– Versione italiana a pagina 2 –
Ikebana, literally “making flowers live” is an ancient Japanese art that involves arranging cut flowers and natural elements such as branches, leaves, or bark according to aesthetic and spiritual canons closely linked to the Buddhist religion or Zen.
Silvana Mariani offers her own interpretation of this Japanese art, approaching it with lightness and irony.
The simplicity of sign and verse expresses curiosity, a deep respect for the richness of ancient practices, and the value of creative interpretation in the pursuit of awareness.
Italian illustrator with a degree in Graphic Design and Advertising from NABA in Milan, Mariani combines a refined aesthetic sensibility with a clean, distinctive illustrative style. Minimal details, balanced compositions and unconventional colour palettes characterise her work.
Diari Ikebana is a collection of drawings that emerged from eight lessons dedicated to the ancient Japanese art of ikebana. The project grew out of Mariani’s direct observation and study of its principles and aesthetics, which she then reinterprets through drawing.
The artist translates what she took away from these lessons into a body of work that sits somewhere between a notebook, sketchbook and journal. The process is guided by a trust in making itself, rather than in achieving a predetermined result. Created in 2024, the images convey simplicity and delicacy, while evoking a sense of slowness, patience and perseverance.
Flowers, the central subject of the series, are depicted either in bud or just beginning to bloom, reflecting a principle at the heart of ikebana, which favours flowers that have not yet reached full maturity and are still unfolding in all their vitality.
For the artist, symbolism becomes a way of bringing together differences and contrasts. In her illustrations, the idea of coexistence emerges through the harmony of seemingly opposing elements.
Each flower and plant therefore contributes to the composition not only through its form and flowering season, but also through its own specific symbolic meaning.
