JOIN USPerhaps, art isn’t always about the process of creation. It can be about discovery, triggered by refined sensitivity, creative perception, and spurred on by the attitude of appreciating what is. Such is suiseki, an art form triggered by reverence for nature and by an appreciation for the spontaneous and metaphorical manifestations of thoughts and things, formed as beautiful accidents of nature.
For the last 20 years, 73-year-old M Ponnuswami has been rather stone-headed — thanks to his fixation on suiseki. He is arguably India’s only major suiseki artist and has hundreds of beautiful stones in his collection, which have been exhibited at suiseki festivals across the world.
“Suiseki is not just about collecting stones, it is a manifestation of a philosophy and a frame of mind. One can lose oneself in gazing at these rocks,” says Ponnuswami, who lives in Coimbatore. Such a spiritual conduit — of seeing and resonating with the entire cosmos through a single small stone is perhaps the unique charm of suiseki. This art of recognising and collecting enigmatic stone formations — taken as found, without human intervention, is also known as ‘scholar’s rocks’ in Chinese, and suseok or gongshi in Korean. While this curious art form is gaining a foothold in India, it has spread like wildfire in the west.
“Nobody can really date the origin of this art — it would be as old as civilisation itself,” says Ponnuswami. Technically speaking, it was the Chinese who formally took up the art form. According to historical records, emperors of Han dynasty in the 3rd century often exhibited beautiful and striking rocks and stones in their elaborate gardens. The rocks were also used by the Chinese for their meditative practices, as objects to gaze on. When the Chinese emperors’ emissaries took these stones as gifts to other kingdoms, the art spread. “India has its own connect with stones and natural formations, though we tend to associate a religious fancy to it. For instance, Indians have a huge regard for saligrama stones, in which we see Vishnu in an abstract form, for the rudraksha beads, for swayambu idols, and the like,” Ponnuswami explains.
Ponnuswami’s collection includes volcanic rocks, sand stones, coral formations, quarry stones, meteorite stones, rounded stones from river beds, desert stones, etc. He has collected amazing stones from the Rocky Hills in the US, from near Palladam in Tamil Nadu, from the shores of Orissa, from quarries in Rajasthan, from river beds in the Himalayas, and so on. “The site is not really important. It is perception which lets us discover these stones,” he says. And perception is never static. So at times, suiseki is about deciphering fractals, the patterns that are repeated at every scale of an object or formation. It is also about understanding nature, its underlying geometry, and setting the imagination free to discover virtual manifestations.
His collection also includes small stones that evoke the image of natural scenery such as stream-lined and snow-clad mountains, sunsets, cloud and sky patterns, and the like. Incidentally, his suiseki stone that looks like a snow-clad mountain won him The World Stone Appreciation Award in 1998.
India being a land with such diverse habitats and natural zones, one could discover a treasure of meaningful stones. The most evocative stones are found in locations where nature has been intensely active — areas that see erosion, winds, desert regions, mountain creeks, river beds, etc. “Hunting for suiseki stones is a bit like bonanza hunting. You never know what you will find or where your next stone would be,” he muses, as he shares an anecdote about the legendary M Visvesvaraya. Apparently, during his visit to Chennai’s Guindy College of Engineering to deliver a lecture, the great man’s eyes fell on a stone that had been used to support a lopsided gate in the college. After Visvesvaraya had delivered the lecture, he had made a request to the college authorities to be gifted with this stone, a request that was accepted with indulgence.
Suiseki appeals to the human mind for various reasons, for colour, texture, suggestiveness, and geometric balance. “If you are into suiseki, it is indicative of various other things — such as the capacity for silence and meditation, for looking inward and for looking beyond what is obvious, and for connecting to nature,” says Ponnuswami. He adds, “Some masters see the Fibonacci sequence of prime numbers in the suiseki stones, facets of geometry, etc. To me, it is about just connecting with the innate design of nature.” Well, this is a Zen art, the art of seeing art in nature.