both phenomena. A philosophy teacher at Princeton University, who has also written The Ethics of Identity and Thinking It Through: An Introduction to Contemporary Philosophy, Kwame Anthony Appiah, addresses an idea that is apparent in Christopher Dresser s tile, which also deals with universal and local expression. Many Americans, Europeans, and Asians find cranes, the moon, waves, and clouds to be recognizable iconography. Appiah lets his reader know that aspects of globalization are not new, and its ideals have manifested itself in various ways. The gold, salt and kola routes of Kumasi were utilized in Asante pilgrimages to Mecca. This shows that networks of the past link to networks that are seemingly new. Ghana s various languages may seem eclectic to some, but the root of them all is Ghanaian. Ghana may be aware of Muhammad Ali and Coca-Cola, cultural aspects with roots or branches outside of Ghana, but the daily life of someone in Ghana is based on Ghanaian culture. Appiah mentions that a radio may be used in Ghana, but the voice emanating out of that radio is most likely in a Ghanaian language. There may be foreign medicine, but it is in a culture that expresses itself, within this network of cultures, through new African hairstyles, new slang, and even, from time to time new religions. Appiah addresses preserving culture verse preserving artefacts. He writes, Cultures are made out of continuities and changes, and the identity of society can survive through these changes. Appiah s perception is that the people of a culture should decide when and how those changes happen. To Appiah, if change is enforced, without the will of its people, it is problematic; however, if the people within a culture want change, there is no issue with change. 5

6 Dresser s tile brings together two culture s visual language, and inherently has design choices embedded in it. The Aesthetic Movement, in which this tile was created, is a snapshot of British culture, if one is to analyze this artefact as an object through the lens of the movement it was created in. It is debatable, whether the preservation of this tile is a preservation of Japanese culture. It depends on the lens that one analyzes this object through. As mentioned, if one studies this object as a result of the Aesthetic Movement, it is a British form of preservation. If one analyzes the tile for its visual language, both Japan and Britain are relevant. Under cosmopolitanism, both Britain and Japan are necessary to address. The tile preserved European symmetry, but the organic contour lines of each object were highly influenced by Japan. The tile is balanced numerically through its four waves, three cranes, two clouds, one moon execution. Compositionally, if one were to fold the tile in half, there would be, approximately, two waves on each side of the tile. The curves of the lines to create each part of this piece, however, is inspired by Japan. Obviously, curves are also Rococo, but these curves are graceful and harmonious, yet don t seem to be as intentional as a Rococo C and S scrolls, or an art nouveau whiplash curve. Dresser s lines and curves come off as beautiful accidents. It is worth mentioning, for context, how the Aesthetic Movement, an eighteenth century British decorative arts period, began. The Great Exhibition of 1862 increased European visitor s awareness of Japan. During this exhibition, Europeans experienced Japanese decorative arts, from bronzes to porcelain. In 1863, Christopher Dresser, who disseminated knowledge of Japan, gave a lecture on The Prevailing Ornament of China and Japan during a meeting on Japanese Art headed by William Burges, an architect. Dresser was interested in the underlying principles of how plants grew for many of his designs that were inspired by botany, but this did not keep 6

7 him from sparking the cult of Japan also known as the Aesthetic Movement in Britain and the United States. As an aside, Christopher Dresser also drew inspiration from nature. Christopher Dresser's work was inspired by science; because scientific thought was going through reform, Christopher Dresser's work followed suit. For instance, transcendental anatomy, a way of thinking that saw nature as God's expression with eternal laws of beauty, became obsolete with the arrival of Darwinism, which placed the idea that new forms of life evolved from previous life forms. Dresser's style was evocative of Darwinism. Rather than creating through imitation, Dresser chose to find the energy within nature through understanding the underlying laws that nature adheres to. He felt that even if an insect carved space out of a plant, there is still order because the underlying principles for the growth of the plant were still present throughout the plant s structure. 9 Kwame Anthony Appiah explores the relationship between universal human traits and differences between cultures within humanity. This relationship is also explored in Christopher Dresser s Japanese Cranes on Waves tile through the visual language of the tile that fuses British and Japanese aesthetics. The iconography on the tile would have been recognizable to both cultures. Dresser lived in Scotland, was educated in London, and explored Japan within his life. Through his statements, we know he was sensitive to other cultures. The interaction between Dresser and Japan was not coincidental. During the eighteenth century there was a cultural exchange between Japan and Britain, for example, as mentioned, through figures, such as 9 Oshima, London. The Evolution of Christopher Dresser's 'Art Botanical' Depiction of Nature,

8 Denzen. Cranes, a symbol of longevity, are ironically an endangered species. Cultural preservation is explored by Appiah. Appiah deals with the notion of cultural preservation and change being natural to humanity and cultures, which reconciles the problem of the relationship between universality and difference. Humanity exists in a mobile network; it is not static. To restate a quote Appiah uses, I am human: nothing human is alien to me. Bibliography Appiah, Kwame Anthony Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers. 1998, "Truth, Beauty, Power." Ronkonkoma, New York, 6. Dresser, London. Studies in Design, 3, 4. Oshima, October 2004, The Evolution of Christopher Dresser's 'Art Botanical' Depiction of Nature, London, Whiteway, Michael, Christopher Dresser, Augusto Morello, and Massimo Valsecchi Christopher Dresser, Milan: Skira Editore. Lambourne, Lionel The Aesthetic movement. Oxford: Phaidon. Forrer, Matthi "From Optical Prints to Ukie to Ukiyoe: the Adoption and Adaptation of Western Linear Perspective in Japan". Mediating Netherlandish Art and Material Culture in Asia / Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann and Michael North (Eds.) Britton, Dorothy The Japanese crane: bird of happiness. Tokyo: Kodansha International. Oshima, London. The Evolution of Christopher Dresser's 'Art Botanical' Depiction of Nature,