Lately I have had cause to visit Regentās Park. By association, it brought to mind Regent Street, The Regentās Canal, Regency Square in Brighton, and ultimately, that period in English history, between the Georgian and the Victorian, known as REGENCY.
The Regency period, according to Wikipedia, was an era that encompassed ā a time of great social, political and economic change.ā Additionally, war was being waged abroad on various fronts, whilst at home the gap between Upper Class and Lower Class society was widening. This was exacerbated by a concurrent population boom. Simultaneously, advances in communication technology, as exemplified by the Steam Press, increased the possibilities for mass reproduction exponentially, which, in turn,Ā created demand for more and more published content, often driven by a fascination with the lives of the rich, famous and aristocratic. Celebrity culture. It was a fast moving age of haveās and have notās. Sound familiar?
OneĀ of the upsidesĀ of this time however, was the evolution and development of the Neo-classical style of Architecture, as epitomised by the work of John Nash, chief architect to The Prince Regent, after whom this period is named. It was he who was indeed responsible for the Town Planning of London at this time, and, in particular, the various grand terraces around The Regentās Park. In collaboration with fellow architect Decimus Burton, Nash oversaw the creation, in 1820,of 13 Cornwall Terrace, on the southern perimeter road.
The impetus behind all of this new design and construction sprang from The Regentās desire to impose order and aesthetic elegance on a city which had been, for many years, descendingĀ into a sort of shameful HogarthianĀ dystopia Ā of cheek by jowl, insanitary chaos. This,of course, isĀ a familiar story. Civilization has been forever engaged in a struggle for supremacy with the Universeās relentless progression from order to disorder. Entropy. As the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics tells us ,inĀ this world, nothing is permanent. Change is life and life is change.
In Japanese culture, Wabi Sabi is an aesthetic or world view that recognises, among other things, these notions of transience and impermanence. It also connotes a type of modesty, an understated elegance, the beauty of imperfection and patina, as well as the inevitability of gradual decay. Students of Wabi Sabi learn to find the most basicĀ unadorned objects interesting and beautiful and especially if they are flawed or aged.
As it happens,13 Cornwall Terrace is now known as Japan House and is the home of The Daiwa Foundation, which isĀ a locus for academic and cultural activities relating to Japan in Britain. It is a large house on several floors and consists of many rooms, some of which are used as gallery space for the presentation and contemplation of Art. They recently hosted a very beautiful exhibition of the work of the Japanese poet and photographer Gozo Yoshimasu. I was greatly taken by the photography on display, but, equally, was very much diverted by the meditative, peaceful Ā tone of the space that it graced. The rooms were lit naturally by sunlight yet retained a drainedĀ quietude. I could hear nothing. The sparse furniture and fittings there were ā of a certain age.ā It seemed to me to be a perfect example of the aforementioned tension between order and a kind of stoic resistance to order. In every elevation, in every corner, and in every object, I found an imperceptible commitment to deterioration. An indifference to regulation. Close to the ideals of Wabi Sabi, the (solitary) experience was analogous to being in a church or place of prayer. It fostered a slower, oneiric state of mind and encouraged what Brian Eno terms āthe talent to surrenderā by which he means that we should recognise and accept when to relinquish our 'self presentationā , the better to allow ourselves to be transported to 'another placeā. To be taken along. To experience transcendence. To dip into our subconscious, where the rules are different and where we might find the most underused and undervalued parts of ourselves. In the age we live in, IĀ also believe this to beĀ one of the most valuableĀ consequences of viewingā¦The Still Photograph.
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