Ilse Leenders The Taste of Tea

The Taste of Tea stems from the heritage and influences of Zen Buddhism in Japanese Theatre and the Tea Ceremony. Expressions and traditions from noh, kabuki and bunraku theater, Chado (the way or tea) and the devotion for nature, tranquility arising from Zen Buddhism reflect in the work. 

In her work, Dutch artist Ilse Leenders interferes in land or cityscapes and uses the environment as a ‘stage’ to construct theatre-like contemporary stories with elements from the past and the present.

The staged photographs display a composed interplay between imagination and reality. The components in her photographs consist of self-made artefacts or ready-made objects regularly in combination with personages.

By bringing together different aspects in a single image, detailed narratives arise that can be perceived as movie stills or images from a comic book.

The Taste of Tea series was created in Kyoto, the historical capital of Japan.