Four Seasons: A Single Branch of the Current Season

A space that marks the seasons with a single plant. The entire room has no permanent potted plants, only a large vessel made of coarse pottery or bronze, holding a single branch cut from the current season—at this moment, it is late autumn, so it holds a branch of maple that has turned red or a branch with a few berries, extending to one side, over a meter long, forming a large-scale line. One or two leaves have fallen on the tabletop below the branch. Because there is only this one branch, its seasonal message is extremely clear; it will be replaced by another when the season changes. The proportion between the vessel and the branch is unbalanced—the vessel is small and the branch is large, or the vessel is large and the branch is sparse, not a symmetrical flower arrangement. The background is a plain, clean wall. Avoid: using commercial bouquets and dense flower arrangements, adding permanent potted plants, using artificial or dried flowers, pruning the branch into a symmetrical shape.

Translated from Chinese by AI.

一個以單一植物標示季節的空間。全室沒有任何常設的盆栽,只有一只粗陶或銅製的大器,插著當季剪來的一枝——此刻是深秋,插的是一枝已經轉紅的槭或帶著幾顆果實的枝條,姿態向一側伸展,長度超過一米,構成大尺度的線條。枝條下方的檯面上落了一兩片葉子。因為只有這一枝,它的季節訊息極為明確;過了這個季節就會換成別的。器物與枝條的比例是失衡的——器小枝大,或器大枝疏,不是對稱的插花。背景是素淨的大牆。避免:使用商業花束與繁密的插花、加入常設的盆栽、使用人造花與乾燥花、把枝條修剪成對稱的形狀。