wabi sabi

Says Foster of her fascination with images of decay: "From a formal point of view, it's beautiful because it reveals how there's so much time that's passed that there's now so many layers. But there's also this emotional resonance to something that looks old and abandoned."

Funny that a style that finds beauty in the presence of the human touch and the ghostly and mortal shadows we leave behind had heights of popularity in times of major change such as the Industrial Revolution and again during the end of the Cold War. Surely there is something profound in the aesthetic of decay that speaks to us of the fleeting nature of existence, particularly during periods of political and social upheaval such as, perhaps, right now.

Like the Japanese concept of wabi sabi (which celebrates imperfection and the passage of time) this new-found old, or decay by design, is all about harnessing the atmospheric aura of time and using it as the dominant decorative element in a space.

article "Decay by Design" by KAREN VON HAHN
from http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20060930.DECAY30/TPStory/Entertainment/columnists