Clearing the Clutter: Space and the Power of Placement

 Our living room before clearing the clutter

Over the past two days, my husband Guy and I have been culling our collection of stuff. You know the accumulated gifts, family castoffs, treasures and sundry things that pile up in all the unused nooks and crannies of every home.  We are not big on shopping, but as two working artists, with many friends who are artists as well, we have acquired (and made) quite a collection of treasures.  Guy makes furniture and electronic sculptures, while my art graces our walls and tables. Add to that the obsolete entertainment technology (cassettes and videos) (we are still clinging to our turntable and LPs) and the living room becomes a busy and cluttered space.  Each treasure competes for attention with the work around it.

An overcrowded home is a reflection of my overcrowded life of actvity.  I want to create some open space for reflection and fresh appreciation of what truly matters.  Clearing the clutter and clarifying our living space might aid in opening space in other parts of my life.  Working with mindfulness we identified which items we truly used or felt enhanced our life in some fashion and removed all the rest.  From there I sought to simplify further by placing objects in groupings that worked harmoniously together.  This meant storing some of our collection away much like a Japanese tea master, who would select stowed treasures for special viewings or seasonal changes rather than needing to display an entire collection all at once.  I sought a middle way approach to decoration being more selective of items on display while not emptying the room completely as they would a tearoom.  This process reminded me of a passage from "The Book of Tea" by Kakuzo Okakura.
Okakura writes:

 Japanese Tearoom Interior

"The tearoom is absolutely empty, except for what may be placed there temporarily to satisfy some aesthetic mood.  Some special art object is brought in for the occasion, and everything is selected and arranged to enhance the beauty of the principal theme.  One cannot listen to different pieces of music at the same time, a real comprehension of the beautiful being possible only through concentration upon some central motive.  Thus it will be seen that the system of decoration in our tearooms is opposed to that which obtains in the West, where the interior of a house is often converted into a museum.  To a Japanese, accustomed to simplicity of ornamentation and frequent change of decorative method, a western interior permanently filled with a vast array of pictures, statuary, and bric-a-brac gives the impression of mere vulgar display of riches.  It calls for a mighty wealth of appreciation to enjoy the constant sight of even a masterpiece, and limitless indeed must be the capacity for artistic feeling in those who can exist day after day in the midst of such confusion of color and form as is to be often seen in the homes of Europe and America."

Our living room after clearing

While our rearranged living room may still appear to be a museum by Kakuzo's standards, it does now open some space for the appreciation of individual works.  I will enjoy altering the selection and placement of objects and wall art as an opportunity to express the seasonal and personal shifts in our world.  I am increasingly aware that in our culture consciously choosing to have space is a radical thing.  That to do so opens up a new relationship with my surroundings, whether it be turning off the TV or removing clutter from a room.  In future posts I will write more about some of the Taoist principles that have guided me in this practice.  For now I will say that placement of objects and honoring the space they command in a room has the ability to enrich us, to wake us up or overwhelm us.  In Shambhala Buddhist terminology, this presence is called, "enriching presence" being fed energetically by our world.  Paying attention to the details of our living space, to the qualities our belongings evoke for us is important for mindful living.

The next day I revisited my tabletop arrangements and refined the placement of the objects for greater clarity.  I realized in the arrangement with the masks and bowls that the individual parts did not relate to each other still or the table surface as a whole.  Treating the tabletop as a stage or blank canvas, it was important to  determine what role each item played in the hierarchy of the composition.  In flower arranging and other Eastern art forms this hierarchy is referred to as heaven, earth and man.  Identifying which object represented the qualities of heaven, earth or man offers a structure for clarifying the composition.  Rather than have 8 objects on the table and windowsill fairly evenly spaced in a democratic fashion, I arranged them into 2 groupings and turned the mat under the bowls to echo the horizontal line of the table.  I removed the wooden box altogether realizing that it's presence contributed nothing to any of the other items on the table.   I'll talk more about this way of arranging in my next post.

On the table and wall behind the couch was another arrangement needing to be refined.  I initially placed my photograph of a tulip on the wall, but then realized that it was seasonally inappropriate.  I chose instead one of my extracted photographs of fire imagery, which would be suitable for the end of summer.  You can learn more about this artwork on my personal art blog.  I also opened up more space by removing the small plant stand and pot, while shifting the placement of the fan and clock on the table's lower shelf.  Minor alterations such as these can have a real impact and I have found that when the elements are finally in a placement that makes sense the body knows it, not just personally but universally.  In Shambhala Art classes we often do object arranging where each person contributes one object to the composition.  While there may be several options that will work, when the object is placed with a felt sense of "rightness" everyone in the group knows it.