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VOLUME 25 NO. 1 March 2016 TAASA Review CONTENTS

Volume 25 No. 1 March 2016

3 Editorial TAASA REVIEW Josefa Green THE ASIAN ARTS SOCIETY OF AUSTRALIA INC. Abn 64093697537 • Vol. 25 No. 1, March 2016

4 CHANG’AN: A COSMOPOLITAN CAPITAL ON THE SILK ROAD ISSN 1037.6674 Registered by Australia Post. Publication No. NBQ 4134 Cao Yin

editorIAL • email: [email protected] 7 INSPIRATION FROM THE PAST: TRACING MOTIFS AND PATTERNS IN FUSTAT TEXTILE FRAGMENTS General editor, Josefa Green Liz Williamson publications committee 10 illUSTRATED BOOKS OF THE QING IN CELESTIAL EMPIRE AT THE NLA Josefa Green (convenor) • Tina Burge Nathan Woolley Melanie Eastburn • Sandra Forbes Charlotte Galloway • Marianne Hulsbosch 12 tHE GREGORY PHOTOGRAPHS OF CHINA IN THE NATIONAL LIBRARY COLLECTION Ann MacArthur • Jim Masselos • Ann Proctor Sabrina Snow • Christina Sumner Olivier Krischer design/layout

14 lUNAR LANTERNS: WELCOMING IN THE YEAR OF THE MONKEY IN SYDNEY Ingo Voss, VossDesign Claudia Chan Shaw in conversation with Josefa Green printing John Fisher Printing 16 CHINESE INK AND BRUSH PAINTING – A PRACTITIONER’S PERSPECTIVE Published by The Asian Arts Society of Australia Inc. Jane Evans PO Box 996 Potts Point NSW 2011 www.taasa.org.au 18 rEVIEWING ASIAN FOOD IN 1970s AUSTRALIA: TAASA QLD AWARD WINNING RESEARCH Enquiries: [email protected] AT THE UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND www.facebook.com/taasa.org

Gael Newton and Alison Vincent TAASA Review is published quarterly and is distributed to members of The Asian Arts Society of Australia Inc. TAASA Review welcomes 21 tHE CERAMIC WORKS OF YEUNG-AN JANG AT MAAS submissions of articles, notes and reviews on Asian visual and Min-Jung Kim performing arts. All articles are refereed. Additional copies and subscription to TAASA Review are available on request. 24 tHE FABRIC OF INDIA: AN EXHIBITION AT THE V&A No opinion or point of view is to be construed as the opinion of Gill Green The Asian Arts Society of Australia Inc., its staff, servants or agents. No claim for loss or damage will be acknowledged by TAASA 26 iN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN: PRINTS BY DADANG CHRISTANTO IN THE CHARLES DARWIN Review as a result of material published within its pages or UNIVERSITY ART COLLECTION in other material published by it. We reserve the right to alter or omit any article or advertisements submitted and require Joanna Barrkman indemnity from the advertisers and contributors against damages or liabilities that may arise from material published. 27 BOOK REVIEW: THE ROOTS OF ASIAN WEAVING All reasonable efforts have been made to trace copyright holders. Gill Green

TAASA MEMBERSHIP RATES 28 JOYCE BURNARD: CELEBRATION OF A LIFE $80 Single (Australia and overseas) Sandra Forbes and Philippa Sandall $90 Dual (Australia and overseas) $95 Libraries (Australia and overseas) 29 rECENT TAASA ACTIVITIES $40 Concession (full-time students under 26, pensioners and unemployed with ID, Seniors Card not included) 30 taaSA MEMBERS’ DIARY: MARCH - MAY 2016 advertising RATES TAASA Review welcomes advertisements from 31 WHAT’S ON: MARCH - MAY 2016 appropriate companies, institutions and individuals. Compiled by Tina Burge Rates below are GST inclusive.

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The deadline for all articles Horse Lantern, designed by Qian (Justin) Jian Hua, Martin Place, Sydney, coloured FOR OUR NEXT ISSUE IS 1 APRIL 2016 fabrics with internal lighting. Courtesy City of Sydney. See pp14-15 in this issue. The deadline for all aDvertising FOR OUR NEXT ISSUE IS 1 MAY 2016 Visit the TAASA website, www.taasa.org.au to access ways of searching information published in the TAASA Review since its beginnings in 1991.

2 TAASA COMMITTEE EDITORIAL

Gill Green • President Josefa Green, Editor Art historian specialising in Cambodian culture

ANN PROCTOR • Vice President Art historian with a particular interest in Vietnam In this firstTAASA Review for 2016, we offer a Liz Williamson gives us an account of her taste of the variety of exhibitions which will recent UNSW residency in Paris, researching Todd Sunderman • TREASURER be on show over the next months. historic Indian textiles in French and UK Former Asian antique dealer, with a particular interest museums. This residency was intended to in Tibetan furniture Two related exhibitions in Canberra are being provide a resource and reference for both her Dy Andreasen • SECRETARY held at the National Library of Australia and own studio work and for planned projects Has a special interest in Japanese haiku and at China in the World, ANU. Celestial Empire: with textile artisans in India. In her article, tanka poetry Life in China, 1644–1911 at the NLA presents Liz shares some of the results of her research Siobhan Campbell a selection of works produced under China’s on the Fustat fragments held at the Musée Lecturer, Indonesian Studies, Sydney University last imperial dynasty drawn equally from Guimet: a group of Indian textiles excavated with an interest in Balinese art the collections of the NLA and the National in the early 1900s from various Middle Bev Dunbar Library of China. Curator Nathan Woolley’s Eastern sites which take their name from Has an interest in Asian artefacts and textiles, article focuses in particular on the illustrated Fustat, an old capital of Egypt. particularly from Southeast Asia, as well as European books on show. medieval icons London based Jane Evans, honorary co- Josefa Green At CIW at ANU, we can view images of 1930s president of the Chinese Brush Painters General editor of TAASA Review. Collector of China taken by Stanley O. Gregory, who Society, gives us a personal practitioner’s Chinese ceramics worked in HK and China in the 1920s and account of how she came to study traditional Boris Kaspiev 30s, printed in large-format for the first time Chinese brush painting techniques while a Private collector of Asian art with a particular interest from original negatives in the NLA collection. resident of Manila, Philippines, and how she in the Buddhist art of the Himalayan region In his article for the TR, Olivier Krischer works with this genre to produce paintings Jillian Kennedy uncovers an interesting research trail which combining her western approach with her Former lecturer, Asian Studies, with an interest raises questions about the dating and even Chinese brush painting training. in Vietnamese ceramics the authorship of some of these photographs.

MIN-JUNG KIM We are also pleased to publish an edited Curator of Asian Arts & Design at the April will see an exhibition of more than 130 version of the essay by PhD student Alison Powerhouse Museum outstanding art works from Xi’an and its Vincent which won the TAASA QLD prize adjacent areas entitled Tang: treasures from the for best essay addressing Asian art at the 19th James MacKean Silk Road capital at the Art Gallery of NSW. annual University of Queensland School of Collector of oriental ceramics This is a truly major event, offered together Communication and Arts postgraduate Work Natalie Seiz with a symposium and lecture series. The in Progress (WiP) Conference. The TAASA Assistant Curator, Asian Art, AGNSW with an curator of the exhibition, AGNSW’s Cao Yin, award was generously offered by TAASA interest in modern/contemporary Asian Art describes how the Tang capital Chang’an Convenor in Queensland, James MacKean, CHRISTINA SUMNER became a focal point for the development of and was judged and presented by Gael Former Principal Curator, Design and Society, the Tang dynasty’s cosmopolitan culture. Newton, who has provided an introduction Powerhouse Museum, Sydney to Alison’s essay. Sandy Watson Far more modest in size, though not in Collector of textiles with an interest in quality, is a display until end June of the This March TR closely follows the Lunar New photography and travel newly acquired contemporary ceramic pieces Year celebrations. To mark the 20th Chinese Margaret White of Korean Yeung-an Jang at the Museum New Year Festival in Sydney, 12 monumental Former President and Advisor of the Friends of for Applied Arts & Sciences (Powerhouse lanterns representing the zodiac animals Museums, Singapore, with special interest in Museum). There is a fascinating link between were displayed in key positions throughout Southeast Asian art, ceramics and textiles this exhibition and the AGNSW’s Tang Sydney, a number of which were artist TAASA Ambassador exhibition: as Min-Jung Kim, Curator of commissioned by the City of Sydney’s first

Jackie Menzies Asian Arts & Design at MAAS points out, the Festival curator, Claudia Chan Shaw. You can Emeritus Curator of Asian Art, Art Gallery of NSW. Korean celadon tradition in which Yeung-an read the results of my conversation with her President of TAASA from 1992 – 2000 Jang is immersed was initially influenced by in the Lunar Lanterns article. the Yue greenware kilns in Zhejiang Province, state representatives China, which produced some of the finest And finally, a variety of offerings. Curator AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY celadons during the Tang period. Joanna Barrkman describes two prints Melanie Eastburn by Dadang Christanto in Charles Darwin Curator of Asian Art, National Gallery of Australia We took advantage of Gill Green’s recent visit University’s Art Collection. Gill Green to London to commission an account of a reviews The Roots of Asian Weaving: The He QUEENSLAND major textile exhibition at the V&A, The Fabric Haiyan Collection of Textiles and Looms from Tarun Nagesh of India, the first major exhibition to explore Southwest China by Eric Boudot and Chris Assistant Curator, Asian Art, QAGOMA handmade textiles from India from the 3rd Buckley. And very sadly, an obituary which century to the present, with over 200 objects. celebrates the life of long time TAASA stalwart SOUTH AUSTRALIA While this exhibition has ended, it has left an and Indian textile expert Joyce Burnard, by James Bennett important legacy in its scholarly catalogue Sandra Forbes and Philippa Sandall. Curator of Asian Art, Art Gallery of South Australia which Gill discusses in her review. VICTORIA

Carol Cains Curator Asian Art, National Gallery of Victoria International 3 CHANG’AN: A COSMOPOLITAN CAPITAL ON THE SILK ROAD

Cao Yin

rade and travel along the famous ‘Silk China in Australia, a group of well-preserved of the year plus one leap month, according to T Road’ that crossed the Eurasian continent objects from 11 museums and cultural the lunar calendar. The four columns of fang was severely interrupted for almost four institutions will offer glimpses of some key situated south of the Imperial City were a centuries after the fall of the Eastern Han Tang-era artistic achievements ranging from reference to the four seasons. dynasty in 220 CE plunged much of the eastern architecture, mural painting and sculpture to end of the region into wars and chaos. Only metallurgy, ceramics and jade works. The Palace City, Imperial City and Outer City with the rise of the Sui (581-618) and Tang This vast capital city was composed of three (618-907) dynasties did China reunite. The A universal projection on the earth major components: the Palace City, Imperial return of stability enabled safer movement for Chang’an’s grand size and precise layout City and Outer City. Three palace complexes, merchants across central Asia, and the revival are remarkable. Basing its plans on historic homes and offices for the sovereigns, were of prosperity along these trading routes. comprehensive theories and guidelines for built and converted throughout the nearly capital city building such as Zhou Li ‘Kaogong 300 year reign of the Tang. The original Palace As the start and terminus of the trade routes ji’ (Rites of Zhou, record of the scrutiny of crafts), City was in the central north. linking the civilisations of East and West, Yuwen Kai (555-612), the city’s planner and Chang’an or present day Xi’an in Shaanxi designer, conceived an orthogonal layout The second compound was the Daming Palace Province emerged as the great capital of the with a symmetrical design. The locations outside the north wall on the east side of the Sui and the Tang. It became the symbol of the chosen for the major structures were not only city, becoming the new political centre of the two empires’ cultural splendour, and a source anchored historically, they were also the result empire from the mid-7th century, and the of pride to Chinese ever since. Between the of divinatory, astrological and numerological base for 16 Tang sovereigns. The last palace 7th and 10th centuries, the centre grew to guidance. Yuwen closely followed Chinese complex added to Chang’an was the Xingqing occupy 84 square kilometres and become geomancy, commonly known as fengshui, Palace in the east, which was converted from home to an astonishing population of more and by adopting this cosmo-magical Chinese residences occupied by Emperor Xuanzong than one million residents. That many of them tradition, the new ruler could lay claim to (685-762) and several of his brothers in 713. had journeyed from afar helped to nurture a the legitimacy of his dynasty. Chang’an was cosmopolitan Tang civilisation. The infusion designed as an ideal centre for the ‘son of Within each of these three palace complexes of new ideas, flowing along both land and Heaven’ to carry out his ‘mandate of Heaven’. were large numbers of basilica where emperors maritime trading routes, lifted traditional It was meant to be a projection of the universal were crowned and conducted their day-to- Chinese civilisation to a new ‘Golden Age’. order onto the Earth. day state duties, and a series of pavilions, gates and gatehouses where heroic generals To help illustrate those achievements, from 9 The perfectly symmetrical layout of the city and loyal ministers were rewarded and April to 10 July 2016, the Art Gallery of NSW along a central axis, known as Zhuque Jie honoured through memorial services. These has assembled an exhibition of more than (Vermillion Street), was combined with a spaces hosted a number of rituals such as the 130 art works from Xi’an and its adjacent system to divide regions within the walls. New Year and winter-solstice ceremonies, as areas entitled Tang: treasures from the Silk Road The 13 rows of fang (residential units) running well as state banquets to reward officials and capital. For this, the first exhibition on Tang from north to south symbolised the 12 months to receive foreign guests and their tributes.

Outer coffin for the Buddha’s bone relic, c874, crystal, gemstones, 5.5–6.9 cm (h), unearthed Bottle, 700–874, glassware, 21.3 cm (h), unearthed from the

from the secret niche under the rear chamber of Famen crypt, 1987, Famen Temple Museum rear chamber of the Famen Monastery crypt, 1987, Famen

Temple Museum 4 TAASA REVIEW VOLUME 25 NO.1 Tea grinder, 869, gilded silver, 7.1 cm (h), 27.4 cm (l), unearthed from the rear chamber of the Famen Monastery crypt, 1987, Famen Temple Museum

There were halls where imperial libraries held guards, almost like separate towns – but they originated, we know that this vast walled vast collections, scholars conducted research, were far from independent. capital of a powerful united empire fostered and where royal family members and high- an atmosphere of confidence that encouraged ranking officials were trained. Lakes and The management of the wards was as rigid the tolerance of different religious beliefs and ponds were created for the entertainment of as their layout at the beginning of Tang an open mindedness towards cultures from emperors, empresses and concubines. dynasty. Each day at dawn and dusk, drums many parts of the world. were sounded at the southern entrance to These palaces were also the sites of many the Palace City, and these were then echoed In addition to traditional Chinese Daoism and bloody coup attempts by different factions of by drums on the main street of each ward – a Buddhism introduced to China around the princes and princesses and their supporters, routine vividly described by Tang-era poet Li first century from India, three new religions which at times included eunuchs and military He (790–816): ‘Drums at dawn rumbling like were introduced to the capital from the West forces. The most famous plot was known thunder, hastening the sun, Drums at dusk via Central Asia along the Silk Road. They as the ‘Xuanwu Gate Incident’, when on 4 rumbling like thunder, calling out the moon’ were Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism and June 626 Prince Li Shimin (598–649) led his (Peng et al 1960: 4435). Those who violated the Nestorianism, and their arrival would have army to attack and kill the Crown Prince Li curfew were punished, and leave was only made Chan g’an a fascinating venue for the Jiancheng (589–626) and Prince Li Yuanji issued by ward officials for urgent matters. worship of all manner of gods. (603–626). By August, Li Shimin had forced his father, Emperor Gaozu (566-635), to To the Outer City’s north was the Imperial However, Buddhism was by any measure the abdicate and became Emperor Taizong, the Park, used for hunting and sports such as most popular religion in Chang’an. Royal and great consolidator of the Tang Empire. polo, and at the south-east corner spread noble patronage of Buddhism played a key the imperial and public leisure parks, which role in its rise in the Tang era, and has left us Less turbulent than the Palace City, though included the Qujiang Pond and Furong two iconic structures: the Great Wild Goose no less influential, was the Imperial City. Garden. Pagoda and the Small Wild Goose Pagoda. Positioned to the immediate south of the Buddhist rites were incorporated into a series original palace complex, it served as the central A cosmopolitan metropolis of annual ritual ceremonies by the imperial administrative district, hosting the head offices Emperor Taizong once said: ‘As I am the court, and attended by a great number of of key central government ministries. Master under the heaven, I do not differentiate Chang’an residents, as recorded in detail by between Chinese and siyi [people from the the Japanese monk Ennin in his diary written Surrounding the Palace and Imperial Cities four directions outside China], and would during his visit to Chang’an between 840 was the Outer City, the residential quarters support them all. I will make the unsettled and 845. The most elaborate Buddhist event divided into square or rectangular wards (li ones settled, unhappy ones happy’ (Wang et was the veneration of an important Buddha or fang), which occupied more than 60% of al 1989: 35). It could also be argued that the Li relic, when a finger bone believed to belong the entire city of Chang’an. This area housed family, the Tang dynasty’s founders, may have to Shakyamuni Buddha and housed at the the residences of officials and commoners, had sympathy towards outsiders because their Famen Monastery was transferred six times to markets and religious structures. Each ward clan were descendants of non-Chinese nobles either of the two Tang capitals, Chang’an or had its own administrative officials and from the north. However the city’s openness Luoyang, at intervals of about 30 years.

TAASA REVIEW VOLUME 25 NO.1 5 HayagrIva statue, c800, 88 cm (h), marble with remains

Camel rider and camel, 742, earthenware with pigment camel: 48.2 cm (h); rider: 55 cm (h), excavated of paint and gilding in the hair, excavated at the site

from Li Xian’s tomb at Pucheng County, 2000, Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology of Anguo Monastery, Xi’an, 1959, Xi’an Beilin Museum

from the Yue kilns in Zhejiang province – was revealed when a dozen or so pieces were found The rapid development of Buddhism during scintillating’ (Zhao 2012: 257). These inspired in the crypt at the Famen Monastery during its the Tang dynasty was also partly due to the new ideas and technology, which in turn excavation in 1987, together with documents movement of a large number of monks to and shaped the lifestyle and aesthetics of the revealing their origins. from India, many travelling overland through Tang era. Central Asia via the various Silk Road routes. In today’s world, the presence of a Chinatown Most famous is the monk Xuanzang (602–64) Gold and silver wares displaced traditional – known in Chinese as a Tang Ren Jie (Tang whose pilgrimage to the Buddha’s homeland bronzes and jade as the materials of greatest people’s street) – is often a mark of a city’s became the storyline for one of China’s value. By the mid-8th century, after a period cultural diversity. More than a millennium classics, Journey to the West, widely known in of influence from Sasanian Persian, Sogdiana ago, it was Chang’an, the base of the great the West as Monkey. and Byzantine styles, Chinese artisans Tang Empire that could rightly claim to be the completed the sinicisation of gold and silver largest cosmopolitan capital of the world. In addition to monks and priests, Chang’an vessel production, establishing unique and witnessed the comings and goings of distinctive Chinese features. The exquisite Cao Yin is Curator, Chinese Art at the Art Gallery thousands of foreigners, either soldiers set of imperial tea wares discovered at Famen of NSW. from defeated tribes and kingdoms early Monastery not only demonstrates advanced in the dynasty, or foreign dignitaries such goldsmith technique, but also tells the story of REFERENCES as the Tibetan envoys who were welcomed the daily habit of tea drinking being elevated Fang Yi, 2010. ‘Preliminary study on the relationship between Tang sancai and the textile printing and dying crafts’, Gugong bowuyuan with banquets and concerts by Empress Wu to an art form during the Tang. yuankai, Beijing, no 2

Zetian in 702. Both Japan and Korea sent Peng Dingqiu et al, 1960. ‘Drums in the street of the officials’ in large numbers of students and diplomats The ceramic industry was another area Complete poetry of the Tang, Zhonghua Book Co. Edition, Beijing to learn about the government, culture and to experience innovation under the Tang. Wang Qinruo et al, 1989. Outstanding models from the storehouse religions of the Tang. Exotic goods, costumes Many pieces took on strong and robust of literature, vol 170, Zhonghua Book Co. Edition, Beijing and music arrived from Vietnam, Cambodia characteristics that can be taken as a reflection Watt James, 2004. China: dawn of a golden age, 200–750 AD, and Burma in Southeast Asia, India, Central of the high Tang’s confident spirit. Its Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and Yale University Press, and West Asia, and even the remnants of the famous sancai (three colour) wares, capture New Haven Eastern Roman Empire. Figures with clearly the vividness of Tang-era fashion and it has Zhao Feng, 2012. ‘Silks in the Sui, Tang, and Five dynasties’, in non-Chinese features and foreign costumes been suggested that their motifs are a result Chinese Silks, Dieter Kuhn and Zhao Feng (eds), Yale University found across Tang-era art forms represent of direct contact with Central Asia and the Press, New Haven and London; Foreign Languages Press, Beijing only a small sample of multiculturalism in the influence of the textile industry (Watt 2004 capital city. and Fang 2010 respectively).

Luxury life style of the Chang’an-siders Tang potters continued the tradition of nan qing The exotic goods brought to the capital for bei bai, meaning ‘celadon wares from the south either tribute or trade stimulated the Tang and white wares from the north’. The secret of elite’s pursuit of what has been recently one of the great ceramic achievements of the described as ‘the rich, the gorgeous and the Tang period – mise or ‘secret colour’ greenware

6 TAASA REVIEW VOLUME 25 NO.1 INSPIRATION FROM THE PAST: TRACING MOTIFS AND PATTERNS IN FUSTAT TEXTILE FRAGMENTS

Liz Williamson Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris buildings

and groundsPhoto: Liz Williamson

understanding while assisting them to realise You can’t escape the past in Paris, and yet new designs which not only allow them to what’s so wonderful about it is that the reach new markets whether local, national or past and present intermingle so intangibly international but also to understand different that it doesn’t seem to burden. ways of designing. Allen Ginsberg, American poet 1950s. In April 2015 before I left for Paris, the P aris has some of the world’s notable outcome of such a project was exhibited at decorative arts museums with valuable Barometer Gallery in Sydney. Titled Alanakar, archives of historic, ethnic and contemporary this Hindi word captured the essence of the fashion and textiles for museum exhibitions, project as it translates as ‘tracery, adornment into aari embroidery. The embroidered design reference and research. These or decoration’, while metaphorically pieces integrated pattern, line and motif provided the starting point for my research representing visual enhancement or value into the tracery of natural colour in the into Indian textiles during a residency at the adding. The aim of the project was to engage handwoven and dyed textiles. The outcome Cité Internationale des Arts from 3 July to 28 with an artisan community in West Bengal, meshed traditional artisan expertise with September 2015. India, renowned for its aari embroidery, to contemporary designs to enhance their design develop a new range of designs. The aari knowledge and pointed to potential new Along with many other institutions in technique employs a hook instead of a needle directions for this artisan group. Australia and internationally, the University to create chain stitch, French knots and aari of New South Wales (UNSW) has an stitch embroidery while the fabric is stretched The Cité residency afforded me an apartment in the Cité for academic staff and taut over a large frame. opportunity to conduct research to extend postgraduate research scholars undertaking the Alanakar project by researching specific research in Paris. It is located on the edge For this exhibition, drawings of structures Indian textiles held in museum archives. of the Marais, in walking distance from and woven interlacing were translated These would provide a resource and reference renowned museums and galleries such as the Pompidou Centre, Institut du Monde Arabe and Musée National Picasso - Paris. I was fortunate to have the UNSW apartment for the 2015 European summer, a wonderful time to spend in this beautiful city full of the past intermingled with the contemporary.

The Cité has 270 studio apartments for residencies and its arts community includes visual artists, musicians, composers, sculptors, designers, writers, curators and photographers. Cité residents create a lively artistic environment with regular concerts and open studio exhibitions. I heard classical music concerts by performers from France and Germany, jazz from Japan, rap from Mauritania and a beautiful concert of eastern European folk lullaby songs (voice only); resident open studios provided a similar diverse offering of artist/design practice based work and during my stay I saw recent work from Israel, Japan, Australian, USA and Canada.

The research I proposed for this residency centered on collections of historic Indian textiles in French and UK museums and built upon my previous historical research. During recent visits to India, I had been interested in the way textile motifs have evolved while maintaining certain social and cultural associations. Projects undertaken with various artisan groups have added to this Fustat fragment, 15th century, India probably Gujarat, found in Egypt. Cotton, block printed resist, painted mordants, dyed

in red and brown. Length 18cm x width 18cm. Guimet Musée catalogue number MA5681; AEDTA #1540. Photo: Liz Williamson

TAASA REVIEW VOLUME 25 NO.1 7 Fustat fragment, 16th century, India probably Gujarat; found in Egypt. Cotton, stamped mordants and resist dyed, Fustat fragment, end 18th century, India, probably Gujarat, found in Egypt. Cotton, stamped and drawn blue and red. 10cm (L) x 13.5cm (W). Guimet Musée catalogue resists and painted mordants, dyed different shades of red and blue. 20cm (L) x 20.5cm (W). Guimet Musée

number MA5683; AEDTA #1356. Photo: Liz Williamson catalogue number MA5682; AEDTA #1355. Photo: Liz Williamson

for new work, both my own studio work and Immediately on arrival I started to examine The Fustat textiles are assumed to have for planned projects with block printers in these pieces. The museum archive allowed been traded for general domestic apparel Gujarat and embroiders in West Bengal. photography, time to sketch motifs and and furnishing use. Guy refers to a study of shapes, record colours and the characteristics Jewish documents from Fustat that record Before leaving Sydney I had arranged to of the cloth. I had a lot to observe and the contents of an archival storehouse: ‘… view textiles held by the Musée des Arts document; it proved to be the beginning of in medieval Middle-Eastern society, Indian Asiatique Guimet in Paris. This renowned a fascinating study over the following three cotton textiles were relatively inexpensive museum houses the Riboud textile collection. months. utilitarian items for use as garments and as Donated to the museum in 1990 and 2003, household furnishings by the lower levels of the collection was formed by the Association The Fustat fragments, a group of Indian society.’(1998:46). They are characteristically for the Study and Documentation of Textiles textiles excavated in the early 1900s from rather coarse hand woven cotton cloth, Asia (AEDTA) founded in 1979 by Krishna various sites in the Middle East, take their woven from hand spun yarn, then mordanted Riboud. Her bequest meant that the museum name from one site, Fustat, an old capital and/or resist printed and dyed. Many of the now possesses one of the largest collections of Egypt located near the present capital of fragments have remains of stitching threads, of Asian textiles in Europe. The costumes Cairo. Ruth Barnes in her extensive research seams and pleats indicating use. Edges cut and textiles, mostly dated from the 15th to into these fragments notes that the Fustat or ripped have frayed and there are sections the early 20th centuries, are mainly of Indian area was a refuse disposal site for centuries where the fibres have worn or disintegrated and Chinese origin with some examples from and the ‘frequently disturbed surface’ makes over time. Of the samples examined, most are Indonesia and Japan. dating specific excavation finds difficult smaller than A4 size and appear to have been (1997:28). cut or to have been a remnant. The Riboud archive includes examples of the most significant Indian textiles, namely The manufacture of the majority of these The predominant colours of Fustat fragments Jain embroideries, Mughal fabrics (velvets, fragments has been attributed to Gujarat, are indigo blue, Indian madder red and the carpets, samit and lampas weaves), telia India from where they were traded to Egypt natural cotton colour of the undyed and resist rumals, ikats, tie dye fabrics, embroidered and from between the 9th and 17th centuries. sections of the designs. The cloth is dyed in woven Kashmiri shawls, kantha embroideries Their subsequent survival was due to the dry combinations of blue and white, red and from West Bengal, Baluchari saris, export climate whereas similar textiles of this age white, plus patterns with all three colours chintzes and patola. My original aim was have not survived in India’s warm tropical together. The resist substances, possibly wax to look at the Guimet holdings of kantha climate. Consequently, these fragments are or a mud and lime paste, appear to have been embroidery, Kashmiri shawls, samit and some of the oldest surviving Indian textiles either hand drawn onto the cloth, or printed lampas woven textiles as well as researching in the world. The most well-known examples using a simple block or stamp to resist the examples of its so-called Fustat textiles. This were purchased in the Cairo markets, then indigo dye. Alum and iron mordants were proved to be too ambitious so I focussed on donated to or acquired by museums with used to bond the madder to the cotton fibre the Fustat fragments. textile, Asian or archaeological collections. because if no mordant is applied, the madder

8 TAASA REVIEW VOLUME 25 NO.1 Liz Williamson (L) at her open studio in Paris, 27 September 2015. Photo: Leahlani Johnson would neither ‘take’ in the dye bath nor would the dye be permanent. In addition cloth first dyed in indigo will not take the madder dye unless alum has been applied.

The Fustat fragments provide vital evidence of the Indian dyer’s highly developed skills, indicating the sophistication of manufacturing and design aesthetics being used on apparently every day textiles produced in India at that time. The fragments examined all had strong, solid colours, offering excellent examples of the durability of these colours, and their analysis has furthered an understanding of early resist and mordant dye technologies.

In terms of motifs, patterns and design, John Guy writes, in relation to similar Fustat fragments in the collection of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, that their dating ‘… concurs with stylistic comparisons which may be drawn with western Indian painting and sculpture especially in plant formations and to architecture references to stone screens, textile fragment probably from Gujarat, India. the Jameel Centre with over 1000 fragments mosques and tombs in Gujarat.’ (1998:42). It is also made of cotton with a stamped is one of the largest and formed the basis of mordant and resist dyed, blue and red design. Ruth Barnes’ extensive research (1997). I’ll describe three of the fragments examined The design is essentially indigo blue and in the Guimet at the beginning of my research. white with an Indian madder (red) and white The residency gave me the opportunity to be The fragment shown in the image on p7 is border. To create this piece, the cloth would immersed in natural dyes, resists, mordants, a textile fragment from 15th century India, have first been dipped into indigo with the traditional motifs, colours and patterns. A probably made in Gujarat but found in Fustat. central white pattern and border covered deeper understanding of the manufacturing This cotton piece, block printed resist and with a wax resist material. After removing the and trading context for these textiles has painted mordant, was dyed in two shades of wax by immersing into boiling water, alum informed my ongoing teaching and research Indian madder - red and brown. As Valérie was applied with blocks to the border before projects in India. Over the coming months, Bérinstain writes: ‘…this piece is particularly dyeing in an alizarin madder bath. Thus the I’ll develop new designs based on my interesting first from a technical aspect and red colour penetrated only those areas where sketches of motifs, hamsas and repeating second for its iconography based on eight the alum mordant had been applied. patterns for interpretation by skilled artisans sacred geese or hamsas around a floral motif in Gujarat and West Bengal, in block print (lotus).’ (Bérinstain, V. in Riboud (ed) 1987: 19). The third fragment illustrated (p8 on the right) and embroidery respectively. Although the is dated from the end of the 18th century, Gujarati printers are familiar with the Fustat The circular motif to which Bérinstain refers Indian again probably from Gujarat, found style of pattern, my version will offer a was common in India in the Gupta period at Fustat, Egypt. It is a cotton fabric, stamped different perspective in taking inspiration for (approx. 4th – 6th century) and appears at and drawn resist and painted mordant, dyed the past to give a new interpretation. Ajanta cave no.1 dated to the 6th century. different shades of red and blue. Bérinstain The interesting technical aspect noted by writes: this fragment ‘…is decorated with Liz Williamson is a weaver who first visited India Bérinstain above, is the application of two sophisticated patterns and is of a later date. in 1976. Since 2001 she has returned regularly to ways of applying the mordant to the cloth, by The ornamentation consists of elaborate conduct projects, undertake research and teach. block and brush in the one design. Before the medallions with floral stems of blackish- Her work has been exhibited nationally and mordant was applied, an outline of the motifs blue ground. The blue dye appears to have internationally and is held in numerous collections. was stamped by block printing using a resist been applied with a brush. A few items in the Williamson is an Associate Professor, UNSW Art & paste – this was done to prevent the mordant collection of the Musée de Cluny apparently Design, UNSW, Sydney. from adhering to the motif outline. The two made use of the same technique.’ (Bérinstain, mordants (iron and alum) were applied to V. in Riboud (ed) 1987: 22). REFERENCES the cloth but the resist paste prevented the Barnes, Ruth, 1997. Indian Block Printed Textiles in Egypt: the Newberry Collection in the Ashmolean Museum, Vol 1 and 2, mordants from affecting the motif outlines. My research on Fustat fragments continued Oxford Clarendon Press, UK The cloth was then immersed in an alizarin at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, Bérinstain, Valérie in Riboud, Krishna (ed), 1987. Quest of Themes (Indian madder) dye bath. Where the iron the Victorian & Albert Textiles Study and Skills – Asian Textiles, Marg Publications, Bombay, India mordant had been applied, the resultant Centre, Clothworkers Centre, London and Guy, John, 1998. Woven Cargoes: Indian Textiles in the East, colour was dark brown; where alum had been at the Jameel Centre, Ashmolean Museum, Thames and Hudson, London, UK applied, the resultant colour was red. Oxford. Several of the V&A fragments are Ronald, Emma, 2007. Ajrakh: patterns & borders, Anokhi Museum on permanent display in the Nehru Gallery of Hand Printing, AMPH Publications, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India The Guimet fragment shown in the image on while others featured in the recent Fabric of p8 (L) is described as a 16th century Fustat India exhibition. The Newberry Collection at

TAASA REVIEW VOLUME 25 NO.1 9 ILLUSTRATED BOOKS OF THE QING IN CELESTIAL EMPIRE AT THE NLA

Nathan Woolley

Illustrations for Encountering Sorrow (Lisao tu), Xiao Yuncong, 1645. National Library of China, Beijing

he exhibition Celestial Empire: Life in T China, 1644–1911 at the National Library of Australia (NLA) presents a selection of works produced under China’s last imperial dynasty. Through a range of books, maps and other documents, the exhibition provides a tour of lived experience over nearly three centuries of Manchu rule. The exhibits are drawn equally from the collections of the NLA and the National Library of China. Many of the items from the National Library of China have never been overseas before. Notable among these are plans and drawings from the archives of the Lei family, whose members served as architects for the Qing court over seven generations. Celestial Empire represents a new level of ongoing collaboration between the two libraries and is an opportunity to see items of a type rarely exhibited in Australia.

The books included in the exhibition provide insight into the diversity of life under the Qing dynasty. Imperial works printed in the Hall of Martial Valour of the Forbidden City display the concerns of the court in their content and a high level of skill in their execution: sharp, texts saw them reimagined and rearranged accompany poems by the famed loyalist of crisp lines in detailed images were printed to fit new tastes. While this has led to critical antiquity Qu Yuan (4th–3rd century BCE). evenly over fine white paper that still easily assessments of Ming practices, including Historical records recount that when Qu withstands handling today. Such works drew questioning of the reliability of the dynasty’s Yuan’s efforts to serve his lord were rebuffed, on the elite tradition of scholar-officials and editions of canonical works, more recent he wandered in exile composing poems projected the ideals held up by the court as scholarship has argued this should be seen lamenting his fate and describing ecstatic essential to effective and just rule. as an indicator of the cultural vitality of the journeys to the other world. period (He 2013). Whatever the case, authors In contrast, popular works of divination and and publishers of the early Qing clearly had The collection to which these poems belong, cheap educational primers were printed from many styles to draw upon. The Songs of the South, emerge from the culture crudely carved woodblocks on thin paper of Chu, at the time of their composition a state now brown and brittle with age. These works Two of the earliest texts in the exhibition on the southern edge of the Chinese world and were produced for consumption by the lower reproduce images from the hand of perhaps considered not quite properly civilized. levels of society. They were printed for profit, Xiao Yuncong (1596–1669). Xiao was an The poems, the most famous of which lends its not posterity, but now provide a fascinating accomplished writer, calligrapher and painter, name to the title of Xiao’s work, express vivid insight into the lives and everyday concerns but found no success in the examinations and uninhibited religious experiences and of the common people in Chinese society. he attended under the Ming. After living have long presented a challenge to Chinese The thriving print culture of the Qing existed through the strife surrounding the end of this canonical visions of the past. By publishing between these two extremes. dynasty and the establishment of Qing power, Qu Yuan’s poetry with his own illustrations, he chose to abandon pursuit of an official Xiao was issuing a lament for the strife of the Many works of the early Qing are held in career, but remained active among social day as the world he knew was swept away. particularly high regard for the quality circles of the elite. Few of his written works Xiao’s pictures are marvellous imaginings of of their illustrations, inheriting as they have survived; he is today renowned for his the poems’ spiritual realm. Spirits and strange did the developed visual language of the paintings and for the two volumes appearing beasts appear in extraordinary landscapes, Ming dynasty (1368–1644) but adapting it in the exhibition. while offerings are presented to them by people to changed circumstances. The economic of the mundane world. prosperity of the previous dynasty had seen The first of these dates to 1645, when the an unprecedented level of exuberance in the conquest of China by the Qing was still The style of these imagined scenes finds an production of printed works. Many books underway. Xiao produced his Illustrations on echo in the representations of real landscapes for popular consumption were adorned Encountering Sorrow after he fled his home in his second work in the exhibition. Scenery with entertaining images. In addition to town just before it fell to Qing forces. The of Taiping Prefecture was produced on new compositions, creative use of existing book presents pictures drawn by Xiao to commission for a local judge, who also penned

10 TAASA REVIEW VOLUME 25 NO.1 Painting Manual of the Mustard Seed Garden

(Jieziyuan huazhuan), Wang Gai et al., Nanjing, 1679.

National Library of China, Beijing Images from a Drifting Raft (Fancha tu), Zhang Bao, Guangzhou: Shanggu zhai, 1822. National Library of China, Beijing

the introduction. Xiao presents images of 43 sites around three counties where he grew up. In its bold illustrations, Xiao displayed his own technique adapted from existing painting traditions. The features of the natural landscape are heavy and forceful, dominating the man-made structures. Each illustration is accompanied by a poem, exemplifying the close ties between painting and printing in the period. This distinctive work had a lasting influence, its images even providing inspiration to artists in Japan after copies of this book found their way across the sea. into Nanjing’s rich history as capital under and proved influential. For example, many of Illustrations from the work were also later dynasties of the distant past and vibrant Zhang’s compositions reappeared in another adopted into Wang Gai’s Painting Manual of cultural centre in more recent decades. celebrated work published later in the 19th the Mustard Seed Garden, perhaps the most century Wild Swan on the Snow written by the influential guide on painting ever produced in As he departs, Zhang passes the Stone bannerman Lincing (1791–1846). East Asia, the first section of which appeared Citadel and Swallow Rock—two locations in 1679 (Szeto 1999; Shin 2006). often celebrated in prose and verse—and The careful understated refinement of the then spends a night moored near Guazhou, a images in such elite works stands in marked Engagement with the Chinese landscape was staging post for travel on the Yangzi in texts contrast to the lively illustrations playing one means of drawing the rich traditions from at least a thousand years previously. across the pages of ghost stories, morality of the past into the cultural pursuits of the The reader can then follow Zhang’s journey books and romances produced for popular present. For any person trained in the literary past the Golden Isle, which hosts a Buddhist consumption. Yet the diversity of print culture tradition, sites throughout China were temple near Zhenjiang, and from there up the is but one aspect of Qing life highlighted in encrusted with voices from the past. As a Grand Canal past Yangzhou, across the Yellow the exhibition Celestial Empire. result, journeys through space were a means River and to his arrival outside the walls of of travelling through time, an opportunity to the capital. Following as it does a well-used Celestial Empire: Life in China, 1644 –1911 seek out past associations and to add one’s itinerary but recorded in Zhang Bao’s images will be shown at the NLA, Canberra from own voice to them. This was particularly true and verse, the account is at once personal and 2 January – 22 May 2016. for waterways: having long been a key means universal. It is not difficult to imagine the of transport, places along the banks of rivers work stirring memories in the mind of many Nathan Woolley is curator at the NLA and historian and canals hosted the reflections of visitors Qing readers of their own journeys through in the Australian Centre on China in the World at the passing by for millennia. renowned landscapes as well as through the Australian National University. Chinese literary tradition (Stuer 2013). Over a decade, the painter Zhang Bao (1763– REFERENCES 1832) published six records of journeys under the Zhang Bao’s work as whole can be taken as He Yuming, 2013. Home and the World: Editing the “Glorious Ming” in Woodblock-Printed Books of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth title Images from a Drifting Raft, each comprising an idealized meditation on the worldly leisure Centuries, Harvard University Asia Center, Cambridge, Mass. a set of illustrations of sites along his route. They of the cultural elite: the journey for private or Shin Seojeong, 2006. “Illustrations of Taiping Prefecture (1648): resonate with the travels of contemporaries as official purposes, the parting and meeting A printed album of landscapes by the seventeenth-century literati well as knowledge of the past. with friends, the visiting of historical sites. artist, Xiao Yuncong (1596–1673)”, PhD dissertation, University The prefaces by Zhang and his associates of Maryland The first documents a journey from Zhang’s comment on the significance of travel, the Stuer, Catherine, 2013. “Reading the World’s Landscape in Zhang hometown of Nanjing to the capital along the value of observation for the cultivation of the Bao’s Images of the Floating Raft, 1833”, in Rethinking visual narratives from Asia: Intercultural and comparative perspectives, Yangzi River and up the Grand Canal. He individual, and the geography of the empire. edited by Alexandra Green, Hong Kong University Press, Hong starts with an image of Nanjing’s pleasure The work presents marvellous vignettes Kong, pp 77–94. quarter around the Qinhuai Stream, which of China as experienced under the Qing. Szeto Yuen-kit, 1999. “Xiao Yuncong (1596–1669) and his marks his parting from family and friends. The illustrations reflect a simplification and Landscape Paintings”, MPhil dissertation, University of Hong Kong This at once draws the informed reader refinement of drawing for the printed page

TAASA REVIEW VOLUME 25 NO.1 11 THE GREGORY PHOTOGRAPHS OF CHINA IN THE NATIONAL LIBRARY COLLECTION

Stanley Gregory, Hong Kong, 1929. Gregory’s note on the

Olivier Krischer back reads: ‘At Repulse Bay. I was sitting on the foundation

of a matshed that had been destroyed in a typhoon. August

1929’. Photographer unknown. Courtesy Gregory Family.

ast year, when the Centre on China in the Shanghai at the time. With help from Stanley’s L World (CIW) organised the exhibition children and their families, who remain today China & ANU: Diplomats, Adventurers, Scholars, in Canberra and Brisbane, it was thus possible it revealed the diplomatic and academic to establish a fairly clear picture of Stanley connections with China that pervaded the and his wife Dorothy’s lives in Hong Kong establishment of Australia’s only national and Shanghai from the 1920s to early 1940s. university. However, while this institutional Yet the Gregory collection of images was more history showed the foresight of some in difficult to unravel. government, public service and academia, I was surprised to discover how many Born in London in 1902, Stanley Oswald ‘ordinary’ exhibition visitors had far-reaching Gregory was raised in Letchworth Garden family connections to Asia before World War City, a pioneering example of urban planning II. The CIW’s current exhibition Photographs of that sought to counter the negative effects 1930s China by Stanley O. Gregory showcases of industrialised towns. He attended St a selection of rarely seen images of China, Christopher’s Theosophical School, whose while also sharing the story of Gregory, one Quaker principles encouraged students to be such British man and his family, who lived for actively involved in the school’s organisation. decades in Hong Kong and Shanghai before Combining this sense of freedom and migrating to Australia in the 1940s. responsibility, in 1922-23 Stanley spent a year in Soviet Russia, where he assisted Quaker- Conceived to complement the National led famine relief in the southern town of work for some of the thousands of Chinese Library’s Celestial Empire exhibition, Buzuluk, but also ventured as far east as and European refugees who continued Photographs of 1930s China features 21 large Tashkent and Samarkand—richly recorded in flocking to Shanghai. format black and white prints on cotton rag a photo album that remains with the family. paper, made especially for the exhibition from In 1941, Dorothy left Shanghai under a set of roughly 350 negatives in the Stanley In 1924, Stanley secured a position in Hong Japanese bombardment, taking the children Gregory papers at the NLA. Acquired in Kong with Kelly & Walsh, eminent publishers to join relatives in Queensland; Stanley 1969, following the passing of Stanley’s wife and booksellers with outlets since the 1880s was unsuccessful in securing passage. In Dorothy (then resident in Canberra), the in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Yokohama and January 1943, when the occupying Japanese Gregory Papers include Stanley’s letters to Singapore. In 1931, Gregory returned to forces called on foreign residents to report Dorothy in China and Australia, a brief diary England, becoming engaged to Dorothy for internment, Stanley became a prisoner of his earlier travels in Russia in 1922-23, as Priestly, and within a year of his return was of war, spending time in both the Pudong well as a neat notebook titled ‘Recollections promoted to manager of the ‘K&W’ Shanghai and Lunghua camps. In his handwritten of Internment’, describing various aspects of branch, where the young couple would ‘Recollections of Captivity’ (dated March his experience in two Japanese POW camps soon start to raise a family. Both committed 1945) he mused that the internees may have in Shanghai between 1943-1945, grouped in Quakers, from the late 1930s Stanley and been better catered for—with regular food short thematic chapters. Together, they reveal Dorothy were also heavily involved in relief and fuel—than those (mostly Chinese) a fascinating life, but also a rare personal account of day-to-day life for a long-term European resident of Shanghai in the 1930s.

Perusing the images, I was initially struck by their technical competence and a ‘faded elegance’ (Worswick and Spence 1978: 146) that seemed to eschew signs of modern Chinese life. Many of them depict canal towns near Shanghai, including Hangzhou and Suzhou, and well-known Beijing scenes, featuring a familiar cast of peddlers and donkeys, monks and temples. Less common were the rather candid and empathetic images of farmers and life along the canals.

Based on these impressions, I enlisted the generous help of Andrew Gosling to produce a biographical timeline of Stanley Gregory, and Gael Newton to consider photography in A large, ornately carved example of a street-side ‘peep show box’ or slide viewer, possibly Beijing, c.1920s-30s.

From the Stanley O. Gregory Papers. Courtesy National Library of Australia.

12 TAASA REVIEW VOLUME 25 NO.1 A fisherman crouched on the bow of his small punt,

Canal scene near Shanghai, possibly Suzhou, holding a pronged fishing net, possibly Hangzhou,

c.1920s-1930s. From the Stanley O. Gregory Papers. c.1920s-1930s. From the Stanley O. Gregory Papers.

Courtesy National Library of Australia. Courtesy National Library of Australia. outside the camps living with rampant inflation and increasingly scarce supplies. Following the Allied victory, Stanley finally arrived in Australia on Christmas Day 1945, reuniting with Dorothy and the children in Hobart before taking a position at Angus & Robertson’s in Sydney.

But what of the photographs? I was surprised to hear the family did not remember Stanley as a photographer in Australia. Given his work for such a prominent publisher of illustrated books, it seemed plausible these earlier negatives might have been part of the Kelly & Walsh inventory—indeed most bore some kind of partially visible catalogue number. The family photo albums do show that Stanley actively photographed Hong Kong island and the Kowloon hinterland in the 1920s, sometimes pictured with a folding ‘vestpocket’ camera in hand, or slung across his chest—just the type of camera for the postcard-sized negatives in the Gregory papers. The exhibition therefore assumed the images were most probably taken by Gregory in the mid-1930s. While the is known to have co-published photo books Much of this country’s experience of Asia and Gregory papers make only passing mention with Kelly & Walsh in the 1920s. He too was its arts has been woven from such complex to photography, these date mostly from the later interned at Lunghwa, where he died in migrations and journeys, so many of which later 1930s, when the Gregorys were involved 1944. Yet, no mention of Mennie has appeared remain even now barely known—and even in Shanghai refugee work, which may have in the Gregory papers. when their histories have found their way eclipsed any photographic pursuits. into the national collection. All this further research work suggests that Then, as this TAASA article deadline loomed, our exhibition title (and the NLA catalogue This article, and the exhibition, have greatly low and behold: Stanley’s son, Chris, located entry) requires some updating! At least some benefitted from the research of Andrew Gosling, examples of Kelly & Walsh postcards featuring of the Gregory negatives date from 1920, Gael Newton and Christopher Gregory in images from among the NLA negatives. some possibly earlier. And many baffling (and particular. Christopher Gregory and Ann Argyle Meanwhile, at the National Library, I found fascinating) questions remain. In not a few and their families have been most supportive Juliet Bredon’s Chinese New Year Festivals cases, the NLA negatives are in fact slightly throughout, sharing much additional material. (Kelly & Walsh, 1930), signed ‘To mother, for different to images in the Bredon and Mennie Christmas, 1930. Stanley’—almost certainly one publications, or on K&W postcards, apparently Dr Olivier Krischer is a postdoctoral research fellow of the handful of books included in the original taken a moment earlier or later. Some of the and curator at the Australian Centre on China in the 1969 NLA acquisition. Juliet Bredon was the published images are in a different format to the World, Australian National University. niece of Robert Hart, the illustrious Inspector- NLA negatives, suggesting two photographers, General of China’s Imperial Maritime Custom or two cameras, at the same site. While Mennie REFERENCES Service (1863 to 1911). More importantly, seems to have worked in large format, possibly Bredon, Juliet, 1930. Chinese New Year Festivals, Kelly & Walsh, Shanghai. this publication features illustrative duotone persisting with the old wet-plate process, the Bredon, Juliet, 1920. Peking: An Historical and Intimate Description vignettes decorating page corners which in NLA negatives were produced with medium of its Chief Places of Interest, Kelly & Walsh, Shanghai many cases are the same or similar to images format roll film. Moreover, despite these Kent, Richard K. ‘Early Twentieth-Century Art Photography in from the Gregory negatives. Other Kelly & published examples of the images, many of China: Adopting, Domesticating, and Embracing the Foreign’, Walsh publications featuring examples include the NLA negatives are clearly amateur studies, Trans Asia Photography Review, vol. 3, issue 2, Spring 2013.

Bredon’s authoritative Peking (first edition 1920). suggesting the possibility of a more amateur Mennie, Donald, 1921. The Pageant of Peking: comprising sixty-six Making matters more complicated, Bredon’s hand such as Gregory’s. Vandyck photogravures of Peking and environs from photographs, images are attributed either to ‘friends’ or to a 2nd edition, Kelly & Walsh, Shanghai certain ‘A. J. Waller’, who remains unknown. While further research into the Gregory Mennie, Donald, 1926. China North and South, A. S. Watson & collection is needed, the significance of these Co., Shanghai Further images matching NLA negatives images and Gregory’s experience in China Newton, Gael, 2016. ‘Kelly & Walsh and the Shanghai Photographic Scene’, Australian Centre on China in the World, Canberra http:// from the Gregory papers are found in the continues to grow. For one thing, while ciw.anu.edu.au/events/gallery/stanley_gregory/kelly_and_walsh.pdf lavish publications of Donald Mennie, images such as Mennie’s were printed using Sima, William, 2015. China & ANU: Diplomats, Adventurers, including his most famous work The Pageant photogravure, heightening the soft pictorialist Scholars, ANU Press, Canberra of Peking (Kelly & Walsh, 1920). Mennie was effect, the Gregory negatives offer a rare look Worswick, Clarkand Spence, Jonathan, 1978. Imperial China: the very successful director of the Shanghai behind such contrived images. Reproduced Photographs, 1850-1912, Pennwick Publishing, New York pharmaceutical company A.S Watson & in digital print for this exhibition, his images, Co., which also advertised photographic especially of daily life, are strikingly crisp development and enlargement services, and and immediate.

TAASA REVIEW VOLUME 25 NO.1 13 LUNAR LANTERNS: WELCOMING IN THE YEAR OF THE MONKEY IN SYDNEY

Rabbit Lantern with Claudia Chan Shaw, designed Claudia Chan Shaw in conversation with Josefa Green by Claudia Chan Shaw, Customs House Square, Sydney,

coloured fabric with internal lighting, 2.5m (H) each.

Courtesy City of Sydney

rom 6 – 14 February, 12 spectacular giant the Opera House, of course - representing the F lanterns representing animal signs of the three wise monkeys sitting on a pencil. Chinese Zodiac occupied some of Sydney’s major locations as part of this year’s Sydney The artist’s statement explaining this Chinese New Year Festival. Marking its 20th symbolism states: ‘From the traditional anniversary, this was an ambitious project meaning of the three wise monkeys, our vision orchestrated by Claudia Chan Shaw, the first of the world is limited by what we’re told and specialist curator appointed by the City of by what we choose to accept. The monkeys are Sydney in the festival’s history. It marks the thrust forward on the pencil, the instrument dramatic evolution of the CNY festival from used to write our future and destiny.’ a small community based event to a major tourist drawcard attracting an estimated Fan Dongwang was for Claudia the only 600,000 visitors to more than 80 events person to create the dragon lantern. He is across the city over 16 days and nights - the known to be an expert on dragons, having largest celebration of Lunar New Year outside depicted them often in large scale acrylic mainland China. paintings and sculptures. Placed to protect the gateway to the city on the Sydney Claudia Chan Shaw comments about how harbour foreshore, Fan Dongwang has thrilled she was to be selected as curator for stated that the dragon is a crucial symbol of this project, allowing her to give expression to Chinese culture, in the past representing the both her personal cultural ties with Chinese emperor’s unchallenged power and authority New Year and her passionate identity with the but now also a powerful symbol of Chinese techniques and blended it with Western pop city of Sydney through a family association nationhood. He says: art colour palettes….’ which goes back to the gold rush days. Her conception for Lunar Lanterns was to transform ‘The dragon represents the emerging For the magical celestial ox, Claudia the traditional Chinese lantern display into Chinese cultural identity in today’s world. approached artist Tianli Zu, perhaps familiar something uniquely reflecting ‘Sydney in By cropping the dragon’s body and focusing to readers from her portrait of Edmund summer’: a bright and happy playfulness solely on its head, I have adopted a Western Capon, a finalist entry in the 2015 Archibald appropriate to the year of the monkey. postmodern form of fragmentation. This prize competition. She felt that Tianli’s differs to the Chinese approach that emphases versatility and innovative approach made For this year’s festival, six lanterns were the wholeness of the image. I have mixed her ideal to work on this difficult brief. The commissioned from various artists for the signs traditional Chinese three dimensional carving resulting concept came with a bang – a two of the monkey, dragon, ox, horse, tiger and rabbit. A five metre high lantern representing the goat was gifted by Sydney’s sister city, Guangzhou and displayed in Chinatown. The remaining five lanterns were drawn from past displays, refurbished and in some cases, radically re-imagined. The intention is to commission lanterns symbolising these remaining five zodiac signs for next year’s festival, creating a full set of artist created lanterns over the two year period.

I was especially curious about how Claudia went about selecting the artists for each particular zodiac sign. She says they were ‘100% hand-picked’: being familiar with each artist’s work, she had a clear vision of who to commission for each sign. For example, Laurens Tan is known for the playfulness of his multidisciplinary work, often toylike in style and encompassing animation and sculpture. The monkey sign was the obvious choice for him and he has created, in her words, a ‘playful and delightful’ eight metre high installation – in prime position alongside Ox Lantern, designed by Tianli Zu, Martin Place, Sydney, 748 vacuum formed plastic

Mahjong tiles, steel framing, LED pixels, 8m (H). Courtesy City of Sydney

14 TAASA REVIEW VOLUME 25 NO.1 Dragon Lantern, designed by Dongwang Fan, Dawes Point, Sydney, 400 LED globes covered by nylon fabric, steel framing, 4m (H). Courtesy City of Sydney

storey ox made of 748 majong tiles in radiant guardian angel. Hu Ming’s ‘Four Season Peace give life to radical concepts, such as parachute red and green. Each tile is lit from inside like Tiger’ at the QVB forecourt was depicted fabric stretched over metal framework (for a glowing lantern and the placement of the throwing four balls up into the air on which the rabbits) or vacuum formed plastic tiles tiles is meaningful (for majong aficionados!). were written the characters which translate (for the ox). Mahjong is commonly played during festive broadly to ‘Always at peace. Always be safe.’ seasons such as Chinese New Year and the It was intended by the artist to represent Claudia comments that the extraordinary use of this Chinese element to construct the happiness, wealth, peace and prosperity. use of lighting for all the lanterns was, not ox figure aimed to add a playfulness and surprisingly, critical to achieving their artistic joyfulness to this sturdy zodiac animal. For the horse sign, Jia Hua (Justin) Qian effect. For her own rabbit lantern, for example, conceived of four Tang dynasty like horses some time was spent in deciding on the The concept of tiger worship is widespread pulling a chariot, in crazy patchwork internal lighting effects for each figure – how throughout Chinese culture where people colours. In Martin Place, this lantern invited diffused or how concentrated this should be. believe that the tiger is their mascot and interaction, with participants encouraged to For the horse and chariot lantern, lighting was climb up onto the back of the chariot. not only used to give it a shimmering effect but also to make the chariot wheels seem as if Indeed, the invitation to interact with a they were turning. number of these lantern installations added to their playfulness. Outside Customs House An interesting component of the Lunar on Circular Quay, a group of 13 large bunnies, Lantern project was the way in which it resplendent in their red silk waistcoats with encouraged a dynamic interplay between a longevity symbol, practiced their Tai Chi location and artwork. Apart from locating while people walked through and around individual lanterns in a particular space, them – with one cheeky rabbit looking on the intention according to Claudia was to from the balcony of Customs House, too lazy encourage festival participants to follow or too shy to exercise. Claudia herself was the lantern trail through the city – from the creator of this lantern: for her, it reflected Chinatown through Martin Place and onto a quintessential Chinese practice but also Circular Quay and the harbor foreshore – Sydney in summer, where families gather in jumping from place to place rather like the gregarious groups to enjoy the outdoors. busy, nimble and curious monkey.

The construction of these various lanterns was Lunar Lanterns aimed to create something another aspect which I explored with Claudia new, big and bold for the 20th anniversary of Chan Shaw. Apart from their innovation in the Sydney Chinese New Year Festival. The terms of scale and concept, the lanterns also artists selected were asked to explore dramatic posed technical challenges which required new territory, and Claudia believes that they close collaboration between the artists and delivered ‘beyond her wildest dreams’. the teams commissioned to build them. Contemporary materials were called on to Tiger Lantern, designed by Ming Hu, QVB forecourt, Sydney, hand painted on nylon oxford fabric, steel framing, 1,000 LED globes, 7.5m (H). Courtesy City of Sydney TAASA REVIEW VOLUME 25 NO.1 15 CHINESE INK AND BRUSH PAINTING – A PRACTITIONER’S PERSPECTIVE

Jane Evans

Queyrières, Jane Evans, ink on crumpled paper. Courtesy of the artist

great many of the members of the Chinese A Brush Painters Society that I meet in my capacity as their honorary co-president came to Chinese brush painting from an interest in Chinese culture. For me, however, it was the other way around. I was living in Manila and wanted to find a practical painting course, preferably one that took place in air- conditioned premises – by no means a given in the mid-1970s. The best course available was at the Chinese Artists’ Guild with Professor Chen Bingsun. So, albeit with misgivings about the relevance to me, a westerner, of Chinese painting, I signed up. I soon discovered that the Chinese have spent over 2,000 years developing an amazingly versatile painting medium. I realised that, if I mastered the brush, ink and paper, I could make this medium my own. Professor Chen once told me that he enjoyed having European students because the fusion of two ancient cultures could create something exciting and new. both Lingnan painters. The Lingnan school was In my landscape paintings I normally use Modern painters working in the brush founded by a group of Chinese painters from western perspective. However, I frequently alter painting genre still follow the six principles the Guangdong region in the 19th and early 20th my viewpoint and I am conscious of a desire to of painting set out by Xie He (479 to 501 CE): century who wanted to go back to looking at provide a path through a picture, as you may nature itself, rather than at paintings of nature. see in my painting Our neighbours’ house. 1 rhythmic vitality through harmony of My work is heavily influenced by Lingnan spirit techniques and I am naturally a freestyle painter. Rather than a concern to be innovative 2 using brush strokes to create structure I much prefer the xieyi approach of the literati (or and individualistic in their brush strokes, 3 naturalistic drawing scholar) painters to their subjects. However, I do Chinese brush painters, even in more recent 4 naturalistic colours not think I would have got as much out of my times, follow a distinctive system of strokes 5 good composition Lingnan training had Professor Chen not given passed from master to pupil through many 6 copying the masters me such a good foundation. generations.

Innovation has been slow in this painting Over centuries, Chinese painters have evolved It is impossible to overemphasise the tradition. This is especially true where ways of showing perspective that differ from importance of brush strokes in a Chinese the gongbi technique is followed, a refined vanishing point perspective adopted by painting. They define the medium in a way painting technique using highly meticulous Western artists during the Renaissance. With that is not true of western painting. Technique brush strokes to achieve exact and realistic a Chinese landscape, the viewer may not be in Chinese painting is not hidden, because detail, often highly coloured. In contrast, the carried into the painting by the perspective the artist wants the subject or the idea xieyi tradition, which emerged particularly but may have to walk through it mentally. behind the work to predominate. In Chinese during the Song dynasty (960 to 1279 CE), Landscapes should have qi – a starting point, brush painting, subject and technique are focuses on capturing the essence of what cheng - a continuation, zhuan - a turning point inextricably linked - using brush strokes is depicted with boldly free and expressive and he - a completion. to create structure was Xie He’s second brush strokes. Respect for the masters means principle. Only by mastering technique can that painters have tended to look back to Various conventions are used to help the eye the artist transcend it, subjecting it to his or her sometimes quite distant eras for techniques, to travel through the picture - common ones expression rather than being ruled by it. The which they subtly alter, claiming the antiquity are tree branches or a bridge. Some paintings idea that the total effect of the painting is what of their methods to authenticate them. have the main focus of interest in the centre of matters is western. While modern Chinese the picture but, more often, the eye is carried painters have been influenced by a western Professor Chen gave his students a thorough in a diagonal or a zigzag line up the painting. way of looking at and interpreting the world, grounding in both gongbi and xieyi techniques. The elements of a Chinese painting are not there is no sign of diminishing emphasis on Each subject and technique had to be mastered necessarily all viewed from the same angle. brush work in this painting tradition. before you were allowed to move on to the next. As one moves around the scene, you may see Later, I also studied at the Philippine Chinese trees and people from the side but buildings The nature of the materials used by the Art Center with Hau Chiok and Sy Chui Hua, from above. Chinese painter is very closely bound up

16 TAASA REVIEW VOLUME 25 NO.1 Duomo Florence, Jane Evans, coloured ink on paper.

Courtesy of the artist Our Neighbours' House, Jane Evans, ink on paper. Courtesy of the artist

with what is produced. The Chinese talk of the ‘four treasures’ of painting: the ink stick, the ink stone, the paper and the brush. Colour is not included. Even freestyle painters, who use colour in place of ink to create shape and texture, nearly always also use ink too, using it to hold their composition together.

There are many sorts of Chinese painting paper. Some is sized, but freestyle painters prefer unsized, absorbent paper. Strokes begun and finished on the paper are blunt, for a tapered effect the stroke needs to be continued into the air. Strokes done slowly spread; a crisp stroke must be executed fast. Thus the immediacy of the impact of a freestyle Chinese painting and the demand for the ‘life force’ not to be broken is, at least partly, demanded by the paper. Completing a painting ‘in one breath’ is a practical as well as a philosophical necessity.

Because of its absorbency and strength, the paper lends itself to experimentation. Modern Chinese painters have used a variety of substances as resists; alum, milk and acrylic medium provide varying degrees of resistance. Texture can be applied to paper by painting another surface, canvas or the back of hardboard for example, with ink or colour and pressing the paper onto it. Many painters use sponges to apply paint and ink. As with any painting medium, Chinese brush Jane Evans read Archaeology and Anthropology at Because the wash is the final stage of a painting, painting techniques can be used for more Cambridge University. She studied Chinese brush a picture can be begun by damping the paper, abstract images. Another of my paintings painting at the Chinese Artists’ Guild and at the screwing it up and carefully unfolding it. This Duomo Florence illustrates my interest in Philippine Chinese Art Center in Manila. Jane has creates ridges and dips that give texture if combining western themes with Chinese exhibited widely and runs classes and workshops in ink is lightly brushed over the surface. How painting techniques. Britain and abroad. Her four books and many articles you fold or screw up the paper will alter the have played a major role in popularising Chinese texture. Redamping the paper to apply the In all my work I try to experiment with the painting techniques in Europe and the USA. She is wash eases out the ridges and any that remain way we see the world around us, which Honorary Co-President of the Chinese Brush Painters can be removed when the painting is stretched changes constantly as we look. I endeavour Society. See more of Jane’s work at www.janeevans. at the backing stage. Once a painting has been to combine my western approach and my co.uk. backed, you can add details in pastel or apply desire to be original with my Chinese brush gold, silver or copper leaf. My brush painting painting training. I aim to remain true to the Queyrières has achieved some of its effects importance of technique and the need to seek through using a crumpled paper technique. out the essential nature of my subject.

TAASA REVIEW VOLUME 25 NO.1 17 REVIEWING ASIAN FOOD IN 1970s AUSTRALIA: TAASA QLD AWARD WINNING RESEARCH AT THE UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND

Gael Newton

n Wednesday 30 September 2015 I was With parallel sessions of media visual culture such as the Vietnam War on Australian social O honoured to be one of three keynote literature and art history, the two days of life and Asian art connoisseurship. speakers at the 19th annual University of papers such as Giang Nguyen’s ‘Collective Queensland (UQ) School of Communication wound, private healing: Reality television Among the creative artist papers at WiP was and Arts postgraduate Work in Progress and national reconciliation in post-Reform a presentation about a documentary cum (WiP) Conference. This was possibly the first Vietnam’ were an unfamiliar but revealing and photobook epistle by Isaac Brown, a PhD occasion the WiP specifically sought and stimulating mix. A member of the organising candidate at the University of Qld and a included Asian visual art research. committee and TAASA member Sushma sessional lecturer at the Queensland College Griffin showed in her paper ‘Resisting the of Art, Griffith University. Brown lays out My presence was part of the inaugural Photography of History: Reframing Rebellion the complex disjunction between himself TAASA (QLD) sponsored WiP Asian art panel in Two Lucknow Albums, 1856 and 1874’ that (perhaps also his generation) and his Vietnam discussion. My talk compared two pioneer images found in such albums are not simply war veteran father. Inspired by TAASA QLD indigenous professional photographers in products of ‘colonial disaster tourism’ but Convenor Dr James MacKean’s underwriting Southeast Asia: Javanese Kassian Céphas exhibit subtle nationalist affirmations. of the TAASA prize, I also elected to sponsor a (1844-1912), official photographer to the creative prize to Brown for his sensitive study. Yogyakarta sultanate from the 1870s to early Alison Vincent from Central Queensland 1900s, and Shapoor N Bhedwar (1858-1916), University earned the TAASA QLD award While neither award was for conventional the Bombay Parsi and studio photographer for demonstrating the role of 1970s food Asian fine art topics, their context in the who studied Pictorialist art photography in critics Richard Beckett and Leo Schofield cross-disciplinary program of the Queensland London and made allegorical series referencing in expanding local food connoisseurship to School of Communication and Arts was a aspects of Persian/Parsi and mystical Hindu include an appreciation of more than the classic reminder that artistic taste and scholarship narratives in the 1890s (see TAASA Review vol French tradition of haute cuisine. The number are part of the zeitgeist of their time. 23, no. 1, March 2014). I argued that both men and variety of Asian food reviews that both had adapted global conventions of western clocked up were a revelation. I well remember Gael Newton is Foundation Photography Curator at commercial and salon art photography to their the Queen Street food fair in 1976 that was the Art Gallery of NSW and former Senior Curator of own culture, possibly with proto-nationalist my first introduction to Southeast Asian Photography, National Gallery of Australia. underpinnings. My other role was to judge food. Alison Vincent’s presentation triggered and present the TAASA QLD prize for the thoughts of possible relationships between the REFERENCE Clark, John (ed), 1993. Modernity in Asian Art. University of best essay addressing Asian art under the WiP emergence of Southeast Asian food in 1970s Sydney East Asian series 7, Wild Peony Sydney theme of ‘Text, Creativity, Resistance’. Australia and the legacy of political events

DINING IN THE 1970s WITH A SIDE SERVE OF SUBVERSION: THE RESTAURANT REVIEWS OF RICHARD BECKETT AND LEO SCHOFIELD

Alison Vincent

My paper on the above topic was presented Beckett and Leo Schofield encouraged his other responsibilities, he took on the at the University of Queensland School of readers not only to eat out but also to venture guise of Sam Orr and became the journal’s Communication and Arts, Work in Progress beyond the more familiar and traditional restaurant critic. Conference 29-30 September 2015. tastes of Europe and experiment with new flavours, not least of all the cuisines of Asia. Leo Schofield was an advertising man. The theme of the conference was ‘Text, Originally interested in a career in theatre Creativity, Resistance’. Richard Beckett was a journalist whose production he had lived in London in the work had taken him to many different early 1960s and had subsequently travelled In Australia, the need to know about food places– rural Canada, London, East Africa, widely in Europe. He was a competent and to be able to talk knowledgeably about Port Moresby, Hong Kong and Vietnam. cook and knowledgeable about food, eating and drinking began to become an A good cook and a keen gardener, these especially French food but, like Beckett, he essential part of the aspirant middle-class experiences served to give him a grounding had no formal qualifications or restaurant lifestyle in the late 1960s and early 1970s as in a diversity of cuisines and particularly industry experience. What he did have was the post-war baby boomer generation came the tastes of Southeast Asia. In 1970 Beckett connections who invited him to write a of age. In 1971 the first newspaper columns was recruited as sub-editor of the Sunday column for the Sunday Australian on a topic dedicated exclusively to restaurant reviews Review, which subsequently became Nation of his own choosing. His first review was appeared in newspapers. In Sydney, Richard Review. In March 1971, in addition to published on 23 May 1971.

18 TAASA REVIEW VOLUME 25 NO.1 Beckett tailor-made the character of Sam Orr to fit the ethos of Nation Review which, under its founding editor Richard Walsh, had a reputation for larrikinism and iconoclasm. Sam was opinionated, deliberately unconventional and out spoken. His observations on restaurants are buried in often very funny stories of drunken exploits and his tumultuous personal life, riddled with anti-women’s liberation jokes and sexual references. Needless-to-say not everyone found his ‘Tucker’ column either amusing or informative. However, Beckett saw Sam Orr as speaking for the ‘common man’ and through Sam was at pains to show that good taste was not something confined to the moneyed or genteel.

Richard Beckett, publicity photograph, Portrait of Leo Schofield, 2001, Brent Harris, oil on canvas. Schofield on the other hand positioned papers and publications of Richard Beckett 1951 – 1990, Gift of the artist through the Cultural Gifts Program, Art himself as the suave, urbane man about Box 5, MS7355, NLA Collection, Arts Centre Melbourne. Photo: Mark Ashkanasy town. His writing is witty and breezy, he has a wry sense of humour, happily sprinkling with Beckett, he made no excuse for being their restaurant guides which covered a his reviews with colloquialisms. Schofield actively critical. Beckett and Schofield range of restaurants and provided a more was neither sycophantic nor deferential both saw that they had a role to play in or less detailed assessment of each. and, whilst he might dine with celebrities educating diners and improving restaurant and spend his holidays in Europe, he was practices and they both brought their Despite their very different styles they were not elitist. Most importantly, in common philosophies to a wider audience through in overall agreement about what was wrong

TAASA REVIEW VOLUME 25 NO.1 19 ABOVE: Book cover for Eating out in Sydney, 1976.

Photo: Alison Vincent

LEFT: Charmaine Solomon, TV kitchen demonstration.

Source: www.hungryaustralian.com

with Sydney restaurants and with Sydney Beckett’s 1977 guide listed Chinese, Australian immigration policies in the 1960s eaters. From restaurants they demanded Indonesian, Japanese, Malaysian/Chinese, and 1970s brought more Asian immigrants quality and above all fresh ingredients. They Thai and Vietnamese restaurants, in all to settle here permanently and the jet age also expected efficient, courteous service. amounting to 18 per cent of the restaurants meant that Australians could travel more They admonished restaurateurs for a variety he deemed worthy of inclusion (Beckett easily and more cheaply to explore Asia for of ‘rip offs’ such as the mark-up on wine 1977). By 1984 when Schofield edited themselves. and for making money out of garlic bread the first Sydney Morning Herald guide to and they both criticised predictable and Sydney restaurants he was able to include It should be no surprise then that unimaginative menus. Diners on the other a total of 50 restaurants serving food from restaurants serving Asian food would hand also needed to lift their game. They China, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, begin to proliferate during the 1970s and were rebuked for their lack of imagination, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand and 1980s. What is significant is that Beckett for not being prepared to adapt and Vietnam (Schofield, Dale and Price 1984). and Schofield promoted these restaurants experiment with new dishes and for not as worthy of consideration by diners who demanding more of restaurateurs. Schofield There has been a Chinese presence in may not have travelled or experimented went so far as to call Australians a “nation of Australia since the gold rushes of the with Asian food at home, and that they slack–gutted slobs’ indifferent to the civilities 1850s and by the 1970s restaurants serving considered the food and service provided of life” prepared to passively “accept pig Chinese-style food in one form or another of a sufficiently high standard to warrant swill simply because it is served on a plate in were a feature of most Australian cities. their recommendation. a restaurant” (Schofield 1977: 2-3). Several publications had fostered an interest in Southeast Asian cuisine. Alison Vincent has qualifications in science (BSc Both men promoted more adventurous (Hons), Food Technology, UNSW) and history (BA, eating by including in their guides a variety The first Australian edition of Maria Kozslik MLitt, UNE) and is currently undertaking a PhD at of restaurants serving diverse cuisines from Donovan’s The Far Eastern Epicure (1961) Central Queensland University. Alison’s research expensive, high end places specialising in featured recipes from Indonesia, Malaya, explores the writing of restaurant critics in Sydney French haute cuisine to cheaper ‘ethnic’ Singapore and Japan. The Margaret Fulton and Melbourne in the 1970s and 1980s and the restaurants, not least of all restaurants Cookbook, published in 1968, included role of restaurant criticism in establishing standards specialising in cuisines which fall into the recipes for Chinese dishes, curries, chicken of good taste. broad category of Southeast Asian. teriyaki, sukiyaki and Malaysian beef satays. REFERENCES In his first guide to Sydney restaurants Beckett, R., 1977. Sydney restaurant guide [by] Sam Orr, Ure Smith, Sydney Schofield includes 11 Chinese restaurants, Charmaine Solomon began writing for Schofield, L., 1974. Eating Out in Sydney 1975, one Japanese and one Indian, accounting Woman’s Day in the 1960s and brought out Angus & Robertson, Sydney for just over nine per cent of all the her South East Asian Cookbook in 1972. Her Schofield, L., 1977. Eating Out in Sydney 1977, restaurants covered (Schofield 1975). By signature book, The Complete Asian Cookbook, Angus & Robertson, Sydney 1977 the numbers had risen so that 13.5 published in 1976, covered the food of India, Schofield, L., Dale, D. and Price, J., 1984. The Sydney Morning per cent of the restaurants listed in Leo Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Malaysia, Herald Good Food Guide to eating well in and around Sydney, Schofield’s Guide to Eating Out in Sydney Singapore, Burma, Thailand, Laos, Anne O’Donovan, Melbourne served Chinese, Indian or ‘South East Cambodia, Vietnam, Philippines, China, Asian’ cuisine (Schofield 1977). Korea and Japan. In addition, the changes in

20 TAASA REVIEW VOLUME 25 NO.1 THE CERAMIC WORKS OF YEUNG-AN JANG AT MAAS

Min-Jung Kim

Buncheong bowl with the ten longevity symbols, Yeung-An Jang, Icheon, Korea, 2010.

Collection: Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, Sydney. Photo: Ryan Hernandez

eung-an Jang (born 1952) is an artist who Y strives to create a balance between old and new in making ceramic works. He says: ‘I am trying to create works that reflect the life of contemporary people rather than imitating old things. I would like to master traditional skills and advance it further with my creativities. I would like to try what others have not.’

Yeung-an Jang has devoted his life to pottery making in South Korea for nearly 40 years. He is a third generation ceramicist who has been making mainly Korean style celadon wares in Icheon, a world famous centre for ceramics and the location of the World Ceramic Biennale.

Jang’s celadon ware at first glance surprised my ‘trained eye’ because some of his works are quite radical in their shapes, designs and colours. Usually, pale green glazed Korean celadon is quiet and restrained both in shape and finish. An effect of dignity and monumentality is achieved by the subtle proportions of the piece and by the use of colour and glaze quality. Koreans have admired celadon wares for centuries for its unique jade-like green glaze. Known as ‘Goryeo celadon’ as it was developed during the Goryeo dynasty (918-1392), it was particularly praised for its beautiful colour and unique inlaid decoration. Initially produced from around the 9th However, the most important decorative or early 10th century, the development of innovation was the use of inlay or sanggam Unlike the minimal design and simple shapes Korean celadons in the 11th century owed technique developed during the 12th century. of Goryeo style celadon, Jang’s works are much to the transfer of Chinese technology, In this method, the surface of half dried raw characterised by busy open work geometric particularly from the Yue kilns in Zhejiang clay is scratched or incised with a fine tool patterns, often decorated with repeated flower province. Plain, or decorated with incised or in the intended pattern, then the incisions motifs. Furthermore, Jang challenges the carved decoration, Korean potters had fully are filled with white or black slip, and any traditional small bowl-like cup shape used for mastered celadon technique by the late 11th excess above the surface scraped off. The rice wine or green tea with his western style century, achieving the exquisite blue-green combination of this decoration with delicate wine goblets and coffee cups with handles. jade like colour that was so admired by the lines of lighter green or black on beautiful His use of vivid red slip and carved design Chinese. In the 12th century, the colour of green glaze resulted in what has been contrasting with the pale green glaze body is Goryeo celadon, described as ‘secret colour considered the most subtle and beautiful also very new. Traditionally, Korean potters ware’ was highly praised by a Chinese scholar pottery ever produced in Korea. used delicate line designs in light green or from the Southern Song Dynasty, Taiping black that matched the pale green glaze. Laoren as ‘the first under the heaven’ in his Like many other potters in Korea, Jang has book Xiuzhonggin, along with other highly spent his lifetime acquiring these traditional Creating new art works based on traditional precious Chinese items. skills. Born as a son of the potter Chang-hwan techniques and aesthetics is not an easy task Jang (1914-2003), he grew up playing with clay for Korean potters as many aspects of their While Goryeo craftsmen absorbed technical and seeing his father making pots. After nearly production processes and design are so deeply and stylistic influences from a range of four decades of practice, he has reached a state embedded in tradition that they have become Chinese wares such as Ru, Ding, Yaozhhou of mastery. The glaze of his works is subtle and almost ‘law’. The colour and shape of celadon and Cizhou wares from the north, innovations his sanggam technique is delicate. ware are exceptionally important elements in were introduced which have made Goryeo its origin and the traditional skills needed to celadons so unique and distinctive. These In particular, his master pieces using double- make celadon ware were accumulated with included animal and vegetable shaped vessels layered open work are superb. He has spent considerable experimentation and effort over and large areas of openwork or relief carved many years mastering this extremely difficult time in the Goryeo period. lotus petals (Portal 2000:102-103). technique. To achieve the desired forms, a

TAASA REVIEW VOLUME 25 NO.1 21 Celadon bottle in a gourd shape with seven treasures Celadon vase with ‘Sanggam treasure’, Celadon bottle with a ‘meihua’ (Asian plum blossom),

design, double-layered openwork design, Yeung-An Jang, double-layered open work design, Yeung-An Jang, double-layered openwork design, Yeung-An Jang,

Icheon, 2010. Collection: Museum of Applied Arts and Icheon, Korea, 2010. Collection: Museum of Applied Arts Icheon, 2010. Collection: Museum of Applied Arts and

Sciences, Sydney. Photo: Ryan Hernandez and Sciences, Sydney. Photo: Ryan Hernandez Sciences, Sydney. Photo: Ryan Hernandez

and coarser in body. The coarse grey body of lozenge, mirror, stone chime, books and buncheong ware was covered with white slip, Artemisia leaf) but has been so favoured by decorated with techniques such as stamping, Korean artists that the coin motif itself has painting, inlay, incising or carving and then become known as ‘seven treasures’. covered in a transparent greyish-green glaze (Porter 2000: 136). It is known as mishima by His gourd shape celadon bottle with open the Japanese by whom it is also prized. Bakji work depicting the seven treasures motif is technique involves applying a different colour superb. Another interesting piece on display slip to the surface of the pot with a brush and is a buncheong style bowl with ‘ten symbols using a decorating tool to carve out the desired of longevity’ or ship-jangseang. This bowl is design. Jang uses imported colour pigments made using bakji technique. to make the red slip for this technique. potter needs to make two similar shapes ‘Ten symbols of longevity’ is one of the most with slightly different sizes. The inner ware Despite all his innovations, Jang’s ceramic popular designs in Korean decorative arts is attached to the outer one when half dried, works evidently respect tradition. Indeed, expressing the wish for a long and healthy then the outer layer is pierced with a carving the aesthetics of his works derive not only life. The symbols are: the sun, clouds, water, knife to form the desired decoration, revealing from his individual artistic brilliance but are mountains, pine trees, bamboo, fungus, the inner. This has to be done very swiftly as grounded in those traditions and techniques, turtles, cranes and deer. They are often the ceramic dries quickly resulting in cracks. accumulated by past generations of potters, depicted in folding screens, embroidery, Dexterity and precision are the most essential including his own family. He is a craftsman ceramics, woodworks and metalwork. skills for the potter. who is truly applying his artistic philosophy of ‘creating new, modelled on the old’. Visitors to the current display at the What really differentiates Jang’s works from Powerhouse of Yeung-an Jang’s work will many other potters in Korea is his creativity. A small group of Jang’s works are on display be able to see how different techniques and While he follows traditional methods of making at the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences aesthetics within the Korean ceramic tradition pots, Jang is not afraid to try different designs (Powerhouse Museum) until the end of June can be fused together and reimagined to and colours. He uses colour combinations to introduce their recent acquisition as part create fresh new works. The display will be such as a vivid red slip with celadon green of the Asian art collection. Most are exquisite shown until the end of June 2016. and applies a technique called bakji which is celadon wares with double layered open- usually associated with another type of Korean work which are his signature pieces. Min-Jung Kim is Curator of Asian Arts & Design at the ceramic ware called buncheong ware. Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences. Jang’s use of a coin motif in his celadon Buncheong ware evolved during the 15th and pieces is featured in one of these works. The REFERENCE 16th century from the late Goryeo celadons, coin motif was one of the traditional Korean Porter, Jane, 2000. Korea Art and Archaeology. The British Museum, London which had become greyish-green in colour ‘seven treasures’ (coin, rhinoceros horn cups,

22 TAASA REVIEW VOLUME 25 NO.1

THE FABRIC OF INDIA: AN EXHIBITION AT THE V&A

Gill Green

Textile fragment, Gujarat, India 15th -16th century, printed and mordant

and resist-dyed cotton, IS.74-1972 ©Victoria and Albert Museum, London

he exhibition Fabric of India, just closed at T London’s V&A Museum, was the highlight of the V&A’s ‘India Festival’ which all through autumn presented exhibitions, displays, events and digital initiatives exploring the ‘rich and varied culture of South Asia’ to mark the 25th anniversary of the opening of the Museum’s Nehru Gallery. The V&A’s publicity further declares that Fabric of India ‘…is the first major exhibition to explore the dynamic and multifaceted world of handmade textiles from India, spanning from the 3rd century to the present day’. Featuring over 200 objects, it drew on the V&A’s own world-renowned collection together with masterpieces from international partners and leading designers. Many of the pieces were on display for the first time.

Traditional and historic textiles occupied the majority of the allotted display space with each display area themed in terms of the decorative techniques with which the textiles were patterned. Short videos showed present day artisans at work demonstrating the techniques. The textile journey continued to the present day with a display of textiles inspired by Gandhi’s khadi movement set in the context of modern Indian history. The final display area featured the impact of India’s decorative mastery on contemporary design. This reviewer was particularly excited to Another fascinating example of a chintz textile What was so breathtaking was the quality see two rare cotton textile fragments, one confirming Indian artisans’ ability to respond of the items on display. These are published said to date as early as the 8th century CE, to cross cultural influences in design was seen in the exhibition’s superb catalogue and the the other approximately five centuries later, on a dramatic panel made on the Coromandel following plate numbers refer to catalogue both recovered from Arabian Peninsula coast for export to Europe but decorated in images. Centuries old pieces in top-notch archaeological sites. These are examples typical Japanese motifs of rocky waterfalls, condition conjured up visions of what courts of Indian textiles from Gujarat exported pine trees and cranes – all in vibrant blues, reds and palaces could have looked like with westwards over this long period of time. and pinks highlighted with creams (pl.176). patrons garbed in these gorgeous garments. One stunning example was a man’s silk riding In the same mode is an intact, five metre An eye catcher was an example of a Kashmir coat embroidered in ari work (pl. 111). This long pictorial banner dated to approximately map shawl, the map being of Srinagar. This was especially interesting as an expert ari work the 14th century which was discovered in highly detailed embroidered map in ‘bird’s practitioner visited Sydney a couple of years Sulawesi, Indonesia (pl. 157). The surface eye’ view, dated to approximately 1875, is ago as a guest of UNSW Art and Design Faculty, patterning techniques and colourfast dyes one of four known in the world, another, affording insight into its contemporary practice. employed in these pieces demonstrate the the so called Godfrey shawl, residing in the antiquity of India’s gift to the textile world collection of the National Gallery of Australia Ari is a complex embroidery technique which – the use of dyes and mordants in textiles. in Canberra. employs a hook instead of a needle to create Indigo and madder dyes gave blues and exquisitely fine, massed chain stitch. The reds respectively and Indian expertise with Another enlightening aspect of this exhibition ari work of the early 17th century jacket on mordants developed those basic dyes to give was the inclusion of items that gave a glimpse display at the exhibition is so fine that the the range of gorgeous shades particularly into how Indian merchants took the initiative hook and the silk thread used must have manifest in chintz, so desirable in Europe. and marketed their textiles. Examples of been hair thin. Adding to the jacket’s aesthetic swatches of cloth designed for specific clients appeal was its eclectic choice of decorative Examples of chintz fashion items found or for what would today be termed trade motifs including elements from Iranian in the West – a jacket and petticoat and a shows were on display. One fascinating manuscript painting, from Chinese motifs as set of four-poster bed hangings (pl.174) example dated to 1869 was destined for the well as European daffodils and poppies. - brilliantly illuminated their popularity. Siamese royal court (pl. 159). It consisted of

24 TAASA REVIEW VOLUME 25 NO.1 Chintz petticoat and jacket, Coromandel Coast, India ca. 1725, painted Kashmir shawl (detail), India, 1850-75, Wool embroidered with woollen thread, 230 x 198 cm.

and dyed cotton chintz, IS.14-1950 ©Victoria and Albert Museum, London Gift of Mrs Estelle Fuller through The Art Fund, IS.31-1970 ©Victoria and Albert Museum, London

strips of cotton cloth printed with the same fashion items employing Indian patterning the range of textiles forms in the exhibition. pattern but in several different colour ways. techniques applied to ‘western-style’ Rosemary Crill, whose curatorial reputation Royal preferences were very specific and any garments. The manner of the display itself, in Indian textile studies is unparalleled, has design not to their taste and requirements rather than the dress items on show, seemed contributed a chapter on ‘Local and Global: would be rejected. to be responsible for creating a sense of Patronage and Use’. She discusses textiles remoteness, with none of that verve and and religions they support, textiles created for A sample batch of 24 styles of indigo and exuberance emanating from Indian textiles we India’s courts, and textiles for export markets white plaid cloth was displayed in the Paris are used to. ranging from Europe to Japan. Exhibition of 1867 (pl.188). This represented cloth available for ‘trousering’ based on Fortunately, even though the exhibition was The concluding chapter ‘ Textiles in the modern English designs aimed to appeal to English of such short duration, the accompanying world’ takes as its starting point London’s residents in India as well as Indian professional hardcover catalogue of Fabric of India makes 1851 International Exhibition, a showcase for classes employed in government offices. In a very worthwhile acquisition, providing Britain’s particular achievements in India. 1866 English agent John Forbes produced 18 not only a fitting record of the exhibition It then goes on to discuss the importance of volumes entitled the Textile Fabrics of India with itself but also a significant update on Indian khadi - handspun, handwoven cloth - and the fabric samples showing details of production, textile studies. Its 248 pages feature 239 textile Swadeshi (‘homeland’) movement initiated by region, cost, weight and dimensions (pl.187). images, both complete textiles and details, Mahatma Gandhi which became a symbol of These would act as style guides for English reproduced in full colour with captions defiance and freedom. The concluding section weavers, textile manufacturers and schools of supplying date, technique, origin and current of this chapter highlights contemporary art in the late-19th century. A publication such location of the piece. Indian textile artists adapting traditional as this unfortunately presaged the downfall techniques to new forms of dress, or creating of the handwoven cloth industry of India, An introduction is followed by Steven innovative patterns applied to traditional brought on by the reversal of the direction of Cohen’s essay on ‘Materials and Making’ forms. The volume is completed by a section trade, now from English mills to India. which is particularly interesting for providing of chapter notes, a bibliography and index. more current information on the dating of Perhaps the weakness in this exhibition was particular textiles and definitive scientific Gill Green is President of TAASA in the very last section covering contemporary details of the materials and dyes used across

TAASA REVIEW VOLUME 25 NO.1 25 IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN: PRINTS BY DADANG CHRISTANTO IN THE CHARLES DARWIN UNIVERSITY ART COLLECTION

Joanna Barrkman

ne recent acquisition to the Charles crime and man’s inhumanity. The head, as Manager at Northern Editions Printmaking O Darwin University Art Collection is the repository of memory, was rendered by Workshop and Lecturer in Printmaking at a limited edition print created in 2003 by Christanto with elegance and simplicity. CDU’s School of Art, 1996-2002), Christanto Dadang Christanto during a period when Using another single red line, he evoked made several prints. Adapting his fluid, he lectured in Visual Arts at Charles Darwin trauma and pain through the vibrant, fresh, signature drawing technique to a new University, Darwin (1999-2003). flowing blood. The face in this print can be medium resulted in these simple yet evocative considered to be either that of the artist or one etchings. Dadang Christanto continues his In keeping with Christanto’s artistic practice, face of the countless others who have suffered practice as an independent artist based in in which he revisits scenes of terrible crimes, and survived similar trauma. Brisbane and is an adjunct academic at Griffith this untitled print was his response to the University. His art is held nationally in major horrific Bali bombing in 2002 that killed Christanto’s childhood experiences during public collections in Australia and overseas. 202 people, shocking both Balinese and the ‘killing times’ in Java, 1965-66, whereby Australians alike. The intensity of the thick, state imposed military violence ‘disappeared’ The Charles Darwin University Art Collection pointed black lines etched in the foreground thousands of Indonesians of Chinese consists of more than 3,000 works of art. The conveys something of the destructive background and purported Communist focus of the Collection is works of art that are explosion of the bomb when detonated. The sympathisers, including his father, shaped his created by artists who reside in the Northern dismembered bodies scatter and eerily float life and subsequent art practice. His art alludes Territory or have connections with Northern in mid-air. Thick, flowing, painterly daubs to the personal and collective memory, both Australia. The collection is displayed on CDU of red ink contribute to this representation of of this specific chapter in modern Indonesian campuses and in exhibitions presented at the mayhem, chaos and bloodshed, evoking the history as well as to other forms of systemic CDU Art Gallery, Casuarina campus, Darwin. moment of the bomb’s impact. violence perpetuated on innocent people. By See http://www.cdu.edu.au/ depicting the witness, and by implication the The work complements another print by victim, Christanto strives to pay homage to Joanna Barrkman is the Curator, Art Collection and Art Christanto held in the CDU Art Collection. their memory and experience. His art seeks Gallery, Charles Darwin University. She most recently This print, also untitled, features the iconic to make the invisible become visible and the co-edited Textiles of Timor: Island in the Woven Sea head that Christanto repeatedly used in a forgotten to be remembered. with Roy W. Hamilton, Fowler Museum, UCLA Press. series of works featured in his exhibition She is currently a doctoral candidate at ANU. The Unspeakable Horror presented at Bentara Christanto, who was born in Tegal, Java, Budaya, Jakarta in 2002. The image of the Indonesia in 1957 studied art at the Yogyakarta REFERENCE solitary head, smeared with blood, became a Institute of Art. In 1999 he moved to Australia Kengerian tak terucapkan (The Unspeakable Horror), 4-14 July, 2002, Bentara Budaya, Jakarta, curated by Hendro Wardhani metaphor in Christanto’s art and installations and lived in Darwin for three years. In that pays homage to the silent witness of collaboration with Basil Hall (Editioning

FAR LEFT:

Untitled, Dadang Christanto,

2001, Etching on Hahnemuhle

paper, 21 x 16.5cm [image];

39.5 x 35.5cm [paper], Workshop

proof, edition of 20, Printer

presumed: Monique Auricchio,

Collaborator: Basil Hall, Gifted

by the artist and Northern

Editions Printmaking studio,

2002, Charles Darwin University

Art Collection

LEFT:

Untitled, Dadang Christanto,

2003, Etching on Hahnemuhle

paper, 31 x 28 cm [image];

53 x 41 cm [paper], Edition

number: 10/10, Printer

presumed: Monique Auricchio,

Collaborator: Basil Hall,

Acquired by the CDU

Foundation, 2015, Charles

Darwin University

Art Collection

26 TAASA REVIEW VOLUME 25 NO.1 BOOK REVIEW: THE ROOTS OF ASIAN WEAVING

Gill Green

are illustrated in full colour. Each one is The components and operational specifics fascinating because of its innate beauty, its skill of the looms at each fieldwork site form the of execution, each enhanced by the cultural dataset for detailed mathematical analysis narrative now revealed and preserved by the in Part 3. The hypothesis proposed is that authors’ fieldwork. the Asian loom evolved in this region from the simple backstrap to the many varieties The book is structured in three parts. Part 1 of frameloom found there and in other presents the cultural and historic background traditions of Southeast Asia. The authors of minority peoples of southwest China and conclude that these regions of southwest what archaeology has revealed about looms China are a ‘…centre of cultural diversity, and as early as the Han period. The authors a key to understanding other textile traditions comment on the conservative nature of the and weaving methods in the Asian region supplementary weft technique by which all including the Han Chinese textiles’ (p3). are decorated, as evidenced by the patterns and weaving techniques passed intact from The text concludes with five appendices one generation to the next. This continuity, covering: literary sources; details of tribute they contend, derives from the complexity textiles from the southwest to the Chinese of the technique which discourages change. court; traditional dyes and fibres; myths; and The Roots of Asian Weaving: The He Haiyan Part 1 concludes with research into textiles phylogenetic methods. There is a glossary Collection of Textiles and Looms from and looms in ancient Chinese culture and of loom and weaving terms in English and Southwest China introduces the looms and handwoven Pinyin, a bibliography and an index. Eric Boudot and Chris Buckley ‘brocade’ textiles of southwest China. Oxbow Books, 2015 The information in this exceptional book will RRP GBS 60.00; 474 pages Part 2 surveys the numerous subgroups of appeal to collectors, dealers, handweavers the Miao, the Yao, the Li (Hainanese), Buyi, and anybody else interested in the remarkable It is not often that a book is published Dong, Maonan, Mulao, Zhuang, Dai and Tujia minority peoples of southwest China and their featuring textiles comprising a completely peoples. The fieldwork carried out between textiles. The precise details of loom operation novel category. But this is that book. It is the 2005 and 2014 is recorded for each of their will encourage handweavers to examine result of collaboration between three authors. subgroups according to a set of specified the possibilities of their handlooms anew; Eric Boudot, an independent scholar living parameters. In this section, traditional textiles textile pattern comparisons will broaden in China since 1984, is a specialist in cultures characteristic of each subgroup are illustrated the understanding of the relationships of and textiles of southwest China’s minority in beautiful full colour plates with many minorities in that region, and the textiles peoples. Chris Buckley, resident in China detailed images illustrating front and back themselves proclaim the unheralded skills for 25 years, is a physical chemist interested as well as photomicrograph closeups so one of weavers, young and old, who undertake in cultural diversity in Asia. He Haiyan is a can actually see the weave structure. The these complex weaves with such unassuming Beijing-based fashion designer from whose particular looms on which they were woven aplomb. personal collection the majority of the are illustrated both as photographs and as featured textiles are sourced. These authors’ detailed schematic drawings. Gill Green is President of TAASA and author of biographical details assume far more than Traditional Textiles of Cambodia (2003) and Pictorial passing importance as it is their expertise Each turn of the page reveals another Textiles of Cambodia (2008). and skills, in quite different disciplines, that masterpiece of weaving. Many are dated have combined to produce this unique and to the ‘nineteenth century or earlier’, a scholarly publication. somewhat broad reach, while the others are dated to the late 19th and early 20th century. That said it is not just the depth of A small number are contemporary examples scholarship, but the textiles themselves that produced for sale to tourists, commissioned are extraordinary. Those in He Haiyan’s for traditional weddings by non-weavers, or collection, supplemented by others sourced as gifts for giving by government officials. from private collections, are completely new The authors state that they deliberately use to this reviewer at least. They originate from the term ‘brocade’ generically in the text for China’s southwestern provinces of Guizhou, these supplementary weft patterned textiles Guangxi and Yunnan, along the border of to avoid multiple repetitions of that phrase. Hunan, in northern Laos and Thailand and This is somewhat problematic as it conjures extend offshore to Hainan Island. Wedding up images of luxury silk textiles with repeat blankets, wedding bags, jackets, burial skirts, patterns so associated with the Han Chinese baby carriers, women’s wedding garments, court. The term ‘supplementary weft’ is, and Hainan island’s own unique tube skirts however, used in the image captions.

TAASA REVIEW VOLUME 25 NO.1 27 JOYCE BURNARD: CELEBRATION OF A LIFE

Sandra Forbes and Philippa Sandall

Joyce Burnard on her 90th birthday

oyce Burnard, journalist, entrepreneur, textile J historian and long-time member of TAASA – thus read the caption under the photo of Joyce in the TAASA Review of December 2011 (vol.20/4, p14), the issue which celebrated the 20th birthday of The Asian Arts Society of Australia. A perfect description of a woman who in many ways was a role model for others a generation behind her. Joyce died on 20 September 2015 at the age of 97.

Until recent years, Joyce’s elegant, neatly grey- haired personage was a familiar figure at most TAASA events in Sydney. Widely respected for her textile scholarship (as author of books, articles and talks on various subjects), she was equally admired for her friendliness, interest in others, willingness to share her knowledge and experience – and for her TAASA-appropriate fashion sense. She was always the epitome of Asian-inspired style.

In reality, as Joyce herself wrote: ‘there was a full time job. In later years, she would proudly Eric died in 1991. Joyce’s many involvements time when my knowledge of Asia was very relate how she was the first person to come helped her cope without him. As she herself superficial’. Born in Auckland, New Zealand up with the idea of fund-raising Literary records, she joined TAASA ‘because I wanted in 1918, Joyce Halstead said she always Lunches, and how ultimately she organised to talk to like-minded people about what I had dreamed of travel to ‘exotic places’. Her early 32 such lunches ($2.00 a head for sandwiches discovered, as well as learn about other places life as a secretary and university student and a glass of wine – what a bargain!). in Asia’. She was also a stalwart supporter changed utterly when, after training as a of VisAsia. She wrote for this journal, nurse towards the end of the Second World In 1967, Joyce and her husband bought and bringing her skills to bear in particular for War, she joined the New Zealand Women’s renovated a terrace house in John Street, the invaluable ‘Hatched in a Yurt: the birth of Army Auxiliary Corps as a Nursing Aid, Woollahra, which was her home and haven TAASA (TAASA Review vol.10/4, Dec 2001, applied for overseas posting, and in March for the next 44 years – and also the location pp16-17), which records the early history of 1945 sailed for Bari, southern Italy. of her first ‘office’ when she entered the the Society. She also published articles on textile world. This, as Joyce always insisted, topics as varied as tapa cloth and ceramics Following her demobilisation in Italy in happened by chance. Having received in the TAASA Review, while photos in the 1946, she stayed on to work in Milan with what she described as a bunch of samples TAASA ‘social pages’, especially those taken the British Consulate and in London with the of Indian hand-loomed furnishing cottons at meetings of the NSW TAASA Textile Study Foreign Office, and to travel and see some with beautiful textures from a friend based Group, record Joyce’s deep interests and of those exotic places. On her return to New in Delhi, she showed them to some interior inimitable style. Zealand in 1947, she became a journalist with decorators she knew, who pronounced them New Zealand Woman’s Weekly. Then in 1957 she ‘brilliant’ – and the next thing she was, in Vale, Joyce, we miss you. moved to Sydney and joined the Australian 1974, the proprietor of Ascraft Fabrics. This Women’s Weekly as a sub-editor. meant she had to go to India. Sandra Forbes is an Indiaphile and a former editor of TAASA Review. Philippa Sandall is a writer and editor. Sydney suited Joyce. She had a job she loved, Love at first sight. As Joyce later wrote: ‘… and colleagues she kept all her life as friends. contrary to what I had expected I was bowled She always maintained strong ties to New over by India, absolutely fascinated by its Zealand, however, and these were reinforced multitude of colours and textiles’. Along with when in 1962 she married a New Zealander, building and running a successful business, Dr Eric Burnard, a neo-natal specialist who she spent the next ten years finding out where had come to Sydney in 1961 to set up a unit those wonderful textiles came from, and for the newborn at the Women’s Hospital, the result was her beautiful book Chintz and Crown Street. Drawn into fund-raising for Cotton: India’s textile gift to the world (Kangaroo the hospital, Joyce was soon elected Honorary Press, 1994). This is now out of print, but as- Secretary of the Hospital Committee, a role new copies are advertised on some websites she took so seriously that it nearly became a for up to $150.00 each.

28 TAASA REVIEW VOLUME 25 NO.1 RECENT TAASA ACTIVITIES

TAASA VICTORIA advantage of a balmy Sydney evening to TAASA TEXTILE STUDY GROUP, sit outside in the grounds of the S.H. Ervin SYDNEY TAASA end-of-year party and viewing of gallery in the historic National Trust Centre private collection on Observatory Hill. Our caterer and barman Ethiopia under Wraps 12 November 2015 were kept busy throughout the evening, but 10 November 2015 TAASA Victoria’s end-of-year party was held the biggest drawcard was the return this Ethopia? Asia? We all wondered about the at the St Kilda home of collector Boris Kaspiev. year of TAASA’s bazaar which covered many connection, however it was evident from the Dr David Templeman, a scholar of Tibetan tables inside the venue and which brought in outset that TSG veterans Sally Powell and history and culture, led a guided tour of Boris’s some welcome funds. Our sincere thanks to Helen Perry had the pointers clearly marked collection, focussing on thangkas and bronzes TAASA’s many supporters who went to some on the ‘map’ via the trade routes that have from the Himalayan region and covering the trouble to source and contribute a range of existed between Ethiopia & Asia since the history, iconography and meaning of a number tempting objects for sale, or for prizes from 1st century BCE. Sally and Helen had us of pieces. At the viewing, Dr Templeman and lovely textiles and Asian artefacts collected riveted for almost two hours with wonderful Dr Angelo Andrea Di Castro, Monash Asia on people’s travels to a wide assortment of images and (often humorous) stories which Institute, introduced their recent book Asian books and journals. introduced us to the diverse ethnicity of Horizons, published in honour of the great Ethiopia, its religious history, its arts and scholar of Asia, Professor Giuseppe Tucci, and TAASA President Gill Green gave a brief material culture with, of course, an emphasis highlighted how Professor Tucci’s research welcome and did the honours for our silent on textiles. One focus of the talk was on the and scholarship had inspired the wide range auction and raffle. Dorze people, highly skilled weavers from the of contributors to the book. Boris’s warm and South who now dominate the hand woven welcoming hospitality was greatly appreciated. In the auditorium, Todd Sunderman and textile industry in Addis Ababa where they Josefa Green gave a presentation on TAASA’s produce the vast array of body wraps worn new website which was launched that very by men & women across the country. week. Josefa Green It was wonderful to experience this journey through the voices of two friends who have TAASA QLD travelled together extensively over the past 20 years. Helen and Sally’s presentation was UQ Art Museum National Self Portrait supported by solid research plus a wonderful Prize opening and artist talk array of textiles, religious artifacts, jewellery, 13 & 14 November 2015 gourds and pottery purchased with their TAASA QLD members joined a huge throng keen collectors’ eyes. The large audience who TAASA Vic end of year party. L to R: Carol Cains, Patricia Kelly, of art lovers to hear Fiona McMonagle attended made straight for the ‘booty’ laid out Angelo Andrea di Castro and Ruth Clemens awarded the prize for her work One hundred for inspection. NGV Exhibition Blue: Alchemy of a Colour days at 7pm 2015, a single-channel video 6 December 2015 animation, at the UQ Art Museum. A lively During supper a slideshow ran of Helen & TAASA members and friends joined Carol band of TAASA QLD members retired to Sally’s photos from the Omo Valley region, Cains, NGV Curator of Asian Art, for a local Japanese restaurant to discuss the an area they could not manage to cover in the final event of the year – a tour of the artworks over a relaxed meal. A panel the main talk. Here, handmade textiles give exhibition Carol jointly curated with NGV’s discussion preceded by artists’ talks was held way to a mix of bare skin, hides and western Matthew Martin. Blue: Alchemy of a Colour the following day. striped singlets & shorts. Sadly, but inevitably, explored how artists created works in the the traditional lifestyles of the people of this blue and white palette using a wide range of TAASA QLD CERAMICS INTEREST GROUP region are under threat by the construction of methods and styles. The exhibition included the massive Gibe III dam. Persian, Chinese, Japanese and Vietnamese Blue & White Carole Douglas ceramics, indigo dyed textiles from China, Monday 1 December 2015 Japan, Southeast Asia, Central Asia and The Ceramics Interest Group in Brisbane India, and works from Egypt, England and met for an evening meal in a member’s Italy. Carol’s knowledge gave members a home to share some of their blue and white wonderful insight into the objects exhibited. ceramic pieces. During the handling session Boris Kaspiev the differences between hard and soft paste porcelain were pointed out, as well as stylistic TAASA SYDNEY differences between Chinese and Japanese decoration. Highlights of the evening were TAASA end-of-year party and bazaar Chinese wares for the Vietnamese court 1 December 2015 appearing in two collections along with a Around 75 members and friends enjoyed wonderful group of shipwreck pieces. TAASA’s end of year party, where many took Mandy Ridley Ethiopia Under Wraps events. L to R: Brioni Forrest, Ann Marie

Corcoran, Irene Langlands, Margaret McAleese

TAASA REVIEW VOLUME 25 NO.1 29

TAASA MEMBERS’ DIARY MARCH - MAY 2016

TAASA IN NSW A special guided tour at the NGV for Further information on TAASA Victoria TAASA members of this major international events: Boris Kaspiev on 0421 038 491. TAASA TEXTILE STUDY GROUP exhibition of more than 300 works. The TSG meets in the Annie Wyatt Room Cost: $23.40. RSVP [email protected] TAASA IN QUEENSLAND at the S.H Ervin Gallery, Observatory by 1 March 2016. Hill in Millers Point from 6 – 8pm. Light TAASA QLD CERAMICS INTEREST refreshments provided. $15 members, Tour of textile exhibition Threads of Asia GROUP $20 non-members. The venue is close to Saturday 23 April, 2-4pm Wynyard station and parking is available Join a special guided tour with textiles Japanese pottery traditions - old and new on site. Enquiries to Marianne Hulsbosch: expert, embroiderer and Guild member Tuesday 15 March at 7pm [email protected]. Lesley Uren of an exhibition Threads of Asia Members are invited to bring pieces for drawn from the collection of the Victorian discussion and identification .The event is Tuesdays 8 March Embroiderers Guild. The exhibition to be held at a member’s home at St Lucia, Sandy Watson: The Arts & Culture of includes traditional and contemporary starting with a light meal. Cost $10. the KaTu Peoples of Laos - an illustrated Asian embroideries, covering accessories RSVP: [email protected] travelogue and garments from China, Japan and other Tuesday 10 May Asian countries. Thursday 19 May at 6pm Gill Green: A visit to the new Museum of Embroidery House, 170 Wattletree Road, Private exhibition viewing: Holding Traditional Textiles, Siem Reap, Cambodia Malvern, preceded by lunch at 12pm. Lunch Possibility at Percolator Gallery venue tba. Cost $10, excluding lunch. Members are invited to a private TAASA CERAMICS STUDY GROUP RSVP [email protected] by 15 April. viewing of Kerry Holland’s exhibition of ceramics and paintings, entitled Holding Lecture: Inside a Collector’s Head TAASA Study Day: Japanese woodblock Possibility showing at the Percolator Thursday 10 March 2016, 6 – 8pm prints – traditional and contemporary Gallery, 134 Latrobe Terrace, Paddington. SH Ervin Gallery, Observatory Hill, Friday 20 May, 10.30am – 4pm Cost $10. Followed by dinner at a nearby Sydney From 10.30am to 12pm, join NGV Thai restaurant (own cost). Why do collectors collect? Our guest Curator of Asian Art, Wayne Crothers, RSVP: [email protected] lecturer Dr Shirley Mueller’s background for a private examination in the NGV’s in neurology and psychiatry made her viewing room of the 300 year tradition TAASA QLD TEXTILE INTEREST curious about her own collecting choices. of Ukiyo-e (woodblock prints). After GROUP Shirley explores neuroeconomics, the lunch nearby (venue tba) we will visit new science behind big buying decisions, the Richmond studio of contemporary Exhibition opening: The Compulsive illustrating her talk with specific examples Japanese print maker Ema Shin. Ema has Collector: Batik, Tampan, Tapis. from her collection – one of the most held solo exhibitions in Japan and Korea, Sunday 13 March, 3 - 5pm important private holdings of Chinese and has been selected for numerous Members are invited to the opening of a export porcelains in the USA. international group exhibitions. From special exhibition, The Compulsive Collector: Cost: $15 members, $20 non-members. 2-4pm, she will talk about her work and Batik, Tampan, Tapis, organised by Janet De Light refreshments available. contemporary Japanese print making. Boer at Gallery 159, 159 Payne Road, The Cost: $20, not including lunch or transport. Gap, Brisbane. See What’s On for details. TAASA IN VICTORIA $25 non-members. RSVP essential, limited This is a free event. Tour of the Warhol | Ai Weiwei exhibition numbers: [email protected] by 29 April. RSVP: [email protected] Sunday 6 March, 2-3.30pm

ISLAMIC INFLUENCES IN ASIAN Monday 2 May 2016 Monday 5 September 2016 ARTS AND CULTURE View from the Shore: the impact of tba globalisation on the art and culture of Matt Cox: Assistant Curator, Asian Art, TAASA Monday Night Lecture Series 2016 Indonesia during the Age of Spices AGNSW Venue: Sydney Mechanics School of Arts, James Bennett: Curator of Asian Art at 280 Pitt St Sydney Cost & booking the Art Gallery of the South Australia All events 6-8pm. Drinks & refreshments Members $25 per lecture, $30 non-members and co-curator of the recent widely served. Please visit TAASA’s website for Booking confirmation to Jillian Kennedy. acclaimed exhibition Treasure ships: further details. www.taasa.org.au. Email: [email protected], Art in the age of spices. Tel: 029958 7378 Monday 4 April 2016 Monday 6 June 2016 Life was a picnic in the spring: Palace Bookings and payment in advance The artistic and cultural relationship Architecture and the Pursuit of Pleasure essential. No refunds. between Venice and the Islamic world in the Ottoman ‘Tulip Era’ 1718-1730. Payment by EFT: Dr Stefano Carboni: Director and CEO, Dr Susan Scollay FRAS: an independent The Asian Arts Society of Australia Art Gallery of Western Australia art historian who specialises in the BSB: 012-003, Account No. 2185-28414. Islamic world, with a focus on the art Monday 1 August 2016 Please provide name. and architecture of the Ottoman Empire. An Archaeologist in Shangri la: Pay by credit card via TAASA website Exploring the early history of Kashmir www.taasa.org.au. Prof Alison Betts: Professor of Silk Road Studies, University of Sydney

30 TAASA REVIEW VOLUME 25 NO.1 WHAT’S ON: MARCH – MAY 2016 A SELECTIVE ROUNDUP OF EXHIBITIONS AND EVENTS

Compiled by Tina Burge

ACT Lecture series: Tang Culture and its Influence Festival of Tibet Saturday 16, 30 April, 7 May 2 – 4pm Brisbane Powerhouse Celestial Empire: Life in China, 1644-1911 (2 lectures per session) 18 – 24 April 2016 Australia National Library, Canberra 2 January - 22 May 2016 Scholars, curators and art historians explore Brisbane’s 8th annual Festival of Tibet aspects of Tang dynasty culture in this four-part explores the universal theme of Karmic Bringing together material from the NLA and lecture series. Presenters: Edmund Capon AM Imprints – liberation through seeing and the National Library of China to provide a OBE, Assoc Prof Marja Sarvimaki (Bond Univer- hearing - through concerts, exhibitions, window into the diversity of life under the sity), Yin Cao (AGNSW), Prof Sarah Kenderdine discussion and workshops. Activities range Qing dynasty (1644-1911). Objects include (Director of iGLAM Lab), Dr Nathan Woolley from the creation of a Sand Mandala to drawings from the archives of the Lei (Australian National University), Franz Cheung cooking lessons and meditation. family, listed on UNESCO’s Memory of the (Macquarie University). For further information go to: World Register in 2007, as well as maps, ink www.festivaloftibet.com.au rubbings, rare books and folk art. Tang cosmopolitanism: For further information go to: www.nla.gov.au An interdisciplinary symposium SOUTH AUSTRALIA Saturday 14 May 10am – 4.30pm Photographs of 1930s China Great Tales in Asian Art by Stanley O. Gregory International scholars will explore the Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide National Library of Australia multicultural and cosmopolitan nature From 25 March 2016 14 January – 20 March 2016 of Tang culture from varied perspectives, such as artistic representation, religions, The exhibition is drawn from the AGSA’s The Australian Centre on China in the World architecture, and mortuary custom. collection and focuses on the grand (ANU) presents a selection of rarely seen Presenters: Prof Jeffrey Riegel (Director of narratives which remain integral to cultural photographs of 1930s China taken by Stanley China Studies Centre), Prof Eugene Wang identity throughout Asia, including lavish O. Gregory, printed in large-format for the first (Harvard University), Assoc Prof Wei-Cheng screens and woodblock prints portraying time from original negatives now in the NLA. Lin (University of Chicago), Prof James Benn scenes from The Tale of Genji and paintings For further information go to: www.ciw.anu. (McMaster University), Dr Chiew Hui Ho depicting the enduring love affair of the edu.au/events/gallery/stanley_gregory (University of Sydney), Prof Tonia Eckfeld Hindu deities Krishna and Radha. (The University of Melbourne) For further information go to: www. Lectures & events For more information on exhibition & artgallery.sa.gov.au National Gallery of Australia, Canberra events visit www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au VICTORIA 17 March at 12.45 pm: Art for lunch: QUEENSLAND Bronwyn Campbell speaks about an Indian Andy Warhol – Ai Weiwei miniature painting in the Indian gallery. The 8th Asia Pacific Triennial of National Gallery of Victoria International, Melbourne 5 April at 12.45pm: A tour of the new Contemporary Art (APT8) 12 December 2015 – 11 April 2016 contemporary Asian art gallery with Melanie QAGOMA Eastburn, Curator, Asian Art. 21 November 2015 – 10 April 2016 The exhibition explores the significant 1 May at 2.00pm: In association with the influence of these two artists on modern Canberra International Music Festival will APT8 emphasises the role of performance in art and contemporary life, focusing on be Barbara Blackman’s festival blessing - a recent art, with live actions, video, kinetic art, the parallels, intersections and points of discussion about making art in the original figurative painting and sculpture exploring difference between the two artists’ practices. cultural melting pot, the Middle East, with the use of the human form to express cultural, For further information go to: music from Joseph Tawadros. social and political ideas. APT8 includes www.ngv.vic.gov.au 3 May 12.45pm: Dr Chaitanya Sambrani, more than 80 artists and groups, an ongoing Senior Lecturer, School of Art, ANU, program of artist performances and projects. Subodh Gupta - Everyday Divine introduces the new display of contemporary For further information go to: www.qagoma. National Gallery of Victoria International, Melbourne Asian art. (Auslan sign interpreted) qld.gov.au/whats-on/exhibitions/apt8 13 May 2016 – October 2016

NSW The Compulsive Collector: Batik, Tampan, Tapis. Subodh Gupta is one of India’s pre-eminent Gallery 159, Brisbane contemporary artists and his work elevates Tang – Treasures from the Silk Road 13 March – 3 April 2016 the objects found in domestic and street Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney life to a position of spiritual worship. The 9 April – 10 July 2016 The exhibition includes Indonesian textiles exhibition includes key works from his from the collections of three collectors: Iem oeuvre including Cow 2003, a bronze and Showcasing 130 objects from the Chinese Brown originally from Java and now living aluminium sculpture of a life-size bicycle. province of Shaanxi, which demonstrate in Brisbane with Batik of Java; the Tampan For further information go to: www.ngv.vic. the high artistic achievements of the collection of Chris Reid and his wife Evi gov.au/exhibition/subodh-gupta Tang dynasty (618–907). It also includes (Safrina Thristiawati), collected in Sumatra; an immersive digital presentation using and the ceremonial Tapis plus other items pioneering virtual-reality technology. from the Greg Pankhurst collection from Bandar Lampung, South Sumatra. For further information contact Janet De Boer on 0432 492 728 or [email protected]

TAASA REVIEW VOLUME 25 NO.1 31