AusBonsai

In 2012 I displayed trees in three bonsai exhibitions in the Brisbane area. The trees were somewhere between 400 to 600mm high. They looked pretty good at home and yet when placed for display on the tables at the exhibition they seemed strangely diminished.

I think it’s a display height thing primarily and lighting second. The best eye height to appreciate a tree seems to be at about the middle third of its height, which is why so many people at exhibitions tend to bend down and put their hands on their knees to look at the trees.

The standard collapsible tables made available at venues stand about 700mm high and are designed with sitting down at them in mind, more than bonsai display.

For the smaller trees in exhibition it is even worse. Mostly you just get to look down on the canopy and that’s the wrong position to really appreciate them. The shohin stands make a big difference but many trees remain at close to the table height and not everyone has a collection to display.

I’ve been looking at records of exhibitions around the world and have found an amazing diversity of table heights from the standard 700mm to 900, 1000, 1100 and even about 1200.
Looking at all these and from where I display my trees at home the Peter tea example at about 1100 (elbow height) looks to be about the best for most sizes over shohin and 1200 for shohin.
Yes individuals can and do use bonsai stands to get their tress to the right height, but they are used more to add to the composition and how many people have 400mm high stands anyway?

So this topic is to encourage some discussion, if not a movement and positive ideas to do something about getting the display height of our trees at exhibitions up a bit higher. What do you think.

I know that at out show (Campbelltown) we place milk crates on top of the normal size table for the smaller trees.

I'm 6 ft + so I find myself leaning over and crouching to look at tree's at eye level.

Andrew F wrote:I'm 6 ft + so I find myself leaning over and crouching to look at tree's at eye level.

+1, the few exhibitions I've been to, I find that I'm usually squatting to take my photos and admire the tree. I feel like a wack-a-mole popping up and down between each tree

i totally agree here. i think its also an issue for people whom are not apart of the art coming to observe bonsai for possibly the first time at our shows. they see these trees on the tables but do not understand the idea of having a preferred viewing angle and orientation so just pass by the trees looking from an above angle rather than seeing the true image the tree expresses at its level.

Thanks for bringing this up, they're valid points that you are making. We're limited by standard table height, as you say, but we can always raise the trees on discreet covered stands.That said, if we are going to set up the trees to be viewed at eye height for us 6 footers, we may need to ban short people… (Randy Newman anyone?)

From what I understand, to view a tree in a Japanese tokonama (viewing alcove) you must be sitting down cross-legged on the matting - that means that you have to take time to contemplate it, not just wander past with a casual glance. And it will be one tree at a time. I'm not sure any of my trees can take that amount of contemplation.

Thanks for posting,

Gavin

And im pretty sure my knees wouldnt take that amount of contemplation either
Steve