Art Is Happening – Northfield Garden Tour

I took the Northfield Garden Tour last Saturday. Every July, several selected homeowners in Northfield will open their garden to the public for visit. In addition, every homeowner will also invite one artist to display and sell their work. I rode my bike around the neighborhood and visited all six gardens. It was my best day in the summer break so far. I went to so many beautiful places and met great people. I loved all the delicate designs and art installations. The little statue and waterfall formed a harmonious scene with blossoming flowers and plants which I could not name. To both me and her surprise, I met Annette, who is the owner of one garden and also my professor two years ago when I was a SLAI student. Beautiful destiny tied us together. 

But I am not going to write a descriptive article about each garden. The pictures speak better than my words. I am more willing to share my feelings and takeaway from the tour. What surprised me and even touched me is not just how these gardens were well designed, but the event of the garden tour itself.

I came from Shanghai, one of the largest cities in China. Opening one’s garden to neighbors for a visit is beyond imagination. In the city, people are atomized. We are stuck in the monotonous Soviet-style apartment buildings that are built not for aesthetics or individuality but for accommodating more residents. People are only physically present in the same space, but not familiar or intimate to each other. An independent house with a garden to be decorated is only a privilege to few wealthy people who could afford a mansion. I acknowledge this could be a biased description, but this is true for most parts of Shanghai and most large cities in China. I was jealous of Northfielders not only because every house has a garden or they have intimate neighbors to visit their garden, but that art is naturally happening in people’s life. This thought might be weird to some audiences, but I have to admit it was a cultural shock to me. In the garden tour, I saw beauty, inclusiveness, and the close knits in community. 

I was confused about the Liberal Arts requirement that every student should take one arts practices class before graduation. I was convinced that I was not good at any arts practices so I put off any arts class in my first year. It was when I took the garden tour that I realized that the biased view that “I am not good at arts” is not a natural defect, but the product of my previous educational experience and sociocultural context. I am not saying there are only a few children in China learning arts or music. However, most of the children learned arts because their parents forced them to do so in their childhood as a sign that the child is talented and smart so the family will be respected by their relatives. They do not learn it because of passion but to get a credential so that they can enjoy some privilege in testing. After they go to high school and see that the arts is not a means to earn money for them, they quit or are forced to quit. 

I was not forced by my parents to learn arts, but arts is only a minor subject in school compared to other subjects that will be tested. So I just slacked off all arts classes without learning anything because neither me nor anyone else thought it was significant. It seems like there was always something that should be prioritized to arts: higher scores, a well-paid job, pragmatism, the censorship of ideology, a material life which is filled by everything else and leaves no space for imagination and beauty. When I watched artworks from a distance through class in the museum, I never thought art was related to my life. 

Walking in Annette’s garden, I listened to her telling the story behind her garden: how she bought this yard five years ago with her husband, how they removed all the dead grass and wood, how they grew trees and flowers from seeds, how they bought stones from farmers, and how they designed and built this zen garden step by step themselves. They are not professional artists, nor are all the other owners of gardens. But I will never hesitate to say what they are creating is not art. At that moment I realize art is never far away from me, art is happening in my life. 

The garden tour was reminiscent of one of the earliest creations in my life. In Kindergarten, I was fond of playing Plants Vs. Zombies and on two blank papers I filled them with original plants I came up with. The two papers were forgotten until several years later I rediscovered them from a pile of miscellaneous items and I could not remember at all how I could create and draw so many things on my own. I almost forgot at some points in my life I was so close to becoming an artist. But now I am convinced that everyone can be an artist. It stems from our natural pursuit of creativity. Arts could be a decorated garden, poetry engraved in the sidewalk, a public sculpture not confined in a museum or gallery, a child’s doodling, makeup and outfits, and even a new dish you try out when you cook dinner. 

I love Camus’ definition of arts creation in his book, The Rebel. I learned it in my existentialism philosophy class. Camus says the logic of arts creation is both negation and affirmation. It negates the full triviality of life, excerpts some part of it, and turns it into a product of aesthetic value. If art does not negate life, it will blindly accept everything and lose one’s independent judgment. If art does not affirm life, it will stem from hollowness and fall into pure form without content. Therefore, art creation is a lifestyle. It is one’s freedom to choose to live a life with independent judgment. He knows what is beautiful and what is kind, what should be negated and what should be affirmed, and he chooses to pursue a life of beauty and kindness with his own creation. In such creation, we regain our freedom to be a full human.  

Daniel Yao (he/him/his) is a sophomore international student from Shanghai, China. He is primarily attracted to Carleton because his favorite animal is a penguin, which is also the official mascot of Carleton. He plans to major in Philosophy and Cognitive Science and he loves the trimester plan of Carleton which allows him to explore the intersection between learning science, human mind, and artificial intelligence. On campus, you can usually find Daniel working as a Chinese tutor in the Language Center (LDC), studying with friends in Sayles, or taking a walk in the Arb. When he is not in class, he likes to enjoy coffee and scones in Goodbye Blue Monday or cycle in the Division St. Next fall term, Daniel will work as the student assistant  for AI at Carleton.