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VOLUME 19 NO. 1 March 2010 T contents
Volume 19 No.1 March 2010
3 Editorial TAASA REVIEW Josefa Green THE ASIAN ARTS SOCIETY OF AUSTRALIA INC. Abn 64093697537 • Vol. 19 No. 1, March 2010 ISSN 1037.6674 4 Serving the Resistance: Lacquer Painting in Vietnam during the First Indochina War Registered by Australia Post. Publication No. NBQ 4134 Phoebe Scott
editorIAL • email: [email protected] 7 An afternoon in Ahmedabad: In conversation with embroidery master Asif Shaikh General editor, Josefa Green Carole Douglas publications committee Josefa Green (convenor) • Tina Burge 9 When the sun is in line with the water bottle Melanie Eastburn • Sandra Forbes • Ann MacArthur Ann Proctor Jim Masselos • Ann Proctor • Susan Scollay Sabrina Snow • Christina Sumner 12 an Australasian Ceramics Museum in Fuping, China design/layout Janet Mansfield Ingo Voss, VossDesign
printing 14 artist Profile: Won-Seok Kim’s Australian Buncheong Ware John Fisher Printing Min-Jung Kim Published by The Asian Arts Society of Australia Inc.
16 the Nat Yuen Collection of Chinese Antiquities at the University of Queensland PO Box 996 Potts Point NSW 2011 www.taasa.org.au Gordon Craig Enquiries: [email protected]
18 moving the past to the present: a Siem Reap-Angkor Khmer residence TAASA Review is published quarterly and is distributed to members Darryl Collins of The Asian Arts Society of Australia Inc. TAASA Review welcomes submissions of articles, notes and reviews on Asian visual and performing arts. All articles are refereed. Additional copies and 21 in the Public Domain: Japanese Treasures at the National Library of Australia subscription to TAASA Review are available on request. Anya Dettman with Mayumi Shinozaki No opinion or point of view is to be construed as the opinion of The Asian Arts Society of Australia Inc., its staff, servants or agents. 22 Precious Playthings in Dublin: Snuff bottles in the Chester Beatty Library No claim for loss or damage will be acknowledged by TAASA Christine Inglis Review as a result of material published within its pages or in other material published by it. We reserve the right to alter
24 national Heritage or International Commodity? The Situation in China or omit any article or advertisements submitted and require indemnity from the advertisers and contributors against damages Philip Courtenay or liabilities that may arise from material published.
26 traveller’s Tale: A West Timor Wedding All reasonable efforts have been made to trace copyright holders.
Ross Langlands TAASA MEMBERSHIP RATES $60 Single 27 Profile: Jim Masselos $90 Dual Pamela Gutman $90 Single overseas (includes postage) $30 Concession (students/pensioners with ID) $95 Libraries (overseas, $95 + $20 postage) 28 rEcent TAASA Activities $195 Corporate/institutional (up to 10 employees) $425 Corporate/institutional (more than 10 employees) 28 taaSA Members’ Diary $650 Life membership (free admission all events)
29 What’s On: March – May 2010 advertising RATES Compiled by Tina Burge TAASA Review welcomes advertisements from appropriate companies, institutions and individuals. Rates below are GST inclusive.
Back page $850 TAKASHIMA OIKO NO HANASHI [THE TALE OF TAKASHIMA OIKO] BY TAISO YOSHITOSHI, 1889. Full inner page $725
JAPANESE WOODCUT COLOUR PRINT ON 2 PAGES OF HOSHO PAPER, 35.5 x 24.0 CM. COLLECTION OF Half page horizontal $484 Third page (vertical or horizontal) $364 THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF AUSTRALIA. Half column $265 Insert $300 In this folk tale, a travelling wrestler on his way to a tournament seizes the hand of
a passing peasant woman, Takashima Oiko, a legendary Japanese female “Hercules”, not For further information re advertising, including realising she is as strong as she is beautiful. To his surprise and horror he is unable to free discounts for regular quarterly advertising, please contact
himself from her grip, whereas she easily drags him along while blithely continuing to carry [email protected]
her bucket with the other hand. The kind-hearted Oiko then offers to become his trainer. The deadline for all articles for our next issue is 1 APRIL 2010 A full Index of articles published in TAASA Review since its beginnings The deadline for all aDvertising in 1991 is available on the TAASA web site, www.taasa.org.au for our next issue is 1 MAY 2010
2 TAASA committee EDITORIAL
Judith Rutherford • President Josefa Green, Editor Collector and specialist in Chinese textiles
Gill Green • Vice President Art historian specialising in Cambodian culture
ANN GUILD • TREASURER The TAASA Review starts the new year with Australasian Museum in the town of Fuping Former Director of the Embroiders Guild (UK) a general issue that once again demonstrates in China’s Shanxi Province. This museum, KATE JOHNSTON • SECRETARY the range of talent and expertise in the Asian along with about 14 other national museums, Intellectual property lawyer with an interest in Asian textiles art field to be found in Australia and the is the brainchild of retired businessman, Dr richness of our collections. Ichi Hsu. He convinced the owners of a Hwei-fe’n cheah Lecturer, Art History, Australian National University, major brick and tile factory in Fuping to with an interest in needlework Two of the feature articles in this issue create a major ceramics centre which would JOCELYN CHEY represent original research on Southeast Asian provide a venue for ceramists from all over Visiting Professor, Department of Chinese Studies, University of Sydney; former diplomat topics. Phoebe Scott shares the results of her the world to stay, make work and leave their PhD research work on Vietnamese art from pieces behind in purpose built museums. Matt Cox Study Room Co-ordinator, Art Gallery of New South the 1920’s to the 1950’s. She discusses the way This exciting development now seems to Wales, with a particular interest in Islamic Art of in which lacquer painting, a traditional art have developed a life of its own, with more Southeast Asia medium in Vietnam, was used as a vehicle for national museums about to open on the Philip Courtenay resistance during the first Indochina war from site together with a graduate school for Former Professor and Rector of the Cairns Campus, James Cook University, with a special interest in 1946 to 1954. Ann Proctor became intrigued ceramic art, hotels and apartment blocks and Southeast Asian ceramics by the handsome earthenware water pots a 5 year expansion plan, Chinese style, which Sandra Forbes which she has encountered on her many involves establishing 5 international ceramic Editorial consultant with long-standing interest trips to Laos. Her intrepid detective work art galleries – including one in Melbourne. in South and Southeast Asian art has progressed our knowledge about these Josefa Green General editor of TAASA Review. Collector of Chinese beautiful utilitarian objects, as very little Asian art enthusiasts are generally keen ceramics, with long-standing interest in East Asian is known to date about their manufacture, travellers, seeking out exhibitions, collections art as student and traveller distribution and use. and a deeper engagement with the diverse GERALDINE HARDMAN cultures of Asia wherever and whenever Collector of Chinese furniture and Burmese lacquerware We continue to feature Australian collections possible. This March issue offers a number of ANN PROCTOR Lecturer in Asian Art, Sydney University of Asian art with an article by Gordon Craig on articles that aim to share these experiences. and the National Art School, Sydney the Nat Yuen collection of Chinese antiquities Carole Douglas, textile expert and designer,
ANN ROBERTS housed in the Art Museum of the University vividly describes her visit to the workshop Art consultant specialising in Chinese of Queensland. Representing a generous of master embroiderer Asif Shaikh in ceramics and works of art donation by Dr Natalis Yuen, a Hong Kong Ahmedabad, India. Christine Inglis shares SABRINA SNOW resident and alumnus from the University her passion for Chinese snuff bottles and Has a long association with the Art Gallery of New South Wales and a particular interest in the arts of China of Queensland, the collection contains some her experience as a participant at the recent
CHRISTINA SUMNER 100 objects that showcase the special features 41st annual convention of the International Principal Curator, Design and Society, of each major period of Chinese ceramic Chinese Snuff Bottle Society in Dublin, Powerhouse Museum, Sydney production from the Neolithic period to the which focused on an exhibition of exquisite SPECIALIST ADVISOR ON NE ASIA end of the Qing dynasty. Curators Anya snuff bottles from the Chester Beatty Min-Jung Kim Dettman and Mayumi Shinozaki bring the Library collection. Ross Langlands describes Hon. Auditor Rosenfeld Kant and Co rich collection of 19th and early 20th century the wedding of friends in West Timor, a state representatives Ukiyo-e (woodblock) prints in the National fascinating mixture of traditional custom and Library of Australia to our attention in our Paris chic. And Darryl Collins, an Australian Australian Capital Territory regular feature “In the Public Domain”. A now living in Cambodia, tells the truly Robyn Maxwell Visiting Fellow in Art History, ANU; striking example of one of these prints, by the inspiring story of how he saved a traditional Senior Curator of Asian Art, National Gallery of Australia artist Yoshitoshi, has been used as the cover wooden Cambodian house from demolition Northern Territory for this issue. by having it transported piece by piece over Joanna Barrkman a 300 km distance, to be reconstructed as his Curator of Southeast Asian Art and Material Culture, The work of Korean Australian ceramic artist new home in Seam Reap. Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory Won-Seok Kim is featured in this issue’s “Artist Queensland Profile”. Powerhouse curator of Asian Art & Along with a thoughtful summary of Suhanya Raffel Head of Asian and Pacific Art, Queensland Art Gallery Design, Min-Jung Kim provides an insight the current situation relating to the into the way in which the artist integrates prevention of illicit looting of antiquities in South Australia traditional Korean ceramic techniques with China by Philip Courtenay, and a profile James Bennett Curator of Asian Art, Art Gallery of South Australia Australian materials to produce his distinctive of Jim Masselos by Pamela Gutman, Victoria ‘Australian Buncheong ware’. celebrating his profound contribution to Carol Cains the study of India, its art and culture, I hope Curator Asian Art, National Gallery of Victoria International In contrast, Janet Mansfield describes how, that you will enjoy this first TAASA Review TASMANIA with significant input from herself, the work for 2010. Kate Brittlebank of more than 20 Australian and New Zealand Lecturer in Asian History, School of History and Classics, ceramists is permanently represented in an University of Tasmania
3 SERVING THE RESISTANCE: LACQUER PAINTING IN VIETNAM DURING THE FIRST INDOCHINA WAR 1946-54
Phoebe Scott Young Girls and the Sea (ThiEu nU và biEn), 1940, NguyEn VAn TY (1917-1992), lacquer, 94 x 96cm, Vietnam Fine Arts Museum collection, Hanoi
he First Indochina War (1946 -1954) was T a complex conflict. On one level, it was an anti-colonial and nationalist struggle. In August of 1945, Ho Chi Minh had declared Vietnam’s independence from French control. By November 1946, the newly-established Democratic Republic of Vietnam was at war, as France attempted to re-take her former colony. The Communist-backed Viet Minh led the Resistance against France, with a broad base of pro-independence supporters. In the 1950s, the conflict became more implicated in cold-war politics internationally (Lawrence and Logevall 2007), while inside the Viet Minh-controlled areas, there was increasing emphasis on the class-based social revolution (Ninh 2002: 83-117).
For the many Vietnamese artists who supported the Viet Minh, the war had a profound effect on their art practice. Working directly in the service of the Resistance, they were acutely influenced by political changes. Many of these artists had been trained in the École des Beaux Arts de l’Indochine (EBAI) – the art school founded by the French colonial government in Hanoi in 1925 – and had to re-assess the heritage of their education in a highly polarised environment. The debate over the future of lacquer painting, one of the most successful genres of art to emerge from the EBAI, reveals the complex transition that artists faced in this period, and the implications of the wider Girls and the Sea of 1940, the artist uses a support from one of the most important tensions within the war itself. figural arrangement that recalls Botticelli, artists of the colonial period: Tô Ngoc Vân. but through the contrast of the black lacquer Vân graduated from the EBAI in 1931, and The use of lacquer as a means of decorating and the meticulously-inlaid fragments of was of the few Vietnamese artists to return to and preserving both utilitarian and sacred eggshell, creates a strong sense of rhythm the School as a teacher. He was a successful objects has a long history in Vietnam. The raw and pattern. The colonial period’s master of oil painter, and frequently published writing lacquer substance is harvested from the sap of lacquer painting was the artist Nguyen Gia on the visual arts. Following the Revolution, the Rhus succedanea tree, indigenous to North Trí, who exploited the medium’s potential Vân gave his support to the Viet Minh. In Vietnam. At the EBAI, the search for a local for lyricism in his images of women, blurring 1948, he established a studio in the Viet form of modern art led to experiments with figure and ground in a manner that tended Minh-controlled province of Phú Tho, where using lacquer as a painting medium. Artists at toward abstraction. he created artworks with patriotic themes. As the EBAI developed a process called son mài Phú Tho was the foremost lacquer-producing or “rubbed paint”: multiple layers of lacquer In 1946, a number of the leading artists region in Vietnam, Vân decided to experiment were built up on a flat support, then rubbed associated with the EBAI moved from Hanoi to with the local material (Quang 2005:181). back to reveal sections of the under layers, rural base areas (called Interzones) and began then polished. The process was arduous, with to create work in support of the Resistance. One of his lacquer paintings created at this each work requiring months of preparation These artists were called upon to produce time is Escaping from the Invader in the Jungle. because of the sensitivities of the medium. “timely art”: generally propaganda work This small, three-panel work was particularly suitable for mass reproduction. There was innovative because Vân managed to introduce Despite this, Vietnamese artists in the 1930s some doubt about the usefulness of lacquer a green pigment into the lacquer (Quang and 1940s produced works of compositional painting at this time. How could lacquer – a 2005:181). Because of lacquer’s sensitivity as complexity and visual richness, exploiting medium that was fickle, time-consuming and a medium, the traditional palette had been the translucent depth of the layers of lacquer. associated with the romanticism of the colonial limited to red, black, a kind of brown known Landscapes and images of women were period – be used to serve the Resistance? as “cockroach wing”, silver and gold from common themes. In Nguyen Van Ty’s Young Nonetheless, the medium received significant inlaid metal, and white created by inlaid
4 TAASA REVIEW VOLUME 19 NO.1 Escaping from the Invader in the Jungle (ChAy giAc trong rUng) (incomplete work) 1948, Tô NgOc Vân (1906-1954),
lacquer, 90x90cm, Vietnam Fine Arts Museum collection, Hanoi eggshell. Earlier attempts to produce cool tones had been generally unsuccessful, as the lacquer reacted to the pigment. Despite this technical innovation, Escaping from the Invader still owes much to colonial-period lacquer painting. Although the title makes reference to the wartime conditions, the image of the women in their intricately-patterned áo dài dresses, melting into the backdrop of jungle foliage, does not mark a strong change of direction in style or even subject matter. The work is thought to be incomplete, which may account for the brevity of some of its forms (Quang 2005:181 and note in Tô 2004:108).
Vân was also a strong advocate of lacquer painting in his writings during this period. In 1948, he presented his ideas about lacquer at the Second National Cultural Conference, an important meeting of intellectuals, artists and Communist Party leaders in the Resistance Zone of Northern Vietnam (published as Tô 1948:18-22). Vân’s thesis on lacquer was ambitious. He believed that Vietnamese artists were the first artists worldwide to use lacquer as an expressive, rather than decorative, medium. He argued that, while Western oil painting had been reinvigorated at the end of the 19th century through such Asian stylistic influences as Japanese woodblock prints, it was once again at an impasse, 1977). It was no longer possible for artists to that it was an imprecise, elitist medium suited with the developments of Modernist painters base their work around the expression of their to the illusions of the colonial period, not the passing into facile imitation. Oil painting subjective experience. clarity of the new, Revolutionary society. was exhausted, and painters worldwide Likewise, Van Cao (the composer of Vietnam’s were calling for a new medium. Vân thought The issue of lacquer was discussed again at National Anthem) thought that lacquer could that lacquer offered a solution: its innate the Conference Debates held in the Resistance only express fantastical (or immoral) subjects. characteristics, such as luminosity and depth Zone in 1949. These Debates discussed how Lacquer did have some defenders, including of colour, had a special capacity to express the to reconcile appropriate form and content those who thought that experimenting with internal life of the artist (Tô 1948:20-21). across all different branches of the arts (Ninh the colours that could be produced in lacquer 2002:88-93). In the visual arts, the Debates would allow the medium to become suitable Vân’s argument was prescient in that he compared the potential of oil painting and for Realist works. The debate ended with a anticipated the focus on the innate qualities lacquer, using examples from the EBAI- lukewarm conclusion, deferring research in of painting media that would drive future trained artists Nguyen Đo Cung and Nguyen lacquer until a future date and reminding modern art movements, such as Abstract Tu Nghiêm respectively. Nghiêm had worked artists to focus on the urgent task of producing Expressionism. However, in North Vietnam alongside Tô Ngoc Vân in his studio at Phú propaganda images. at the time, Marxist theories of culture were Tho, and also made use of the new green tone. gaining importance. Another writer rebuked In general, his lacquer works from this time Despite this lacklustre support, lacquer Vân, arguing that Western painting was were genre scenes of the activities of soldiers painting did continue to be produced during not moribund because of its medium, but in the Resistance Zone, showing an interest in the war. One successful work was made because its artists were working in a decaying precise observation and picturesque detail. by Nguyen Sy Ngoc, also a graduate of Capitalist society (Nguyen 1949:75). More the EBAI, who was based in the north of importantly, at the Second National Cultural The published transcript of the Debates shows Central Vietnam. Communication between Conference of 1948, the Secretary General of that the works of both Cung and Nghiêm the wartime Interzones was limited: as a the Communist Party, Truong Chinh, had were analysed publicly in detail, and were result, different areas could develop stylistic presented his work ‘Marxism and Vietnamese criticised (Tranh luan ve Hoa 1949:57-70). variations (Ninh 2002:86-7). Sy Ngoc’s work Culture’: ‘the most important document in the Among other issues, Cung was considered Friendship between the Army and the People Vietnam Communist Party’s cultural policy’ to be ‘too intellectual’ in his compositions, shows an elderly woman giving a drink to (Ninh 2002:16, 39-45). It was a guideline for and Nghiêm too emotionally remote from a soldier who is on his way to the Front. creation in all branches of the arts. Artists were his subject. Nghiêm’s work also had some The artist eliminated background detail to to pursue Socialist Realism and develop their technical problems, as he was new to lacquer. focus the connection between the two central work from close contact with and observation The debate over Nghiêm’s work quickly figures, which are rendered with a robust of ‘the people’. All cultural products had to turned to the future potential of lacquer. solidity reminiscent of traditional Vietnamese be ‘national, scientific and popular’ (Truong Nguyen Đo Cung spoke out against it, arguing folk prints. Red and gold lacquer is used to
TAASA REVIEW VOLUME 19 NO.1 5 Friendship between the Army and the People (Tình quân dân), NguyEn SY NgOc (1919-1990), lacquer, 80x60cm,
re-named copy by the artist of his lost 1949 work The Bowl (Cái Bát), Vietnam Fine Arts Museum collection, Hanoi
heroic physiques of Soviet Socialist Realism. For example, Nguyen Đuc Nùng’s 1958 work Dawn over the Farm shows an idealised, muscular figure and a dramatic use of light, quite different to the modest and picturesque aesthetic used in wartime lacquer painting.
The discussion of lacquer painting during the First Indochina War shows that it was not easy for artists to dissociate the medium from its colonial-period heritage. Yet despite the pressures of material shortages and the shifting ideological environment, artists did manage to produce innovative work, and in their public advocacy of the medium, they engaged in a serious and thoughtful assessment of the past.
Phoebe Scott is a PhD candidate at the University of Sydney, where she is researching Vietnamese art from 1925 to 1954. She also holds a Masters degree in Asian Art from the School of Oriental and African Studies in London.
REFERENCES
‘Tranh Luan ve Hoa (Debate on Painting)’, Van Nghe, so Tranh Luan (Special Debate Issue) (1949), 57-70.
Bùi Nhu Huong, Pham Trung, and Nguyen Van Chien, 2005. My thuat Viet nam Hien dai (Modern Vietnamese Art), Vien My Thuât (Institute of Fine Arts), Hanoi.
Kim Ngoc Bao Ninh, 2002. A World Transformed: The Politics of Culture in Revolutionary Vietnam 1945-1965, University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor.
Lawrence, Mark Atwood, and Logevall, Fredrik, eds., 2007. The First Vietnam War: Colonial Conflict and Cold War Crisis, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.
Nguyen Đình Phúc, ‘Nhung Chat dùng de Ve (Painting Materials)’, Van Nghe, 13 (1949), 74-80.
Quang Viet, 2005. Hoi hoa Son mài Viet nam (Vietnamese Lacquer Painting), Nhà Xuat Ban My Thuat (Fine Arts Publishing House), Hanoi.
Tô Ngoc Thanh (ed.), 2004. Nho Tô Ngoc Vân (Remembering Tô Ngoc Vân), Nhà Xuat Ban My Thuat (Fine Arts Publishing House), Hanoi.
Tô Ngoc Vân, 1948. ‘Son mai (Lacquer)’, Van Nghe, 5, 18-22. create warmth in the image and heightens the were no longer sufficient guarantees for Tô Ngoc Vân, 1953. ‘Tâm Su mot Nguoi bi Đau doc (Confessions emotional resonance of the moment. producing ideologically correct art. Despite of a Poisoned Person)’, Van Nghe, 41, original page numbers the severity of his self-criticism, Tô Ngoc Vân unknown.
The 1950s brought tighter ideological control had actually produced a large volume of new Truong Chinh, 1977. ‘Marxism and Vietnamese Culture (1948)’, in into the Viet Minh zones. Maoist techniques work during the war, in the form of sketches Selected Writings, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Hanoi. of ‘ideological rectification’, imported from of life in the army and in the rural villages. China, required many intellectuals and artists One of these he developed into a lacquer to make public self-criticisms (Ninh 2002:111- work in 1953, an anecdotal scene of soldiers 7). In 1953, Tô Ngoc Vân wrote ‘Confidences and their porters taking a rest on the road to of a Poisoned Person’, where he publicly the Front. denounced not only his work from the colonial period, but works made after 1945 Given the doubts over lacquer expressed in (Tô 1953). He described how he was unable to this period, it is ironic that in the following give up his attachment to the bourgeois and decade lacquer painting would experience debauched female characters of his colonial a technical flowering. After the war, when art, and rather than relinquishing them, he material conditions had improved, artists inserted them into Resistance artworks such produced large-scale history paintings as Escaping from the Invader. Confessions like in lacquer, memorialising the Resistance. Vân’s indicate that support for the Viet Minh Many of these works were influenced by and a generally pro-independence outlook the dynamic, sweeping compositions and
6 TAASA REVIEW VOLUME 19 NO.1 AN AFTERNOON IN AHMEDABAD: IN CONVERSATION WITH EMBROIDERY MASTER ASIF SHAIKH
Carole Douglas Asif gives guidance to one of his karigars (artisans).
Photo © Carole Douglas 2010 aster embroiderer and designer Asif Shaikh He is of course referring to the years of Mughal M sits in contemplative mood in his newly rule under which Gujarat became a centre of renovated studio perched high over the Indian the Indian textile trade and the deft fingers city of Ahmedabad. The late afternoon sun of its artisans created exquisitely decorated streams through his windows and illuminates silks and satins for the courts of their rulers an array of elegantly designed and exquisitely and later for the world. The royal ladies of embroidered items: a colour-coordinated range the state of Kutch in Gujarat were equally of clothing hangs artfully on a slim rack; several fascinated by Persian motifs such as peacocks glass shelves hold carefully folded sarees and and flowers and the aari style of embroidery stoles, while others offer a selection of the finest with which they were executed. In fact the Indian hand-woven fabrics. The sense of calm popular ‘Kutchi work’ Asif now produces is reflects the man himself and belies the chaos inspired by this period using the same fine of the streets below, where ancient mosques, chain stitch technique that is the hallmark shrines and temples, crowded chowks, of aari. A dedicated researcher of motifs and roadside stalls, shanty towns, grand old havelis, styles, Asif is single-minded in his quest tiny offices and ‘godowns’ rub shoulders for excellence. It takes an uncompromising with contemporary housing developments, taskmaster to produce textiles equal to those cavernous shopping malls, glass office blocks of former times and under his stewardship and high-tech industries. Yet in spite of the city’s a team of highly skilled karigars (artisans) rapid modernisation and changing consumer creates items destined for an elite and equally habits, one can still find inspired individuals uncompromising clientele. such as Asif, who foster traditional textile arts in the 21st century without losing sight of the He brings out several boxes of embroidery examples and copied them meticulously until standards of excellence for which Gujarat was samples and places the contents on the table he perfected each one. ‘Because I have never once world-renowned. with such delight that one can almost see the been taught mechanically I see embroidery young boy who, after his first encounter with from a different perspective. It is an art that Conversations with Asif invariably come around needle and thread during a primary school exists within me and I have made it my life’s to the issue of standards and he is forthright in his sewing class, began a journey that is still work to bring it forth and explore it’. Later opinion: ‘You can already see the drop in quality unfolding. ‘I knew from the first stitch that when I watched him carefully demonstrating - artisans cannot compete with machine-made embroidery was my destiny,’ he reflects. ‘After the perfect stitch to one of his karigars, I found goods. In order to survive they lower costs and that time I began teaching myself everything it hard to believe that the master himself is have to lower standards and if we do not insist I could.’ He visited museums and dealers to entirely self-taught. on high standards then the excellence reached in study styles, he observed artisans at work in the past will simply disappear altogether.’ order to understand technique and he collected Today, Asif’s studio specialises in the techniques of aari and zardozi embroidery, created on special wooden frames called karchob, which are mounted horizontally on the floor. The silk fabric is stretched taut across the karchob and laced evenly in place - tension is critical. The advantages of using this frame are many. ‘The karchob extends the art of embroidery well beyond other ways of working; it allows many embroiderers to work simultaneously on one piece; they can work on a large scale and produce volume for commercial production and the frame offers support to arms and hands during long hours of stitching. Besides, when the cloth is perfectly stretched the quality of the stitch is consistent and gives the perfect finish required by aari.’
Aari embroidery originated with the Mochi (cobbler) community at the time of Mughal rule and still rests predominantly with the same community. It is the domain of Muslim men. The name is derived from the hooked Karigars (artisans) working on Kutchi style 6 metRE satin silk saree in Asif’s studio. Photo © Carole Douglas 2009
TAASA REVIEW VOLUME 19 NO.1 7 TAASA members, Helen Perry (l) and Sally Powell (r), Sydney, enjoy the texture, colour and finesse
of a Kutchi style silk georgette saree in Asif’s showroom. Photo © Carole Douglas 2010
silk thread. His artisans are preparing to finish their day. On one frame a group of nine artisans is sitting cross legged on the floor waiting for Asif to check the work - a full length saree of turquoise blue satin embellished with brilliant pink and red ‘Kutchi work’. One artisan is stitching a layer of fine metal foil (badla) in between rows of traditional aari. It is Asif’s latest innovation, designed to add fashionable sparkle without the weight of mirror discs traditionally used. On another frame two artisans are putting the finishing touches to another length of fabric while his assistant, Zakir, is stencilling new designs onto cloth.
The windows are open and a ceiling fan circulates fresh air - during the heat of the middle part of the day an air conditioner is needle - aar - an adaptation of the cobbler’s and fluid of lines and with subtle gradations used. Asif is scrupulous about the welfare of awl (similar to the European tambour hook) of colour. The finer the awl and the thread, his artisans; he knows their value and treats used to create the stitches. The design is the finer is the result. them with respect; they work a nine-hour first stencilled onto the base cloth; the aar is day, take paid annual holidays, receive a deftly passed through the stretched fabric; the Zardozi on the other hand is worked with 10% salary increase each year and are fully thread is held below the surface to be picked a needle using metallic threads of different insured. In turn, Asif is treated with respect up and pulled back as a small loop; the tip of weights and thickness to create various and loyalty and when he requires more the aar is then inserted through this loop and stitches including satin, stem, chain and workers for important orders there is a large the process repeated to create a continuous couching. Asif explains why the work is best number of artisans eager to join the team. chain stitch that can follow the most delicate carried out on the karchob. ‘We can set the metal elements in place on the stretched fabric Asif carefully looks over the day’s work. surface ready to be picked up by the needle.’ Fabric is rolled around an arm of the karchob; Only the best quality gold and silver threads the following day’s work is discussed at some are used in his studio to recreate the jewel-like length and recently finished garments are splendour of imperial times. inspected before delivery. As we leave the studio, Asif points out his latest endeavour Our conversation is interrupted by the arrival hanging in the foyer. An artist of considerable of a young woman who has come to discuss talent, he is experimenting with embroidery her wedding saree. Asif unfurls a length of as a form of ‘painting’ in which the needle rich deep red silk crepe with the beginnings replaces the brush. This new work depicts of an elaborately worked golden zardozi style a tree without leaves being strangled by a border. They discuss the work intently and smaller plant - a money tree. As he explains, take a long time to decide on the jaal – the ‘The bare tree represents the struggle of individual motifs that will be repeated over artisans - people can strangle art with mean the entire surface of this six-metre length. mindedness - they can kill with bargaining.’ She brings her gold jewellery for inspiration. No detail will be spared in the planning of We descend nine floors in the creaking lift this forthcoming marriage. After she departs and enter the haze of evening streets. A camel Asif confides that she is a daughter of one of cart vies for space in peak hour traffic, a small the Gharana families - those of old wealth girl begs persistently for money, crowded and position who appreciate quality and can auto rickshaws move people across busy afford to buy. He has no time for those who intersections and I am immediately thrust request discounts. ‘I tell them that discounted back into the cacophony of Ahmedabad. prices mean discounted work. They soon get Another perfect day ends in this city of the message.’ contrasts and in the affirmation of a young boy’s dream. In the background the studio hums with concentrated effort as highly skilled artisans Carole Douglas is an educator, designer and sit cross-legged at their karchob and stitch environmental advocate who specialises in textiles Asif’s designs into fine satin and silk fabrics. and their production. She leads regular tours to India As we move into the large, light room I am and since 2003 has worked as a design facilitator for reminded of scenes from Beatrix Potter’s the Victoria and Albert Museum shop in London. classic The Tailor of Gloucester, as small hands deftly and swiftly stitch with brilliant twisted
8 TAASA REVIEW VOLUME 19 NO.1 WHEN THE SUN IS IN LINE WITH THE WATER BOTTLE
Ann Proctor
Water bottle, located in Laos, earthenware, h .29.5 cm, private collection. Photo: Ann Proctor
isiting Vientiane, the then rather sleepy V capital of Laos, in the 1990’s, I was attracted by a collection of earthenware bottles on display in the foyer of the guesthouse where I was staying. Their elegant shape, hand-made individuality and varying patterns on the surface made them aesthetically pleasing. At the same time, their functionality, being porous and thereby having the capacity to cool the water they contained, added to their attraction. Since that first encounter with this particular type of ceramic ware, I have seen many examples, asked many questions, and read what literature I could lay my hands on but there still remain many unanswered questions concerning their manufacture, disbursement and use.
Laos is well known for its spectacular textile traditions. In a recent conversation, Madame Lani, the owner of the guest house where I stayed in the 1990’s, stated that she had bought the bottles on display from people who came to sell her textiles in the 1980’s, when foreign tourism was becoming increasing popular. She recalled that she recognised their cultural significance and therefore kept them as part of a small collection of antiques pertaining to Lao culture.
The National Museum in Laos has a number of examples of these kinds of water bottles, one of which is extremely large, though badly damaged. Similar water bottles are found in other Southeast Asian Museums in Burma, Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia. There is also a fine example in the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery in Washington D.C., currently on display in the exhibition ‘Taking Shape: Ceramics in Southeast Asia’. (http:/SEAsianCeramics. asia.si.edu) Nevertheless, while research and knowledge of textile traditions throughout decoration in a variety of patterns, which not in the area around Chiang Mai in Thailand Southeast Asia is extensive, the field of only enhance the appearance of the bottles tend to have a globular top and a rounded earthenware ceramics, so fundamental to the but have functional aspects as well. Working belly with incised decoration that resembles everyday life of these peoples, remains a the clay in this manner increases the strength a basket. Another distinct and more widely much neglected field, particularly in Laos. of the walls of the pot, while at the same time found group of bottles, with a large belly and creating a textured surface that decreases the a long straight narrow spout, would appear to Most of the bottles examined since my possibility of slippage when drinking from be used for alcohol, whereas more elaborate interest was piqued are between 25-30 cm or handling a wet or damp pot. Some of the shapes, providing a larger surface area for in height. They are made from fine clay and bottles have flat bases, while some are footed evaporation, appear to have been used as weigh about one kilogram when empty. The and the foot is frequently pierced with one or bottles for the personal consumption of water. colours are either red or greyish black in two holes. ¯ These latter bottles have a large belly and then colour, depending on the nature of the firing: a secondary swelling beneath the neck that can a red colour indicating an oxygen rich firing The repertoire of shapes and decoration be either globular or cone-like in shape. and black resulting from limited oxygen would seem to point to particular types being during the firing process. The bodies are made by specific communities for a range of In addition, there is a distinct group of bottles decorated with incised, rouletted or applied functions. For instance, those still being made that have less porous, burnished surfaces, and
TAASA REVIEW VOLUME 19 NO.1 9 are embellished with metal decoration. These statement when enumerating various types In Jinghong region, earthenware pottery attractive pots with their silver elephant- of manufactured items: ‘…a large amount of production allegedly dates from 1860 but shaped finials redolent of the ‘Kingdom of a unglazed pottery is manufactured, chiefly for is now restricted to a number of elderly Million Elephants’ as Laos was once known, domestic use, e.g. water-jars, cooking-pots, women. The wares were formed from an ash appear to have been for ritual, rather than goblets, flower pots, etc. Most of these are gray coloured clay. Wang noted that ‘ball personal use. of their natural red colour with an incised bottom vases’ were amongst the wares being design, but the water-goblets are frequently produced and states that: ‘The surface of Travellers to Laos and Thailand in the 19th black and of an elegant shape’ (Carter, the vases could be plain, or decorated with century remarked on the prevalence of water 1988:28). Both these statements refer to the basket or criss-cross pattern. Some even have bottles or goblets. A letter from Father Brugière area of Thailand around Chiang Mai that was basket pattern at the lower part of the vase written in 1824 states, ‘the earthenware jars once under Lao control. and criss-cross pattern around the shoulder. made by the people of Xieng Mai …are much The vases are mostly used to contain water, esteemed as water coolers. They are very ‘When the sun is in line with the water bottle’, grain, or glutinous rice, or strapped with porous and of various colours- white, red and is a saying recorded by a French traveller, bamboo rope to carry water.’ (Wang 1989:10) black. Some of them are moulded in silver’. Roland Dorgelès, regarding the practice He also mentions that miniature versions of (Bowring, J. vol. 1, 1857:21) Another report of time keeping amongst ethnic groups in these containers were once made for use in on Laos, from 1904, includes the following the area of what is now central Vietnam, the temple to the village god. adjacent to Laos. Dorgelès explained that as there were no relevant mechanical devices, Shippen, in his fascinating book Traditional Silver BOTTLE, h. 34 cm., time was reckoned by various fundamental Ceramics of Southeast Asia, mentions located in Laos, 2009, characteristics of the diurnal pattern. ‘When earthenware water bottles made by women in private collection. the sun was in line with the water bottle’ was, the Malaysian village of Sayong. Again, only Photo: Ann Proctor according to Dorgelès, equivalent to 10 am, two elderly women were left making labu or based on the alignment of the sun and the water bottles. The claimed function of the bottom of the water bottle when it was raised bottles was to keep the water cool, however for drinking. (Dorgelès, 1926: 283-4) in Sayong, water kept in those bottles was also considered to have special medicinal This saying begs reflection on the life of these qualities. (Shippen 2005:195) mountain dwelling people. It is highly likely that ceramic water bottles were widely used In a study of pottery villages in Shan State, by the populace who were reliant on water Burma, 1991-94, Charlotte Reith described from wells or rivers. Taking a mid-morning women making water-offering vases for drink from such vessels was no doubt a Buddhist shrines. Her illustrations and regular practice. Nowadays, why bother descriptions are of pots with a simpler shape to use an earthenware bottle when plastic and reduced surface area, more in keeping bottles are so readily available? While with ritual rather than practical use. (Reith in the cities, one can obtain a bottle of 1997: 75) water directly from the refrigerator and not have to depend on the cooling effect Thus far, the evidence relating to the Lao of evaporation. And of course, most water bottles seems to accord with the people wear watches or tell the time of widely held view that the manufacture of day from their mobile telephone! earthenware ceramics fired above ground is women’s work in Southeast Asian societies. There are a number of Stonewares on the other hand, which are relatively recent reports fired to a higher temperature in specially built about the production of kilns, tend to be made by men. earthenware water bottles. One is by Ning-Sheng Although I have been to Laos a number of times, Wang, concerning his both in the cities and in the countryside, I have research of the mid 1960’s never noticed anybody using earthenware in southern Yunnan Province water bottles. Various people with whom I on the ceramic practices of Tai have discussed this topic, however, do recall ethnic minorities. His research their use. The Washington based scholar, was carried out in two areas where Mary Slusser, recalled people drinking water earthenware ceramics are produced at poured directly from the bottles during the certain times of the year in order to 1950’s and one time resident of Vientiane, supplement income from agricultural writer and TAASA member, Claudia Hyles, produce. Wang observed that, in the reported that in 1988/89 water bottles were Mengjiao region, fine red earthenware placed on the verandah of the Lao National vessels were originally made by Library, where breezes would most likely women. He also noted that ‘sacrificial cool the water. Workers poured water from wares for Buddhist temples were once these bottles into their own beakers. Another in production’ (Wang, 1989:3) person, and member of the Lao royal family
10 TAASA REVIEW VOLUME 19 NO.1 Water Bottle, located in Laos, h. 26 cm, private collection. Photo: Ann Proctor
Mai, Northern Thailand by TAASA members Gay Spies and Sheila Sippel. Furthermore, there are increasingly large numbers of silver versions of the shape currently sold in Laos. The elaborate, overall decorative patterns on these silver pots appear to be directly related to the temple decorations recorded by Parmentier in the first half of the 20th century and still evident in the many Buddhist Temples in Laos and Thailand today. Such patterns exhibit a horror vaccui and reflect a different intent from the decoration on the earthenware examples. A number of the stylish shops in Vientiane today sell lamps that consist of earthenware water bottle bases. In other cases, the pots are used to display dried flower arrangements. A most intriguing re-use is the replication of the shape in wood by a French sculptor based in Vientiane.
As water is now widely available from reticulated sources and the plastic water bottle is ubiquitous, the original use for these earthenware pots seems to be redundant. While no longer functioning as part of the time telling vocabulary, their future nevertheless seems assured in transformed ways: as fascinating, appropriate technology from a bygone era, as decorator items and as art objects.
Ann Proctor is a member of the TAASA management committee and teaches Asian Art History at the National Art School, Sydney. She is extremely grateful to the many people who have provided information about these water bottles.
REFERENCES
Bowring, J., 1857, rep.1975. The Kingdom and People of Siam, vol. 11 AMS, New York.
Carter, A. Cecil, (ed.) 1988. Kingdom of Siam, 1904, Siam Society.
Conway, S., 2006. Power Dressing: Lanna Shan Siam 19th Century Court Dress, River Books. now living in Hawaii, told me that the royal surfaces are more attuned to working in non- Dorgelès Roland, 1926. On the Mandarin Road, The Century family had silver versions of these pots, such plastic material rather than clay. Such bottles Company, New York. as those on display and labelled ‘court regalia’ tend to be blackish, though this is not always Parmentier, Henri, 1954. L’Art du Laos, E.F.E.O. Hanoi. in the 2006 exhibition “Power Dressing” at the the case. Reith, Charlotte, 1997. ‘Comparison of Three Pottery Villages in Jim Thompson Museum, Bangkok (Conway Shan State, Burma’, The Journal of Burma Studies, vol.1 pp.45-82. 2006:06). It is possible that the forms based on a metal Shippen, M., 2005. The Traditional Ceramics of Southeast Asia, prototype may be linked to the Indian kundika University of Hawaii Press. The limited knowledge available about the vessel, which spread into Southeast Asia Wang, Ning-Shen, ‘An Ethnoarchaeological Study on the Pottery Making of the Tai People in Yunnan’ in Essays on design and origins of these water bottles along with the Buddhist and Hindu faiths. Ethnoarchaeology, Cultural Relics Publishing Clearing House, raises a perennial question in ceramics: The ‘double-gourd’ type form may be based Beijing, 1989 whether the ceramic form was based on on locally available vegetal prototypes or http:/SEAsianCeramics.asia.si.edu a metal prototype or vice versa. Some of linked to the prevalent use of this shape, the ceramic bottles would appear to have redolent with Daoist meanings, within been inspired by natural forms, such as the Chinese communities. The name for Laos, double gourd shape or the body of the star Vietnam and Cambodia, ‘Indochina’, reflects fruit with its distinctive lobes. These bottles this duality of influences. tend to be red coloured and many are found in Thailand in the Lanna region. Others, I Earthenware water bottles appear to be still am assured by practising potters, follow a used for ritual purposes, as was recently metallic prototype, as their angles and flat noted at the Loy Krathong festival in Chiang
TAASA REVIEW VOLUME 19 NO.1 11 AN AUSTRALASIAN CERAMICS MUSEUM IN FUPING, CHINA
Janet Mansfield
Opening ceremony of Australasian Ceramics Museum, Fuping, May 2007. Photo: Janet Mansfield
n Australasian Ceramics Museum in A Fuping, China? A title like that begs many questions. How did this happen, who is involved and why Fuping? What is its purpose and who will visit it? Let me explain.
Some years ago, geophysicist, Dr Ichi Hsu, retired from his business making silicone gel for the telephone industry and decided to devote his life to ceramic art. He had always been interested in ceramics and had set up a studio in Beijing, becoming involved in galleries selling ceramics. He also established a bilingual magazine for people interested in finding out what was happening in contemporary ceramics in China and, for Chinese ceramists, what was happening in the many clay events around the world. Over a period of nine years Dr Hsu came to Gulgong in NSW three times to meet Australian and international ceramists during such events and, on one occasion I set up a meeting involving Australian ceramists and craft organisations to gauge interest in an Australian ceramics museum in Fuping.
Fuping, 70km north of Xi’an, boasts a major attraction but as a living, working entity Australasia is proud to be named as one of a brick and tile factory, FULE, which caters to which would bring people from all over the number of museums on the 1000-acre orchard the buoyant Chinese building and restoration world to stay, make work and leave their site: it is a beautifully designed brick building industry. Dr Hsu persuaded the owners, ceramics behind in purpose-built museums. based on the form of an emperor’s coat in particular Xu Dufeng, that FULE could This would both promote the factory’s image sleeves, his hands folded inside his cuffs. This be a part of the current world interest in and help Chinese ceramic artists who had circular building presents the work of more contemporary ceramics by supporting a hitherto not been exposed to contemporary that 20 New Zealand and Australian ceramic ceramic centre, not only to serve as a tourist trends and movements in world ceramics. artists who spent up to a month working in studios in the factory, using the factory clays, glazes and kilns, and taking advantage of the technical assistance available. Full board and lodging was also provided, the ambience was welcoming and comfortable, the food was excellent and even our clay bespattered clothes were mysteriously collected and presented to us the same evening, fresh and clean.
The Australasian Museum is one of about 14 national museums on the property, each offering a different cultural flavour to the visitor. France, a combined Scandinavia, North America, South America, Canada, the UK and other European countries such as Germany and Spain, all have dedicated spaces in impressive custom-built museums. One large arched building houses Chinese traditional and folk works, while in a 20m high dome, the work of emerging artists, resulting from international competitions held every three years, shows the trends in education in ceramics over past years. These emerging Toni Warburton working in Fuping, 2006. Photo: Janet Mansfield
12 TAASA REVIEW VOLUME 19 NO.1 Interior of Museum at the Fuping Art Ceramics Village. Photo: Janet Mansfield Janet Mansfield in the Fuping studio, 2007
community. Those who have attended once are welcome to return, and on second or subsequent visits retain some of their works for sale in Beijing or at one of the other venues. Others are invited to apply to add their works to the appropriate national museum. At the beginning, one artist was chosen to invite other colleagues from his or her home country but now it seems to be more open for all ceramic artists to apply. Not only does one have the residency experience of working with unfamiliar materials and using unknown equipment, there is the interaction with Chinese people, and access to other Chinese arts including concerts, puppet shows, fireworks, calligraphy and artists compete for prizes that offer both of the exhibition. A further exhibition of the more. There is no doubt that Xu Dufeng has money and residencies in Fuping, the next one ‘Fuping Good Company’ ceramists will be a vision for his factory and its expansion into to take place in November 2010. A specialised held in July 2010 at Masterworks Gallery in the art world. Together with Ichi Hsu and permanent and growing exhibition housed Auckland, New Zealand. the artistic director of FULE, Fu Qiang, they in a separate museum space shows the work are on a fast moving track. Buildings seem of members of the International Academy Fuping, or rather, FULE, is not standing still to be erected overnight, hundreds of workers of Ceramics and there is a resource centre either. Next year, four new museums for a pouring concrete, laying bricks, landscaping containing books, magazines and videos. further four national groups will be built and gardens, placing ancient mill stones and other filled by ceramists who have been invited artefacts at strategic focal points. As well, There are on-going activities concerned with to live and work at the Fuping Ceramic Art artists are specifically invited to build free- this. Several of the national groups have Village. A graduate school for ceramic art has standing art works in the orchard. continued to build on their experience in already started hiring professional staff and Fuping, holding exhibitions, seminars and the site is almost ready. Plans are in hand I have been to the Fuping Ceramic Art Village further study in their home countries. The for a five-star hotel and apartment blocks several times, once as a resident artist and at Australian and New Zealand ceramists have already been built. A five-year plan of other times to be part of the emerging artist came together in Melbourne, in June 2009, to expansion has been mapped out and five competition and accompanying seminars, present an exhibition at Skepsi On Swanston galleries, including one in Melbourne, will be and to enjoy the hospitality, generosity and Gallery, Carlton. A catalogue was produced established to sell high quality ceramic art, enthusiasm of the people of Fuping. showing images of the work made in China similar to Gallery XYZ in the 798 Dashanzi and also the work made as a consequence of Art District in Beijing. Janet Mansfield is a ceramic artist, author and their residency. Statements as to the effect of President of the International Academy of Ceramics, such a study time in China made interesting The future expansion of ceramics in these Geneva, Switzerland. She lives in Gulgong NSW. reading and this idea was further explored museums seems assured with the continuing during a seminar held at RMIT at the time enthusiasm of the international ceramic
TAASA REVIEW VOLUME 19 NO.1 13 ARTIST PROFILE: WON-SEOK KIM’S AUSTRALIAN BUNCHEONG WARE
Min-Jung Kim
on-Seok Kim is a Korean Australian Won-Seok Kim was born in Korea in 1959, Lee more than 40 years ago when he visited W ceramic artist who has been making his graduated from Hannam University with Icheon in Gyeonggi province, Korea, where buncheong wares in Australia for more than 20 Bachelor of Arts, then moved to Australia court ceramic ware was produced during the years. Buncheong, literally meaning ‘pottery in 1988. He continued his studies at the Joseon dynasty. As a high school student, decorated with white slip and covered in a University of Sydney and eventually he instantly fell in love with the traditional pale bluish-green glaze’, is a type of ceramic established his studio in 1999 at Mangrove process of throwing pots on a wheel and kiln developed in Korea during the 15th and Mountain in NSW. He has taught ceramics firing. He then decided to study ceramic art 16th centuries. It is known as mishima by at the National Art School, University of more systemically. However, life on campus the Japanese by whom it is also prized. Sydney and University of Western Sydney. in South Korea’s universities of the 1980s Historically, buncheong ware reflects the The exhibition “Link: Ceramics from Gongju and was filled with student protest clashes with transitional period from Goryeo celadon (918- Sydney’ held at the National Art School (8 July police. Japanese occupation (1910-1945) 1392 CE) to Joseon porcelain (1392-1910 CE). - 15 August 2009) was a result of his strong and the Korean War (1950-1953) separated The clay and glaze of buncheong ceramics are interest in the interaction of contemporary Korea from its past and there was a focus on similar to those of celadon, however buncheong Korean and Australian studio ceramics. Western aesthetic. He says: “At my university, is decorated with Joseon style motifs, as well I produced “pseudo Western” work and as employing decorative techniques different Kim’s introduction to ceramics came from absorbed Western art and cultural theory.” from those found on Goryeo celadon. none other than the master potter Jeongha Kim would return to his master potter in Icheon whenever he could to practise the contemplative art of traditional ceramics.
Won-Seok Kim reluctantly calls himself ‘artist’. He says: “To be a true ceramic artist, one must be able to understand the ‘nature of earth’, and based on this understanding, one must encounter the clay as if it was his lover.” He continues, “Clay is very delicate and sometimes fickle like a woman. I must confess that I have not mastered this thing fully but I just help the material to build its own art form, just like new lovers learn to live together and adjust over time to achieve the most satisfying union.”
Won-Seok Kim remains loyal to the traditional concept of being a master potter or ‘jang-in’ in Korean. Jang-in devote most of their time to mastering potters’ skills. Sometimes, the process is more important than the product. In making ceramics, jang-in first learn to understand the nature of the material. They then master throwing skills. A well-made pot has to have uniform thickness and it must not be too heavy. If the wall of a pot is too thin or uneven, it will collapse in the kiln. Speed is essential as the longer one works on the neck area the greater the possibility that the body loses proportion.
Koreans and people in other parts of Asia, often judge the quality of a ceramic work by tapping and listening to its ‘musical sound’ as well as assessing its form, colour and overall design. Well-made pots have clear and resonating sounds. The skill of making such ceramic wares can only be developed by continuing effort and endless practice. Won-Seok Kim is an artist who stands up to this challenge. Buncheong ware vase, Won-Seok Kim. High fired stoneware using inhwa and myeonsanggam techniques.
Private collection through Cudgegong Gallery. Photo: Park Ung
14 TAASA REVIEW VOLUME 19 NO.1 He does not seek superfluous beauty nor could liberate the artist from intellectual to and every motif, as well as creating a more does he intend to convey a specific narrative. intuitive knowledge. Kim says that buncheong uniform design. He also uses sanggam (inlay), His task is to push the limit of the material, wares, through their spontaneous creation, in particular myeonsanggam (surface inlay). to challenge earth and fire while pursuing capture the spirit of ‘one-stroke’, enabling Sanggam is a decorative technique particularly his own aesthetic and also admitting to the him to understand and impart the element popular during the Goryeo period for green role of ‘some luck’. Kim is not interested in of ‘qi’, explained as the unifying life-force glazed celadon. Originally, linear designs creating different forms. Instead, each time, connecting all things. dominated but this gradually developed into he strives to achieve his perfect form. He only overall surface designs. selects pots that are light in weight and ring Traditionally, there are many different when tapped, a process inevitably resulting in decorative techniques used in the making of Won-Seok Kim calls his work “Australian the destruction of pieces that do not meet his buncheong ware. Kim favours four techniques: buncheong”. He notes: “Traditional buncheong stringent criteria. gwiyal (brushed slip), inhwa (stamped), wares were originally developed in Korea. sanggam (inlaid) and cheolhwa (underglaze However, my buncheong is exclusively This is not to say that Kim’s work lacks iron painting). Australian. I use Australian clay, which is artistic expression. His brushwork technique different from Korean clay. The clay differs in has evolved from his admiration and respect The gwiyal technique refers to the application composition: it contains calcium, feldspar and for traditional Chinese calligraphy. He talks of white slip to the surface of the vessel with iron, which lower the temperature and impart of the single line that conveys the idea of a coarse brush, to which the term refers. colour to the clay. So my work is uniquely ‘one-stroke’. The universe is portrayed in Kim’s brushstrokes are highly expressive Australian. Of course, I value my Korean miniature, nature reduced to its quintessential and dynamic. The inhwa technique involves heritage and there can be no doubt that I use essence, conveyed in the simple gestural imprinting vessels with a stamp that has traditional techniques in my work but I create brushstroke signifying a tree or a mountain a design carved onto it, thus saving the my buncheong ware in the Australian context. ridge. Direct and free flowing, this one-stroke time and efforts of having to incise each My ‘one stroke’ is a miniature of a gum tree and my glaze represents Australian land.”
Note: Korean terms ‘Chosôn’, ‘Koryo’ and ‘punch’ong’ were romanised in 2000 to become ‘Joseon’, ‘Goryeo’ and ‘buncheong’
Min-Jung Kim is Curator of Asian Arts & Design at the Powerhouse Museum.
REFERENCES
Clark, Christine (ed.), 2005. ‘Echoes of home: memory and mobility in recent Austral-Asian art’, exhibited at the Museum of Brisbane, Brisbane City Council.
Kim, Jae-Yeol, 2000. ‘The technique of Chosôn dynasty ceramics’, in: Claire Roberts and Michael Brand (eds.), Earth, spirit, fire: Korean masterpieces of the Chosôn dynasty, Powerhouse Publishing.
Leake, Gayl, 2003. ‘Won-Seok Kim’s Australian punch’ong ware’, Ceramics: Art and Perception, issue 52.
LEFT: Buncheong ware vase, Won-Seok Kim. High fired
stoneware using Gwiyal technique. Collection of Won-
Seok Kim. Photo: Park Ung
FAR LEFT: Buncheong ware vase, Won-Seok Kim. High fired
stoneware using Cheolhwa technique. Private collection
through Cudgegong Gallery. Photo: Park Ung
TAASA REVIEW VOLUME 19 NO.1 15 THE NAT YUEN COLLECTION OF CHINESE ANTIQUITIES AT THE UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND
Gordon Craig
he Nat Yuen Collection of Chinese Edwards, AC. Dr Yuen has a commendable The Collection contains work dating back to T Antiquities was gifted to the University record in community service and is, or has the Neolithic period and spans all dynastic of Queensland by Dr Natalis (Nat) Yuen been, President of the Hong Kong Medical periods with only one exception - the Liao and housed in the University’s Art Museum. Association, President of the Hong Kong College Dynasty (916 – 1125 CE). Dr Yuen collected His first donation in 1994 coincided with the of General Practitioners, Honorary Professor of pieces as they became available rather re-opening of the historic Customs House Family Medicine (CU) and Honorary Treasurer than doggedly searching for specific items. building in Brisbane, acquired and refurbished of the Hong Kong Academy of Medicine. by the University of Queensland. Several He is a published author of numerous medical There are several hidden gems in the subsequent donations from Dr Yuen ensued, articles. His interests include the practice of Collection. Neolithic tripod ewer (Dawenkou notably in 2005 and 2006. The Collection now Chinese martial arts and the study and collection culture) c. 4100 – 2600 BCE is one of the incorporates just over 100 pieces. of Chinese antiquities. Dr Yuen has been a keen earliest pieces in the Collection. Dawenkou collector of Chinese antiquities since his father, is the name given to the culture that created Dr Yuen, a resident of Hong Kong and regular who was a scholar and a connoisseur of such such pieces. These were first discovered visitor to Australia, graduated in medicine from artworks and relics, gave him several pieces of in Shandong Province, but have also been the University of Queensland as a classmate of porcelain and paintings in the late 1960s. found in other areas of China. Its complicated the University’s former Chancellor, Sir Llew and elegant design would suggest that the piece was not built for daily use but rather as a ceremonial object. Fortunately it was buried with much soil inside and outside the vessel, providing protection that assisted in keeping the object intact, for often such ewers are discovered broken and subsequently repaired. This design is an early example of pouring vessels reminiscent of animal forms. The coiled ewer was made in two parts, with the join across the body of the vessel disguised under decoration. It is of archaeological significance and evidence of the sophisticated culture of the time.
Another early piece is a Neolithic storage jar (kuan), Majiayao culture, Banshan phase c. 2500 BCE. The Majiayao culture refers to Neolithic communities that lived in the region of the upper Yellow River in Gansu. Villages in such communities are believed to have had dedicated potters that repeated their own particular style of pot with little variation. As may be expected, this was most likely a practical rather than ceremonial piece. The process of glazing as a sealant was not developed until about 500 BCE so the painted decorative patterns on this piece were added after the work was fired.
There are a number of bronze items in the Collection, in addition to pottery and ceramics. Bronze tripod vessel (Ding), Han Dynasty 206 BCE – 220 CE is a ritual cooking vessel, most likely from northern China as indicated by the zoomorphic decoration. It would probably have been a tomb object, or part of a display of items within a tomb. The lid was built to be inverted and used as a
Blue and white ‘Grape Dish’, Ming dynasty, Yongle period 1403 – 1424. Blue pigment on underglazed white porcelain.
6.9 x 37.8 cm diam. Collection of The University of Queensland. Gift of Dr Nat Yuen through the Cultural Gifts Program, 2005.
photo: Carl Warner 16 TAASA REVIEW VOLUME 19 NO.1 Neolithic tripod ewer (Dawenkou culture)
c. 4100-2600 BCE. Earthenware. 31.0 x 15.0 cm x 13.0 cm.
Collection of The University of Queensland. Gift of
Dr Nat Yuen through the Cultural Gifts Program, 1995. Bronze tripod vessel (Ding), Han Dynasty 206 BCE – 220 CE. Bronze. 15.0 x 19.0 cm dia. Collection of The University
photo: Carl Warner of Queensland. Gift of Dr Nat Yuen through the Cultural Gifts Program, 1995. photo: Carl Warner
serving dish. It features a ring ornamentation, joined at the neck. Unusually it features a were developed and bright new colours which cleverly functions as a foot when inverted detachable saddle (and a tail, which enhances including greens, yellows, reds and blues for its secondary use. The lid design features a the attractive nature of the piece but is clearly were introduced. group of three interwoven tigers and a band of a recent addition). The horse’s groom, with six tigers, while the body design features two the reins he once held long-lost, is typical Even more recent pieces, a Pair of blue, additional bands of six tigers each. Such animal figure work of this era. white and yellow dragon dishes, Qing Dynasty, motifs are symbols of strength and power. seal mark and period of Guangxu, 1875-1908 An outstanding piece of blue and white-ware, demonstrate one of these new glazes. In One of the University of Queensland Art so often associated with traditional Chinese excellent condition, the two wheel-thrown Museum staff’s favourite pieces in the ceramics, is a ‘Grape Dish’, Ming Dynasty, dishes feature an imperial dragon with five collection is a Horse and groom, Tang Dynasty Yongle period 1403 – 1424 CE. It is quite a claws. The dragons are chasing flaming 618 – 907 CE. While areas have faded and rare, finely-crafted piece with three bunches of pearls (symbols of knowledge) around cloud worn over time, generally the item is in very grapes on the vine decorating the inner surface formations. The use of yellow pigment was good condition. The prancing horse stands of the bowl. Encircling this is a series of twelve reserved for the Imperial family and their at 54 cm in height, turning to the left with spiralling flower motifs. The lip of the bowl is immediate relatives. This feature, combined its right leg raised. The horse’s body was finished with a continuous wave pattern. with the imperial dragon motif, makes such cast in two parts, as was the head, and was dishes much sought after among collectors. Another fine example of blue and white-ware in the Collection is a Jar with cover, Qing This Collection showcases the special features Dynasty, Kangxi 1662-1722 CE. A well-preserved of each major period of ceramic production in example with ornate floral decoration, such China, such as form, patterns, clay types and vessels were utilitarian by design (possibly as glazes. Spanning some 5,000 years of Chinese wine or storage jars) and often kept in pairs. culture, the Collection is of immeasurable benefit to students and scholars of Chinese One of the ‘younger’ items in the Collection antiquities as well as members of the general is a Robin’s-egg glazed vase, Qing Dynasty, community. By cultivating and enhancing the Qianglong mark c.1840. Its descriptive title appreciation of the arts and cultures of Asia, refers to a Western glaze with similar Dr Yuen is fostering a better understanding of properties: both the blue colour and the people of our region. small egg-shaped patination that occurs in the firing process. The vessel is embellished Special thanks is extended to Lennart with dragon decorations on either side of Utterström for his assistance in providing the neck. Under the Qing dynasty in the 18th information for this article. and 19th centuries, new porcelain glazes Gordon Craig is the Exhibitions Coordinator at the UQ Art Museum in Brisbane and is also a practising Blue and white jar with cover, Qing Dynasty, Kangxi artist, writer and curator. He has an interest in many 1662 – 1722. Blue pigment on underglazed white porcelain. aspects of art and has visited China on several 52.0 x 33.0 cm dia. Collection of The University of occasions over the past five years.
Queensland. Gift of Dr Nat Yuen through the Cultural
Gifts Program, 2005. photo: Carl Warner
TAASA REVIEW VOLUME 19 NO.1 17 MOVING THE PAST TO THE PRESENT: A SIEM REAP-ANGKOR KHMER RESIDENCE
Darryl Collins
Façade of house, lit at early evening: photo: John Gollings
n my 60th year (61st by the Khmer calendar) I - an auspicious one as it turned out - I decided in 2007 to move from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap. I had been extremely fortunate in the Cambodian capital, residing since 1994 in what is now known as ‘The Chinese House’ built by Tan Bunpa (1871-1952). This is a 1905 Sino-Khmer brick residence facing the Tonle Sap river, approximately 1.5km north of Wat Phnom. A new life has commenced for this building that now houses a ‘decadent Indochinese bar’ upstairs, with the ground floor space alternating as performance space or art gallery.
The sale of this property hastened my decision to move from Phnom Penh. I needed to find a house in Siem Reap but had not yet decided on what or where it should be.
Enter the architect Graduate architect Hok Sokol had been our associate research assistant on a co-authored book, Building Cambodia: ‘New Khmer Architecture’ 1953-1970, published in 2006. reconstruct it in Siem Reap. The traditional and Kompong Cham to Kampuchea Krom Our conversations had sometimes focused structure of the house, held together by (the Mekong delta region). This perhaps on exemplary 1960s concrete forms and wooden wedges and pins, allowed it to be accounts for the superb quality and variety of modernist design that referenced traditional literally pulled apart. Taking advantage of Cambodian timbers used in this house and its Khmer structures in wood. I once remarked the heightened level of the Mekong in the excellent state of preservation despite years “... that one day, I wished to live in a traditional rainy season, the pieces were transported of neglect and occasional seasonal flooding wooden house.” He remembered this snippet piece by piece in multiple moves, initially by of the island. of conversation. small local canoes through canals to the edge of the island, then by larger river ferries to Grandfather Lon’s ‘rong dol’ style residence Sokol was then a member of a Centre for Kompong Cham provincial town. From there, dates to c.1915 and employs five varieties Khmer Studies documentation team that had a large truck and trailer was used to transport of Cambodian hardwood. It took some five visited several provinces to record wooden the entire load to Siem Reap, with smaller years to choose and collect the wood to heritage, both extant and at risk. While trucks and then hand carts needed on the construct the original house. The term ‘rong visiting Kompong Cham province, the team final stretch to haul the wood over the narrow dol’: “… seems to derive from the expression recorded what was to become my future lanes leading to the house’s new site. ‘ron phdon tol’ meaning ‘house whose roof house. Years later, the family who owned the plates expand’, subsequently shortened to house proposed demolishing it, as its elderly A team of some ten carpenters under the ‘ron tol’. This construction style, now quite occupant could no longer negotiate the stairs, supervision of Sokol accomplished this move rare in Cambodia, results in a long protruding and contacted Sokol, asking if he knew of of some 30 tonnes of wood over a distance of roof or awning that extends from the house anyone who wanted to purchase the building. 315km. It is to all these people that I owe the onto the verandah. (Tainturier, 2006:78-80). house as it stands today in Siem Reap. The I vividly remember my first visit to the house house is now located in secluded Wat Damnak The house is supported by large columns, and meeting its owners. In hindsight, given village, to the south of a Buddhist monastery. decorated and lacquered by hand. Its interior is the challenges that lay ahead, this resulted in It rests nearby the Siem Reap River, on the richly decorated with intricately carved panels a somewhat impulsive decision to preserve opposite side to the Old Market that today and woodwork. Both the screen inside the what was clearly a masterwork by relocating features a series of colonial shop-houses house and the outside window shutters and the entire house to Siem Reap. Handwritten, bustling with cafes and tourist facilities. doors are carved with flower and fruit motifs, thumb-printed contract papers were drawn while fretwork runs around the entire building, up that very day. Masterpiece in wood letting in the breezes from the large terrace. Interviews with the Kompong Cham family It took a total of 11 months to disassemble the revealed that Lon, the original owner of the Some concessions to modern requirements wooden building, transport it from its location house, was a timber merchant who traded have been made while reconstructing the on a small island in Kompong Cham and on the Mekong River from Kompong Thom house. A reinforced concrete foundation over
18 TAASA REVIEW VOLUME 19 NO.1 crushed stones was laid down before erecting Wooden houses require constant maintenance value and the situation can be complicated by the house on its new stilts, to support the and are considered old-fashioned and difficulties in resolving title when houses are weight of the new clay roof tiles and raise ‘country-style’, the very antithesis of a transferred to several successors. the structure above flood level. A concrete significant sector of the population’s housing base, 20cm thick, was poured to create a patio and lifestyle aspirations. These properties are Early last year, application was made for the underneath the building, a cool place of retreat falling into disrepair and being abandoned, 2009 UNESCO Asia-Pacific Heritage Awards when the weather gets really hot. A new with the young increasingly gravitating to for this ‘Rong Dol-style Wooden Khmer wing, also on stilts, has been built to replace city life. Ageing and often ailing family Residence, Wat Damnak Village, Siem Reap, a similar structure serving as a kitchen in the members are unable to care for this wooden Cambodia’. Although the announcement of the original house, which had collapsed and could heritage. Remote locations and small villages awards in September did not include the house, not be moved. In addition to the kitchen, the that have in the past protected these treasures the Jury: “…noted that the project reflects a new wing houses modern facilities such as a are neither able nor willing to preserve them. noteworthy commitment to conserving the number of internal bathrooms. The Cambodian government has no heritage heritage resources of the region.” policy related to wooden structures. A tradition continued The Jury further commented: Traditional wooden architecture represents In practical terms, there are several alternatives The Jury would like to commend the efforts a significant part of Cambodia’s cultural for family owners of extant traditional to safeguard a vernacular Khmer building of heritage and deserves recognition and wooden houses: continue to live in and repair significant architectural quality, which has protection. For contemporary Cambodians, deteriorating structures; demolish and sell for the potential to encourage other homeowners however, the ideal home is seated firmly on wood value alone; sell decorative salvaged to also conserve their buildings. The Jury the ground, built of bricks and mortar, glazed sections to dealers and use the rest for firewood; recognizes that the relocation of the house is and air-conditioned. Village life is rapidly de-construct, move and re-construct part or common practice in this building tradition and modernising, with the mass media touting whole of the structure to a different location; has allowed it to be saved. an ‘everything new is best’ mentality attuned or, leave in situ to nature and the elements to the latest mobile, motorcycle and fashion until total collapse. Unfortunately it is the For the time being, the house is a private accessories. land, rather than the house that is of greatest dwelling, but my intention is to preserve
A 360-degree digital panorama centred in the main living space that emphasises the decorative qualities of the house and its furnishings: photo: Paul Stewart
TAASA REVIEW VOLUME 19 NO.1 19 Interior of main living space, with slatted wooden floor and filigree Sino-Khmer dividing screen: photo: John Gollings
Siem Reap house since 2007’ or: The Chinese House website: http://www.chinesehouse.asia/.
Darryl Collins holds an MA from the ANU. He first journeyed to Cambodia in 1994 with a team from the National Gallery of Australia, to assist the National Museum of Cambodia in Phnom Penh. He co-authored the publication, Building Cambodia: ‘New Khmer Architecture’ 1953-1970 (2006) and for some five years lectured at the Department of Archaeology, Royal University of Fine Arts, Phnom Penh. In 2004, Darryl began part-time work at the National Museum, Phnom Penh as manager for the 6 year Collection Inventory Project.
REFERENCES
AsiaLIFE, February 2009, pp.24-25, ‘Moving home’, text by Johan Smits, photos by Thomas Angus.
Cambodia Daily, 21-22 June 2008, pp.8-9, ‘Making the move: modern living in a traditional Khmer home’, text by Michelle Vachon, photos by Vinh Dao and Hok Sokol.
Cambodia Daily, 27-28 September 2008, pp.10-11, ‘The history of home’, text by Michelle Vachon, photos supplied.
Elegant Homes, June-July 2008, pp.22-29, ‘The house that flew’, text by Lis Meyers, photos by Thomas Angus
Tainturier François (ed), 2006. Wooden architecture of Cambodia: this heritage for future generations. Into I’m currently investigating legal processes to a disappearing heritage, Centre for Khmer Studies, Phnom Penh. the future, my wish is to see this valuable ensure this reality. Cambodian cultural asset managed by a responsible culturally-based organisation that Further information can be found on my website at: will use it as a visiting scholars’ residence. http://www.darryl-siemreap.com/ under ‘Gallery:
JAPAN: AUTUMN, BURMA: THE CAMBODIA: BACKROADS LAOS: LAND OF THE ISLANDS AND ART ESSENTIAL ANGKOR WAT OF BURMA LOTUS-EATERS EXPERIENCE AND BEYOND
24 October – 29 October – 07 November – 16 November – 27 January – 09 November 2010 17 November 2010 24 November 2010 02 December 2010 10 February 2011 Japan is a two-sided coin: one Designed and hosted by TAASA Angkor’s timeless grandeur is One trip to Burma is never Enigmatic and relatively post-modernist side embraces contributor Dr Bob Hudson, our unmissable, an unforgettable enough. Backroads of Burma is undeveloped, landlocked cutting-edge technology; the longstanding annual Burma travel memory. Yet Cambodia ideal for the second-time visitor Laos offers travellers an other reveres and preserves program features extended stays offers a host of other important or indeed first-time travellers intimate glimpse of traditional fine artistic and cultural in medieval Mrauk U, capital cultural and travel experiences: desiring remote and rustic Southeast Asian life. Gradually traditions. Ann MacArthur, of the lost ancient kingdom of outstanding ancient, locations. Starting and finishing emerging from tumultuous Senior Coordinator of Asian Arakan (now Rakhine State) vernacular and French colonial in Yangon, our schedule wends recent history, Laos is a gem of Programs at the Art Gallery and Bagan, rivalling Angkor architecture; spectacular riverine south into Mon State, visiting Indochina with interesting art, of NSW, is our experienced Wat as Southeast Asia’s environments; a revitalising Kyaiktiyo and Moulmein architecture, French and Lao Japanophile leader. Kyushu and richest archaeological precinct. urban capital in Phnom Penh; before heading north to Sri cuisine, intricate river systems, Shikoku predominate including Exciting experiences in Yangon, interesting cuisine and beautiful Ksetra, the ancient Pyu capital. and rugged highlands. Darryl the Setouchi International Art Inle Lake, Mandalay and a countryside. Join expatriate Mystical Mount Popa, Bagan, Collins, long term Southeast Festival based on the islands private cruise down the mighty museologist, author, Siem Reap Monywa and the spectacular Asian resident, has designed of the Inland Sea. A lengthy Ayeyarwady are also included. resident and TAASA contributor cave temples of Po Win Taung, and will guide a comprehensive stay in Kyoto, home to 20% of Land Only cost per person (see page 18 of this issue) Sagaing and Mandalay follow. tour of Laos which includes the Japan's national treasures, is twinshare ex Yangon $4750 Darryl Collins on this latest, Dr Bob Hudson is program wonderful historic royal city of our spectacular autumn finale. updated version of our highly leader. Luang Prabang and Wat Phu Land Only cost per person evaluated 2008 and 2009 Land Only cost per person Champasak. twinshare ex Fukuoka $9000 programs. twinshare ex Yangon $4150 Land Only cost per person Land Only cost per person twinshare ex Vientiane $4400 twinshare ex Phnom Penh H ERITAGE DESTINATIONS $4700 NATURE • BUILDINGS • PEOPLE • TRAVELLERS
PO Box U237, University of Wollongong NSW 2500 Australia For a brochure or further information phone Ray Boniface at Heritage Destinations p +61 2 4228 3887 e [email protected] on +61 2 4228 3887 or email [email protected] or visit our website ABN 21 071 079 859 LIC NO TAG 1747 www.heritagedestinations.com.au
20 TAASA REVIEW VOLUME 19 NO.1 IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN: JAPANESE TREASURES AT THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF AUSTRALIA
Joshi Enzetsu (Miss Speech), Hashimoto Chikanobu, Anya Dettman with Mayumi Shinozaki 1890. From the series Magic Lantern Comparisons. Japanese woodcut colour print on Hosho paper, 35.6 x 24 cm.
Collection of the National Library of Australia hink of a library and you may think of Social changes brought with them new roles T sombre rows of books, not the sinuous and opportunities, especially for women. lines and vibrant colours of ukiyo-e prints. But The print “Miss Speech” shows a Japanese since 2008 the National Library of Australia woman in smart Western costume confidently has been steadily building a collection of addressing a public gathering, watched with Japanese woodblock prints of the 19th to the approval by a woman in Japanese dress but early 20th century. They have been selected carrying a foreign book, dreaming that this not for their artistic merits (beautiful though may be herself one day. many of them are) but rather for their value as social history, as a visual supplement to the Yet for many, daily life continued as before. Library’s extensive Japanese language book Amusement and popular culture themes form collections. In particular they complement the largest sub-sets of the collection. Some the Harold Williams Collection of books prints depict famous tourist destinations: and manuscripts, which focuses on foreign travel appears to have been as popular an settlement in Japan since it opened up to activity for the Japanese of the past as for the West in the mid 19th century. But if the those in the present age. Another pastime was perspective of the Williams Collection is that reading, and not surprisingly the National of the outsider looking in, then the woodblock Library has been keen to acquire prints print collection represents the view from depicting books and readers. Unexpectedly, inside, that of the Japanese expressing their it has proved difficult to find images of own interests and concerns as they gaze not men reading – all the prints acquired show only at their own rapidly changing society women, and from a variety of social classes, but onto a wider world. attesting to a relatively high level of female literacy. However, the sardonic title of a print works in the Library’s collection, one is struck NLA’s woodblock print collection reflects by Utamaro (1753-1806) can be translated by how, with their unusual perspectives, bold several themes. The impact of the foreign as “Little Miss Know-it-all”. It is not clear lines and dramatic movements, they closely presence in Japan is seen in prints showing whether he disapproves of the subject of her resemble modern Japanese manga (cartoons). a bustling foreign settlement in Japan - one reading matter or that she is reading at all! This is not a coincidence: Japanese librarian depicts a drunken Englishman gaily cavorting Mayumi Shinozaki views the significance of in Yokohama. The ambivalence felt by some Woodblock prints were an important element the collection as demonstrating the central and towards the allure of the West is seen in of popular culture. During this period, larger on-going importance of visual art in Japanese a print of a paddle-steamer heavily laden print-runs and cheaper prices meant that popular culture, and she is actively acquiring with all kinds of wondrous foreign goods this art form was more widely enjoyed, and prints in which she sees the roots of manga, now being introduced into Japan – including traditional subjects such as Kabuki theatre now famous world-wide as an art form. galoshes and dachshund dogs! Yet despite scenes continued to be popular. Some of the artist’s obvious fascination with the the loveliest works in the collection are by a Anya Dettman is the Southeast Asia Curator, Asian exotic wares, he feels compelled to add the woman artist, Tai Koun (d. 1936), originally Collections at the National Library of Australia. cautionary comment: “But perhaps it is better a student, then wife of artist Ogata Gekko. Mayumi Shinozaki is the Senior Librarian and Head to buy local goods after all”. Gekko was well-known for his work in a of the Japanese Unit. The NLA welcomes enquiries variety of media, including watercolour, and on our collections (www.nla.gov.au/asian/). Social and political satire is explored in the influence of this technique can be seen the collection, with many artists resorting in Koun’s series of prints featuring Kabuki to allegory to escape the censor’s ire. The dances. With their fine lines, soft colours and brilliant Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1798-1861) is gentle movements she has given a traditional the most represented artist in the collection, theme a fresh look and a consciously artistic creating dramatic and strikingly original interpretation. The National Library appears prints despite tight government control. to be the only institution holding a complete During a brief period (1841-1843) when artists set of all 14 prints in the series. were forbidden to depict courtesans or actors, he simply drew them instead as turtles with Satirical prints such as Kuniyoshi’s, which human faces. He parodied clearly identifiable criticized the government, were popular with officials as ghouls in legends of the past, merchants, who were financially powerful but and courtesans and prominent figures as shut out from direct political involvement. habitués of seedy bathhouses run by sparrow Kuniyoshi is remarkable for the extensive spirits. Contemporary issues are also evident variety of themes he explored: caricature, in vibrant and dramatic works depicting the erotica, landscapes, warriors, beauties, ghosts, Japanese army at war in China. cats, actors, myths and legends. Looking at his
TAASA REVIEW VOLUME 19 NO.1 21 PRECIOUS PLAYTHINGS IN DUBLIN: SNUFF BOTTLES AT THE CHESTER BEATTY LIBRARY
Christine Inglis
ublin and Asia is surely an oxymoron. But what brought the ICSBS members to the exhibition and the convention was the D However, as participants in the 41st Dublin was the opportunity to hold their publication of a catalogue of 275 of the most annual convention of the International Convention in the Chester Beatty Library important bottles held in the collection. The Chinese Snuff Bottle Society (ICSBS) held in located in Dublin Castle. The Library, which beautiful images of the snuff bottles, the Dublin from 20-23 October 2009 discovered, in 2002 was awarded the title of European detailed descriptions and, especially, the the city is home to several major collections Museum of the Year, houses the extensive discussion of their relationship to other of Asian art. collection of manuscripts, miniature paintings, snuff bottles and wider traditions in Chinese prints, drawings, rare books and decorative decorative arts, makes the book a delight for Among them is the Albert Bender Collection arts collected by the American born mining those who are just discovering the world of of Asian Art at the National Museum of engineer, Sir Alfred Chester Beatty (1875- Chinese snuff bottles as well as an important Ireland. Alfred Bender, although born in 1968) who relocated from London to Ireland source for experts Dublin, emigrated as a teenager to the USA in 1950. The diverse collection is particularly where he became a successful insurance rich in items from Asia and the Middle East “Precious Playthings”, ‘Heavenly Creations”, broker and collector of Tibetan, Chinese and including Egyptian papyri, Qur’an and other “Hidden Treasures” are just some of the Japanese art. A generous donor to many San illuminated manuscripts, Turkish and Persian phrases which have been used in the titles of Francisco Bay area museums, his donation miniatures, Buddhist paintings and Japanese catalogues of private collections of Chinese to the National Museum of Ireland in the woodblock prints. snuff bottles. As the titles suggest, these early 1930s is dedicated to the memory of miniature bottles exercise a strong fascination his mother. The Dublin donation includes For the snuff bottle collectors, the Library’s for their owners. Just as their original Chinese a rare set of Thangkas (paintings on cotton) major attraction was an exhibition of many owners used to carry them in their pockets, of the Arhats (disciples) of Buddha and four of the snuff bottles that Beatty had begun it is not unusual for contemporary owners Lokapalas (Guardians) of the Four Quarters collecting from his schooldays. The majority to carry these small treasures so that they of the World from a Tibetan-Buddhist temple of his nearly 2000 snuff bottles were collected can display them to owners of other bottles. dating to the 18th century. As well, the during the first two decades of the 20th Recently you may also have seen Franca collection displays textiles associated with century. Beatty often gave away bottles to Arena displaying some of her impressive the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911 CE), Japanese family and friends and indeed sold one-third collection on the ABC program The Collectors. Ukiyo-e (woodblock prints), a Daoist priest’s of his collection through a London dealer robe from 17th/18th century China and a before moving to Dublin. Today the remaining The story of Chinese snuff bottles goes back small number of Chinese snuff bottles. collection has 942 bottles. Coinciding with to the late 17th and early 18th century in
A gourd shaped glass bottle with green glass stopper, A carved agate bottle with glass stopper imitating A limestone breccia bottle in a pebble shape with
1720-1830. Glass of realgar type with the characters Da ji coral, Official School, 1800-1880. Carving represents the jadeite stopper, 1750-1880. Its natural striations suggest
(together with Ping an on the reverse translated as “good Tang poet Meng Haoran riding on his mule on a moonlit bamboo. H 6.1 cm, Mouth 0.6cm, Neck 0.7 cm. No.140 in the
luck and peace”), H 7.0 cm, Mouth 0.55 cm, Neck 1.5 cm. night followed by his servant. H 5.4 cm, Mouth 0.7 cm., Chester Beatty catalogue. © The Trustees of the Chester
No. 186 in the Chester Beatty catalogue. © The Trustees of Neck 1.9 cm. No 91 in the Chester Beatty catalogue. Beatty Library, Dublin
the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin © The Trustees of the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin
22 TAASA REVIEW VOLUME 19 NO.1 The spoon and stopper of an enamel and gold snuff bottle showing the watch that was encased on the
top with crystal or glass, made in Switzerland for the China market, 1810-1830. H 5.6 cm with stopper (4.5 cm without),
Mouth 0.9cm, Neck 1.2 cm. No 273 in the Chester Beatty catalogue. © The Trustees of the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin
China when snuff was first introduced by Art Gallery of NSW held an exhibition that the Jesuits. The use of snuff rapidly became drew extensively on the bottles of a group fashionable among the elite. Inevitably, the of Hong Kong and US collectors: Humphrey rituals of snuff taking reflected the high social Hui, Margaret Polak and Christopher Sin. status of the consumers and the sumptuary Coinciding with the exhibition was a seminar laws concerning dress and social behaviour. that included a presentation by Terese Tse To carry their snuff, the Emperors and their Bartholomew from the Asian Art Museum followers turned not to the small boxes of San Francisco who spoke about the use of common in the West but to tiny bottles that rebuses in snuff bottles. During the exhibition had delicate spoons of ivory, metal and other a prominent Chinese master of inside-bottle materials attached to their stoppers. This was painting, Wang Xisan, demonstrated this art. a time when the decorative arts, especially One of the bottles he painted is now in the under the Qianlong Emperor, were at a high Art Gallery of NSW’s collection. Some snuff point of artistic development. It was natural bottles are also held by the Powerhouse that the snuff bottles, which perfectly embody Museum and the National Gallery of Victoria the Chinese interest in miniatures, were made although they are not usually on display. using the full spectrum of available materials and techniques: porcelain, enamel, glass, jade The world of Chinese snuff bottle collectors is and other stones, lacquer, shell, bamboo have relatively small, just like the miniatures to which all been used. Many famous artists have they are addicted. Making up for their small painted the inside of glass bottles, while numbers is their enthusiasm and generosity beautiful carving and inscriptions are also a in sharing their knowledge with others. A common feature. major opportunity to meet other collectors and dealers, listen to talks and visit collections is For many collectors, the bottles provide a provided by the annual Convention of the window through which to enjoy the vast ICSBS, which will be held this year in October spectrum of Chinese decorative arts and the in Hawaii. More details can be found on the A powerful Japanese ivory netsuke of Kwanju, skills of Chinese craftsmen as exemplified Society’s website: www.snuffbottles.org signed Tomotane; ex Peter Downey Coll, New Zealand; by their expertise in carving, painting and Illustrated in Neil Davey, The Hindson Coll, cat no 438 using glass and porcelain to replicate jade, Christine Inglis is a sociologist who has undertaken quartz and other materials. Other collectors research on overseas Chinese communities in specialise in a particular type of bottle. As a Southeast Asia, the Pacific and Australia over R & V Tregaskis mining engineer with an interest in minerals many years. She is currently Director of the and gem stones, it is not surprising that jade, Multicultural & Migration Research Centre at the Oriental Antiques Pty Ltd quartz and others stones are prominent in the University of Sydney. • 30 years experience Chester Beatty collection. But snuff bottles • by appointment only are not always ‘serious’, as several quirky REFERENCES examples from the Chester Beatty collection, Michael C. Hughes, 2009. The Chester Beatty Library, Dublin: • buying & selling quality objects including two bottles with clocks on the top Chinese Snuff Bottles, Baltimore, The International Chinese Snuff • expert valuations of their stoppers, show. Bottle Society, Maryland. Humphrey Hui, Margaret Polak and Christopher C. H. Sin, 1991. Phone 9979 7162 Hidden Treasures of the Dragon: Chinese Snuff Bottles from the Despite their beauty, snuff bottles are rarely on Email [email protected] Collections of Humphrey K. F. Hui, Margaret Polak and Christopher permanent display in museums in Australia C. H. Sin: a catalogue of the exhibition held at the Art Gallery Member of the Aust Antique Dealers Assoc or overseas. However, with the digitisation of New South Wales, 19 December 1991-27 January 1992, Approved to Value Oriental Antiques for of collections, it is becoming easier to find Kinggraphic, Hong Kong. the Aust Govt's Cultural Gifts Program lovely examples on museum websites as Therese Tse Bartholemew, 2006. Hidden Meanings in Chinese Art, well as in auction catalogues. In 1991 the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, San Francisco.
TAASA REVIEW VOLUME 19 NO.1 23 NATIONAL HERITAGE OR INTERNATIONAL COMMODITY? THE SITUATION IN CHINA
Heritage specialist inspects looted tomb at Philip Courtenay Huaian City in Jiangsu Province where 300 ancient tombs were illegally excavated in two months in 2001.
Photo courtesy Tan Changgu he looting of and illicit trade in antiquities on the world market. He Shuzhong, now T is a worldwide problem, with the true Chairman of the Beijing Cultural Heritage size of the international market obscured by Protection Centre, has written that the large the privacy with which such selling takes scale destruction of archaeological heritage has place. Interpol has reported that observers happened only since the establishment of the commonly rank it as the third largest type ‘Reform and Opening’ policy in 1978, and of black-market trafficking after drugs and especially during the nineties (He 2001: 19). A armaments. Estimates of the annual global Dutch study concluded that “a major part of the value of the trade have varied from between world’s illicit antiquities probably originates in US$2 and 4 billion a year to as high as US$10 China” (Soudijn and Tijhuis 2003: 15). billion. ‘The Intergovernmental Committee for Promoting the Return of Cultural The trade finds its principal markets in Hong Property to its Countries of Origin or its Kong, London and New York with smaller Restitution in Case of Illicit Appropriation’, outlets in numerous Asian and Western more concisely known as ‘The Return and countries, but items are also turning up in As in most countries where illicit excavation Restitution Committee’, set up by Unesco in private art collections in major Chinese cities. or theft is carried out, the individual small 1978, has pointed out that in addition to a As with many other countries, poverty is scale operator makes less money than if vigorous lawful trade which contributes to undoubtedly a major factor in the small-scale ‘sponsored’ or commissioned by dealers or the appreciation of various forms of art and but extensive looting of archaeological, sites. collectors. Kersels (2006: 190) reports instances cultural expression, illicit traffic is steadily In some of China’s most desperately poor rural in China of ‘selling-to-order’ which have growing internationally. communities, illegal excavations supplement involved a looter showing photographs of art incomes, with chronically unemployed available in poorly guarded museums to a Even the cursory examination of advertisements farmers often achieving a year’s income in one prospective buyer, stealing the selected items, in art magazines and sales and auction major haul from a pillaged tomb. Thefts from and arranging for their transport out of China. catalogues suggests that Chinese art pieces museum collections and items pillaged from He Shuzhong (2001: 23) draws attention to and antiquities are amongst the most common underwater sites also enter the illicit trade. problems created by tourism, especially given
Ruins of the Old Summer Palace (Yuanming Yuan), Beijing. Destroyed and looted by an Anglo-French force in 1860. Photo: Michael Kan
24 TAASA REVIEW VOLUME 19 NO.1 Bronze head of a rabbit, Qianlong period (1786-95),
severed from a clock fountain in Beijing’s Old Summer
Palace in 1860. Collection Yves Saint Laurent et Pierre Bergé.
CHRISTIE’S sale, lot 678, Paris, February 2009 the establishment of antiquities trade areas in as China’s original proposal, which requested many cities and the difficulties faced by the import restrictions covering works of art in customs service in preventing illicit exports virtually every medium from the Palaeolithic by the large numbers of tourists. era to the end of the Empire in 1911.
Tan Bee Leng, Channel News’s China However, comparing the illicit trade in 2006 correspondent, reported in June 2005 that with the peak period of smuggling between over the previous five years it was believed the 1980s and the mid-1990s, Ma Weidu, owner that more than 100,000 ancient burial grounds of Beijing’s first private museum, described it in China had been looted by tomb raiders. An as now relatively subdued and that many earlier report, in February 2005 by China’s copies had replaced antiquities in the market Xinhua news agency, described the discovery (French 2006). This opinion is re-inforced by by Chinese archaeologists of a 2000-year- the recent work of Charles Stanish of the old underground cluster of tombs at Xi’an University of California who states generally in Shaanxi Province only to find the main that many of the ‘primary producers’ of objects chamber empty but for a pair of modern traded on-line have shifted from looting sites gloves! (Tan 2005, Australian-on-line 2005). to faking antiquities (Stanish 2009).
Since 1950 China has introduced legislation to In parallel with these efforts to deal with the stem looting and the export of cultural objects. illicit trade in cultural items, the related issue More stringent legislation has been instituted of the return or restitution to claimant states of citizens are “introduced to, and encouraged to since 1980 with the Law on the Protection of cultural property has led to a continuing and engage with, cultures distant from their own in Cultural Heritage adopted in 1982 and amended often acrimonious debate, most notably between time and space” (Cuno 2008: 144). in 1988 and 1991. The looting and smuggling museum directors, collectors, and archaeologists. of antiquities is now regarded as organised However, given the millions of cultural items crime and severe sentences, including the death This debate is often expressed in terms of what of Chinese origin, both historical and con- penalty, can be imposed for the destruction of have been described as ‘retentionism’ and temporary, in collections around the world antiquities and the theft of precious cultural relics. ‘internationalism’. ‘Retentionism’ is applied to that are available for study, there can surely Beside national legislation, China is a signatory the policies followed by increasing numbers of be no reasonable case for adverse criticism of to the various international conventions relating countries which claim national ownership rights China’s efforts to reduce, and ideally elimi- to the illicit trade in antiquities. Given the over items of cultural heritage found or created, nate, the export of historic items, especially widespread looting and illicit export of cultural either historically or in recent times, within their when acquired illegally. Similarly, seeking relics that has occurred since 1980, China aims current territorial boundaries. ‘Internationalism’, the repatriation of such items with no, or specifically at the prohibition of exports of by contrast, refers to the principle that such questionable, provenance is understandable, antiquities dating from before 1795. items, especially those of great artistic merit, even if challenging. belong to humanity as a whole and should not To this end it has signed bilateral agreements be monopolised by a particular state. Philip Courtenay is former Professor and Rector of with a number of individual countries, the Cairns Campus, James Cook University, with a including, in January 2009 after long China is seeking repatriation of unprovenanced special interest in Southeast Asian ceramics. He is a negotiations, with the USA. The 2009 accord items newly appearing on overseas markets, member of the TAASA management commmittee. covers antiquities dating from the Palaeolithic as well as others earlier removed from its terri- period to the end of the Tang dynasty (907 tory under unacceptable circumstances. Recent REFERENCES CE). Nevertheless, this accord is not as broad examples of the latter are the two bronze heads Australian-on-line, 2005. China: Tomb raiders crack 2000-year-old looted during the second Opium War in 1860, vault, http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/ 10 February when French and British troops sacked the Cuno, James, 2008. Who Owns Antiquities? Museums and the Battle Old Summer Palace in Beijing, which were put over our Ancient Heritage, Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ. up for auction in February 2009 (Tsao: 85-6). French, Howard, 2006. Saving Chinese Artifacts: a Slow Fight, According to Chinese experts, there are at least New York Times, 1 April. one million items of Chinese art in 200 foreign He Shuzhong, 2001. Illicit Excavation in Contemporary China, pp 19-24 in Brodie, Neil, Jennifer Doole and Colin Renfrew (eds), museums spanning 47 countries that have to be Trade in Illicit Antiquities, McDonald Institute for Archaeological returned! (Volkskrant 2003). Research, Cambridge.
Kersels, Morag M., 2006. From the Ground to the Buyer. A Market There is undoubedly a strong element Analysis of the Trade in Illegal Antiquities, pp 188-205 in Brodie of nationalistic retentionism in the current et al, op cit. Chinese attitude to its cultural treasures, quite Soudijn, Melvin and Edgar Tijhuis, 2003. Some Perspectives on the understandable in a newly emerging political Illicit Antiquities Trade in China, Art, Antiquity and Law, 8, (2), pp 1-17. and economic power and one which is suffer- Stanish, Charles, 2009. Forging Ahead, Archaeology, 62, 3, May/June. ing considerable destruction to historic sites to Tan Bee Leng, 2005. Tomb raiders at Shaanxi Province leave little feed overseas demand. The argument support- for archaeologists, ing an ‘internationalist’ approach to ‘encyclo- Channel News, http://www.savingantiquities.org/Shaanxi.doc/ 15 June. paedic museums’ (such as the British Museum Tsao, Robert, 2009. Zodiac Heads from the Yuanmingyuan - A or the Art Institute of Chicago) is that, in Question of Taste and Value, Orientations, 40, (4), pp 85-6. Cuno’s words, they are places where local Volkskrant, 2003. China wilroofkunst terugeisen van musea, 28 January.
Ruins of the Old Summer Palace, Beijing.
Photo: Michael Kan
TAASA REVIEW VOLUME 19 NO.1 25 TRAVELLER’S TALE: A WEST TIMOR WEDDING
Ross Langlands
Older women wearing their finest sarongs, wedding celebration at Soe, West Timor, 2008. Photo: Ross Langlands
s with most journeys to fairly remote A destinations, much time is spent sitting in tin sheds or ‘terminals’ waiting for the plane, bus or train to arrive. I have done my fair share of that, but impatience is always tempered by the novice’s sense of anticipation! So it was on the journey to Soe in West Timor for the occasion of an important wedding, not in the royal sense but to celebrate the marriage of the eldest son of close friends Tiberius and Imelda Leo. The ceremony was a feat of organisation that would daunt even the most skilful and experienced. Some 1200 people attended over about five days with a large contingent of local guests and others arriving from as far afield as Europe, Singapore, USA, China and Australia as well as the wider Indonesian archipelago.
The bride and her family are Parisian art dealers, the groom’s a Timorese family, dealers in textiles and tribal art with connections throughout the world. They are a highly respected Soe family with extended Chinese ancestry from Hainan Island off the south China and Vietnamese coast. Guests were met at Kupang airport by various members of the swing. Maybe 30 local women attended to the fat red envelopes presented to the couple. family with four-wheel-drives to make the vegetables, fruit and traditional sweets and On the day of the ceremony, both local men winding and arduous drive in the dark to Soe, cakes, while the men tended the spit roasting. and women dressed in their most important some 100km to the east and climbing 800m into There was the ritual slaughter of several sarongs, blankets and breast wrappers and the southwest highlands of West Timor. It is a buffalo and at least a dozen pigs, accompanied wore their finest hair combs, weapons and cool climate with a pronounced dry season and by continuous gong (butaki) music and ritual other ritual regalia. There were several more a region well known for its artistic creativity in dancing by meo, warriors in their full regalia. days of festivity, eating, drinking (involving a wood and stone carving and textile weaving. The dance ritual was vaguely reminiscent little French wine) and dancing. Villagers and family were there to greet us of an Australian corroborree, and continued with supper on our midnight arrival. unabated throughout the day. Knowing that planes from Kupang would be overbooked on Sunday, we decided to make The best hotel was sparse: iron beds with no All tastes and creeds were catered for in a Saturday departure with local Bali dealer pillows, a thin horse hair mattress and cold this most eclectic gathering of wedding Daeng Iskandar, touring the local villages water - but as always, an excess of hospitality. guests that included animists, Buddhists, to visit his acquaintances. We then returned Dawn woke us, together with a cold and Moslems, Hindus and Christians. Family to Kupang, Bali in a more leisurely manner, constant wind from the south, uninterrupted and friends and a cast of characters from though nevertheless exhausted, and finally from the southern Australian Alps! Most 30 years of trading were present and, of back home to Sydney. guests probably managed to splash a little course, the local villagers from miles around water from the trough in the hotel room displaying extraordinary heirloom weavings Ross and Irene Langlands, specialist dealers in over their shivering bodies. Our little and jewellery. For all this, it was a very oriental rugs and textiles and tribal art, have multinational throng huddled around the traditional Chinese wedding with Catholic operated Nomadic Rug Traders in Sydney’s Pyrmont kiosk that dispensed Nescafe and condensed overtones. Wedding speeches were made in since 1975. milk. Mutis Peak dominates the skyline to English, French and Bahasa Indonesian by the north of Soe, the capital of South Central a recently retired Dutch missionary with 40 Timor regency (Timor Tingha Selatan). Buses years amongst the Dayak in Kalimantan, and and jeeps arrived and we set off down to the in Dawan (Atoni), the local language, by a ‘wedding marquee’ for a breakfast of rice, dignitary from Soe. pork and vegetables. The wedding outfits for the bride and groom The next day, on the eve of the wedding, were western (indeed Parisian!) and the all manner of food preparations were in full ceremony Chinese, with gold jewellery and
26 TAASA REVIEW VOLUME 19 NO.1 PROFILE: JIM MASSELOS
Pamela Gutman
Jim took this self portrait during a brief train stop
in western India in the late 1980’s im was one of TAASA’s founders, but In teaching Indian art history, Jim became J this is only one of his many contributions interested in using objects in terms of their to the study of Asian arts and cultures in visual history, each conveying a sense of place, Australia and beyond. As an undergraduate in culture and society. With this in mind he curated the 1950s he read Indian history with Marjorie the first of what was to be a series of influential Jacobs, herself instrumental in developing exhibitions on Asian Art: “A Survey of Asian Asian studies at Sydney University. Marjorie Art”, with Judy Birmingham, at the Fisher sought to teach India in its own terms, not Library in 1967. There followed: “The Gayer- as merely part of Commonwealth history as Anderson Collection” at the AGNSW in 1978; it had been previously taught, and Jim was “The Same but Different: Indian and Australian to follow in her footsteps. Jim also had an Photographs 1850-1925” with Peter Stanbury interest in film and became President of the and Alison Lea at the Macleay Museum in 1986; University of Sydney Film Group at a time “The Book in Asia” in the Rare Book Library when the Satyajit Ray films were first shown at the University of Sydney; “India’s Textile in Australia. He later became a member Heritage: a Research Collection” with Stuart of the Sydney Film Festival committee and Norrington at the Macleay Museum in 1990 and remembers Ray in Calcutta showing him a “The Centenary Exhibition: a Hundred Years of preview of the film he had just finished and History” at the Rare Book Library in 1991. laughing at his own jokes. From this time too his involvement intensified In 1961 the Government of India awarded with the AGNSW, where his friend Jackie him a Commonwealth scholarship for post- Menzies, also a Sydney University graduate, graduate study at the University of Bombay was Curator of Asian Art. “Divine and Courtly Asian Studies Association and the Asian where he wrote his PhD on the beginnings of Life in Indian Painting” was held there in 1991, Studies Association of Australia, for which Indian nationalism, later published as Towards followed in 1997 by “Dancing to the Flute, he produced the chapter on art studies for Nationalism. A wider history of the nationalist Music and Dance in Indian Art”, which he the Fitzgerald Committee’s report on the struggle, Indian Nationalism is now in its co-curated with Jackie and Pratapaditya Pal, future of Asian studies in Australia. And his fifth edition. In India he was able to travel and “Indian Popular Painting and Textiles” with contribution to TAASA, as a founder, long- to what were then out of the way places and Haema Sivanesan in 2004. He was also closely term Committee member and supporter has followed Indian musicians like Chattur Lal involved in the hugely successful “Goddess: helped to make it the success it is today. and Ram Narayan. Here he encountered beat Divine Energy” exhibition in 2006-7, organising poets Ginsberg and Schneider who were also a series of workshops to refine the concept and Pamela Gutman is an Honorary Associate, School of discovering Indian music. Another encounter travelling to India with Jackie to select exhibits. Letters, Art & Media, University of Sydney. was with Marie Seton (who wrote Eisenstein’s and then Satyajit Ray’s and Nehru’s Meanwhile Jim has been publishing widely, biographies) and the film society movement not only on the arts of India but also its in India she was promoting. The Australian history, politics and culture, often with special artist living in Bombay, Roy Dalgarno, was reference to Bombay where he had learned another contact and then friend. to love India and its people. Apart from numerous chapters in books and articles, Back in Sydney he lectured in Indian history some of his books include Beato’s Delhi 1857, and was soon granted a prestigious Nuffield 1997 (with Narayani Gupta, Ravi Dayal Foundation Dominion Travelling Fellowship, Publisher, Delhi 2000) and The City in Action. which took him to the School of Oriental and Bombay Struggles for Power (Oxford University African Studies in London where he studied Press, New Delhi 2007), and he edited and Marathi and was able to explore the great contributed to books such as Popular Art holdings of the Victoria and Albert and British in Asia: the people as patrons (University of Museums, as well as dealers’ and private Sydney, 1983). His Bombay Then and Now collections. He was particularly fascinated by (with Naresh Fernandes, Rolli Books, Delhi) Indian painting, and pursued this interest on has just appeared, while Great Empires of Asia, later visits to London. After Bernard Smith which he is editing for Thames and Hudson is became Professor of Contemporary Art and due to appear later this year. Director of the Power Institute of Fine Arts at Sydney University, a fourth year Honours Jim has instilled a love of India and its art course in Asian art was introduced, with Jim to generations of his students, and has been teaching India, Tony Bradley China and Japan, a staunch advocate for South Asian Studies and Peter Worsley Indonesia. in professional organisations like the South
TAASA REVIEW VOLUME 19 NO.1 27 RECENT TAASA ACTIVITIES
TAASA NSW
The 2009 End of Year Party took place on TAASA MEMBERS’ DIARY 9 December at the Powerhouse Museum. A large number of TAASA members attended MARCH – MAY 2010 for our ever popular Bazaar and an evening of catching up and good cheer. Many members contributed items for the Bazaar, some arriving TAASA ACT EVENT “Javanese Gamelan and China”- just as others were walking off the table, so TAASA members are invited to join a introductory talk and performance thanks to all those who kindly donated the study weekend planned for Saturday on Saturday 8 May at 12.30pm large variety of novelties and books. A number 13 and Sunday 14 March in Canberra. Queensland Conservatorium, of superb books were donated as raffle prizes. On Saturday, we will visit the National South Bank, Brisbane Also thanks to the very hardworking members Library of Australia and the National TAASA members will be given a short of the TAASA Management Committee – Judith Gallery of Australia where curators will talk on gamelan before joining a 40 and Ken Rutherford (coopted as bar person take the group through a selection of Asian minute performance to celebrate musical for the evening), Kate Johnston and Geraldine drawings and photographs from their connections between Java and China. Hardman in particular as they were rushed off extensive collections. A talk on Persian Performance is by the Queensland their feet taking payments for the Bazaar items. and Islamic calligraphy by Canberra based Conservatorium Gamelan Ensemble, Iranian artist Nasser Palangi will be held made up of Conservatorium students and TAASA Textile Study Group on Sunday morning at the ANU, followed members of the Indonesian community The theme for the meeting held on by a visit to Humble House, Fyshwyck, who study and perform music from the Wednesday 10 February was tie and dye where Roger Carter will provide an Central Javanese Court repertoire. They textiles. Christina Sumner, Principal Curator, overview of traditional Chinese furniture will be directed by artist-in-residence, Design and Society, at the Powerhouse at his showroom. In addition, a number of Pak Joko Susilo, an internationally Museum brought out a number of examples optional social events have been planned renowned musician and dhalang (shadow from India and Indonesia from the Museum including drinks hosted by Asia Bookroom drama master) and will play music from collection. Members complemented these on Saturday evening. the royal courts of Solo and Jogyakarta with a dazzling array of textiles from their involving full ensemble, voice and bowed own collections highlighting examples from A fee of $25 is payable on booking, which fiddle (rebab). India, particularly textiles from the village does not cover travel, accommodation or tradition. A video of artisans, both men and food. Participants need to make their own There is no formal charge for the women, demonstrating these traditional travel and accommodation arrangements. function but TAASA members will be methods of textile decoration, clearly showed Program enquiries can be directed to Hwei- asked to give a small donation to the the level of skill with which these vibrant Fen Cheah at: [email protected] Conservatorium. For further details textiles are imbued. or (02) 6125 1759. Bookings can be made by and interest in attending please contact contacting Gill Green at: gillians@ozemail. Philip Courtenay on (07) 3289 5066 or at com.au or (02) 9331 1810. [email protected].
TAASA QLD TAASA NSW APT6 special viewing for members – TAASA Textile Study Group Saturday 6 March The Study Group meets on the second TAASA members in Queensland will be Wednesday of the month from 6 – 8 pm given an introductory talk and special at the Briefing Room, Powerhouse viewing of APT6 by Suhanya Raffel, Museum. For details of meetings Curatorial Manager, Asia Pacific Art, being held from March to May please at the Queensland Art Gallery. It will contact Gill Green 9331 1810 or email: commence at 2.00 pm in the QAG [email protected]. lecture theatre. Enquiries to Philip Courtenay on (07) 3289 5066 or at [email protected].
Congratulations to TAASA President Judith Rutherford, who has been awarded an AM in the 2010 Australia Day honours awards. The citation reads: Examining tie and dye textiles at the TAASA Textile Study “For service to the community through the promotion of Asian arts and culture, the advancement Group meeting. L-R. Joyce Burnard, Brioni Forrest, Helen of clinical music therapy and through local government.” Perry, Sally Powell, Carole Douglas. Photo: Sandy Watson
28 TAASA REVIEW VOLUME 19 NO.1 WHAT’S ON IN AUSTRALIA: MARCH – MAY 2010 A SELECTIVE ROUNDUP OF EXHIBITIONS AND EVENTS
Compiled by Tina Burge
AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY held on 24 March, 7 April and 21 April from QUEENSLAND 6-7pm in the Centenary Auditorium. Asian Art Events See Edo City Lecture series at: www. The 6th Asia Pacific Triennial of National Gallery of Australia, Canberra artgallery.nsw.gov.au for details. Contemporary Art (APT6) Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art Jain pilgrimage painting Printmaking workshop – 5 December 2009 – 5 April 2010 13 April at 12.45 pm 20 February 2010 from 10.15am - 4.15pm. Master printmaker and lecturer Andrew The sixth exhibition in the Gallery’s Asia Lucie Folan, Curator, Asian Art, introduces Totman will guide the class through the Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art series the Gallery’s recently acquired early 18th exhibition. Then the class will create three occupies the entire Gallery of Modern Art century Indian painting, which maps pilgrim plate reduction block prints with the (GoMA) as well as the iconic Watermall journeys to some of the most sacred sites of addition of monoprints and chine-collé. and adjoining galleries at the Queensland the Jain religion. For bookings for the lecture series and the Art Gallery (QAG). APT6 includes the work workshop call: (02) 9225 1878 of more than 100 artists from 25 countries, Buddhas of the past and future including collaborations and collectives, 25 May at 12.45 pm Printmaking demonstration – which reflect the diversity of practices a 6 & 7 March 2010 from 12 noon – 4pm. cross Asia, the Pacific and Australia Melanie Eastburn, Curator, Asian Art, Master Japanese printer Keizaburo For further information go to: discusses the Gallery’s rare Thai temple Matsuzaki creates ukiyo-e style prints from www.qag.qld.gov.au/exhibitions/current/apt6 banner and introduces Maitreya, Buddha of woodblocks. In this demonstration, he will the future, and the many Buddhas of produce a bijin (‘beautiful woman’) print in the past. 15 colours. For further information go to: nga.gov.au Utamaro film series - Pictures from the NEW SOUTH WALES Floating World - 24 February - 18 April MITSUI TRAVEL 2010, Wednesdays & Sundays at 2pm and Hymn to beauty: the art of Utamaro Wednesdays 7.15pm (except 7 April, 6pm). A Gateway to Japan Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney This film series presents classic cinema by 13 February - 2 May 2010 some of Japan’s most significant directors. For more details go to: Already celebrated as a master of the ukiyo-e www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au (woodblock) print during his lifetime in late 18th century Japan, Utamaro was introduced Arts of Asia - Powerful Patrons to the West at the turn of the 20th century as Art Gallery of New South Wales a painter of the ‘Green Houses’ (Yoshiwara Tuesdays at 1-2pm from pleasure quarters). His sensuous and insightful 2 March – 19 October 2010 portraits of women from all walks of life - aloof courtesans, diligent housewives, affectionate Who are the outstanding individuals in mothers and passionate lovers – have enjoyed Asia who have shaped their people’s arts, unabated popularity in Japan and worldwide. culture and sense of identity? Each lecture The Narrow Road to the Deep North in the Powerful Patrons series considers With cherry blossom viewing Featuring around 80 prints from the renowned the biography and achievements of these Special departure April 9th 2010 – 11days collection of the Asian Art Museum, Berlin, cultural icons and demonstrates, through the Following the footsteps of Basho this exhibition is the first extensive survey of arts, how they encapsulate the aspirations Everyday is a journey, and the journey itself home Utamaro’s work in Australia and also includes and ideals of a culture. Through the lens of November 2010 work by his contemporaries and followers. personality, the course will consider painting Autumn maple tour featuring Ukiyo-e Woodblock and the decorative arts, architecture and Prints of everyday life of past Japan is scheduled Events associated with the exhibition: city building, following a trajectory from the for mid to late November 2010. passions of emperors and kings to the colonial Please call Ayako Mitsui for further discussion. Edo City: Crucible of Culture lecture series world and the dawn of the modern era. Ph 02 9232 2720 Cell 040 844 2614 In this three-lecture series, Professor William Details can be found at H. Coaldrake introduces the high culture www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/events/courses Office – Suite 403 / 147 King St. of the samurai, the popular culture of the where course bookings can also be made. Sydney 2000 Australia townspeople and the influence of 19th Email : [email protected] century Japan on the West. Lectures will be Website: www.mitsuitravel.com.au Member: IATA Affiliate Jetset Travelworld Group Lic.2TA1537
TAASA REVIEW VOLUME 19 NO.1 29 SOUTH AUSTRALIA arid interior. Cameleers assisted all major expeditions into Australia’s uncharted Reflections of the Lotus: the art of Thailand, interior starting with the Burke and Wills Burma and Laos expedition in 1860 and have contributed Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide significantly to Australia’s economic and 21 May – 4 July 2010 cultural development. For further information go to: Reflections of the Lotus includes 30 of www.museumvictoria.com.au/australias- the finest pieces from the comprehensive muslim-cameleers collection of Thai ceramics at the Art Gallery of South Australia, displaying the brilliant artistry and technical virtuosity of Thai potters working in the 13th to 16th centuries. The exhibition reveals a surprising range of objects, from miniature lidded-boxes and UCHIDA Shigeru, Japanese born 1943, Tea house (Sankyo elegant pieces with luscious celadon glazes, chashitsu), 2002 (designed), 2010 (made) Japan. polyurethane to ornate architectural finials featuring on stained Ash (Fraxinus sp.) and Oak (Quercus sp.), bamboo, legendary monsters, and sculptures created straw, 231.0 x 284.6 x 284.6 cm. Collection of Mrs Pauline to decorate the Buddhist temples. Amongst Gandel, Melbourne © Shigeru Uchida them is an almost life size temple guardian, the largest intact example of such a figure to in the Asuka and Nara periods (538 - 794) survive until today. by Japanese Buddhist monks who travelled The Gallery plans to tour this exhibition to Tang China and returned to Japan with nationally in 2010 and 2011. tea and its utensils. However it wasn’t until Bejah Dervish at Mullewa, WA, leaving for the Calvert For further information go to: the Muromachi period (1333- 1568) that Expedition, 1896. State Library South Australia www.artgallery.sa.gov.au the unique Japanese aesthetic of Wabi Sabi “beauty in imperfection” was developed and culminated in the practice and teachings of the great tea master, Sen no Rikyu during INTERNATIONAL the Momoyama period (1568-1600). CHINA Tea and Zen will show tea utensils in ceramics, lacquer and bamboo and also Spring Festival Celebration for the Year Zen paintings and calligraphy to create a of the Tiger – Contemporary Calligraphy contemplative setting evoking the spirit of National Art Museum of China, Beijing the `Way of Tea’. The exhibition will include 9 February – 1 March 2010 objects from the NGV’s own collection along with objects from private collections. The National Art Museum of China has invited modern calligraphic artists to The exhibition will explore the philosophical respond to the celebrated tradition of meanings underlying the `Way of Tea’ in Chinese calligraphy around the theme of the both China and Japan and make artistic Year of the Tiger. The exhibition explores the and cultural comparisons. It will also draw current place of calligraphy in contemporary attention to the tea ceremony’s continuing Chinese art. Goose Kendi, c.14th century, Thailand, Sukothai Kingdom practice in present day Japan and its For further information go to: 1238-1419, Ayudhya Kingdom 1350-1767, Sawankhalok, influence on contemporary Japanese artists www.namoc.org/en stoneware, green glaze, underglaze iron decoration, and designers, with tea utensils created by HONG KONG 29.5 cm (h), South Australian Government Grant 1974, Art the contemporary artist Mariko Mori and a Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide functioning tea house by Shigeru Uchida. The Bei Shan Tang Legacy For further information go to: Chinese University of Hong Kong Art Museum VICTORIA www.ngv.vic.gov.au 5 September – Spring 2010
Tea and Zen Australia’s Muslim Cameleers – Bei Shan Tang was the private studio name National Gallery of Victoria – International, Pioneers of the Inland 1860s-1930s of the late Dr Lee Jung Sen (1915-2007). His Melbourne Immigration Museum, Melbourne extensive personal collection, donated to the 15 April – 29 August 2010 26 February – 19 September 2010 Museum over three decades and ranging from painting, calligraphy, ink rubbings, jade Chinese scholars took on tea drinking as This exhibition of photographs reveals and ceramics to sculpture, scholar objects a form of relaxation while Chinese Zen the remarkable contribution that and bronzes, is currently displayed over four (Chan in Chinese) Buddhist monks drank Australia’s first Muslim community, from galleries of the Museum. tea to stay awake during long hours of Afghanistan and British India, made to the meditation. Tea was introduced to Japan exploration and settlement of Australia’s
30 TAASA REVIEW VOLUME 19 NO.1 JAPAN exhibition aims to introduce new audiences The Asian Art Museum’s Shanghai to the ideas and art forms of contemporary exhibition is the cornerstone of the Shanghai Garden of Painting—Japanese Art of the 00s art. A stellar cast of painting, sculpture, Celebration—a year-long Bay Area-wide The National Museum of Art, Osaka video, photography, performance art from collaboration honouring its sister city and 16 January – 4 April 2010 across Southeast Asia are brought together coinciding with the 2010 World Expo hosted and the whole of the museum building has by Shanghai. To commemorate the fifth anniversary of been transformed into a dramatic stage For further information go to: relocation from Expo Park to Nakanoshima, for these stars and icons. Yet beneath the www.asianart.org in the heart of Osaka, Japanese Art of the 00s glamour, many of the artworks ask critical focuses on new figurative painting from the and challenging questions about society, China: Impermanent Beauty 1996-97 - last decade to showcase the vibrant activities nation and the history of art itself. Photographs by Ka Yeung of a younger generation of Japanese artists. For further information go to: Crow Collection of Asian Art, Dallas The exhibition includes over 200 works by www.singart.com 20 February – 16 May, 2010 28 artists, including recent and new works. www.nmao.go.jp USA The inauguration of the newly dedicated gallery space at the Crow Collection, SINGAPORE Shanghai LinkAsia, will present art works that Asian Art Museum, San Francisco provide a contemporary global path Classic Contemporary: Contemporary 12 February – 5 September 2010 to understanding Asia through unique Southeast Asian Art from the Singapore Art perspectives and mediums. The inaugural Museum Collection Shanghai explores the tumultuous history exhibition consists of photographs by Ka Singapore Art Museum of one of the world’s most dynamic and Yeung that document the Yangtze River 29 January 2010 to 2 May 2010 cosmopolitan cities. This exhibition features (Long River) before it was flooded by the more than 130 oil paintings, Shanghai Three Gorges Dam. Classic Contemporary includes some of Deco furniture and rugs, revolutionary www.crowcollection.com the Singapore Art Museum’s most iconic posters, works of fashion, movie clips, contemporary artworks in its collection. By and contemporary installations. They are playfully asking what makes a work of art significant visual documents of the city’s rich “classic” or “contemporary” – or “classic and ever-changing culture. contemporary” – this accessible and quirky
FROM HO CHI MINH CITY TO HANOI’S 1000TH BIRTHDAY 19 SEPTEMBER – 11 OCTOBER This tour usually starts with the Viet culture in the north, but this year will climax in Hanoi, for the 1000th Birthday of the city. Visit minority groups in the northern highlands, learn about the Cham Organising study tours since 1989. culture in Central Viet Nam and the Khmer south in the Mekong delta. Tour led by Rob Lovell. Land Only twin share per person: $5,795 We offer over 20 study tours each year, of which the following scheduled during 2010 and 2011 may be of interest to TAASA members. MALI AND SENEGAL 15 – 30 OCTOBER 2010 SPRING IN THE STANS Home to several distinct cultures and great music, Mali also has memorable sites like Djenne, the 01 – 14 APRIL 2010 Niger River and Timbuktoo. You will also tour the country of the Dogon people. Senegal has a unique A comprehensive tour of the great sites and cities of Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan where Turkic culture eco-system owing to its position at the junction of oceanic, desert and tropical climates. It also has an and art flourished. Visit legendary Samarkand and Bukhara, Khiva, Nukus, Merv and Mary. Tour leader interesting colonial architectural heritage in towns like Dakar and Saint Louis. Tour leader is Ben Churcher. is Helen Nicholson. Land Only price per person, twin share: $7,025 Land Only per person, twin share: $6,125 LAOS JAPAN: THROUGH THE TORII GATE NOVEMBER 2010 05 – 22 APRIL 2010 Led by Gay Spies this tour takes you inside the culture of the gentle Lao and includes the annual That Experience Japan at Cherry Blossom Time. This tour covers central and southern Japan, and includes Luang Festival in Vientiane, an extended stay in Luang Prabang and an overnight in a local house to visits to great modern cities like Tokyo and Osaka, historic centres like Kyoto and Nara, feudal castles experience true Lao hospitality. like Himeji and Matsuyama, and well preserved small towns like Kanazawa and Takayama. In conjunction with WEA and led by Simon Gentry. SOME OF THE TOURS SCHEDULED FOR 2011 Land Only price per person, twin share: $7,995 Winter in China: Harbin, Guilin and Yunnan (NEW) THREE ANCIENT LANDS: AZERBAIJAN, GEORGIA AND ARMENIA Burma with Terry Bisley (NEW) 16 APRIL – 05 MAY 2010 Egypt: From Alexandria to Abu Simbel The Caucasus – a unique melting pot of Eastern Orthodox and Islam. From the shores of Lake Sevan, Tunisia and Libya the oil boomtown of Baku, to the lush church-studded hills of Georgia, the Caucasus is its own world. Sri Lanka Led by Rob Lovell. Turkey: Lure of the East from Trabzon to Tarsus Land Only price per person, twin share: $7,295 Russia and the Ukraine Mongolia, Southern Siberia and Manchuria Iran
For a brochure on any of the above tours, or to receive our quarterly newsletter Bon Voyage, please phone: (02) 9290 3856 or 1300 799 887 (outside Sydney metrop.), fax: (02) 9290 3857, e-mail: [email protected]; www.alumnitravel.com.au
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