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VOLUME 19 NO. 2 JUNE 2010 T c o n t e n t s

Volume 19 No. 2 June 2010

3 Editorial: Southeast Asian ancestral art taasa rEVIEW Josefa Green THE ASIAN ARTS SOCIETY OF AUSTRALIA INC. Abn 64093697537 • Vol. 19 No. 2, June 2010 ISSN 1037.6674 4 Life, dEath and Magic: 2000 Years of southeast asian ancestral art Registered by Australia Post. Publication No. NBQ 4134 Robyn Maxwell

editorIAL • email: [email protected] 7 Beadwork of island southeast asia General editor, Josefa Green Hwei-F’en Cheah publications committee 9 Ancestors in thE architecture: indigenous art froM taiwan Josefa Green (convenor) • Tina Burge Melanie Eastburn • Sandra Forbes • Ann MacArthur Lucie Folan Jim Masselos • Ann Proctor • Susan Scollay Sabrina Snow • Christina Sumner 11 Splendour for thE ancestors – thE sculpture and gold of nias design/layout Niki van den Heuvel Ingo Voss, VossDesign

printing 13 Small and potent – fishing charms and the Melanau of Borneo John Fisher Printing Charlotte Galloway Published by The Asian Arts Society of Australia Inc. 14 Portraits froM india 1850s – 1950s PO Box 996 Potts Point NSW 2011 Anne O’Hehir www.taasa.org.au Enquiries: [email protected] 17 In thE public domain: A New Display at the National Museum of Cambodia TAASA Review is published quarterly and is distributed to members Oun Phalline and Martin Polkinghorne of The Asian Arts Society of Australia Inc. TAASA Review welcomes submissions of articles, notes and reviews on Asian visual and 18 Cultural Encounters: thE rEversE gaze of kutch painting performing arts. All articles are refereed. Additional copies and subscription to TAASA Review are available on request. Jim Masselos No opinion or point of view is to be construed as the opinion of 21 Book rEview: Ethnic Jewellery and Adornment The Asian Arts Society of Australia Inc., its staff, servants or agents. No claim for loss or damage will be acknowledged by TAASA Janet Mansfield Review as a result of material published within its pages or in other material published by it. We reserve the right to alter 22 Batik of Java: Poetics and Politics. Caloundra Regional Art Gallery Touring Exhibition or omit any article or advertisements submitted and require Maria Wronska-Friend indemnity from the advertisers and contributors against damages or liabilities that may arise from material published.

24 Collector’s choice: A Pair of Kenyah Belawing Poles from Borneo All reasonable efforts have been made to trace copyright holders. Michael Heppell TAASA MEMBErship ratES 26 Traveller’s Tale: A SEACS Study Tour of Historic Kiln Sites in Fujian and Jingdezhen $60 Single $90 Dual Linda McLaren $90 Single overseas (includes postage) $30 Concession (students/pensioners with ID) 29 Recent taasa activities $95 Libraries (overseas, $95 + $20 postage) $195 Corporate/institutional (up to 10 employees) 29 TAASA Members’ diary $425 Corporate/institutional (more than 10 employees) $650 Life membership (free admission all events) 30 What’s on: June - August 2010 advertising ratES Compiled by Tina Burge TAASA Review welcomes advertisements from appropriate companies, institutions and individuals. Rates below are GST inclusive.

Back page $850 Full inner page $725 Half page horizontal $484 Third page (vertical or horizontal) $364 Half column $265 Insert $300

For further information re advertising, including discounts for regular quarterly advertising, please contact Nagé ancestral horse with two riders [jara heda], Indonesia, 19th century or earlier, [email protected]

wood, 120.0 x 320.0 x 50.0 cm, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra The deadline for all articles for our next issue is 1 JULY 2010 A full index of articles published in TAASA Review since its BEginnings The deadline for all aDvertising in 1991 is available on thE taasa web site, www.taasa.org.au for our next issue is 1 AUGUST 2010

2 t a a s a c o mm i t t ee E d i t o r i a l : S ou t h e a s t a S i a n a N c es t r a l A r t

Judith rutherford • President Josefa Green, Editor Collector and specialist in Chinese textiles

Gill green • Vice President Art historian specialising in Cambodian culture This issue celebrates the much awaited the use of fishing charms carved in wood or ann guild • TREASURER exhibition at the National Gallery of Australia ivory by the Malanau of Borneo. Charlotte Former Director of the Embroiders Guild (UK) (NGA), opening in August. Articles in this Galloway, Lecturer in Art History at the KATE JOHNSTON • SECRETARY issue are devoted to exploring facets of Life, ANU, points out that amulets, fetishes and Intellectual property lawyer with death and magic: 2000 Years of Southeast Asian charms were widely used in Borneo for an interest in Asian textiles ancestral art. personal protection but are now quite rare Hwei-fe’n cheah as they were generally disposed of with their Lecturer, Art History, Australian National University, Robyn Maxwell, Senior Curator of Asian with an interest in needlework deceased owners. Art at the NGA, presents highlights of the JOCELYn chEY Visiting Professor, Department of Chinese Studies, exhibition, which encompasses animist Other articles continue the Southeast Asian art University of Sydney; former diplomat sculpture, textiles and gold. The NGA’s core theme. Readers will be interested to know that

Matt cox collection will be joined by contributions the West Mebon Vishnu, the Khmer bronze Study Room Co-ordinator, Art Gallery of New South from major European collections: the figure covered in our September 2006 issue, Wales, with a particular interest in Islamic Art of Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam, the Barbier- has been newly installed in a spectacular Southeast Asia Mueller Museum in Geneva and the Dutch setting at the National Museum of Cambodia. Philip courtenay National Museum of Ethnology in Leiden, We hear the details from the Director of Former Professor and Rector of the Cairns Campus, James Cook University, with a special interest in as well as contributions from US, Indonesian the Museum, Oun Phalline, and Martin Southeast Asian ceramics and local collections. Polkinghorne, who specialises in Khmer art. Sandra forbes Editorial consultant with long-standing interest Common themes bind animist based ancestral An exhibition with a batik theme at the in South and Southeast Asian art art across Southeast Asia. It serves a religious Caloundra Regional Art Gallery in Queensland, Josefa green function, communicating with and harnessing curated and discussed in this issue by Maria General editor of TAASA Review. Collector of Chinese the power of the spiritual world to maintain Wronska-Friend, will juxtapose a significant ceramics, with long-standing interest in East Asian art as student and traveller order, achieve prosperity and bolster the private collection of Javanese batik textiles GERALDINE hardMAN power of elites. A shared belief in the powerful with an exhibition of works from Dadang Collector of Chinese furniture and Burmese lacquerware interventionist spirit of nature and the dead Christanto, which use batik to evoke memories

MIN-JUNG KIM provides much of the impetus for and the of a traumatic past. Janet Mansfield offers Curator of Asian Arts & Design at the Powerhouse Museum power of this art tradition, whether expressed armchair pleasure with her book review of a ann proctor in the decorations found on utilitarian objects splendidly illustrated publication on “Ethnic Art historian with a particular interest in Vietnam or used in ceremony and ritual. Jewellery and Adornment” by Truus Dalder. ann roBERTS Art consultant specialising in Chinese The ceremonial function of beadwork, a Finally, Michael Heppell entertains us with ceramics and works of art less well-known aspect of Southeast Asia’s his account of transporting two 6 metre long SABrina snow rich textile traditions, is explored by Hwei- belawing poles from Kalimantan Timur, Has a long association with the Art Gallery of New Fe’n Cheah, Lecturer in Art History at the Indonesia to a suburban Melbourne backyard. South Wales and a particular interest in the arts of China ANU. Beadwork was executed by men and is CHRISTINA SUMNER associated with the male sphere. Combined On another theme, Anne O’Hehir, NGA Principal Curator, Design and Society, Assistant Curator of Photography, discusses a Powerhouse Museum, Sydney on cloth and clothing - “soft” textiles made by new display of photographs from India at the Hon. auditor women - beadwork symbolically connected the Rosenfeld Kant and Co male and female spheres and held protective NGA, drawn from its extensive Asia-Pacific collection. She explores the way in which s t a t E r e p r e s e n t a t i v e s powers associated with fertility and wealth. Indian painting traditions and the imported Australian Capital Territory Lucie Folan, Curator of Asian Art at the NGA, modern medium of photography intersected Robyn Maxwell discusses ancestor imagery created by two major in the 19th century. The display coincides Visiting Fellow in Art History, ANU; Senior Curator of Asian Art, National Gallery of Australia indigenous Taiwanese groups, the Paiwan and with a major international conference “Facing Yami. These are found on impressively carved Asia” on Asian studio photography to be held Northern Territory house posts and panels, ceremonial staffs and on 21-22 August. Details of this conference Joanna Barrkman Curator of Southeast Asian Art and Material Culture, canoes and serve to honour ancestors and can be found on p28. Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory pacify hostile spiritual forces. The exhibition Jim Masselos’ article on Kutch painting Queensland will display the largest and most representative from the later 1700s explores similar issues, Suhanya raffel collection of indigenous Taiwanese art ever Head of Asian and Pacific Art, Queensland Art Gallery shown in Australia. this time the way these little known NW South Australia Indian paintings absorbed aspects of the Western vue perspectifs print tradition into a James Bennett Also on display will be splendid works in Curator of Asian Art, Art Gallery of South Australia gold such as a set of Chieftain’s gold jewellery distinctive Indian framework: in the process, Victoria from the island of Nias, loaned from the Asian occidentalising Europe. Carol cains Civilisations Museum, Singapore. Niki van Curator Asian Art, National Gallery of Victoria International den Heuvel, Exhibition Assistant, discusses Finally, to satisfy ceramic enthusiasts, Linda c TASMANIA the significance of art and regalia of this M Laren gives us a lively account of a SEACS Kate Brittlebank small island, acclaimed as among the most study tour of historic kiln sites and museums Lecturer in Asian History, School of History and Classics, spectacular examples of Indonesian animist art. in China’s Fujian and Jiangxi provinces. This University of Tasmania links us back to our main theme, as so many The exhibition provides an opportunity to of the ceramic wares from these areas were explore fast disappearing traditions, such as destined for export to Southeast Asia.

3 l i f E, d E a t h a n d M a g i c : 2 0 0 0 YE ARS OF SOUTH E AST ASIAN ANC E s t r a l a r t

Robyn Maxwell

major exhibition Life, death and magic: sculpture, textiles and gold in Australia. examples of stone sculpture from Nias will A 2000 years of Southeast Asian ancestral art, While probably unlikely to attract the crowds be joined in the exhibition by fine examples opens at the National Gallery of Australia and queues of the Masterpieces from Paris of the somewhat better-known wooden (NGA) in Canberra in August 2010. Its focus show, Life, death and magic offers Australian figures of ancestors, regarded by some as is the art of small communities throughout audiences a unique opportunity to appreciate the pinnacle of Indonesian sculpture. These the region who maintained the animist beliefs the excitement and often strange beauty have been generously lent by major European of their ancestors when most large kingdoms of objects created to venerate the spirits of collections of tribal and ethnographic art: and trading societies adopted Hinduism and nature and ancestral deities. the Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam and the Buddhism, and later, Islam and Christianity. Barbier-Mueller Museum in Geneva. While Australian audiences can find fine In a conscious attempt to broaden its scope examples of Southeast Asian Buddhist and and introduce visitors to this important aspect The NGA has also acquired a small group of Hindu art in public collections, and have of the art of Southeast Asia, the NGA has built fine wooden sculptures from central Luzon had the unique opportunity to visit Crescent a small but formidable collection of ancestral in the northern Philippines. Ranging from Moon: Islamic art and civilization in Southeast sculpture in recent years to complement the a highly stylised king post for an ancestral Asia in Adelaide and Canberra in 2005–2006, institution’s exceptional holdings of Southeast house to a realistic depiction of an Ifugao bulol there are very few superb examples of animist Asian textiles. The Gallery’s imposing rice guardian couple with child, the figures

Toraja granary façade, Indonesia, 19th century, wood, pigments, 211.0 x 198.0 x 10.0 cm, Fowler Museum of Cultural History, UCLA, Los Angeles

4 t a a S A R EV I E W VOLUME 19 NO.2 Standing dog, Indonesia,4th–6th century

Toraja ceremonial hanging and shroud [paporitonoling], Indonesia, 19th century, cotton; bronze, 43.2 x 15.9 x 37.5 cm, Gift of the Christensen Fund,

warp ikat, 181.0 x 137.0 cm, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra 2001, Honolulu Academy of Arts, Hawaii

are ushered into the afterworld with lavish ceremony and expense. Some of the finest art is created for these events, including spectacular coffins and mortuary jars. Archaeological finds from Bronze and Iron Age sites across the region reveal the antiquity of elaborate burials and extravagant grave goods. This is marvellously demonstrated by the loans of a number of Dian Culture (500 BCE –300 CE) bronzes from the Yunnan Provincial Museum, China. The antiquity of architectural forms is demonstrated by the largest and smallest of the bronzes – a massive house-shaped bronze sarcophagus covered with animal motifs and geometric patterns and a three-dimensional model of village dwellings from the lid of a container used to store valued cowry shell currency. demonstrate the power of art created to A number of the Gallery’s Southeast Asian ensure fertility and prosperity in vulnerable textiles will be on display for the first time The Dian architectural forms have great agricultural and environmental conditions, in this exhibition. Representing the oldest resonance with ancestral dwellings across a recurring focus for animist rites. A striking regional forms and styles, made from beaten Southeast Asia into the modern era. Like seated figure holding a large container for bark cloth and a range of vegetable fibres, they the ancient rulers of Dian, the remains of an Ifugao shaman’s magic herbs and charms also display motifs associated with fertility nobles in many remote parts of the region are from the Fowler Museum of Cultural History and prosperity. As in architecture, buffaloes still placed in house-and boat-shaped coffins, (University of California, Los Angeles) is are prominent on Toraja textiles, along with just as they have been for millennia. A 19th a powerful example of objects created to the doti’ langi stars of heaven patterns which century Toraja wooden coffin on loan from control the spirit world. represent plenty. Archaic Toraja banners show the Art Gallery of South Australia mirrors not village scenes of rice granaries and buffaloes only the shape and ornamentation of the local Also on loan from the Fowler Museum is the with plough, while stylised horns are painted architecture, but is remarkably similar to the façade of a Toraja granary from Sulawesi, on superfine bark head cloths. So important is 2000 year old Yunnan sarcophagus. Indonesia, its surface completely filled with the symbol in Toraja art that a repository for incised and painted patterns. It joins the the aristocratic corpse at a funeral ceremony Perhaps the most fascinating Dian bronze NGA’s carved buffalo-head door for a rice can also take the form of a mighty buffalo. A vessel, and one that speaks of the antiquity of barn. Throughout Southeast Asia, one of the richly decorated two-metre long coffin in the many arts and techniques in Southeast Asia, most prominent emblems of agricultural and form of this prestigious animal comes from is the cowry container with a scene depicting human fertility, prosperity and wealth, is the the collection of Musée du Quai Branly, Paris. weaving on back-tension looms. Remarkably, water buffalo that also appears in schematic all the woven textiles in the exhibition were and recognizable designs on the rice granary The greatest rites for animist Southeast Asia created on similar simple apparatus, from decorations. are funerals, when the spirits of the deceased the tiny Li skirts from Hainan to the huge

t a a S A R EV I E W VOLUME 19 NO.2 5 The Bronze Weaver, Indonesia, 6th century, bronze, 25.8 x 22.8 x 15.2 cm, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra shroud from Luzon. The Gallery’s own Bronze weaver, a key work in the show, and indeed in Southeast Asian art history, depicts in far greater detail the same foot-braced loom.

Like the Bronze Weaver, a number of large bronze vessels in Life, death and magic were found across the Indonesian archipelago. The superb casting skills of the Dong Son culture of north Vietnam (500BCE–200CE) and the active trade in the spectacular Dong Son bronzes is encapsulated in the huge 2000year old Makalamau kettle drum on loan from the National Museum of Indonesia. It displays images of saddle-roof houses, birds, boats manned by figures in extravagant feather headdresses, found on Sangeang, a small island off the coast of Sumbawa.

From the same Jakarta collection, a large ceremonial axe discovered on the far eastern Indonesian island of Roti is more enigmatic, and may be a masterpiece from one of the later regional bronze casting centres that seem to have developed. An impressive bronze bell possibly from Cambodia and recently acquired by the National Gallery of Australia could also have been produced in a regional workshop. The style of these objects, combined with the thermoluminescence dating of the clay cores of the Gallery’s Bronze weaver and the Honolulu Academy of Art’s Standing bronze dog to the 4th–6th centuries, suggest a blossoming of local creativity inspired by treasured Dong Son heirlooms.

While textiles wonderfully represent the female arts of Southeast Asia, the male arts of hunting, including headhunting, genealogical forebears. Many are pairs of male of Ethnology in Leiden. The altars range are encapsulated in beautifully decorated and female, displaying the distinct genitalia from tall poles where sky gods sit on boat- shields in the exhibition. The hot arts of on which the fertility and fecundity of the like forms to ornately scrolling, vaguely metal smelting are also the male domain, and family or community is founded. Drawn anthropomorphic, sculptures incised with range in the exhibition from ancient bronze from international collections, the exhibition representations of the family’s wealth of daggers to luminous gold jewellery. A sign shows the range of ways the human figure sacred gold objects. They demonstrate the of high status and wealth, gold ornaments is depicted, from strikingly minimal forms to importance of ancestor veneration and the are an important part of the sacred regalia surprising realism. The sculptures – in wood tremendous artistic energy that goes into the of great houses and lineages. Spectacular and stone – have been chosen to demonstrate creation of fine Southeast Asian animist art. gold objects from Indonesia’s eastern islands the continuity and similarities in style from – Sumba, Timor, Flores, Luang and Moa – the Bronze Age until the 20th century, most The size and complexity of the exhibition, have been borrowed from around the world. notably in a widespread preference for the drawn from numerous international So too has a full set of gold regalia for seated figure, arms resting upon knees, often institutions, combined with the fragility of a Nias nobleman from Singapore’s Asian with enlarged head showing strong elongated many of the loans means Life, death and magic: Civilisations Museum. Among the most eye- facial features. 2000 years of Southeast Asian art will only be catching of the gold objects in the exhibition exhibited at the National Gallery of Australia are burial masks, fitting for the grave of a local The house altars of the small Indonesian Canberra, from 13 August until 31 October ruler, with examples from the Philippines and island communities of the south Moluccas 2010. The show is accompanied by a fully Indonesia generously lent from the Barbier- (Maluku) are perhaps the most arresting of illustrated catalogue – and a well stocked Mueller Museum collection. the art associated with the honouring and exhibition shop. appeasing of ancestors. A small number Some of the most significant figurative of spectacular wooden sculptures – from Robyn Maxwell is Senior Curator of Asian Art at the sculpture in Southeast Asian is associated the little known islands of Leti, Damar and National Gallery of Australia. with the veneration of ancestors, from the Yamdena – have been borrowed from the great mythological creators to important collection of the Dutch National Museum

6 t a a S A R EV I E W VOLUME 19 NO.2 BE ADWORK OF ISLAND SOUTH E a s t a s i a

Hwei-Fe’n Cheah

he protective powers of beads and their textiles used as hangings, mats and wedding of these skirts, beadwork diamonds and T symbolic association with durability, gifts. Stitched beadwork, however, facilitated hexagons with spindly protrusions form fertility and wealth are manifest in the regard more free flowing designs and curvilinear colourful disruptions to the orderly indigo with which beads and beadwork are held in forms that contrast with the angular patterning and white ikat bands of the textiles. The so many parts of island Southeast Asia. Shell of the woven textiles. Rarer than their woven significance of these patterns is not well beads, employed in Southeast Asia since at counterparts, these beaded panels are thought understood but could relate to fertility, as least the second millennium BCE, were often to have been used by the nobility (Taylor and the cloths are used in ceremonies to improve applied in combination with imported glass Aragon 1991: 132-4). harvests (Maxwell 1990: 141). beads. While some beads were made locally, beads from India and China were widely Textiles applied with beads and shells Regarded as ‘hard’ objects and associated with traded through the archipelago ports and were were worn on ceremonial occasions. The the male sphere, beads stood in opposition to exchanged for local produce. From the late Sumbanese women’s ceremonial skirts ‘soft’ textiles made by women. Combined on 19th century, European drawn glass beads from eastern Indonesia, mud-dyed to a dark cloth and clothing, beadwork symbolically became increasingly accessible (Francis 2002). chocolate brown, are sometimes decorated connected the two spheres (Maxwell 1990: in beads (hada) with curious semi-abstracted 58-63). Although the Ngada lawo butu Beads could be highly valued objects in forms that suggest composite creatures were worn by women, the beadwork was themselves but the types of beads that were with outstretched arms and legs (Maxwell executed by men and the cloths themselves prized varied. In parts of eastern Indonesia, 1990: 96). In other cloths, human figures are were ‘named’ posthumously after the death beads were handed down as heirloom items, shown with arms raised from the elbows and of the high-status clan leaders who had the mutisalah or ‘false pearls’ being a particular genitalia emphasised. In contrast to these commissioned the pieces (Hamilton 1994: type of small glass beads of an opaque orange to bold and colourful designs, the mountain- 109). Stored alongside other clan treasures, reddish-brown. The small orange-brown coiled dwelling Atayal of Taiwan crafted hemp such beaded textiles embodied not only an glass seed beads are a class of heirloom beads jackets stitched with strings of white beads individual history but also became integral to worn by the elite and are known as mutiraja made from the discs of giant clams obtained the sustenance of communal memory. (Francis 2002: 19-20, 186-7). For the Orang through trade with coastal peoples. Worn Ulu community of central Borneo, flattened by successful headhunters, these jackets not Beaded accoutrements worn by women polychrome rosette beads, lukut sekala, were the only spoke of the physical prowess of the during feasting added to the celebratory feel most highly esteemed (Munan 2005: 66, 78). individual but also their access to ‘foreign’ of the occasion. In Engano, a small island beads (Sumberg 2010: 145). off the southwest coast of Sumatra, striking Beads were integrated into the rich textile belts, typically embellished with red, white traditions of the archipelago – stitched, netted A legend of the Ngada people in Flores tells and blue imported beads, were worn at ritual or woven into a range of items, from ceremonial how beads, gold and cloth all blossomed feasts to celebrate an abundant harvest. Elio hangings, betel bags and baby carriers to magically from the branches of a tree planted Modigliani, an Italian who visited Engano sarongs, dance skirts and jackets. A number by two orphans, becoming items that were in 1891, wrote of their ceremonial dress and of distinctive ceremonial hangings and mats much coveted by the villagers (Hamilton described their petticoats (sottanino) made from the coastal areas of Lampung in southern 1994: 108). Like cloth and gold, imported of beads and vegetable fibres, moving with Sumatra are densely worked in monochrome beads must have held a mystery, inspiring every motion of their legs (1894: 152). The glass seed beads. Motifs range from elephant- a sense of wonder for the locals. They were weight of their garments, particularly of the like creatures to boat-shaped forms shared incorporated into the lower half of women’s beaded belts, could even make the women feel with the woven tampan and palepai – ritual tubular garments, the lawo butu. In some faint (ter Keurs 2006: 156). The number of red

Batak ceremonial jacket, Indonesia, 19th century, cotton, beads, metal bells; supplementary weft weave, appliqué, 37.0 x 132.0 cm, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

t a a S A R EV I E W VOLUME 19 NO.2 7 Sa’dan Toraja ceremonial However, neither the significance of the beads along the widest edge, formed by the netting object and beaded neck nor the pattern on the bridal jacket is easily of beads over a bamboo frame. Typically, ornament [kandauré], understood. Overviews of Batak art do not the narrow neck at the top is decorated Indonesia, 19th century, beads, generally discuss patterns of concentric circles. with a band of small figures. These are cotton; bead-work, tablet weave, While the pattern has a formal similarity to thought to represent the gods of the Torajan plaiting, 89.0 x 40.0 cm, National the representations of the prominent eyes of upperworld or ancestors and the beads below Gallery of Australia, Canberra the Toba Batak singa (lion), with their dilated the descendants, such that the kandaure acts black pupils encircled by concentric rings of as a metaphor for an interconnected web of a contrasting colour, further connections are many descendants (Morrell 2005: 120). difficult to extrapolate. Kandaure were suspended from bamboo poles The short jacket is simply tailored, with during funerals but also worn by relatives slightly tapering long sleeves and an opening of the deceased to greet mourners and lead down the front. Niessen (1993, 2009: 399-400) dancers at the funeral (Taylor and Aragon documents the baju omon as a bridal garment 1991: 186-7). However, the kandaure was not that may have originated in the southern exclusively funerary for it was draped over Batak area, worn by the Toba and Angkola/ the shoulders of dancers during the rice ritual Mandaliling groups. She also suggests that (Taylor and Aragon 1991: 186-7). A symbol the ensemble pre-dated colonial involvement of abundance and regeneration, the multiple in the area (Niessen 1993: 72-79). Indeed, uses of the kandaure in both fertility and this form of beaded jacket was illustrated in mortuary ceremonies remind us of islander coloured lithographs of Mandailing bridal beliefs in the intimate relationships between dress published by a Dutch linguist in 1861. the living and the dead. Photographs taken in the early 20th century also show a southern Batak bride clad in Hwei-Fe’n Cheah is Lecturer, Art History at a beaded jacket with a bulls-eye design the School of Cultural Inquiry, Australian (Niessen 1993: 25, 72-73, 114; Sibeth 1991: National University. 208). Yet, where, when and why this form of beaded jacket emerged in Batak society The introduction and section on Batak beadwork remains difficult to explain. are adapted from ‘Beadwork from Sumatra in the National Gallery of Australia’, Bead Study Trust A connection that is both intriguing and Newsletter, 2009 puzzling is presented by a photograph taken before 1935 of Toba Batak masked dancers REFERENCES at the funeral of an important man, held Hamilton, Roy (ed.), 1994. Gift of the cotton maiden: textiles of to inform the deceased of the promise of Flores and the Solor Islands, Fowler Museum of Cultural History, future offerings, an undertaking that served Los Angeles. to appease the spirit of the dead (Taylor Francis Jr., Peter, 2002. Asia’s maritime bead trade: 300 B.C. to the present, University of Hawai’i Press, Honolulu. and Aragon 1991: 116). In this image, one of the masked dancers is wearing a garment Maxwell, Robyn, 1990. Textiles of Southeast Asia: tradition, trade and transformation, Oxford University Press, Melbourne. beads on the apron fringe is said to ‘represent whose front bodice is decorated (possibly Modigliani, Elio, 1894. L’isola delle donne: viaggio ad Engano, the number of heads taken for the feast’ with beads) in a bulls-eye pattern – radiating Hoepli, Milan. (ter Keurs 2006: 156, 172), closely aligning from the centre are at least six concentric Morrell, Elizabeth, 2005. Securing a place: small scale artisans in the symbolism of women’s dress with the circles in alternating white and dark colours. modern Indonesia, Cornell University Press, Ithaca. ritual and regenerative nature of such feasts, Munan, Heidi, 2005. Beads of Borneo, Editions Didier Millet, reinforcing the parallel relationship between Batak necklaces also suggest the possibility of Singapore. headhunting and fertility. a second, albeit weaker association between Niessen, Sandra, 1993. Batak cloth and clothing: a dynamic ritual clothing of one group and the bridal dress Indonesian tradition, Oxford University Press, Kuala Lumpur.

Colour symbolism may help to explain of another. Mandailing brides wore long neck Niessen, Sandra, 2009. Legacy in Cloth: Batak textiles of the use of colour on the Batak women’s ornaments with multiple strands of beads. Long Indonesia, KITLV Press, Leiden. ceremonial jacket (baju omon). Strings of red, neck and shoulder ornaments (sinata godeng) Sumberg, Bobbie, 2010. Textiles: collection of the Museum of white, black and some dark blue glass seed with multiple strands of beads attached to a International Folk Art, Gibbs Smith, Utah. beads are stitched in radial rows in a striking leather neck band were worn by the wives Sibeth, Achim, 1991. The Batak: peoples of the island of Sumatra, bulls-eye pattern over the front and back of of Toba Batak clan leaders at their annual Thames and Hudson, New York. the bodice of such jackets, and small bells agricultural ceremony at which the women Taylor, Paul Michael and Lorraine V. Aragon, 1991. Beyond the are often attached to the lower edge. These would be possessed by spirits (Sibeth 1991: Java sea: art of Indonesia’s outer islands, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. three colours correspond to the sacred colours 99; Taylor and Aragon 1991: 112, 117). Both ter Keurs, Pieter, 2006. Condensed reality: a study of material for the northern Sumatran Toba Batak and involved the procreative powers of nature. culture, CNWS Publications, Leiden. Karo Batak groups, who employ a red-white- black combination of threads to represent Amongst the Sa’dan Toraja of Sulawesi, their tripartite social structure and the unity beadwork was executed by men. The most and co-operation between affinal families distinctive of these items is the kandaure, a (Maxwell 1990: 98; Niessen 2009: 42). conical shaped hanging with long tassels

8 t a a S A R EV I E W VOLUME 19 NO.2 a n c E STORS IN TH E a r c h i t E c t u r E: i n d i g E NOUS ART FRO M t a i w a n

Lucie Folan Yami ceremonial staff, Botel Tobago, Taiwan, 19th century, wood, pigments, 201.0 x 45.0 x 13.0 cm, Fowler Museum

of Cultural History, UCLA, Los Angeles

ncestor imagery dominates the art of the Paiwan art and religion. With such A animist cultures of Taiwan, where the a strong emphasis on hereditary various indigenous groups are distinct yet title and community prosperity, the closely related in terms of general world view, rituals to which these works of art community organisation and ritual practice. relate were intended to ensure the In broader terms, they have strong linguistic noble line. In typical Paiwan style, and cultural affinities with other Austronesian the naked figures are compressed communities across Southeast Asia and the to fill most of the panel and stand Pacific, with whom they share beliefs in with knees bent, feet turned out, powerful interventionist spirits of nature and and arms held so that the hands are the dead. In Taiwan’s traditional Paiwan and at shoulder height. The simple faces Yami communities, art serves a religious have strong eyebrows, large noses function. Designs representing deceased and small mouths, with circular eyes ancestors are intended to communicate with of inlaid porcelain. the spiritual world and maintain order. Within Paiwan culture, ancestor One of the largest of Taiwan’s indigenous imagery is created to represent groups, the Paiwan, live in the southern recently deceased nobles as well as mountains. Paiwan society is hierarchical – distant or mythical ancestors. When consisting of high nobles, secondary nobles a member of the nobility dies, a and commoners – and status is hereditary. wooden panel is carved and paired Formed by descent, the high nobility of each with an image of a legendary village is made up of the first-born child of the ancestor. The two types of image can previous noble family, their spouse and any usually be differentiated, as distant unmarried offspring (Cameron 1985: 161). ancestors are represented with snake Village nobles are the landowners and are motifs (Chen Chi-Lu 1988: 188, 338). responsible for community well-being and Here the male figure has a snake prosperity. As the Paiwan believe in an array headdress, while the female figure of supernatural beings, the most important wears a circular head ornament. role of the nobility is to observe customary While these two panels stylistically religious rituals that appease nature spirits appear to be a couple, it is not known and the ghosts of ancestors (Ferrell 1969: 45). whether they were originally paired in the same structure. The house in which the high-ranking nobles live is at the centre of these communal rites. The Paiwan nobles claim descent When a chief’s house is constructed, a feast is from a mythical snake identified held and offerings are made to ancestor spirits with the local hundred pacer snake (Chen Chi-Lu 1968: 290). Made from slate and (Chiang 2001: 222). In one account wood, the building is at once a dwelling for of the Paiwan creation myth, the the living and a ritual place to house historical sun laid two eggs on top of a ancestors, who were traditionally buried mountain. The eggs were hatched within the noble house (Cameron 1985: 163). after a giant snake sunk its fangs into them, passing on some of its power. Paiwan architectural ornamentation From the eggs a man and a woman reinforces the religious nature of the chief’s emerged – the original ancestors of house, with carved images of ancestors the Paiwan and founders of the noble adorning wooden wall and door posts line (Cameron 1985: 163). Snake (Cameron 1985: 163). Included in the National imagery is therefore reserved for use Gallery of Australia’s Life, death and magic: by nobles and for representations¯ of 2000 years of Southeast Asian ancestral art mythical ancestor spirits. exhibition are two impressive 19th century Paiwan panels. Each carved wooden panel In contrast to the Paiwan, the Yami features a stylised human figure, one male people live in villages on the shores and one female, to flank the doorway to a of the small mountainous island noble’s house. The complementary pairing of Botel Tobago, south-east of the of images and pronounced genitalia illustrate main island of Taiwan. Daily life in the underlying importance of fertility in traditional communities centres on

t a a S A R EV I E W VOLUME 19 NO.2 9 Yami house-post [tomok], Botel Tobago, Taiwan, 19th

century, wood, pigments, 216.6 x 108.8 x 8.0 cm, National Paiwan ancestor panel, Taiwan, 19th century,

Gallery of Australia, Canberra wood, mirror, porcelain, bottle caps, 185.0 x 41.0 x 9.0 cm,

Fowler Museum of Cultural History, UCLA, Los Angeles

poor harvests, disease, death and natural disasters. One of the most important figures in Yami belief is Magamoag, a legendary creator ancestor who taught the skill of fishing to the Yami people (Kano and Segawa 1956: 290).

A superb openwork staff on loan from the Fowler Museum of Cultural History (University of California, Los Angeles) to the Life, death and magic exhibition, features three simple stylised Magamoag figures with red bodies, black heads and white spiral arms and headdresses, colours that characterise Yami ritual art. Ceremonial staffs were displayed during significant events such as boat launches, feasts and the construction of houses, when the presence of anito is particularly inauspicious (Cameron and Sumnik-Dekovich 1985: 171). The circular motif, which typically appears on Yami canoe prows, is called mata no tatara (eye of the canoe) and, like Magamoag, serves a protective purpose.

The most culturally valuable art forms of the Yami are decorated canoes and house posts (tomok). Traditional family dwellings consist of a main house built below ground to withstand frequent typhoons, a separate work-house, and a platform for eating and socialising. A tomok supports the roof apex of the main house, symbolising the connection between sea and mountain (Adachi 2003). The tomok is the first element to be erected Lucie Folan is Curator of Asian Art at the National after a house site is excavated. Highly Gallery of Australia. valued, tomok are passed down from one generation to the next and REFERENCES

moved if a family relocates or Adachi, Takashi, 2003. ‘Isolating and connecting: a study on the reconstructs a house (Cameron composition of space in the Yami’s four-entranced main house’ in and Sumnik-Dekovich 1985: Journal of Architecture, Planning and Environmental Engineering. Japan 172). Like the Paiwan people, Cameron, Elisabeth L, 1985. ‘Ancestor motifs of the Paiwan’ imagery associated with ancestor spirits in Feldman, Jerome (ed) 1988: The eloquent dead: ancestral sculpture of Indonesia and Southeast Asia. University of California, is incorporated into traditional houses. The Los Angeles strikingly bold red, black and white designs fishing and farming and adherence to various Cameron, Elisabeth L and Sumnik-Dekovich, 1985. ’Magamoag: of Magamoag and the eye of the canoe on the benevolent ancestor of the Yami’ in Feldman, Jerome (ed) 1985: rituals. Living in relative isolation, the Yami National Gallery of Australia’s house-post, The eloquent dead: ancestral sculpture of Indonesia and Southeast have developed a rather distinctive culture, are typical of images intended to protect a Asia. University of California, Los Angeles with close affinities to the nearby islands of household from malevolent spirits of the dead. Chen Chi-Lu, 1968. Material culture of the Formosan aborigines. the northern Philippines (Ferrell 1969: 58). The goat’s horn motif, carved in relief above Taiwan Museum, Taipei the spiral forms of the Magamoag design, is a Chen Chi-Lu, 1988. ‘Notes on a wooden house-post of the Budai The Yami ritual calendar revolves around the symbol of longevity (Chen Chi-Lu 1968: 291). Paiwan’ in Barbier, Jean Paul and Newton, Douglas (eds) 1988: Islands annual migration of flying fish, considered and ancestors: indigenous styles of Southeast Asia. Prestel, Munich Chiang, Bien, 2001. ‘Paiwan sculpture’ in Sculptures: Africa, Asia, a sacred source of food. Ceremonies are The depictions of ancestors within the Oceania, Americas, Musée du quai Branly, Paris performed to summon, store and prepare Paiwan and Yami cultures of Taiwan, though the fish, and various taboos are observed Del Re, Arundel, 1951. Creation myths of the Formosan natives. different stylistically, have the same intent Hokuseido Press, Tokyo during the fishing season (Del Re 1951: 33). – to honour ancestors and pacify hostile Ferrel, Raleigh, 1969. ‘Taiwan aboriginal groups: problems in According to Yami belief, humans have a spiritual forces for the benefit of the family cultural and linguistic classification’ in Monographs of the Institute number of different souls that are liberated and wider community. While the art from of Ethnology, Academia Sinica, Taipei after death to become either benevolent Taiwan in Life, death and magic: 2000 years of Kano, Tadao and Segawa, Kokichi 1956. An illustrated ancestor spirits or malevolent anito. (Cameron Southeast Asian ancestral art is only a small ethnography of Formosan aborigines. Maruzen, Tokyo and Sumnik-Dekovich 1985: 171). Most Yami part of the exhibition, it will be the largest and ceremonies are intended to honour ancestors most representative collection of indigenous and dispel anito, considered responsible for Taiwanese art ever shown in Australia.

10 t a a S A R EV I E W VOLUME 19 NO.2 s p l E NDOUR FOR TH E a n c E s t o r s – t h E s c u l p t u r E AND GOLD OF NIAS

Niki van den Heuvel

Pectoral necklace, Nias, Indonesia, 19th century. Gold, 24.5 x 22.3 cm, Asian Civilisations Museum, Singapore

reated for the veneration and C appeasement of ancestors and the attainment of high status and power, the art of Nias – a small island situated off Sumatra’s west coast – is widely acclaimed as among the most dramatic and spectacular examples of Indonesian animist art. In earlier times monumental sculptures carved from stone and wood in the form of ancestral and aristocratic effigies, obelisks, pillars, steles and seats of honour were prolific throughout the entire island. Although rare, complete and remnant examples of these impressive monuments are still found among traditional Niha villages, or öri, which consist of immense wooden houses, paved terraces and stone plazas. The desire to emphasise rank and piety also resulted in the production of precious gold jewellery, smaller ancestral figures and architectural elements.

Named after their founding ancestors, the öri of Nias have distinct customs based on the laws dictated by their forebears. Ancestral law emphasises a distinct hierarchical division consisting of an hereditary aristocracy who trace their lineage from founding ancestors, as well as common citizens. While all citizens are ultimately connected to the deities and ratify or elevate the patron’s social and political Gold also expresses the complementary ancestors of the upper and lower words, in standing. Carved in the style of the austere opposites – upper and lower world, noble and the past slaves governed by the upper classes shafts and stele found throughout Nias, the common, male and female – which, according were considered inhuman and denied all bold figure is depicted with both arms raised to Niha law, are fundamental to the existence rights of citizenship, including living among in a gesture of authority and benevolence. of the cosmos. For example, pure yellow the rest of society (Feldman 1985: 45). Its facial features and markers of high status gold, along with yellow cloth, is associated are carved in low stylised relief. While the with the noble classes while red or false gold On Nias, rites associated with the cycle of life, patron’s warlike qualities of bravery and (gold alloy) and red cloth are associated the prosperity of communities, significant strength are evidenced by the emphasis on the with commoners (Rodgers 1985: 80). Even events in an individual’s life, and political pectorals and genitalia, his great affluence is character is described in terms of gold with events were often accompanied by major feasts marked by the depiction in stone of the typical a good and bad nature being referred to as (owasa). Gatherings held to mark a village’s accoutrements of a Niha nobleman including a yellow and red gold respectively (de Moor foundation, a funeral, a meeting of clans with gold bifurcated headdress, pectoral necklace, 1990: 111-12). common ancestry, or to celebrate a noble’s bangles and ear studs. elevation, occasioned the commissioning of In prosperous times a rich variety of jewellery numerous effigies, precious adornments in On Nias the role of gold is rich and multifaceted was produced for members of the noble gold and the distribution of wealth. Each and its power cannot be understated. Used and common classes by local goldsmiths owasa was sponsored by the aristocracy as for ceremonial exchange, bride price and as a from imported gold dust and leaf from well as commoners to demonstrate dedication marker of wealth and status, gold – which is Sumatra, and later from Dutch coins (de to the ancestors and to mark a rise in rank associated with the upper world – symbolises Moor 1990: 108). In the endless struggle to (Ziegler 1990: 79). the divinity and power of the upper classes attain the highest possible status, the array (Rodgers 1985: 80). The precious metal is of ceremonial accoutrements commissioned A striking anthropomorphic stone monument ubiquitous, appearing on all manner of for spectacular owasa feasts included crowns, (gowe nio niha) is among a collection of items including jewellery, weapons, textiles necklaces, ear ornaments and bracelets all important Indonesian ancestral and animist and furniture. Imbued with magical powers featuring different shapes and motifs. In sculpture held by the National Gallery of derived from the supernatural realms, objects the case of the most noble, striking facial Australia (NGA). Almost two and a half metres in gold serve to mediate between the real and adornments of gold moustaches and beards tall, the impressive figure of a nobleman was supernatural worlds and serve as amulets to were also produced. Exquisite examples commissioned for a feast of merit intended to ward off malevolent forces (de Moor 1990: 107). of such regalia have been borrowed from

t a a S A R EV I E W VOLUME 19 NO.2 11 Central peak of a crown, Nias, Indonesia, Nias anthropomorphic stone monument [gowe nio Nias anthropomorphic stone monument [gowe

19th century. Gold, 52.0 x 28.0 cm., niha], Indonesia, 19th century or earlier, stone, 240.0 x salawa], Indonesia, 19th century or earlier, stone, 160.0 x

Asian Civilisations Museum, SingaporE 99.0 x 16.0 cm, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra 30.0 x 41.0 cm, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

international collections to complement the traits. Along with an elaborately defined crown The portrayal of finery is also present on the Gallery’s collection of Nias stone sculpture and studded headband, the figure wears a figures carved as receptacles for ancestor spirits, for the exhibition Life, death and magic: 2000 single ear pendant and bangle. The nobleman to which offerings were made by the living. years of Southeast Asian ancestral art. is also shown wearing a torque (nifa tali), a The exhibition includes a fine selection of symbol of the solidarity of villagers (de Moor Niha wooden ancestor statues from renowned An elegant set of chieftain’s gold in the form 1990: 107), made from twisted strands of gold international collections including the Barbier- of the nifato-fato pectoral necklace and the wire and a sword and scabbard at the hip. Mueller Museum in Geneva and the National central peak of a crown (tuwu, nandzulo or These accoutrements overtly emphasise the Museum of Indonesia in Jakarta. An exquisite saembu ana’a) has been selected from the aristocrat’s accomplishment as a great warrior. adu zatua from the Barbier-Mueller Museum, Asian Civilisations Museum in Singapore. for example, is a striking depiction of a noble Hammered from gold sheet with undulating The prowess of the Nias warrior is also manifest ancestor wearing a nifato-fato, töla jaga armband ridges and repoussé motifs, nifato-fato were in Life death and magic with the selection of and an elegant single ear pendant. worn by male noblemen throughout Nias and trappings of power including an elaborate less commonly by women in the island’s south. sword and scabbard (balatö) and necklace of Shown on a scale never before seen in The striking crown pinnacle, more than half a polished coconut shell discs (kalabubu), both Australia, the art and regalia of Nias in Life, metre in height, would have been adorned with on loan from Amsterdam’s Tropenmuseum. death and magic demonstrate the impressive gold elements in the form of ornate foliage. With a hilt in the form of the mythical dragon- variations of Niha art. From precious gold to Worn together, these elements represented the like lasara, the balatö also features a bundle monumental displays of grandeur, these works universal tree of life from which all existence of protective amulets in the form of small reveal the devotion of a community to ancient originates (de Moor 1990: 117). ancestor figures. Resembling the form of gold forebears and, ultimately, the obsession with nifa tali necklaces, the kalabubu was worn by the achievement of greatest merit. On show for the first time in Life, death and magic common and noble warriors who had taken a is another powerful example of monumental head. In the case of the aristocracy, however, Niki van den Heuvel is the Exhibition Assistant for Life, Nias sculpture that further demonstrates the kalabubu would have been covered with death and magic: 2000 years of Southeast Asian art. the variety of Niha gold ornamentation. The gold leaf (de Moor 1990: 117). spectacular gowe salawa, which would also REFERENCES have been commissioned for an owaha feast, Displays of the finest jewellery were Feldman, Jerome, 1985. The eloquent dead: ancestral sculpture of is carved in the more realistic style found reserved for major feasts with smaller and Indonesia and Southeast Asia, UCLA Museum of Cultural History, especially in the northern villages of the island. less ostentatious examples worn as part of Los Angeles. A particularly rare work, the figure mirrors a everyday life. Depictions of the sumptuous de Moor, Maggie, 1990. ‘The importance of gold jewellery in Nias culture’ in Feldman, Jerome et al., Nias tribal treasures, slightly more eroded example, undoubtedly gold commissioned for feasts of merit Volkenkundig Museum Nusantara, Delft. by the same sculptor, on display in the Musée therefore serve as a valuable commemoration Rodgers, Susan, 1985. Power and gold: jewellery from Indonesia, du Louvre’s Pavilion de Sessions in Paris. of a patron’s largesse and devotion to Malaysia and the Philippines from the collection of the Barbier- ancestors and deities. Stone effigies of chiefs, Mueller Museum, Geneva, Barbier-Mueller Museum, Geneva.

Shown in the squatting position – an ancient immense stone seats in the form of the Ziegler, Arlette, 1990. ‘Festive areas: territories and feats in the pose appearing repeatedly in the ancestral art of mythical osa-osa and wooden house panels south of Nias’ in Feldman, Jerome et al., Nias tribal treasures, Southeast Asia – the gowe salawa’s characteristic carved with depictions of jewellery continued Volkenkundig Museum Nusantara, Delft. moustache and pointed beard may depict to emphasise a patron’s bounty long after the gold ornamental versions of these masculine end of an owasa (de Moor 1990: 117).

12 t a a S A R EV I E W VOLUME 19 NO.2 S M ALL AND POT E n t – FISHING CHAR M s a n d t h E ME l a n a u o f B o r n E O

Melanau fishing charms, Sarawak, Malaysia, Charlotte Galloway 19th century, boar tusk, 10.9 x 1.6 x 1.8 cm (R); 11.0 x 1.4 x 2.2 cm (L), Gift of Rex and Caroline Stevenson

2010, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

he traditional art of the Melanau, like revolved around the monsoons and the most T the other ethnic groups of Borneo, was important community festival was the Kaul, driven by spiritual practices that included the annual ritual cleansing of the village and shamanism, ritual sacrifice and superstition. blessing of the fishing season. One of the few The name Melanau (also spelled Malanau and traditional ceremonies still observed today, Milanau) was given to people living in the the festival takes place during the March region of north and northeast Borneo around full moon, which usually heralds the end of 1862 when the Rajah of Sarawak annexed the the northeast monsoons, when fishing and region from the Sultan of Brunei. The area planting can resume. became part of the Third Division of Sarawak and ‘his officials used the name Melanau to There were many complex customs associated describe the people who lived in the Rejang with fishing. ‘Melanau fishermen, especially delta and coastal area as far as Bintulu’ (Morris when they worked in the deeper waters and 1991: 4). As well as being fishermen, the used the larger nets, observed taboos, recited Melanau were distinguished from other tribes spells, and used images of spirits carved of by their farming of sago (Morris 1991: 16-17). wood or bone (bilum [or] dakan) tied to the As food demands grew rapidly in Southeast nets. No woman was allowed on a barong Asia, sago developed into a profitable trade on its way to the fishing grounds’ (Morris item for the businessmen of Kuching and the 1991: 211). Some other rituals observed were: Melanau became economically important to ‘conversation about animals was forbidden the local government. The Melanau fall into to prevent careless talk that might be seen as two loose groups: those living near the coast disrespect that could bring about a state of and those living inland along the river, and baliyu, accompanied by storm and lightning. there are six sub-groups named after their Before lowering the net the shipmaster geographical locations. silently recited spells, and each specialist, and lifestyles have changed dramatically. the steersman and the swimmers, knew As early as the 1960s, over 60% of Melanau The art of Borneo is most immediately appropriate spells which they used silently. were Muslim and many others followed a associated with large spirit figures and carved The images of spirits tied to the nets were Christian faith (Morris 1991: 6). It is often only wooden doors, house beams and posts, grave seen as a guarantee that the fishing was done through the works of early anthropologists markers and the like. But alongside these with their approval’ (Morris 1991: 212). and ethnographers that we are able to place very obvious and communal artworks there these artefacts in any context as many of the existed a more personal group of artefacts These spirit images were an important part rituals in which these objects were crucial which is much less known. This group is of the Melanau artistic expression. In 1912 participants are now lost. comprised of small, carved objects variously Hose and McDougall wrote: ‘the Malanaus called amulets, fetishes or charms and were [sic], excel all other tribes, in that they attain Dr Charlotte Galloway is Lecturer, Art History at believed to offer strong personal protection a high level of achievement in a great variety the School of Cultural Inquiry, Australian National against misadventure and illness. Indeed, of [decorative] arts’, with the Malanaus University the practice of tying protective charms to particularly skilled in fine wood carving food baskets, baby carriers and other (224). A number of Melanau fishing charms REFERENCES personal items was widespread amongst the are illustrated in Lucas Chin’s Cultural Appleton, Ann, 2006. Acts of integration, Expressions of Faith. indigenous peoples of Borneo. Each charm Heritage of Sarawak (1980: 86). A collection Madness, Death and Ritual in Melanau Ontology, Borneo was made for an individual and often for of well-documented charms can be found at Research Council, Phillips. a specific purpose. They were not usually the British Museum and were published in a Chin, Lucas, 1980. Cultural Heritage of Sarawak, Sarawak re-used but were most likely disposed of with special issue of The Sarawak Museum Journal Museum, Kuching. the deceased and as such are quite rare. prior to being donated to the Museum (1997: Hose, Charles and William MacDougall, 1912. The Pagan tribes 153-320). The two figures illustrated here of Borneo, reprint Oxford University Press, Singapore, 2 vols, Amongst the Melanau, small charms were were carved in bone and are very similar in 1993, vol.1. also used for the important communal form to Melanau wooden effigies. Morris, Stephen, 1991. The Oya Melanau, Malaysian Historical Society, Kuching (Sarawak Branch). purpose of protecting all activities related to fishing. The traditional Melanau religion Today, many indigenous customs and Morris, Stephen, 1997. ‘The Oya Melanau: traditional ritual and belief’, in Beatrice Clayre (ed) [special issue], The Sarawak is called Liko, which means ‘people of the traditions have disappeared or are more Museum Journal L11 (73, new series), Sarawak Museum river’ (Tettoni & Ong 1996: 24). The chief god ceremonial in nature. By 1996 Beatrice Department, Sarawak. is Ula Gemilang, the sea divinity, indicating Clayre noted that only ‘two old men’ were Tettoni, Luca and Edric Ong, 1996. Living in Sarawak, the importance of the sea and rivers. still carving belum (also spelled bilum) in Thames and Hudson, London. Fishing was integral to Melanau life and Medong, on the Sarawak coast (Clayre in the Melanau calendar months have names Morris 1997: 176). Younger generations are relating to fishing (Appleton 2006: 79). Life no longer isolated from the modern world,

t a a S A R EV I E W VOLUME 19 NO.2 13 PORTRAITS FRO M i n d i a 1 8 5 0 S – 1 9 5 0 S

Anne O’Hehir Vallabháchárya Mahárájas by William J. Johnson from The oriental races and tribes, residents and visitors of Bombay: a series of photographs, with letter-press descriptions, Vol 1: Gujarât, Kutch, and Kâthiawâr, London: W. J. Johnson,

Bolton and Barnitt, 1863, albumen silver photographs, letterpress, National Gallery of Australia collection

selection of recently acquired portrait A photographs from India form the focus of the National Gallery of Australia (NGA) display from its Asia-Pacific collection. These works are full of tension: between science and art, the past and the present, photography as a tool of documentation and as a site for the imagination. Western modes of expression jostle with an approach that seems more intrinsically Indian, one in which adornment and ornamentation is fundamental and where reality is not always what it seems. Hand- coloured images are often particularly striking in the way regional Indian painting traditions and an imported medium meet and create a new language, one that speaks to the stress but also the dynamism that is generated when one culture seeks to accommodate the visual conventions and political demands of another.

There is something strange about the plates in William J. Johnson’s The oriental races and tribes, residents and visitors of Bombay, published in two volumes in London in new medium, becoming a founding member became the only Indian photographer to 1863 and 1866 – the first photographically of the Bombay Photographic Society in 1854. be awarded the use of the title ‘by Royal illustrated ethnographic publication on By then other amateurs such as Linneus Tripe appointment’ by Queen Victoria. Images from India. Their odd look is attributed to the (serving in the Madras Army) and Dr John an album commemorating the huge military fact that Johnson and his colleague William Murray (of the Indian Medical Service) were exercise or ‘camp of exercise’ which took Henderson photographed the people in producing images that ‘stand comparison, place over a fortnight in January 1886 around their studio in Bombay – but that Johnson both aesthetically and technically, with Delhi is included in the display. subsequently bleached out the backgrounds images produced anywhere in the world in and overprinted them with topographical the same period’ (Falconer 2001: 9). Far from stressing the grand nature of the views from separate negatives. He also drew manoeuvres, Deen Dayal often positioned in other features, such as foliage. A rage for all things Indian gradually grew his camera at peculiarly low vantage points, in England after the quelling of the Sepoy resulting in images that stress a dynamism This is arguably one of the most engaging Mutiny in 1857. This ended the Mughal bordering on shambolic disorganisation. uses of montage in the pioneering era of era and signalled the subsumption of Often, as Judith Mara Gutmann has noted: photography, unexpected in images serving the subcontinent into the British Empire, ‘the men looked as if they were about to step as documentary evidence. That these works leading up to the announcement in 1877 at out of the picture’ – a tendency which she sees – the earliest dated images in the display the Imperial Assemblage in Delhi of Queen as being part of an Indian way of picturing the – show a high degree of manipulation is Victoria as the ‘Empress of India’ (Gordon world (Gutmann 1982: 7). Around the time of prescient for what follows, most evident in 2008: 45). The 1860s through to the 1890s were these photographs Deen Dayal was able to the flamboyant and distinctly Indian style years that belonged to the foreign professional retire from government having attracted the of hand-coloured images. This is a genre photographer, supplying images to an ever- patronage of the sixth Nizam of Hyderabad, that anarchically undermines the notion of burgeoning trade in tourist views for which Mahbub Ali Khan, Asif Jah VI, a man of great photography as a transparent window onto the Victorian age had an almost insatiable influence and wealth. the world, as a glimpse of reality. appetite. Perhaps the most significant are the landscape views by Samuel Bourne, who Photography was the vehicle par excellence Photography arrived in India soon after its used picturesque conventions to tame the for feeding the Victorian-era mania, growing invention in the late 1830s. The medium rugged terrain of the north of India. out of colonial imperatives, for cataloguing was slow to take hold in the new climate – (and therefore controlling) the world they few early daguerreotype studios lasted long The notable exception is the work by Lala Deen sought to own: its buildings, particularly and examples are scarce. Soon, however, Dayal, photographing from the mid 1870s. in romantically ruined state, its flora and India provided young British men with A draughtsman by training, his technical fauna but also importantly its people. employment and adventure but also with a proficiency, together with a fine artist’s eye, Studio portraits of princely rulers reflect novel vocation. William J. Johnson worked as appealed to a wide audience. In 1887, having this preoccupation, as well as ethnographic a civil servant but found himself drawn to the already achieved vice-regal patronage, he studies of native tribes. A suite of images

14 t a a S A R EV I E W VOLUME 19 NO.2 Lakshmi 2001 by Pushpamala N and Clare Arni from the series The native

types: a series of photographs illustrating the scenery and the mode of

life of the women of South India, 2001–2004, Type C colour photographs,

National Gallery of Australia collection

example as do ensembles made for embellishment and invention, resulting more complex by the imperative in a vibrant style of hand-coloured imagery of displaying the orders and robes made for a local clientele, including most of honour bestowed by the British. of the ruling families. Hand-colouring also This ‘sartorial juggling’ (Tarlo developed in Japan utilising traditional skills 1996: 24) is in many ways a potent – yet in contrast to India much of it was made visual reflection of the subtle and for the tourist trade and ended up abroad. ever-shifting adjustments that the Indian ruling class was able The hand-coloured photograph in India to effect in response to changing is a site in which tensions between the political and cultural imperatives. contemporary realities and traditions of the past reside. Hand painting developed out The maharajas were themselves of the courtly painting tradition, borrowing quick to see the potential uses techniques that had been used for centuries that photography could serve, to make miniature paintings. It is a potent adapting the medium to their own symbol of the ways in which sitters achieved cultural requirements. Rulers of an alliance with the modern world, choosing a Jaipur, Travancore and Tripura medium that so often implied this association were particularly active as patrons while also expressing an allegiance to timeless and practitioners. It is evident that and indigenous customs as represented by ‘for many of the ruling families, painting. Interestingly, the hand colourists photography became something often added more traditional aspects such of a fashionable pursuit’. (Falconer as turbans and jewellery to clients garbed in 2001: 31) western-style attire (Kumar 2008: 46)

That photography rendered One of the true highlights of the NGA display a highly coloured world in is the sensitively and exquisitely hand- monochrome had from its painted (with water colour) double portrait by beginning been universally seen Gopinath Devare, reputedly the first Indian to included in the NGA display was probably as problematic. The importance of colour be awarded a Fellowship of the Royal Society photographed by the firm of Johnston & has become a simplified cliché of India’s of Photography. It depicts Prince Yeshwant Hoffmann for a presentation album compiled exotic otherness, and yet despite this, colour Rao Holkar, the original purchaser of the to commemorate the Diamond Jubilee of has considerable culturally specific meaning Brancusi Birds now owned by the National Queen Victoria in 1897. within Indian society as well as being valued Gallery, and his sister Manorama Raje and for itself – indicating social and marital status, was possibly made just before the Prince left Her Majesty’s enthusiasm for and patronage for example, and signifying the seasons and for boarding school in England around 1920. of photography is well known. The images of major festivals (Kumar 2008: 38). This is also a the maharajas from the 19th century through country where theatricality and performance As the court system broke down at the end to the eve of Independence show a fascinating permeate every aspect of society. It is not of the 19th century, portraiture, in the past mix of dress styles: traditional costume worn surprising then that as photography took on available only to the elite, became much with patent leather shoes provides one obvious an Indian aesthetic the surface became a site more widely available (Allana 2008: 25).

t a a S A R EV I E W VOLUME 19 NO.2 15 Prince Yeshwant Rao Holkar and his sister Manorama

Raje c.1920, Devare & Co, Gopinath Devare (photographer),

Manorath portrait. Female devotees before Shrinathji, with Raaslila in the background 1900, Bhuralal Motilal, gelatin silver photograph, water colour, original gilded

gelatin silver photograph, watercolour, gold. National Gallery of Australia collection frame. National Gallery of Australia collection

all paint with just the faces of the donors stuck on: there is ‘no appeal to photographic authority in reproducing the divine’ (Pinney 2009: 102).

The undeniable appeal of hand-colouring is reflected in the fact that the tradition runs in an unbroken line through to the present day. The recognition that, as it developed, it was stylistically unique to India has earned it the attention of contemporary artists – such as the Bangalore-based Pushpamala N., who has engaged traditional practitioners to colour two of her series. She has also worked with the Thakker studio in Bombay that supplied studio glamour shots to Bollywood mid-century. This display at the National Gallery certainly makes it apparent that as the medium found and continues to find its place in India, artists have found ways to make it their own – often anarchically and in ways that also reflect the complexity of the modern history of the subcontinent.

Anne O’Hehir is Assistant Curator of Photography at the National Gallery of Australia.

REFERENCES

Allana, R. 2008. ‘A bold fusion: realism and the artist in Manorath portrait. A family worshipping on Nandotsav 1900, Khubiram and Gopilal Brothers, gelatin silver photography’, The Alkazi Collection of Photography: Painted photograph, watercolour. National Gallery of Australia collection photographs – Coloured portraiture in India. Mapin, Ahmedabad.

Falconer, J. 2001. India: pioneering photographers 1850-1900. Practitioners were found more widely in true in the history of colour photography, which The British Library, London. bazaars and small studios. The democratising is usually printed in a laboratory, leaving the Gordon, S. 2008. ‘The colonial project and the shifting gaze’, intent of the medium, evident in the range photographer little if any licence to play. By Marg: A magazine of the arts 59(4): 40 – 53. of the sitters in the display, back up Bengali contrast in Indian hand-coloured photographs, Gutman, J.M. 1982. Through Indian eyes: 19th and 20th century writer, Ardhishwar Ghatak’s 1904 reflection the paint can be so opaque that the viewer photography from India, Oxford University Press: New York in that: ‘a good oil painting cannot be had for less struggles to find evidence of the photograph at all. association with the International Center for Photography. than a thousand or even two thousand rupees. A distinctly Indian manifestation, the Rajasthani Kumar, P. 2008. ‘The evolving modern, 1850–1950: Indian Photography gives us a far more accurate manorath or photographic donor portrait, carries costumes as seen through painted photographs’, The Alkazi likeness for a hundred’ (Pinney 2009: 100). the ‘I was there-ness’ of photography into a Collection of Photography: Painted photographs – Coloured sacred experience of darshan (daily showings portraiture in India, Mapin, Ahmedabad. One of the remarkable aspects of these Indian and blessings) of Shrinathji, a manifestation of Pinney, C. 2009. ‘Centre and Periphery: Photography’s spatial photographs is the importance of surface. An Krishna. In these images the sacred world of field’, Marg: A magazine of the arts 61(1): 98 – 103. absence of the sense of the materiality of the the Shrinathji figure is significantly rendered Tarlo, E. 1996. Clothing matters: dress and identity in India, Hurst surface is a notable characteristic of photography in paint and photography is reserved for the and Company, London. as it developed in the West. It is particularly temporal world. Sometimes the image is nearly

16 t a a S A R EV I E W VOLUME 19 NO.2 i n t h E p u B l i c d o M a i n : A N E W D I S P L a y a t t h E N a t i ON A L M U S E U M O F c a M B OD i a

Oun Phalline and Martin Polkinghorne The West Mebon Vishnu surrounded by a project animated lotus pond. Didactics of recent archaeological

discoveries feature the sculpture’s position in the ‘hydraulic city’. Photo: Chhay Visoth he National Museum of Cambodia T (NMC) holds one of the most significant collections of art in the world. The Museum’s substantial collection of bronze and stone Angkorian sculpture showcases the greatest achievements of Khmer creativity. Among the most significant masterpieces is the magnificent image of Vishnu Anantashayin from the West Mebon temple, which readers of the TAASA Review will remember as the cover image from the September 2006 issue (Feneley 2006: 18 - 19). This celebrated image of Vishnu is a major part of a bronze figure that would have measured nearly six metres, one of the largest Southeast Asian bronzes ever made.

Using funds donated by the Australian Embassy in Cambodia and UNESCO, the display of this image has undergone an exciting renovation. The Vishnu now appears as if it were reinstalled in its sacred temple of these themes was critical to presenting settlement integrated by an elaborate water setting surrounded by an animated lotus an appropriate and authentic display of the management network (see Evans et al 2007). pond. The renovation also incorporates Vishnu in context. The lotus represents the A key feature of the hydraulic infrastructure supplementary objects including gold purity of the body, speech and mind. The was the enormous reservoir, the Western jewellery and sandstone sculptures which life-cycle of its flower, paddy and rhizome Baray, and at the centre the West Mebon link the famed sculpture to its original context embodies the birth, florescence, death temple and the great West Mebon Vishnu. and recent archaeological discoveries. and regeneration of all things. Deities are placed on lotus seats, carry flowers in their The new display promises to attract both Vishnu was one of the principal Brahmanic hands, and shrines have lotus foundations. Khmer and international visitors and promote deities worshipped throughout the ancient Fundamental to lotus symbolism is its awareness, understanding and appreciation of Khmer lands. The representation of Vishnu connection to water. Water ensures fertility, Cambodia’s heritage. Through the success of Anantashayin is frequently seen in Khmer regeneration and the prosperity of the this renovation, and other ongoing initiatives art, especially on temple bas-reliefs and community through the coming of the like the first complete inventory of holdings decorative lintels. In 1936 a farmer living rains. Khmer rulers almost always based in more than half a century (the Leon Levy in the Angkor region is said to have had a their authority on the management of water. Foundation and Shelby White Inventory dream in which the Buddha appeared to With the assistance of the Visualising Angkor Project), expert conservation laboratories and him asking to be ‘released’ from the soil. Project (Tom Chandler/ Monash University) a dynamic temporary exhibitions program, He led the École Française d’Extrême-Orient a ‘rippling’ pond filled with budding and the NMC hopes to develop its facilities and (EFEO) conservator, Maurice Glaize to blooming lotus is projected onto a screen build the capacity of its staff. the West Mebon where at the end of the from behind the sculpture providing visitors causeway, they unearthed not a Buddha, but with the impression that they are viewing the Oun Phalline was appointed Director of The a magnificent statue of Vishnu. Following Vishnu in its original setting. National Museum of Cambodia in 2010. Between its excavation it was brought to the NMC 1996 – 2009 Mme Oun was Deputy Director of the (then the Museé Albert Sarraut) and has Proving the most popular aspect of the Museum. Martin Polkinghorne holds a PhD in Art remained on permanent display ever since. new display are 3D animations of medieval History from the University of Sydney specialising The sculpture, among the NMC’s most Angkor, also produced by the Visualising in Khmer art. In 2009 he undertook an Endeavour famous, has toured the world appearing in Angkor Project. Drawing upon archaeological Post-doctoral fellowship under host institution exhibitions of Khmer art in the United States, and historical data, the animations depict Heritage Watch, including a placement at the Japan and Australia. what we know of temples, landscapes and National Museum of Cambodia daily life at Angkor in the 13th century. When the Vishnu was cast sometime in the Recent archaeological discoveries also relate REFERENCES mid 11th century it was installed at the end to the West Mebon Vishnu and the water Evans, D., Pottier, C., Fletcher, R., Hensley, S., Tapley, I., Milne, A. and Barbetti, M. 2007. “A comprehensive archaeological map of of the narrow causeway of the West Mebon system of Angkor. Since the 1990s, French, the world’s largest pre-industrial settlement complex at Angkor, temple in the middle of a lotus pond. The Australian, and Cambodian teams have Cambodia”, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of symbolic importance of both the lotus and conducted extensive archaeological mapping the United States of America. Vol. 104 no. 36, pp. 14277-14282. water are ubiquitous throughout the history and the display incorporates the resulting Feneley, M. 2006. “The West Mebon Vishnu”, in TAASA Review, of the Khmer people and the incorporation map of Greater Angkor revealing a vast The Journal of the Asian ArtsSociety of Australia vol 15 (3).

t a a S A R EV I E W VOLUME 19 NO.2 17 c u l t u r a l E n c o u n t E r s : t h E r E V E r s E g a z E OF KUTCH PAINTING

Jim Masselos HORSE AND RIDER, KUTCH c1840, COLOUR ON PAPER,

14.5 x 18.5 CM. PORTVALE COLLECTION

ehind the British East India Company’s exotic structures they were encountering, B physical takeover of India during the 1700s, so painters took on the stuff of European another encounter of equal significance was orientalist fantasy, buildings like the Taj occurring, an encounter between civilizations, Mahal, the palaces of the Red Forts, emperors’ between distinctive ways of thinking, seeing tombs and other Mughal monuments. Such and behaving. The juxtaposition was profound subjects, recorded in fine detailed precision, and nowhere more so than in the area of became commonplace in Company painting, culture and the arts - particularly painting. a genre of its own. The impact varied according to the situation throughout the subcontinent. Some parts While the new patrons wanted portrayals of were initially less affected, others more so the built environment around them they were depending on whether the British took over less keen about the natural environment. government completely or ruled indirectly There are relatively few landscape and through subordinate princes. topographical scenes from Company painters. That market seems to have been largely the In less affected territories, painting went on preserve of touring British artists like the much as before. Artists continued producing Daniell brothers whose drawings became pictures for maharajas depicting religion spectacular coloured aquatints highly desired and courtly life in their accustomed opaque in early 1800s London. gouache medium. Later in the second half of the 19th century they were severely affected What absorbed much of the attention of as photographs seduced patrons and undercut Company artists came from their recruitment soldiers uniforms, snake charmers their the artists’ support base. As for painters who into what was essentially the documentation characteristic flutes and so on. Costumes, catered to pilgrims at significant temples, their project of the Raj. Artists were deployed to weapons, headgear, a worker’s tools, such clientele was largely unaffected by the change depict people, castes, religions, customs, items enabled human subjects to be coded into of masters; they flourished until late in the occupations and festivals under British rule. categories, and denied individuality. 19th century, when the cheaper mass products Many thousands of such paintings were of printing presses took away their customers. produced in which people going about their Local artists recorded for the new rulers daily activities became stereotypes – there were knowledge about who and what they ruled: Where the British ruled directly, the impact token Brahmans, warriors, widows, traders and art became the handmaiden for imperial was greater. Artists lost their former patrons so on. Given the requirement to characterise documentation - and domination. In the process and perforce found new ones in Company people into types, painters used attributes the look of the image itself changed as artists officials. Inevitably the new patrons had considered distinctive to specific groups. Just adopted transparent watercolours rather than different tastes and needs. Many wanted as deities in traditional iconography were the opaque paints favoured by court artists. visual records of their life in India to send identified by unique attributes, Shiva by his The composition of pictures also changed: home to friends and family. Artists painted trident for instance, or Vishnu by his discus, so because figures and social groups were most Europeans with their horses and friends, in too were different types of Indians identified important to patrons, they became central in the bungalows or looking over the countryside. by distinguishing markers. Brahmans had composition, rendering context less important. Patrons also wanted pictures of the strange tonsured heads, shoemakers specific tools, Backgrounds were downplayed and even largely disappeared from Company paintings.

The interaction between the foreign ruler and the local artist thus led artists to reproduce the world around them through the foreigner’s gaze, using their patrons’ preferred media and viewpoints. Yet subversively, as we look at the painting of people at work and in action, we see the intended stereotyped images differently. The focus on ordinary people means that, paradoxically, we get a sense of time, place and the individuality of those depicted in the paintings, probably not what their patrons had intended.

A small watercolour from Kutch in western India of a cavalry soldier makes the point. There is no background. The token shadows

TIDAL ESTUARY, KUTCH c1800, GOUACHE ON PAPER, 48 x 24.5 CM. PORTVALE COLLECTION

18 t a a S A R EV I E W VOLUME 19 NO.2 EXPLOSION ON BOAT, KUTCH c1800, GOUACHE ON PAPER, 36.5 x 27 CM. PORTVALE COLLECTION

of the horse and rider on the ground anchor museum collections, though not private Small figures break the formality of the the composition, but do not identify or collectors from one of whom the paintings compositions, add human interest to the contextualise the central figure. The costume discussed here come. scene and provide a sense of scale, as in views of the rider, the red scabbard of his sword, of various cityscapes and country mansions. and the long rifle differentiate him as a The Kutch paintings follow similar formats warrior of worth. What lifts the painting and treatments, and often use distinctive Through such prints, Kutch artists were above its not especially expert rendering of European subject matter though they could introduced to novel subject matter and the horse is the warrior’s craggy face. Here never have been created in Europe. They compositional approaches. At first they is an individual, distinctive in his own right are all relatively large, horizontal images copied the foreign prints literally and then and full of grizzled character, not at all the painted predominantly in the opaque colours set out to imitate their overall look. In some stereotyped warrior. of the traditional miniature on reinforced cases they even painted in the cross lines of paper, each framed with strong black painted the original print, as in the painting of ships Other paintings created in Kutch from the borders. They remain within the praxis of around an estuary. The subject matter itself second half of the 1700s directly confronted court paintings in their medium though they is rare in Indian painting – there are hardly the pervasive Company gaze. Their differ in subject matter and treatment. any seascapes apart from some Mughal artists approached the cultural encounters representations, like that of Noah on his happening on the subcontinent from another Goswamy and Dallapiccola trace the origins ship escaping the floods. The Kutch seascape angle, and present an alternate gaze, a reverse of the style to woodcut prints from England has no dramatic central subject though there view that ensures their pictures are quite or Europe that were brought to Kutch is a sophisticated use of perspective. Here unlike any produced elsewhere in India. They sometime in the second half of the 18th the tide is out, leaving small country craft remain characteristically Indian, whatever century, evidenced by surviving examples stranded, a sailor swims in a pool left by the the subject matter or influence. This group of in Kutch collections. The prints, known as retreating waters, others fish as do various Kutch paintings has been little studied: there perspective views or vue perspectifs, were a kinds of birds, cranes and other waders. In is a single monograph, A Place Apart. Painting popular novelty on the continent at the time. the distance out at sea is a row of ocean going in Kutch, 1720-1820, from B.N. Goswamy They are characterised by their rigid use vessels, presumably waiting for the tide so and A.L. Dallapiccola (1983) and three or of Renaissance perspective, the perspective they can unload or perhaps load cargo – a so articles by them. Other art historians of the vanishing point that was applied to reminder of Kutch’s maritime role and how have neglected the Kutch paintings, as have buildings, streetscapes and even landscapes. it has for centuries been part of the main

t a a S A R EV I E W VOLUME 19 NO.2 19 ATTACK ON FORT, KUTCH c1800, GOUACHE ON PAPER, 41 x 30 CM. PORTVALE COLLECTION

many seem to be Chinese sporting pigtails. Needing to locate the images somewhere distant, the artist has probably again used available pictorial notions of the exotic.

Ambiguity is also there in the image of what is probably St Pauls in London. Presumably derived from a foreign print, the painting retains the use of hatching lines, but these are used to artistic effect to define those parts of the building in shadow. The use of figures about the building reinforces a sense of its size and proportions but if the figures are intended to provide local colour they miss their target. The notable seated under an oriental looking umbrella in front of the Cathedral looks as if he is holding court in some distant place while some of the figures around him seem to be in Chinese costume – they are not particularly European in dress or pose.

The same difficulty in depicting the alien and different is evident in the way the artist has rendered the statues on top of the cathedral. He would seem to have had no idea of what a statue was like, much less a group of them spread along a rooftop. Nor was he any more successful depicting the finials of the spires. With its large looming cloud above the building, a throwback not to European but to Indian precedents, the painting as a whole manages to unite its disparate elements and convey a freshness that goes beyond any suggestion of quaintness and naivety.

As a group, such Kutch paintings show how the style of perspective views prints was copied using manual painting techniques, absorbing alien mechanical reproduction approaches into existing artistic traditions. That the subject matter explored in these paintings was not of the kind normally featured in courtly painting underscores the curiosity of the artists for ST. PAUL’S CATHEDRAL, KUTCH c1800, GOUACHE ON PAPER, 37 x 25 CM. PORTVALE COLLECTION what was outside their Kutchi world, and their willingness to depict it in their paintings. There trading routes in the Indian Ocean and the A painting of an explosion is equally is a sense of adventure in their enterprise. While Arabian Sea. perplexing. Beside a stream flowing into a Europe was increasingly viewing Asia as an lake is a Mughal or Rajasthani style gateway orientalist construct during the 18th century, Other paintings record distant events. There and fort walls with a township, in complex and was developing stereotypes of its people is one of an army besieging a formidable perspective, behind them and beside the and places, these artists in Kutch it would seem island fort. Just where this is remains lake. There are two glorious trees and idyllic were doing something similar but in reverse, uncertain: it may be one of the many coastal gardens that serve as a colourful balance to imagining and reproducing Europe within their forts south of Bombay constructed by local the catastrophe that is the picture’s subject. Indian framework of attitudes, using whatever rulers. The redcoats worn by some soldiers Flames and smoke rise from an explosion models were at hand. In their turn they were suggest the attackers may be British. Given on a boat full of bales of cargo. Figures occidentalising Europe, providing an Indian that other figures appear to have pigtails are shown hurled into the air, along with view of the foreign and different. and to be therefore Chinese, the artist may a large pot, the sort boats of the day used rather be presenting an imagined version of to store water. While the painting draws Jim Masselos is Honorary Reader, School of foreigners attacking a fort, peopled by his on customary elements of Indian painting, Philosophical and Historical Inquiry, University of stereotyped view of what constitutes foreign particularly in the delineation of the trees, Sydney. His most recent books are The City in Action. appearance. The artist’s depiction of the guns the fort and town, the artist again seems Bombay Struggles for Power, 2007 and (with Naresh and cannon reinforces the imaginative nature to have illustrated something unfamiliar to Fernandes), Bombay Then: Mumbai Now, 2009. of this picture. him. Figures in the painting are strange -

20 t a a S A R EV I E W VOLUME 19 NO.2 B o o k r E v i E W : E t h N i c J E W ELLE r y A N D A DO R NMEN T

Janet Mansfield

to both categories and of the highest and most beautiful piece, as is the silver, coral and stimulating quality. turquoise headdress for a woman in India. Or my favourite, the heavy neckpiece of 13 As a potter of many years and with a small silver rods from Southwest China. Every page collection of ethnic jewellery and clothing, I of text is filled with the research undertaken have always been interested, like most potters, by Truus Daalder and told as an enthusiastic, in mark-making, design and pattern, and what dedicated and personal discovery she has we can learn through the forms and decoration made. All photographs depict objects of that adorn pots from ancient times or ethnic awe-inspiring beauty, some that must have traditions. I am fascinated by the similarities taken months or years to assemble by nimble that exist in work from diverse regions and, fingers and a sure eye for colour and design. in particular, the differences that can be traced ETHNIC JEWELLERY AND ADORNMENT from one region to another perhaps as people This book is a family affair. Truus wrote the Australia • Oceania • Asia • Africa migrate, or as objects are carried from one text, son Jeremy took the photographs and by Truus Daalder place to another. Or is it that human needs husband Joost is the editor and promoter. He Ethnic Art Press and Macmillan, 2009 and ceremonies are more universal and the will tell you that the book was compiled for Photographs by Jeremy Daalder differences relate to locally available materials love of the subject. That love comes through rrp A$155.00 including postage or other individual experiences? in every aspect of the book’s production. It is a collector’s item in itself. An extensive With the stated aim of promoting public Truus Daalder explores these and many other bibliography, much of it part of the research appreciation of ethnic jewellery, Truus possibilities in her book. The craftsmanship undertaken for ‘Ethnic Jewellery and Daalder provides much more to the reader shown by the makers of the objects depicted Adornment’, shows the attention given to the through her knowledge of the spiritual in the Daalder collection, and 80 percent of subject among academics and collectors. I can values of tribal people, all learnt through the this book is made up of the family collection, recommend this book to everyone interested study of objects. Her book, ‘Ethnic Jewellery is exemplary. Flawless attention to detail and in fine art, crafts and beautiful objects. and Adornment’, covering the regions of meticulous fashioning can be seen in every Australia, Oceania, Asia and Africa, gives piece and all are objects of creative art. An Janet Mansfield is a ceramic artist, author and us an understanding of cultures, beliefs and Aboriginal work, a man’s ceremonial head President of the International Academy of Ceramics, rituals through the objects worn and treasured ornament made of sulphur-coloured cockatoo Geneva, Switzerland. She lives in Gulgong NSW. by ethnic groups from these countries. feathers, wood and bees wax is an inspiringly

We learn what is important to life and living for people we cannot possibly meet, we learn about the rituals of warfare, about birth and marriage taboos and the death rites of tribal people whose communities respect and demand strict rules of conduct. We are witness to beautiful objects, superbly presented, objects made by people in a traditional way to protect themselves against misfortune and natural disasters, to ensure the continuity of the family and to triumph over their enemies.

Truus Daalder’s father, a noted Dutch collector, started Truus on the road to looking at the role of art and culture in objects around her. It was in Australia where she first started to collect ethnic jewellery. She gives us a definition of ‘ethnic’ as referring to work made in a specific regional area that is relevant and traditional to that area. She qualifies ‘jewellery’ as being associated with precious metals and valuable stones, whereas ‘adornment’ relates more to items made of materials such as feathers, fibre, shells, and so on. In this book we are treated

Man’s ceremonial head ornament, Katji people, Northern Territory, Australia, early 20th century. 27 x 25 cm.

Cockatoo plumes, beeswax, wooden hairpin. South Australian Museum, Adelaide. Photo: Jeremy Daalder t a a S A R EV I E W VOLUME 19 NO.2 21 B a t i k o f J a v a : p o E t i c s a n d p o l i t i c s CALOUNDRA R E GIONAL ART GALL E R Y t o u r i n g E x h i B i t i o n

Skirt cloth kain panjang, Cirebon, 1940 – 1950s, Skirt cloth kain panjang, Lasem, early 20th century,

Maria Wronska-Friend hand-drawn design (batik tulis), cotton, synthetic dyes. hand-drawn design (batik tulis), cotton, natural dyes.

Greg Roberts & Ian Reed Collection Greg Roberts & Ian Reed Collection he batik fabrics of Java represent the T peak of achievement in the art of wax- resist dyeing and belong to the greatest textile traditions of Asia. The significance of these textiles was recognised by UNESCO in October 2009 when Javanese batik was the first group of Asian textiles to be inscribed on the list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. To celebrate this event, the Caloundra Regional Art Gallery on the Sunshine Coast decided to organise an exhibition Batik of Java: Poetics and Politics which presents two Queensland collections of Indonesian textiles and paintings: batik textiles from the north coast of Java and a series of recent paintings by the Indonesian artist Dadang Christanto entitled Batik has been Burnt.

The first collection, available to the general public due to the generosity of its owners, two Sunshine Coast collectors and art connoisseurs - Greg Roberts and Ian Reed, presents more than 20 outstanding batiks illustrating the diversity of cultural and artistic traditions of the north coast of Java, an area known as Pasisir. In Dadang Christanto’s paintings, batik textiles have been presented indirectly, as fragments of a distorted past – memories of tragic events which affected his home area during the 1965-1966 political upheavals, when tens of thousands of people lost their lives. By presenting these two, so different yet indirectly connected groups of artworks, the exhibition is able to generate diverse realms of including the extensive collection of batiks. which bring to perfection the art of drawing experience and emotion. The first one results His mother survived with five young children with wax, but which are equally vital in the from an encounter with the aesthetic and the to look after. The artist decided to dedicate successful accomplishment of all other types symbolic as well as the technical achievements to his mother the series of paintings Batik of tasks. represented in the best examples of Pasisir has Been Burnt, admiring her strength in batiks. In the second one, violence and an overcoming these obstacles. The paintings These qualities are clearly demonstrated in overwhelming feeling of loss are experienced have been included in this exhibition courtesy the Pasisir batiks from the collection of Greg as universal human suffering. of the Jan Menton Gallery in Brisbane. Roberts and Ian Reed. The textiles represent the highest achievement of Javanese batik It comes as a surprise to find that for Dadang Dadang Christanto, one of the most recognised from the end of the 19th century, stressing Christanto, learning the meaning of batik Indonesian artists, has since 1999 been a the diversity of regional styles as well as designs was his first art experience. Dadang resident of Australia and is currently Adjunct ethnic preferences for particular textiles. The was born in 1957 in a village near Tegal in Professor at Griffiths University. He is best collection also contains the best examples central Java. His parents used to operate known for his installations, many of which from workshops still operating in this part of a small shop selling batik fabrics and as a are monumental works, however his two- the island. child, he frequently witnessed his mother dimensional works and art performance are discussing various batik designs with her of equal substance. In the past, he occasionally The highlights are a group of batiks from the customers. “Given this experience, batik has included batik fabrics as a component of his town of Lasem, made in the end of the 19th also shaped my artistic journey”, states the installations, but this is the first time that his and early 20th century, featuring the deep artist. Then, in 1965 when he was eight work directly refers to these textiles. From red colour obtained from the natural dye years old, during the political turmoil when Javanese batik he learned of the need for mengkudu – a colour of such intensity that his father was taken away and never seen patience, concentration and focus in order it cannot, in spite of numerous efforts, be again, the family’s house was burned down, to complete the work – personal qualities replicated with synthetic dyes. The secret of

22 t a a S A R EV I E W VOLUME 19 NO.2 Batik Has Been Burnt #7, Dadang Christanto 2008, Acrylic on Belgium linen, 137.0 x 167.0 cm, Private Collection

well as between the present and memory, achievement and loss. It encourages viewers to explore emotions and experiences resulting from this encounter with two groups of artworks, each with their own symbolic and social meanings. While the collection of Pasisir batiks provides an insight into one of the greatest textile traditions of the world, Dadang Christanto’s series of paintings refer to his deep, personal experience of loss and grief – emotions that can also be readily understood at a universal level.

Maria Wronska-Friend is an anthropologist and museum curator specialising in textiles and costumes of Southeast Asia. She is an Adjunct Senior Lecturer at James Cook University in Cairns and has curated several exhibitions promoting Asian art. Batik of Java: Poetics and Politics is her latest project.

The exhibition ‘Batik of Java: Poetics and Politics’, organised by the Caloundra Regional Art Gallery, will be presented at Caloundra between 10 July and 14 August 2010. In the following months it will travel to Artspace Mackay, Perc Tucker Regional Gallery at Townsville, Dogwood Crossing at this unique hue of red colour might perhaps produced there. The Oey Soe Tjoen workshop Miles and Noosa Regional Gallery. The exhibition be attributed to the high salinity and the iron at Kedungwuni near Pekalongan, established is accompanied by a catalogue. content of the local water. at the end of the 19th century, is probably the last place in Pasisir to continue the finest The collection also contains excellent examples tradition of Chinese batik on Java. The floral of floral sarongs made at Pekalongan, which sarongs of soft, pastel colours are famous for used to be worn in the late 19th century and their precise, controlled design, where not first half of the 20th century by Eurasian even one drop of wax is left to chance. women of European and Javanese descent, as well as by Chinese residents of Java. The port of Cirebon, which for centuries has been Batik Hokokai, made in one of the Chinese engaged in maritime trade with China, India workshops at Pekalongan is of exceptional and the Middle East, developed a distinctive quality, representing an artistic style that type of batik, whose style mirrors the diversity dominated Pasisir batik during the Japanese of cultural traditions that shaped this area. occupation (1942-1945). As cotton cloth was Old Cirebon designs have been successfully in short supply during the war, the patterns revived by two batik workshops: Batik Madil of this type of batiks are extremely dense and and Batik Masina. In the former, in 2008, the complex, usually positioned in two diagonal collectors commissioned batik cloth featuring fields so that the skirt could be worn in two 12 colours. It took exactly one year to produce ways, each time featuring different designs. this flawlessly executed sarong, decorated with bright summer flowers and butterflies which The pinnacle of Javanese skills in the use of symbolise the high season of life. natural dyes is represented by batik from the group tiga negeri (‘three countries’). Its name The leitmotif of Cirebon art is the dramatic indicates that the fabric was dyed in three megamendung (‘drifting cloud’) design different towns, each of them being famous for which on some batiks have been elevated production of a particular type of colour with to paramount position. According to local natural dyes. For example, following the first tradition, the design was introduced by a dyeing in Lasem in red colour, the fabric could group of Chinese craftsmen who accompanied have been sent to Kudus to be dyed in blue a daughter of the Ming emperor when she and then to Surakarta to be dyed in brown. The arrived at Cirebon to marry the local ruler. multi-layered designs of these fabrics illustrate The same design appears several times in the the complex process of their production. paintings of Dadang Christanto, to mark the Chinese ancestry of his family. The collection represents as well the continuity of the batik traditions in the Pasisir area and The exhibition aims to establish a dialogue the range of high quality contemporary fabrics between the textiles and paintings, as

t a a S A R EV I E W VOLUME 19 NO.2 23 c o l l E c t o r ’ s c h o i c E: A p a i r O F K E N y a h B EL a w i N G P O L E S f r O M B O R NEO

Michael Heppell Erecting a belawing POLE in the Apo-Kayan, 1928 from Tillema, H.F., Apo-Kajan – Een Filmreis

naar en door Centraal – Borneo, van Munster's Uitgevers-Maatschappij, Amsterdam, p.207

he word came through. I was on the T road. A Uma’ Jalan Kenyah leader above Muara Ancalong, four days chugging upriver from Samarinda in Kalimantan Timur had been trying to sell a couple of 6 metre long belawing poles without success. He approached someone I knew, who asked me if I was interested. I remembered an early photograph of a similar pole being erected in the Apo Kayan. It signalled that if you were to erect one in Australia, avoid a union workforce and occupational health and safety inspectors. I telephoned my younger son, explained what was on offer and asked if we would have difficulty getting it round the back. ‘No worries!’ he said.

Traditionally every Kenyah longhouse had a belawing pole. The pole was the terrestrial domain of the supreme god Bali Akang. It was always crowned by a carved figure of a warrior. The pole played a central part in mamat ceremonies to celebrate heads taken and to rank boys and men as warriors. Various sacrifices to roll the poles off the ferry and onto the In Australia, our customs’ agents agreed to made at the pole propitiated Bali Akang to dock. We started looking for a truck owner put the boxed poles on a truck with lifting strengthen male souls in the community. to transport them to Kuching. Such a journey equipment. We organised a team of strong was beyond the imagination of all but a Bugis athletes, ropes and piano dollies to get the We decided that the best port from which owner of the most decrepit truck in the line poles from the truck into our suburban to ship the pieces would be Kuching, in waiting for work. He had never been further driveway. No truck arrived. The truck sent Sarawak, Malaysia. Shipment would be than 50 kilometres from Samarinda. We asked to the docks was too short for the poles. They direct to Melbourne and fumigation there for a fixed price to Kuching. To assist him, we would be delivered the following day. We was recognized by AQIS. We agreed a price explained where Kuching was – 2,500 or more told the agents that we would have the team for the poles and asked for them to be dug kilometres away. He quoted a figure that we on the following day, but not after that. The out so it was clear they were not stolen and calculated would get us three quarters of truck on the following day was longer but written testimony provided that we were bone the way there. We haggled and settled for still not long enough and we waited in vain. fide buyers. a lower figure. The truck went down to the I told the agents that delivery would have to dock where fork lifts placed the poles on the include getting the poles off the truck and Digging them out was simple. Getting them on tray. The carved figures stretched beyond into our driveway. one of the river ferries that plied a trade between the tailgate and had a wonderful view of the Samarinda and Muara Ancalong required the passing scenery. The following day, our door bell rang. A ferry owner to bring his boat further upriver truckie said he had two poles to deliver and from Muara Ancalong. Fortunately, there was We set off. The journey was constantly did I know how heavy they were - he had a bank to which the boat could get close. The interrupted by police requiring evidence that weighed them at 650 kilos each. I asked him if belawing had been transported to the bank, the poles had not been stolen. A thousand he had lifting gear. He said, ‘no’. I asked him rolled on a succession of logs, with a couple kilometres into the journey and after repeated how many helpers he had. He replied, ‘none’. of men running the ejected log up to the front punctures, we agreed to stand the owner a set My wife and I were alone at home … to maintain a continuous ‘belt’. The belawing of new tyres. About half way, the truck owner were carved from what the timber trade calls had worked out that this trip was not going The truckie, a giant of a man, said he had a ‘sinkers’, a wood which is so dense that it sinks to be profitable and, as we had expected, number of other deliveries to do; so he wanted in water. Care was necessary. Two teams, one wanted to renegotiate contract terms. We to get on his way as quickly as possible. I armed with rattan ropes and restraining, and made it worthwhile for him to continue. Two explained I would give my son a call. He the other pushing, rolled the poles onto the hundred kilometres from the Sarawak border, reminded me of the weight of each crate. I told roof of the ferry. the truck engine gave up the ghost. Ten hours him these guys were all ex-AFL footballers later we were on the move again, somewhat and were used to bench-pressing 120 kilos. We arrived in Samarinda around four o’clock poorer for the experience, but with a much The truckie looked sheepish but relieved, one afternoon having left Muara Ancalong at better diesel engine in the truck. Three weeks admitting that he could only manage 110. dawn. In no time we had a large labour force later the poles were on the high seas.

24 t a a S A R EV I E W VOLUME 19 NO.1 The belawing poles relocated to suburbia.

Installing the belawing poles from a Kenyah longhouse. Photo: Michael Heppell Photo: Michael Heppell

The first pole was pushed down the side of the house on the dollies and manoeuvred through the 3.8 metre paved area when a problem emerged. The slope of the steps was such that at their greatest angle, the head of the figure on the top of the pole would scrape along the ground and probably be knocked off. The problem was resolved by laying the plywood sheets down the stepped pathway. Some car jacks were found and jacked up the lowest sheet. The pole was positioned on the sheets and winched to a point at which there I phoned my son. He said he would have a to pass under a pergola and up some steps was no danger to the figure. It was then lifted ‘team’ round within the hour. I called Tony, before turning into the ‘L’. The poles did not back onto the dollies. a Canadian, at Kennards. He had participated move for a long time. Neighbours wondered in moving a number of lighter poles. I asked about our good sense. The pole was then pushed to the 1.2 metre if he could get some dollies, straps and a hole that had been dug for it. The roustabout roustabout up to our house and he replied he We got a crane hire company to advise. Yes, raised the pole as far as it could go - about 4 was on the way. they could do it but it would require a 200 metres - sufficient for it to drop into the hole. tonne crane truck with a 50 metre arm. It However, it sank into the hole at an angle and An hour later we were underway and would cost $10,000. We would have to get would not budge. One person took winch followed the formula for getting the poles the electricity company to cut the electricity and rope into one neighbour’s garden. Two onto the roof of the ferry. With the first pole off for the whole street and take the power took a rope into another neighbour’s garden. safely parked on the street, we realised we line down so the arm would be able to reach Another held a rope in our yard. Two more could not get the second off the same way across our neighbour’s garden. Telstra would worked on wedging railway sleepers against as it would probably go through our picket also have to be contacted. No neighbour the lean. The seventh managed the task of fence. We unpacked the second one from regarded this as a solution to our problem. getting the pole vertical. Eventually the pole its crate, piled the two crates on each other was cajoled into an upright position. It had and let the second one down onto the crates, We got a conveyor belt company to advise. taken 7 hours. The second joined the first the which cushioned its fall. The truckie, a great Yes, they thought they could do it. A number following day. bloke, bade us farewell. of belts would snake its way through our block and get the poles to where we wanted them I met up with my contact in Borneo a couple It then seemed a simple matter for the at a prohibitive cost. The company thought of months later. I told him the poles were in. roustabout to lift each pole high enough to that there was a high risk that the weight of I laughingly suggested we might look for an get a dollie under it, manoeuvring them out the poles would wreck the belt and told us we 18 metre one in the Apo Kayan like the one into the street (potentially to the annoyance of would have to pay for any damage. in the old photograph. He went absolutely drivers who used the street as a rat run) and ashen. ‘Never again’, he whispered. then pushing them into our driveway. It had We approached our state gallery to see if they taken 2½ hours and the team was worried it would take the poles. They had a look but Dr Michael Heppell is an anthropologist specialising might be missed from its workplace. The poles that was the sum of their interest. Ironwood on Borneo cultures. His 2005 publication, Iban were left on the pavement outside our house. does not burn all that well. So it seemed that Art: sexual preference and severed heads, was the poles would be prostrate for good. co-published by KIT, Amsterdam and C. Zwartenkot The team returned that evening and it took Art Books, Leiden. just under an hour to get the two poles into Meanwhile the team constantly discussed the driveway where they languished. The the poles because, for them, they were problem with the block of land they had to unfinished business. Eighteen months later, negotiate was that it is ‘L’ shaped. There is they reckoned they had an answer. On a a 0.8 metre wide pathway down the house very wet day, they put the plan into action. winding past various obstructions. That runs A turfer was added to the roustabout, dollies into a 3.8 metre paved area where the 6 metre and straps as were plywood sheets to stop the long poles would have to be manoeuvred dollies sinking into the grass.

t a a S A R EV I E W VOLUME 19 NO.1 25 TRAVELLER’s talE: A SEACS STUDY TOUR OF HISTORIC KILN SITES IN FUJIAN AND JINGDEZHEN

Linda McLaren

The Yueji kiln complex, Fujian Province, China, 2010. Photo: Ann Proctor

iln sites and ceramics museums in the K southern Chinese provinces of Fujian and Jiangxi were the focus of the April 2010 study tour undertaken by members of the Southeast Asian Ceramics Society (SEACS). Imperial and folk kilns and their products were viewed in ceramics manufacturing districts including legendary Dehua and Jingdezhen. Among the many highlights of the trip was the chance to observe an operational wood-fired kiln being loaded with ready to fire teapots made on-site. The manufacturing, glazing and kiln stacking techniques used in mass production were observed there first hand.

Singapore based SEACS celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2009 and has an admirable record of promoting the study of ceramics by types and styles. Following this we viewed all typical of the ceramics exported during the means of lectures and seminars, exhibitions, the Jingjiaoyishan kiln site, which features commercially proactive Yuan Dynasty which publications and study tours such as ours. four kilns from late Southern Song to early customised ceramics for target markets. This Inaugurated in 1999, the annual William Yuan dynasties (c. 1200-1368). The excavated long or dragon kiln is 57 metres long and Willetts Lecture, named in honour of the kilns are well covered by a protective roof. is comprised of 17 firing chambers, each of founding president, has been delivered by Despite fences, the abundant shards in-situ which was individually controlled. a succession of eminent scholars. This tour were tantalisingly close for impromptu complemented the Society’s main objective archaeological analyses (‘so near and yet At the still active Yueji kiln, we were able to of furthering the study of Southeast Asian so far’), but instead we adjourned to the observe the process of ceramic production manufactured ceramics, by observing the museum gallery to view intact pots of the from start to finish. We watched while ‘saggers’ Chinese technology and ceramic models cizao wares for which the kilns are famous. (previously fired, reusable ceramic containers) that appear to have been adopted and later were stacked into the kiln chambers, each developed by SEA countries. Additionally the Next day we visited the comprehensive holding three teapots. Standing at the evolution of wares that were popular exports Quanzhou Maritime Museum, which displays highpoint of the kiln and looking over the to Southeast Asia such as greenware, qingbai Chinese export ceramics, maps of trade routes sites, the scale of the mass production was and underglaze blue and white was evident. to SEA and beyond, and models of the ships obvious. Stacks of timber were close by, felled used on the ‘Maritime Silk Route’, as it has from the surrounding region. Dedicated Our study tour, led by Chen Jiazi, curator of become known. The museum displays again areas for moulding, luting, trimming, drying the National University of Singapore (NUS) highlighted the importance of shipping and and glazing were all evident and we eagerly Museum, commenced in coastal Xiamen, the integral role of Chinese ceramics in trade. observed each stage of production. formerly Amoy on ancient trade maps. The The vibrant, cosmopolitan and generally view from our hotel over the bustling narrow tolerant nature of Quanzhou as a major The members of our group, which included strait to Gulangyu Island with its 16m tall statue trading port is demonstrated by the Qingjing TAASA committee members, Sabrina Snow of local hero, Zheng Chenggong (Koxinga), a mosque dating from the Yuan dynasty (1279- and Ann Proctor, would all assume the pirate, trader and Ming loyalist was a salient 1368). Islam was one of the many religions closest vantage points while trying not to get reminder of the rich maritime history of China’s practiced by its foreign residents. in the way! We were met with unfailing good southeast coast. This was reinforced by a visit humour and we always hoped that our hushed to the Xiamen Overseas Chinese Museum. Built Our last and very important stop in this comments and flurries of camera clicks were in the style of a palace, the displays in its province was the renowned ceramics district not a distraction. The skills we observed often three exhibition halls convey detailed stories of of Dehua, often called the porcelain capital drew our spontaneous applause: the response pioneering Chinese migrants. The inextricable of Fujian. From the Song Dynasty (960- was generally a modest, bemused smile. histories of migration, trade, commerce and 1279) onward, Dehua ceramics, particularly Imperial influence are brought to life. whitewares and qingbai type wares were The nearby Yueji Contemporary Ceramics exported to many regions, including SEA. Centre provided a fascinating display of A two hour bus trip took us to the Jinjiang Its highest quality whitewares later became modern products by ceramists from various Museum in Qingyang with its stylised known as ‘blanc de Chine’ in the West. We countries using the local kaolin stone. By maritime-themed façade. Comprehensive visited the significant Qudougong kiln on the contrast, the Dehua Ceramics Museum displays displays of export wares covering the slope of Mount Pozhai, which was excavated a comprehensive range of excavated ceramics Tang to Qing dynasties (618 -1912) gave in 1976 to reveal utilitarian items, including from Tang to Qing. Several large charts on us a broad perspective on the evolution of stem cups, covered boxes, vases and bowls the walls state the chemical composition of

26 t a a S A R EV I E W VOLUME 19 NO.2 Throwing pots at the Yueji kiln complex, Loading teapots into saggers at theYueji kiln complex,

Fujian Province, China. Photo: Ann Proctor Fujian Province, China. Photo: Ann Proctor

the various clays and glazes and indicate the cobalt ‘bites’ into the clay! “. Expert instruction modern approach to determining provenance such as this triggered rapid-fire questions, of ware types. The chemical analysis is the answers enabling each participant to add undertaken at Shanghai University. pieces to their own jigsaw of knowledge of Chinese glazed ceramics. On the way to the museums we had stopped at Sanban County, Dehua to marvel at an Neither the inclement weather nor the operational wooden waterwheel, rhythmically unseasonably cold temperatures deterred the and unceasingly crushing porcelain stone eager shoppers in our group as they searched virtually unattended, as has been the method for just the right mementos amongst the for centuries. River water turns the wheel that plentiful supply of beautiful reproductions drives a pivoting lever. The end of the lever in factory and museum shops and markets. has a mallet attached, which pounds the stone. Lessons learned from Jiazi were put to the test The vibration of repeated impact causes more to enable selection of the most authentic pieces. stone to fall from a heap into the hole where the crushing takes place - simple and very effective. A ‘show and tell’ of purchases after dinner on our last evening provided the final On day 5 of our study tour we flew from Jinjiang opportunity to discuss the types, decoration to Nanchang. Next day our first stop was the and main attributes that distinguish the Jiangxi Provincial Museum displaying locally various ceramic wares of each dynasty. We excavated wares. The earliest are greenwares agreed that the rigorous planning by Marjorie dating from the beginning of the 10th century. Chu, a stalwart on the SEACS board and Whitewares, qingbai and underglaze blue and participant on the trip and the expert ceramic white were also produced. There are many commentary and analysis of Chen Jiazi had unique pieces that were excavated from local resulted in a very fruitful study tour. tombs. Next, in the Imperial Ceramics Museum in Jingdezhen, we admired the magnificent The SEACS and the NUS have a history of collection of Ming and Qing wares (1368-1912) collaboration. The current SEACS exhibition produced by Imperial kilns for the courts of being staged at NUS Museum until 25 July those dynasties. 2010, ‘Southeast Asian Ceramics: New Light On Old Pottery’, is accompanied by Still blessed with an abundance of raw a commemorative book that also contains a materials, Jingdezhen truly lives up to its very comprehensive catalogue. Edited by and name as a porcelain centre – even the city’s co-contributed to by noted Southeast Asian lamp posts are made of ceramic! Day 8 arrived scholar, Prof. John Miksic, the beginnings too quickly and our last fascinating visit was of the SEACS, the contribution of Roxanna to the Hutian kiln museum and excavations. Brown to SEA ceramics studies, maritime Song and Yuan ceramics typical of export archaeology, kiln sites in SEA and ceramics wares, such as the ubiquitous Song Dynasty as trade commodities are all covered in its qingbai ewer, were on display, as well as blue scholarly and fascinating chapters. and white ware from the Yuan Dynasty. Linda McLaren is an independent researcher interested Time after time our group huddled around in the archaeological study of glazed Chinese a glass show-case as Jiazi generously shared ceramics found on shipwrecks and at terrestrial sites in her extensive knowledge with us. “Look at Southeast Asia prior to the 18th century. this piece of blue and white. See how the imported

t a a S A R EV I E W VOLUME 19 NO.2 27

R E C E NT TAASA ACTIVITI E S

TAASA ACT EVENT TAASA NSW Sandy Watson, Terry Bisley and Sandra Forbes 13 -14 March, 2010 brought along examples of textiles from Isfahan Textile Study Group Meeting – 21 April and Yazd, as well as some brocade cloth and TAASA membership offers the opportunity to About 30 members of TAASA’s Textile Study household items which are specialities of Yazd. join specialist excursions to view collections Group came together to hear a lively report from with expert guidance. About 20 TAASA several members on their visit to Iran in October- TAASA QUEENSLAND members - from Sydney, Melbourne and November last year. Peter Court presented a regional centres as well as Canberra itself slide show of his wonderful photographs, largely Private Exhibition viewing –17 April – visited the National Library (NLA), the of ancient Achaemenid and Sassanian sites and A TAASA group, including invited friends, National Gallery (NGA) and ANU, during their relief sculptures, clearly demonstrating enjoyed a private visit to an exhibition of a weekend of lovely early autumn weather. clothing worn at the time by kings, priests and member Marjorie Morris’s extensive collection We socialised as well, with friends from the soldiers, their horse trappings and headwear. held at Gallery 159 in Brisbane’s The Gap Asia Bookroom, and dined together on the Peter also showed us some outstanding textiles suburb. The exhibition included items ranging Saturday evening. including a particularly fine double-sided silk from hand woven cotton and silk pieces from carpet and a beautiful 200-year-old qualamkar Indonesia, Thailand and Laos, with some At the NLA, curators Sylvia Carr and Linda cloth from Isfahan. from African countries and Mexico. There Groom took us through some gems from were embroideries from different minority the Picture Collection including drawings Roz Cheney gave a short talk on the history groups in China and Central Asia with some of Chinese architecture by Hardy Wilson of qualamkar printed and painted fabrics. She, from India and Pakistan and other items of and some beautiful old Japanese prints. I interest. Marjorie spoke informally to the didn’t see enough of the fine collection of group about the collection and her adventures photographs from pre-revolutionary China, in acquiring many of the items. partly because I was so very absorbed by the thousands of black and white photos Gamelan music concert – 8 May of sculptures and bas reliefs at Angkor and At the Brisbane Conservatorium, TAASA Jogyakarta taken by French diplomat Yves members enjoyed a concert of gamelan Coffin in the1960s. music entitled Javanese Gamelan and China given by the Queensland Conservatorium In the afternoon we gathered in the Gamelan Ensemble, conducted by artist-in- Collection Study Room of the NGA for a residence, Pak Joko Susilo. Gregg Howard, private presentation by Gael Newton, Senior At the Shrine of the Brother of the Eighth Imam in Shiraz Senior Lecturer in Music Studies at the Curator of Photography, of a wonderful 2009. Jen Parsonnage (left) with TAASA members Roz Cheney, Conservatorium, gave an introductory talk set of photographs and albums recently Sandy Watson, Terry Bisley and Briony Forrest specifically for the TAASA group. acquired from a Dutch collector, Leo Haks, documenting the Dutch colonial experience in Indonesia. t a a s a MEMBE r s ’ d i a r Y J U N E – A U G US T 2 0 1 0

Iranian/Australian artist Nasser Palangi met TAASA NSW EVENTS Members are invited to visit the Caloundra us on the ANU campus on Sunday morning. NSW Textile Study Group Regional Art Gallery at 22 Omrah Avenue, Nasser is himself a calligrapher and artist The Study group meets on the second where Maria Friend (curator) and Greg of note, and he and his wife, also an artist, Wednesday of the month from 6.00 till Roberts (collector) will present a floor talk now run a gallery in Canberra. He gave an 8.00 pm at the Briefing Room, Powerhouse on this exhibition of 23 outstanding batiks illustrated talk on the aesthetics and meaning Museum. from the north coast of Java and a series of of Islamic calligraphy and the present 9 June: Carole Douglas on embroidery paintings “Batik Has Been Burnt” by famous popularity of Iranian artists in the West. The from Kutch. Indonesian born artist Dadang Christanto. final stop of the weekend was at Humble 28 July: Terry Bisley and Sue-ann Smiles (see pp 22-3 of this issue) House, owned by Roger and Weilian Carter. on Lotus stem weaving in Myanmar. Using examples from their shop floor, Roger No meeting in August. Talk on Hmong costume art and Weilian gave us a fascinating insight Further information: Gill Green at Saturday 14th August into the history of Chinese furniture and [email protected] or (02) 9331 1810. Maria Friend will give a talk on Hmong manufacturing techniques. Many thanks to Costume Art in the QAG lecture theatre. Hweifen Cheah and Gill Green for organising TAASA QUEENSLAND EVENTS Members of the local Hmong community, this weekend. Exhibition floor talk on Batik of Java: originally from Laos, will attend to present Poetics and Politics some of their costumes. Roz Cheney is a member of the TAASA Textile Study Thursday 8 July, 2010 Group.

t a a S A R EV I E W VOLUME 19 NO.2 29 w h a t ’ S ON IN AUSTRALIA AND OV E r s E a s : J U N E - A U G US T 2 0 1 0 A S E L E c t i V E R OUNDU P O F E x h i b i t i O N S A N D E V E N T S

Compiled by Tina Burge

Life, death and magic - 2000 years of NEW SOUTH WALES Queensland Dragon: Chinese in the North Southeast Asian ancestral art Cairns Regional Art Gallery, Cairns National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Dadang Christanto - They give evidence 21 May – 4 July 2010 13 August – 31 October, 2010 The Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney 27 May – 25 July 2010 Includes almost 100 historical photographs Features dramatic sculpture, jewellery and and documents that testify to the importance textiles revealing the power of art made for Sixteen larger-than-life male and female of the Chinese community in the early rituals of life and death from prehistoric sculptured figures speak eloquently for the stages of the development of Far North to recent times, drawn from the Gallery’s victims of oppression and social justice. Queensland. renowned collection and key loans from Politically charged, they represent displaced For further information go to: www. institutions in Asia, Europe and America. victims, mutely carrying the bodies of cairnsregionalgallery.com.au innocent men, women and children who have A forum with international and Australian been killed in Indonesia. Based in Australia VICTORIA scholars and curators discussing the works will since 1999, Christanto is one of the most be held on 14 August from 1.30pm – 5.00pm. prominent Indonesian contemporary artists. Tea and Zen For further information go to: National Gallery of Victoria, 2010 Arts of Asia Lecture Series – nga.gov/whatson/highlights. International, Melbourne Term II - Powerful Patrons 15 April – 29 August 2010 Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney Robyn Maxwell, Senior Curator, Asian Art, and Tuesdays 1-2pm from 20 July - 19 October 2010 curator of the exhibition, presents an overview Presents the history of tea in China and of the exhibition on 17 August at 12.45pm. Japan and includes ceramic, lacquer and The second half of the 2010 Arts of Asia Niki van den Heuvel, Exhibition Assistant bamboo tea utensils alongside Zen paintings lecture series continues to explore the pre- will introduce recent Gallery acquisitions of and calligraphy, creating a contemplative eminent individuals in Asia who have Southeast Asian animist sculpture and ancient setting evoking the spirit of the ‘Way of Tea’. shaped the arts, culture and sense of identity bronzes on 26 August at 12.45 pm. The exhibition also draws attention to tea’s of their peoples. The first lecture of the continuing practice in present day Japanese second term is by David Templeman on Facing Asia – histories and legacies culture – the tea ceremony and its influence Tibet’s 5th Dalai Lama, who oversaw the of Asian studio photography on contemporary Japanese artists. efflorescence of Tibetan artistic style and set National Gallery of Australia, Canberra into motion the creation of the Potala Palace. 21-22 August 2010 Various events complement the exhibition, For full program and online booking including a performance of the Urasenke Facing Asia is a conference organised by the www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/events/courses Tea Ceremony on 30 June at 12.00pm. ANU’s Research School of Humanities and For further information go to: the Arts that will explore the significance of The Zhongjian: Midway www.ngv.vic.gov.au/whatson the camera in the historical depiction of Asian A travelling exhibition from the people. See p28 for details. Wollongong City Gallery, Wollongong Fluid Borders – Ways of Seeing Oriental Rugs 21 May - 20 July 2010 For bookings and further information go to: The Johnston Collection Gallery, Melbourne www.rsh.anu.edu.au/events/2010/facingasia 5 July – 22 October 2010 This exhibition being held at the Albury Art Gallery includes work by several of China’s and Asia Art Talks By exhibiting rugs from a wide range of Australia’s most notable contemporary artists. National Gallery of Australia, Canberra traditions and styles, Fluid Borders will For further information go to: explore the impact of oriental rugs on Charmane Head, yoga teacher, on the power www.alburycity.nsw.gov.au and follow western décor, art and thinking, and how of mudras (hand gestures) - 12 June at 2.00pm. the links to the Albury Art Gallery. history has placed oriental rugs in the scholarship of oriental textiles. Susan Scollay Beatrice Thompson, Assistant Curator, QUEENSLAND has curated the exhibition with selected Asian Art, on an 18th–early 19th century silk works from the Johnston Collection and embroidered coverlet from Qing-dynasty Unnerved: The New Zealand Project private collections in Melbourne. China - 5 August at 12.45pm. Queensland Art Gallery, Gallery of Modern Art, Clement Onn, Assistant Curator of South Asian Brisbane A wide range of events associated with the art, Asian Civilisations Museum, Singapore, on 1 May – 4 July 2010 exhibition include: designs and meaning of Indian textiles traded to Indonesia - 10 August at 12.45pm. Explores a particularly rich dark vein that recurs Fluid Borders Study Day – 10 July 2010 in New Zealand contemporary art and cinema. from 10.00am - 4.00pm. For further information go to: Psychological or physical unease pervades Speakers will include Leigh Mackay, www.nga.gov.au many works in the exhibition, with humour, President of the Oriental Rug Society of parody and poetic subtlety among the strategies NSW on the Pazyryk Carpet; Roger Leong, used by artists across generations and genres. Curator, International Fashion and Textiles at the National Gallery of Victoria, on the For further information go to: Trinitarias Carpet; Susan Scollay, Curator of www.qag.qld.gov.au

30 t a a S A R EV I E W VOLUME 19 NO.2 Fluid Borders on Oriental carpets in Europe; INTERNATIONAL IRELAND Elizabeth Cross, Art Historian on ‘Learning to See’ about western artists’ responses to UNITED KINGDOM Muraqqa oriental carpets. Chester Beatty Library, Dublin The Printed Image in China – 25 June - 3 October 2010 Susan Scollay will also be giving a series from the 8th to the 21st centuries of four lectures on Wednesdays from 7 - 28 The British Museum, London Focuses on a group of six outstanding July at 10.15-11.45am on the traditional role 6 May – 5 September 2010 illustrated albums (muraqqa‘s) compiled in of carpets throughout history. In addition, India between about 1600 and 1658 for the lectures on Islamic architecture, gardens and A history of 1,300 years of Chinese printing Mughal emperors Jahangir and Shah Jahan. tile work will be held in July and August. using the Museum’s collection, with around 120 For further information go to: www.cbl.ie For full details of lectures and booking images from the 8th century CE to the present. information go to: www.johnstoncollection.org. For further information go to: JAPAN SOUTH AUSTRALIA www.britishmuseum.org The Birth of Chinese Civilization Reflections of the Lotus: art from FRANCE Tokyo National Museum, Tokyo Thailand, Burma, Cambodia and Laos 6 July – 5 September 2010 Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide Pakistan – Where civilisations meet – 1st – 6th centuries – Gandharan Art 21 May - 4 July 2010 Features artifacts excavated from China’s Guimet Museum, Paris Henan province, the home of China’s 21 April -16 August Presents rare masterpieces including life-size dynastic capitals from the Shang to Northern Buddha images, textiles, ceramics, bronze Song dynasties. Jointly organised by the Guimet Museum and lacquer ware from the Art Gallery's and the National Art and Exhibition Centre For further information go to: own extensive collection as well as from of Germany in Bonn, it includes Buddhist www.tnm.go.jp/en Australian private collections. A highlight statues, low reliefs from temples and stupas will be the Gallery's own collection of Thai alongside terracotta and stucco items from ceramics, part of which will tour interstate at monasteries or palaces. the end of the exhibition. For further information go to: For further information go to: www.guimet.fr www.artgallery.sa.gov.au

JAPAN: AUTUMN, BURMA: THE CAMBODIA: BACKROADS LAOS: LAND OF THE ISLANDS AND ART ESSENTIAL ANGKOR WAT OF BURMA LOTUS-EATERS EXPERIENCE AND BEYOND

24 October – 29 October – 07 November – 16 November – 27 January – 09 November 2010 17 November 2010 24 November 2010 02 December 2010 10 February 2011 Japan is a two-sided coin: one Designed and hosted by TAASA Angkor’s timeless grandeur is One trip to Burma is never Enigmatic and relatively post-modernist side embraces contributor Dr Bob Hudson, our unmissable, an unforgettable enough. Backroads of Burma is undeveloped, landlocked cutting-edge technology; the longstanding annual Burma travel memory. Yet Cambodia ideal for the second-time visitor Laos offers travellers an other reveres and preserves program features extended stays offers a host of other important or indeed first-time travellers intimate glimpse of traditional fine artistic and cultural in medieval Mrauk U, capital cultural and travel experiences: desiring remote and rustic Southeast Asian life. Gradually traditions. Ann MacArthur, of the lost ancient kingdom of outstanding ancient, vernacular locations. Starting and finishing emerging from tumultuous Senior Coordinator of Asian Arakan (now Rakhine State) and French colonial architecture; in Yangon, our schedule wends recent history, Laos is a gem of Programs at the Art Gallery and Bagan, rivalling Angkor spectacular riverine environments; south into Mon State, visiting Indochina with interesting art, of NSW, is our experienced Wat as Southeast Asia’s a revitalising urban capital in Kyaiktiyo and Moulmein architecture, French and Lao Japanophile leader. Kyushu and richest archaeological precinct. Phnom Penh; interesting cuisine before heading north to Sri cuisine, intricate river systems, Shikoku predominate including Exciting experiences in Yangon, and beautiful countryside. Join Ksetra, the ancient Pyu capital. and rugged highlands. Darryl the Setouchi International Art Inle Lake, Mandalay and a expatriate museologist, author, Mystical Mount Popa, Bagan, Collins, long term Southeast Festival based on the islands private cruise down the mighty Siem Reap resident and TAASA Monywa and the spectacular Asian resident, has designed of the Inland Sea. A lengthy Ayeyarwady are also included. contributor Darryl Collins on this cave temples of Po Win Taung, and will guide a comprehensive stay in Kyoto, home to 20% of Land Only cost per person latest, updated version of our Sagaing and Mandalay follow. tour of Laos which includes the Japan's national treasures, is twinshare ex Yangon $3795 highly evaluated 2008 and 2009 Dr Bob Hudson is program wonderful historic royal city of our spectacular autumn finale. programs. Prasat Preah Vihear leader. Luang Prabang and Wat Phu Land Only cost per person visit scheduled subject to access Land Only cost per person Champasak. twinshare ex Fukuoka $9500 restrictions. twinshare ex Yangon $4150 Land Only cost per person Land Only cost per person twinshare ex Vientiane $4400 twinshare ex Phnom Penh H ERITAGE D ESTINATIONS $3575 NATURE • BUILDINGS • PEOPLE • TRAVELLERS

PO Box U237, University of Wollongong NSW 2500 Australia For a brochure or further information phone Ray Boniface at Heritage Destinations p +61 2 4228 3887 e [email protected] on +61 2 4228 3887 or email [email protected] or visit our website ABN 21 071 079 859 LIC NO TAG 1747 www.heritagedestinations.com.au

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