TAASA REVIEW Josefa Green the ASIAN ARTS SOCIETY of AUSTRALIA INC
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VOLUME 18 VOLUME NO. 2 JUNE 2009 THE JOURNAL OF THE ASIAN ARTS SOCIETY OF AUSTRALIA TAASA Review EARTH CONTENTS Volume 18 No.2 June 2009 3 EDITORIAL: EARTH TAASA REVIEW THE ASIAN ARTS SOCIETY OF AUSTRALIA INC. Josefa Green Abn 64093697537 • Vol. 18 No. 2, June 2009 ISSN 1037.6674 4 THE EVOLUTION OF IKEBANA: KAWANA TETSUNORI’S INSTALLATION AT THE NGV Registered by Australia Post. Publication No. NBQ 4134 Jo Maindonald editoriAL • email: [email protected] 7 MOTHER INDIA: THE TRANSMUTING POWER OF EARTH General editor, Josefa Green Jim Masselos publications COMMITTEE 10 SKETCHING MOUNT NAMSAN Josefa Green (convenor) • Tina burge Melanie Eastburn • Sandra Forbes • Ann MacArthur Peter Armstrong Jim Masselos • Ann Proctor • Susan Scollay Sabrina Snow • Christina Sumner 13 BEIJING’S ALTAR OF EARTH AND ITS RITUAL CERAMICS DESIGN/layout Iain Clarke Ingo Voss, VossDesign PRINTING 16 INSPIRATION AND INTERCHANGE: THE JAPANESE-AUSTRALIAN POTTERY CONNECTION John Fisher Printing Janet Mansfield Published by The Asian Arts Society of Australia Inc. 18 TRANSFORMATION: THE WORK OF TAKAHIRO KONDO PO Box 996 Potts Point NSW 2011 Trevor Fleming www.taasa.org.au Enquiries: [email protected] 19 IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN: AN IZNIK TILE IN THE POWERHOUSE MUSEUM TAASA Review is published quarterly and is distributed to members Paul Donnelly of The Asian Arts Society of Australia Inc. TAASA Review welcomes submissions of articles, notes and reviews on Asian visual and 20 ONCE UPON A MIDNIGHT: THE OZASIA ROCK MUSICAL performing arts. All articles are refereed. Additional copies and subscription to TAASA Review are available on request. Alex Vickery-Howe No opinion or point of view is to be construed as the opinion of 22 EXHIBITION REVIEW: FROM THE HANDS OF OUR ANCESTORS The Asian Arts Society of Australia Inc., its staff, servants or agents. No claim for loss or damage will be acknowledged by TAASA Maryellen Hargreaves Review as a result of material published within its pages or in other material published by it. We reserve the right to alter 23 BOOK REVIEW: THE ANCIENT TALE OF A JAVANESE BUDDHA-PRINCE or omit any article or advertisements submitted and require Pamela Gutman indemnity from the advertisers and contributors against damages or liabilities that may arise from material published. 23 EXHIBITION REVIEW: NAM BANG! AT THE CASULA POWERHOUSE All reasonable efforts have been made to trace copyright holders. Ann Proctor TAASA MEMBERSHIP RATES 24 THE 2ND ASEAN TRADITIONAL TEXTILE SYMPOSIUM $60 Single $90 Dual Gill Green $90 Single overseas (includes postage) $30 Concession (students/pensioners with ID) 25 RECENT TAASA ACTIVITIES $95 Libraries (overseas, $95 + $20 postage) $195 Corporate/institutional (up to 10 employees) 25 TAASA MEMBERS’ DIARY $425 Corporate/institutional (more than 10 employees) $650 Life membership (free admission all events) 26 WHAT’S ON: JUNE – august 2009 advertising RATES TAASA Review welcomes advertisements from appropriate companies, institutions and individuals. Rates below are GST inclusive. Back page $850 Full inner page $725 Half page horizontal $484 Third page (vertical or horizontal) $364 Half column $265 Insert $300 For further information re advertising, including COVER discounts for regular quarterly advertising, please contact INstaLLatION WITH IKEBANA (DETAIL) (2009) Evan DEMAS. Photo: LUCY Joyce. COURTESY OF [email protected] KAZARI Collector. SEE JO MAINDONALD'S ARTICLE 'THE Evolution OF IKEBANA' ON pages 4 - 6 THE DEADLINE FOR ALL ARTICLES FOR OUR NEXT ISSUE IS 1 JULY 2009 A FULL INDEX OF ARTICLES PUBLISHED IN TAASA REVIEW since its beginnings THE DEADLINE FOR ALL ADVERTISING IN 1991 IS available ON THE TAASA WEB SITE, WWW.taasa.ORG.au FOR OUR NEXT ISSUE IS 1 AUGUST 2009 2 TAASA COMMITTEE EDITORIAL: EARTH Josefa Green, Editor Judith rutherford • PRESIDENT What a wonderful scope this topic offers, the Iain Clarke provides a fascinating account Collector and specialist in Chinese textiles second in our ‘elements’ series. As the range of the origins of and rituals associated with GiLL Green • VICE PRESIDENT of articles in this issue testifies, we can think of the Altar of Earth, established in beijing Art historian specialising in Cambodian culture ‘earth’ in many ways: as an all encompassing by the Ming Emperor Jiajing in 1530. His Ann GuiLd • TREASURER notion of the world we inhabit; as the soil article offers the results of his research into Former Director of the Embroiders Guild (UK) which nourishes, and as the material from the ceramic monochrome sacrificial vessels KAte JohnSTON • SECRETARY Intellectual property lawyer with which works of utility, ritual and art are associated with the Altar of Earth, and other an interest in Asian textiles constructed such as ceramic vessels and ritual altars in beijing, which were ordained JOCELYN CHEY sculpture. Earth has figured in most cultures in regulations set out during the reign of Visiting Professor, Department of Chinese Studies, as one of the basic elements that make up the Emperor Qianlong in the Qing dynasty. University of Sydney; former diplomat material world, associated with origin myths, Matt Cox divine beings (often female) and honoured The influence of the Japanese ceramic tradition Study Room Co-ordinator, Art Gallery of new South Wales, with a particular interest in Islamic Art of through ritual and festivals. on Australian potters, its aesthetics and its Southeast Asia philosophical foundations, is explored in Janet PHILIP Courtenay A deep seated regard for nature is at the core Mansfield’s article. In particular, the Mingei Former Professor and Rector of the Cairns Campus, of Ikebana, a distinctly Japanese art form movement in Japan and the tea ceremony James Cook University, with a special interest in Southeast Asian ceramics drawn from both Shinto and buddhist beliefs. tradition found resonance in the 1960’s and MELANIE EASTBURN Jo Maindonald’s article not only shows how 70’s craft movements and to the present day. Curator of Asian art, National Gallery of Australia this discipline evolved from a striving to Drawing from her own experiences as one of SANDRA FORBES bring out the full potential of objects in the our outstanding ceramic artists, with strong Editorial consultant with long-standing interest natural world, but also how it manifests itself Japanese and other international ceramic in South and Southeast Asian art in the contemporary work of artists such as connections, Janet Mansfield is in a unique Josefa GREEN Rosalie Gasgoigne and Kawana Tetsunori, position to provide us with this overview of General editor of TAASA Review. Collector of Chinese ceramics, with long-standing interest in East Asian whose spectacular bamboo installation is an interchange which still inspires Australian art as student and traveller currently on show at the nGV, Melbourne. potters today. GERALDINE HARDMAN Collector of Chinese furniture and burmese lacquerware Jim Masselos’ thoughtful article explores the Trevor Fleming explores the inspiration ANN PROCTOR many manifestations of earth in the context behind the work of contemporary Japanese Lecturer in Asian Art, Sydney University and the national Art School, Sydney of Indian religious and political thought. He ceramicist, Takahiro Kondo, which draws on discusses the way early Hindu formative the Zen buddhist notion of transience, and ANN ROBERTS Art consultant specialising in Chinese myths depict earth as a potent goddess and the tea ceremony notion that each encounter ceramics and works of art how this transformed into more contemporary is unique and decisive. In Kondo’s recent SABRINA SNOW notions of Mother India, the sacred territory work, monolithic objects inspired by the Has a long association with the Art Gallery of new of India, as an important rallying symbol in ancient standing stones of Orkney, Scotland, South Wales and a particular interest in the arts of China the late 19th and early 20th century agitations are encased with what appears to be frozen CHRISTINA SUMNER against british rule. or dripping water particles, the result of Principal Curator, Design and Society, Powerhouse Museum, Sydney an innovative overglaze that produces SPECIALIST ADVISOR ON NE ASIA In Asia, mountains serve as potent symbols astounding effects. Min-Jung Kim for earth and are often sacred precincts, HON. Auditor offering protection in both a physical Our regular “In the Public Domain” item Rosenfeld Kant and Co and spiritual sense. This is the case with allows us to dip into a different ceramic state representatives namsan, the southern of the four mountains tradition, of wall tiles used extensively to AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY that controlled access to the Silla kingdom decorate the palaces and mosques of the ROBYN MAXWELL capital, Kyongju (bCE57 – CE936), in SE Korea. Islamic Ottoman Empire. From his research Visiting Fellow in Art History, ANU; Architect and Sydney University academic undertaken for this TAASA Review article Senior Curator of Asian Art, National Gallery of Australia Peter Armstrong shares with us his delightful on an Iznik tile of c.1575 in the Sydney NORTHERN TERRITORY sketches made on his many walks through the Powerhouse Museum’s collection, Paul Joanna Barrkman pathways of Mt namsan. His images bring Donnelly has found some evidence that this Curator of Southeast Asian Art and Material Culture, Museum and Art Gallery of the northern Territory to life its dramatic terrain and the buddhist particular tile may have been removed at QUEENSLAND sculptures that are now the only evidence