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Volume 18 No.2 June 2009
3 EDITORIAL: EARTH TAASA REVIEW Josefa Green THE ASIAN ARTS SOCIETY OF AUSTRALIA INC. 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. Maryellen Hargreaves No claim for loss or damage will be acknowledged by TAASA 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.
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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 some point from the Ayub Ansari mausoleum Suhanya Raffel of the many structures that once dotted this complex in Istanbul. Head of Asian and Pacific Art, Queensland Art Gallery sacred mountain. TAASA Review is delighted South Australia to have the opportunity to publish some of Together with an exploration of cross cultural James Bennett these original works of art. collaboration in Adelaide’s OzAsia Festival Curator of Asian Art, Art Gallery of South Australia rock musical “Once Upon a Midnight’, and a Victoria Detailed instructions on the ritual worship number of exhibition and book reviews, this Carol Cains of earth were codified in China as early as ‘earth’ issue aims to offer an abundant feast Curator Asian Art, National Gallery of Victoria International the Western Zhou dynasty (1027 – 771BCE). to nourish its readers. TASMANIA Kate Brittlebank Lecturer in Asian History, School of History and Classics, University of Tasmania 3 THE EVOLUTION OF IKEBANA: KAWANA TETSUNORI’S INSTALLATION AT THE NGV
Jo Maindonald
rom ancient roots to contemporary art, Fully versed in the aesthetics of Ikebana, Sydney on his return to Australia, he became F the demands of the discipline of Ikebana Kawana can work with the fundamentals of honorary advisor to the world headquarters - the balancing of tensions and requirement to the discipline to create something new that is of Ikebana International, which had branches show organic material at its best - has assured beyond Ikebana but which still allows us to in the major cities of Australia and New its survival and place in the contemporary see the essential value of this art form. Zealand, running classes in Melbourne and art context. Canberra. Today he is revered as father of The scale on which he works takes us far away Ikebana in Australia. To celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Ikebana from the generally accepted view of Ikebana International in Melbourne, renowned as a flower show display where restrained Sparnon wrote a number of books including international guest artist Kawana Tetsunori, arrangements, with their emphasis on plant Japanese Flower Arrangement, Classical and has created Five Elements-Water, a huge bam- material to express line, shape, form and space, Modern and importantly, The Beauty of boo sculpture, which will remain in the Grollo compete with western displays of abundance. Australia’s Wildflowers: creative ideas for Japanese Equiset Garden at NGV International, St Kilda flower arrangement. Aware of Australia’s Rd, from May 15th – 26th July. Kawana worked with both Sofu Tesigahara unique flora and landscape, he was quick to (1900-1979), founder of the Sogestsu School, demonstrate how the scalene geometry and Kawana travels the world extensively to teach and later his son and successor Hiroshi other rules employed in Ikebana strikingly Ikebana, living in Hong Kong and now New (1927-2001) who was also an avant-garde show the natural beauty of flora such as York, creating huge works in New York, filmmaker. They worked in a multiplicity of banksias and waratahs and other strangely Boston and most recently in Moscow. He has styles in forms that seem cutting edge today, sculptural indigenous plants. also worked successfully as an art director, using flowers and plant material, but often including the winning Nagano demonstration just large bamboo installations that echo line Another of Sparnons’ achievements was a for the Olympic Games, Lillehammer, Norway and particularly space. translation into English of Rikka, The Soul in 1994. of Japanese Flower Arrangement, by Fujiwara Branches of both the modern school of Yuchiku, known to be the most definitive He is a Master of the Sogetsu School of Sogetsu and the classical Ikenobu School work on the subject in Japan. This classical Ikebana, and yet this NGV installation work of Ikebana were successfully established in style, directly derived from early Buddhist is described as a ‘sculpture not Ikebana’. Australia by Norman Sparnon (1913-95). and Shinto offerings to deities, is now Although clearly informed by his life work During the period 1960-1990, Sparnon was associated with the Ikenobo School. with the school and created with organic possibly the Western world’s most qualified and natural materials shown to their highest leading exponent and Master of Ikebana. In Today, there are around 10 Ikebana schools potential, this huge work may not have the the post war period he studied in Japan for 12 represented in Australia. The Sogetsu School, same elements that one would usually expect years and achieved full credit and high rank due to Norman Sparnon and the school’s of an Ikebana work. in both Ikebana disciplines. After settling in creative modern approach, has gained the greatest popularity. In contrast, Ikenobo, the oldest known school, is more prescriptive with fewer opportunities for those with a more creative flair. Other schools including Ohara, Ichiyo, Misho, Shogetsudo-koryu, Koryu, Chiko and Adacahi have appeared as students and teachers have returned or moved to live here, from Japan.
Beth Higgs was one of the first students to study Sogetsu SchooI Ikebana with Norman Sparnon. A long-standing member of the Ikebana International Melbourne Chapter since its inauguration in September 1959, she curated ’The Long River of Ikebana’, a stand out exhibition (Kazari 2003) tracing Ikebana through its history and development from its indigenous animist roots. She also wrote an accompanying text, illustrated with well-chosen poems, capturing the essence of Ikebana. In the introduction she wrote:
“To transform and idealise is the soul of Ikebana. It is a uniquely Japanese Five Elements – Water (2009), Kawana Tetsunori, National Gallery of Victoria. Photo: Tony Delves
4 TAASA REVIEW VOLUME 18 NO.2 Classical peony basket and nageire arrangement of peonies, lotus flowers and leaves, Japan, early 18th century,
Edo period. Colours and ink on silk, with kiri haku
(sprinkled gold leaf) and gofun (powdered shell), hanging
scroll. Courtesy of Kazari Collector
the finest artists of the period including and Daisetsu Suzukito. The professor now Zen priests from the Rokkaku-do temple, teaches at Takarazuka University of Art & later known to be the place where the Rikka Design, the only university in Japan to offer standing style and the Ikenobo school became post graduate study in Japanese Traditional established by the late 16th century. Arts where Suzuki completed her doctorate.
What typified the relatively short but Often said to have originated in the 15th important Momoyama period (1573-1615) century, her research found that the word was the excesses of the militaristic Shogun, Ikebana didn’t appear until 1764 in a book Toyotomi Hideyoshi (r.1582-98), especially by Ryuboku Chiba, who established the in his preference for huge scale gold interior first formal Ikebana school based on the decoration and massive flower arrangements. head master system. Chiba spoke about the Yet at the same time, this period saw the individual characteristics of plant species appearance of renowned tea and flower used, each needing to be shown to best master, Sen no Rikyu, whose taste was advantage. Dr Suzuki’s research has shown the antithesis of this. Chabana, simple yet that the word Ikebana itself came from the sensitive flower arrangements, were created root IKASU meaning ‘to bring out the full in humble tea houses constructed in gardens, potential of things’, whereas previously the and became an intrinsic part of the evolving word was assumed to originate from IKIRU rituals of the tea ceremony. which means ‘to live and give life’.
From the mid 17th to mid 18th centuries, social As Dr Suzuki says: “in order to show the change and the development of a new merchant original characteristics of the plant in an class saw a corresponding shift from classical arrangement, the arranger will have to and formal Rikka - aimed at “ the recreation of the observe the plant carefully from all angles natural landscape using indigenous materials – with a firm determination of bringing out combinations of pine, cedar, bamboo, mountain the fullest beauty of the plant. In order to do cherry, camellias and azaleas” - to a more that it is best to consult with the plant itself. informal and upright Nageire style emphasising In Ikebana, the arranger is required to have a combination of technique, tradition and “only one material aspect of nature, either dialogue with the materials and work together intuition. This attitude towards art has a alone or by the subtle use of a few contrasting with them to make an arrangement.” long history and its sources lie in the way materials”, says Higgs. the Japanese people regard nature. For Rosalie Gasgoigne, one of Australia’s foremost the ancient Japanese co-existence with the Through the 18th century, new schools and contemporary artists, representing Australia in elements of nature was inherent in their styles emerged and continued to evolve, with the Venice Biennale in 1982, was another early Shinto religion then, with the introduction women encouraged to participate. By the student of Norman Sparnon. In the catalogue of Buddhism in the 6th Century, came early 19th century, a more relaxed approach essay, ‘Making Poetry of the Commonplace’ temples and offertory flowers placed stressing the natural beauty of the material for the recent exhibition at the NGV’s Ian before the images of Buddha.” used, has led to Ikebana as it is today. Potter Centre, curator Kelly Gellatly wrote that Rosalie Gasgoigne was to “regard the Beth Higgs’ account shows how the triad style, Recently Dr Eiko Suzuki, visiting from real foundations of her sculptural practice a three stemmed asymmetric form, emerged Hiroshima, was guest speaker at an event as lying in her work with Ikebana.” It is as the basic structure of all Ikebana to this at Kazari Collector in Melbourne, where she clear that the discipline of Ikebana, which day. This triad, trinity or scalene geometry has demonstrated how to identify and use the required her to manipulate and show the spiritual roots shared across major religions best qualities of plant material in simple innate beauty of natural material, with an such as Buddhism, Shintoism, Christianity traditional Ikebana arrangements As the emphasis on line, form and space within three and other ancient codes. Influenced by China, only person to have gained a Post Graduate dimensions, informed her later work, yet she yet reflecting Shinto reverence for nature, the Doctorate on Ikebana, she shared something also felt the emphasis Norman Sparnon placed arrangement of flowers, and various terms of her research into its deeper philosophy, on Japanese culture and aesthetics left “big to describe this, continued to evolve during prompted by being intrigued as to why so pieces of the Australian ethos out”, which she the Heian (794-1185) and Kamakura period many Western people are drawn to study it. then went on to explore on her own. (1185-1333). As there are more than 1,000 schools now in Japan, and the study of Ikebana has almost Another Australian artist, Evan Demas, who Significant developments occurred during become a rite of passage for young women, has assisted Kawana Tetsunori in the past, is the Muromachi period (1392-1573) with she asks: “How can they all be Ikebana? What a sculptor, ceramic artist and award winning the third Ashikaga Shogun holding regular is the spirit of Ikebana that unites all these Sogetsu School student. His work often flower arrangement events in Kinkaku-ji, the styles of arrangements?” shares materials in common with Gasgoigne, famous Golden Pavilion in Kyoto. Yoshimasa, including industrial materials that might the 8th Ashikaga Shogun, retired in 1467 to Answering these questions led to finding her show signs of decay and disintegration His the Ginkaku-ji, the equally beautiful Silver teacher, Professor Yukihiro Kurasawa, a world large scale installations with, and without, Pavilion, to study meditation and foster authority on Art and Zen and a prominent plant material, has been advantaged by the cultural pursuits such as No drama, tea philosopher of the Kyoto school, founded by three dimensional and aesthetic training of ceremony and flower arranging. He cultivated Japanese philosophers such as Kitaro Nishida Ikebana.
TAASA REVIEW VOLUME 18 NO.2 5 Sogetsu School, Ikebana arrangement,
Beth Higgs (2009). Photo: Lucy Joyce
“Folds, dints and bends are created to but such experimentation can fall very short counter the inherent geometry of the indeed if material, line, colour, mass and materials including a tension between space are not considered or tensions balanced. control and chance or conscious and Like any discipline, this can only come with unconscious activity. Architectural space is an expert eye and extensive training: know filled with chaotic and controlled line and it well and then you can break the rules. The mass that plays with flowing movement human impulse to create in response to the and static energy.” beauty of nature, the impermanence of the materials, the constant tension in balancing He will work within the gallery space to opposites inherent in Japanese aesthetics and explore line, mass and space using antique art, continues to keeps this art form alive. Japanese and other architectural elements, organic and plant materials. Demas also Jo Maindonald is co-director of Kazari (est. 1979) expresses his understanding and appreciation in Melbourne, dealing in Japanese and Chinese art of Kawana’s work in this way: and antiques and recently, contemporary art. Kazari is Principal Sponsor of Five Elements-Water, Kawana “Kawana’s large bamboo installations Tetsunori at the Grollo Equiset Garden at NGV are arranged in ways that express flow International, St Kilda Rd. 15th May - 26th July. and movement reminiscent of wave like phenomenon such as created in water or REFERENCES in unseen frequencies. The energy that Gellatly, Kelly. 2008: Rosalie Gasgoigne, Catalogue of the National is perceived contrasts the static reality Gallery Of Victoria. both with the work and the surrounding Higgs, Elizabeth. 2003: The Long River of Ikebana, Ikebana space. The bamboo’s slow disintegration International, Melbourne Chapter. allows us to ponder the notion of change Fujiwara, Yuchiku 1976: Rikka, The Soul of Japanese Flower Writing on his installation exhibition planned and reintegration of the particular into the Arrangement, transl. Norman Sparnon, Shufunotomo Co Ltd. for June 2009 at Kazari Collector, where both universal.” Kudo Masanobu. 1986: The History of Ikebana, transl. Jay and his own creativity and aesthetics gleaned Sumi Gluck, Shufunotomo Co Ltd. from Ikebana and Japanese traditions will be There is purity about Ikebana. Moving outside experienced, Demas says: the discipline can be successfully managed
6 TAASA REVIEW VOLUME 18 NO.2 EARTH TRANSMUTED: MANIFESTATIONS OF MOTHER INDIA
Jim Masselos
In India earth transmutes. It is never So Nehru combined the idea of Mother India that Mother India was a goddess - everyone’s I constant. It becomes something it was as motherland, with space and people. He goddess - in the struggle against the foreigner. not, and then returns to what it was. Clay was about inclusion, not exclusion. All of She was visualised as superimposed above becomes a pot, a plate, a cooking vessel or the land and all the people who worked and the map of India and soon appeared on a foot scraper. It can become a figure, be lived on it - all were collectively Mother India. posters and calendars distributed throughout given human shape and even turned into Earth thus joined with place and personal the nation in making. Hers was a potent something that is literally divine when artist identity to be transmuted into the idea of a and popular image before independence and priest work their diverse magic and composite and encompassing nation. and, as her posters show, her popularity has sacral potency so that the deity enters into continued into independent India. In recent the clay image. The final step after the image Here Nehru built on what was already a depictions she is always represented as a is painted and dressed is to paint in the eyes. powerful rallying symbol used in Bengal in young and beautiful woman, often standing Then it has life, the image becomes literally late 19th and early 20th century agitations alone on a map of India along with her lion the deity in whose shape it was fashioned against British rule. Out of protest songs, vehicle. In other posters she is accompanied and whose form it has mimicked. Installed marches and demonstrations emerged a by national heroes superimposed around her in homes and in public places, the gods take notion of the territory of India as being sacred, – they can include pre-British warrior kings, their abode within the brilliant clay images. They are in place only a few days, usually ten or less, during popular festivals which take over the cities, towns or villages of eastern and western India. The gods stay installed in state until the end of the festival when they are carried to local beaches, rivers or ponds and immersed. As the icons dissolve, deity dissipates – Ganesh or Saraswati or Durga and their associates return to the clay from which they were formed.
Earth transmutes in other ways. Nehru who became India’s first prime minister understood the severalty of earth, its multiplicity. When he was electioneering in villages in 1937 peasants greeted him with shouts of Bharat Mata ki jai – Victory to Mother India. He asked, in what became a virtual Socratic interchange, what they meant - who was this Mother India? They were surprised. Eventually one would answer:
‘…it was the dharti, the good earth of India, that they meant. What earth? Their particular village patch, or all the patches in the district or province, or in the whole of India? And so question and answer went on, till they would ask me impatiently to tell them ... I would … explain that India was all this they had thought, but it was much more. The mountains and the rivers of India, and the forests and the broad fields … but what counted ultimately were the people of India, people like them and me, who were spread out all over this vast land. Bharat Mata, Mother India, was essentially these millions of people, and victory to her meant victory to these people. You are parts of this Bharat Mata, I told them, you are in a manner yourselves Bharat Mata.’ (Nehru 1988:60) Varaha rescuing Earth Goddess Bhu Devi at Udaygiri, Madhya Pradesh. Gupta period (c.5th century CE).
Photo: Jim Masselos, 2008
TAASA REVIEW VOLUME 18 NO.2 7 Mother India (Bharat Mata). Tamil popular poster,
South India, early 2000s. Portvale Collection
addendum, Rama again becomes suspicious shallow cave and depicts Varaha with a and Sita prepares to make a public statement. human body and a boar’s head. Hanging Instead the earth opens, her mother, the earth from his right tusk is Bhu Devi, dwarfed goddess, appears, and the two disappear by his size and momentum – he is still underground. This time Sita does not return pushing up through the waters of the ocean, and Rama is left alone. The story has been used as suggested by the wavy lines on the wall traditionally as a moral tale asserting chastity behind him and equally by the contained and conjugal faithfulness, while recently some breath held within his chest. The carving feminists give it a contrary interpretation as an conforms to the iconographic precepts of the exemplar of the autonomy of action possible day but transcends them to create a singularly for women. As for artists, the Ramayana has expressive icon. The modelling of Varaha’s inspired a multitude of paintings about the torso and the contrast between the two figures forest exile and the rescue battle, but there are capture Varaha’s unstoppable, unconquerable surprisingly few portrayals of the final, less energy– and tells all that is needed about the heroic episodes. victory over destructiveness, the masculinity of Varaha and the femininity of Bhu Devi, and The earth goddess has a more central place the achieving of new beginnings. It is after all in Hindu theogony than her deus ex machina about creation, earth, land, and ultimately all role in the Ramayana suggests. As the wife or that lives. senior consort of God Vishnu she is important as the nourisher of life and in ensuring the Another masterly stone sculpture is a 6th stability of the universe. In South Indian to 8th century enormous image of Shiva, freedom fighters, nationalist martyrs, post- temples honouring Vishnu, she is there Mahadeva (‘the great god’), in a cave on independence leaders and prime ministers and beside him, standing on his right, with a Elephanta Island in Mumbai harbour. Its three present-day soldiers defending the frontiers. junior wife (i.e. a younger consort) on his heads portray different modes or aspects of She is impressively powerful, bedecked with left. Such groupings are among the finest of Shiva. The one on the right shows the gentle, weapons. There is no weakness in her despite the many superb bronze statues produced the feminine in Shiva; in the centre is Shiva her beauty. Nor does her stance suggest non- in the 11th or 12th centuries in Tanjore. as a transcendental encompassing deity; the violence; rather it implicitly urges battle and They have a mannerist grace, are lithe and third shows his ferocious, destructive side. struggle, confrontation against the nation’s majestic, and restrained despite their message Not seen is the uncarved head on the fourth enemies. of omnipotence. side in the rock nor an invisible fifth head atop all four, which unites them into a single Bharat Mata is not the only goddess associated Bhu Devi is also a passive actor in one encompassing icon. Together this is all that is with earth and territory. There are others who of the defining episodes in the cornucopia Shiva. From a distance the outline of the three go back much further. In early Hinduism, the of Hindu myths, those relating to Vishnu’s heads echoes the shape of a lingam, Shiva’s earth was viewed as a potent goddess often incarnations when he rescues the world aniconic form, one of which is elsewhere in associated with the sky to form the couple, from chaos and destruction. In his third the cave in a shrine on its own. Sky-Earth (Dyava-Prithivi). A basic formative incarnation he assumes the gigantic form of myth explains how she acquired the name: a boar (Varaha) at a time when the earth was On first viewing, the Mahadeva appears to be because Prithu, the ‘first king’ and inventor submerged under the ocean. At the bottom merely a very large bust, a torso composed of agriculture, forced the earth to yield crops is the goddess earth, made captive by the of heads, shoulders, and top chest – even if and feed people she was called Prithivi, or demon Hiranyaksa in his underwater palace. impeccably carved. But there is something ‘the domain of Prithu’. (Danielou 1964:87) Varaha dives deep, rescues the goddess and else: part of Shiva’s hands are carved as Again, in the story is the idea of transmuting brings her up to the surface on his tusk. She if emerging from the rock below. This - of earth into food and plenitude. then floats on the ocean and it is her floating suggests a different reading, making this which becomes the earth as we know it. monumentally sized sculpture monumental Prithivi or Bhu Devi (Earth Goddess) plays In another version, one without a demon, in a different sense: in the daring of its a different role in the Ramayana, because of Vishnu sees a lotus leaf standing up out of the conception. The sculpture has been created her daughter, Sita, the name itself meaning a ocean and realises there may be something to be understood as a complete figure whose furrow dug in the earth during farming and below. He assumes the boar form, dives to the body is still largely in the earth below and suggestive of fertility. Sita is a central figure in bottom where he finds the earth, takes part of from which it is emerging. As is the case with the story through her marriage to Rama. They it to the surface on his tusk and spreads it on Uluru we see only a part, not the whole. The are forced into forest exile, she is abducted by the lotus leaf. The earth was thus something artists who carved Mahadeva have created the demon Ravana and is taken to Lanka, and that was spread or which became, hence her an extraordinary conceit, a kind of gigantic is eventually rescued. The couple return to name, Bhumi. (Danielou 1964:168) three-dimensional trompe d’oeil, to convey a their kingdom but Rama is jealous since Sita sense of Shiva’s emerging presence. has been in another man’s house. That Ravana Whichever version, the Boar incarnation had treated her impeccably while she was his was particularly popular as a religious¯ icon The Mahadeva is a prime example of idea prisoner is irrelevant. Eventually Sita throws some 1500 years ago. Among the many and form merging, blending into one herself on a pyre to assert her innocence. Her depictions of the story in the Gupta period, is affect. It is an image that entirely conveys virtue is so profound the flames do not hurt an outstanding one from Udaygiri in central an interpretation that has Shiva, as Stella her and Rama takes her back. There the story India outside Bhopal. Dated to the 5th century Kramrisch puts it, as being immanent in should end but in the final part, possibly an it is a large bas relief carved on the wall of a the element earth and as such fully realised
8 TAASA REVIEW VOLUME 18 NO.2 God Ganesh on the way to immersion at Chowpatty
Beach, Mumbai. Photo: Jim Masselos 1961
no precedents to guide their work, the form time. After all, the metaphysic of Elephanta of the depiction is not common, nor is it was once a new concept to be explored conventional. It is unique in Indian art. Its and passed on. Presumably, as Indian artists achievement comes from the interplay on continue to define and represent evolving the senses between what is there and what traditions and new approaches, something is not, between the seen and the not seen, as basic and as multiple as earth will find her and between that which is out of the earth place in their art. and that which is in it and is to appear. The tension created by this interplay intensifies its Jim Masselos is Honorary Reader, School of overall impact. Philosophical and Historical Inquiry, University of Sydney. His most recent book is The City in Action. Earth had a primary role in classical Hindu Bombay Struggles for Power, 2007. thinking in that it was considered one of the basic elements, one of the building blocks REFERENCES that make up the material world. It has also Danielou, A. 1964. Hindu Polytheism, Bolligen, New York
had, as the examples discussed here suggest, Kramrisch, S. ‘The great cave temple of Siva in Elephanta’ in a place in many other kinds of speculation. Meister, M.W. (ed) 1984. Discourses on Siva, Vakils, Feffer and There is the cosmological in terms of earth Simons, Bombay. creation myths; the metaphysical; the Nehru, J. 1988. The Discovery of India, Oxford University Press, religiously speculative and the devotional; Delhi. the socio-economic in relation to farming and fertility; and the political in terms of nationalist symbolism.
As always, art and ideas are interlinked and in his basic reality. (Kramrisch in Meister no more so than in the way earth has been 1984:5) Putting metaphysics and the esoteric given meaning in Indian creativity over the aside, the portrayal of Mahadeva manifesting centuries. That art used ideas now considered from the earth is a feat of artistic imagination traditional but it also presented whatever and a triumph for its creators. There were new ideas and approaches were current at the
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TAASA REVIEW VOLUME 18 NO.2 9 SKETCHING MOUNT NAMSAN
Peter Armstrong
hen the Mongols burnt the buildings capital, each overlooking one of the major roads a library of Buddhist art was carved or painted: W of Hwangryongsa (Hwangryong temple) leading to it. Of these fortified mountains, only from freestanding images to frescos and images (553-1238) in their sustained invasions from Namsan held more than a military function. growing from the forms of the rock itself. The 1231, it was the greatest temple of the Silla While famous for its remaining Buddhist images vary in scale from the colossal to the capital, Kyongju (BC57-AD936) and one of statuary, Goindol (dolmen tombs) at its eastern miniature, and locations vary from exposed the wonders of East Asia. Nine centuries later, base reveal an earlier history and an earlier ridges to hidden grottoes. sitting among the foundation stones of its religion, when shamans mediated between Geumdang (Golden Hall) looking across the men and the gods and protected the city. A millennium has passed since 918 when platform of the nine storey pagoda, Namsan Following the adoption by the Silla kingdom the Koryo Dynasty assumed power and fills the landscape with its misty blue bulk of Buddhism as state religion in 535, the moved the capital north, leaving Kyongju defining the southern extent of the city, its spiritual care of the city passed to the Buddhist as a provincial capital. Through political brooding presence changing with the seasons, gods of the four quarters, the four devas who upheaval and the changing fortunes of the the weather and the time of day. While protect the faithful from evil. Close to the foot Buddhist faith, only the foundation stones of neither large nor high in terms of the peaks of of the north end of the mountain lie the ruins Namsan’s original structures remain, leaving Korea, Namsan has a majestic and pervasive of their temple, Sacheonwangwsa (Four Devas the sculptures as evidence of past glory. These presence in the urban landscape of Kyongju. temple). Under excavation since 2007, the scale monuments still retain qualities that bring to Its foothills begin behind the palace fortress, of the temple can be seen from the foundations mind the spiritual fervour of a lost Buddhist extending 10km to the south and rising to that have emerged from the fields that have community and the role of the mountain in a modest 468 metres, with its slopes cut by covered them for a thousand years. the defence of the city from both earthly and some 17 deeply folded granite valleys, richly spiritual forces. vegetated above the deeply scoured water Namsan became a sacred precinct where the courses at the base. safety of the nation and the sovereign was The mountain is criss-crossed with routes invoked through the multiplicity of Buddhist which walkers use in combination depending Namsan is the southern of the four mountains temples, monasteries and retreats that covered on time, season and inclination. In spring with fortresses located at the cardinal points of its slopes, valleys and ridges. From the finely the mountain azaleas cover the slopes with the compass, which controlled access to the Silla figured and coloured granite of the mountain, pink blossoms, and the mountain turns a
Upper south side of Bucheobawi (Buddha Rock) in Tapkol
10 TAASA REVIEW VOLUME 18 NO.2 Stone pagoda of Neumbibong deep rust colour in autumn. There are ancient routes and paths along all the ridges and valleys connecting monuments known and yet undiscovered, and there is a bewildering range of possibilities for the walker. Every route reveals unexpected monuments and images, many still venerated by the local people who leave their offerings before the sculptures as their ancestors did.
Sitting on the foundation stones of Hwangryongsa, the central ridge of the mountain fills one’s view. To the south-west can be seen the entrances to the successive valleys rising from the rice fields which now cover the ancient city streets. Crossing the Namcheon (Nam river), the road follows it round the base of the mountain to a fork leading to the third of the eastern valleys, now known as Tapkol (Pagoda valley). Walking On the upper southern face of the rock is a image of Sakyamuni Buddha seated on a beside a modest creek through the village into sculpted Buddhist triad facing a terrace on the lotus flower. While the archaeological and the forested lower slopes of mountain, there ridge, with a stone pagoda characteristically literary records have provided some data is an unprepossessing approach to a small standing guard at the highest point. It is the regarding the lost pagoda Hwangryongsa, temple, Ongnyongam. As one follows the largest Korean carving of its type, portraying it is thought that these images are the only path up the valley past the temple buildings bodhisattvas set in idealised landscapes. record of its appearance, and will be used in a large crag blocks the way forward. At From stylistic similarities of these images current proposals for its reconstruction. closer view, the faces of the crag, Bucheobawi to those found in China in the Southern (Buddha Rock), are covered with incised Dynasties period, it is thought that the In the forest above Tapkol are hidden the reliefs, while at its summit a stone pagoda of original temple on this site, Shininsa, existed remains of the 8th century fortress, Namsan the Silla style is partly visible. The rock faces in the era of King Hyoso (692-702). The nine Shinseong. Only small parts of the wall remain portray the Pure Lands of the four Buddhas, metre high north face has incised images of and the foundation of two large storehouses. set at the cardinal points. two timber pagodas over which floats an The path to it begins at the memorial to a Silla
TAASA REVIEW VOLUME 18 NO.2 11 Scholar’s pavilion of Sochulchi
scholar who, after succeeding in the Imperial 40 metres above the group is perhaps the to the neck, the empty hole for the bar still Examinations, became a member of the Tang most photographed image on the mountain. collecting water. Whether the bar rusted and bureaucracy in China. It rises steeply up the A bodhisattva gazing east to the Tonghae the head fell through neglect, or whether ridge, the remains of the Namsan Shinseong (East Sea) symbolically floats on the clouds it was deliberately severed by invading barely visible in a forest of red pines. Emerging above the triad below. It is cut into the wall, Mongols or Joseon Dynasty bureaucrats is to a spectacular panorama of the main ridge of with only a small platform and altar in front. unknown. A lost foot was recently discovered the mountain, the stone pagoda of Neumbibong Holes in the granite indicate that a rail once and replaced, completing the body of the dominates the scene, part of the temple complex protected pilgrims from the cliff edge, but Buddha. There is still hope that the head may which once stood in the valley below. These both rail and shelter have long disappeared. lie buried in the valley below, and that it may monuments, miniature stupas, mark principal An ideal place for contemplation, only the be ultimately be reunited with the torso. Buddhist sites on the mountain, and form an most hardy of monks could have survived integral component of the Namsan landscape, the rigours of both access and the Korean With a faint sense of sacrilege one uses the uniting its natural and spiritual elements. winter. On reaching the ridge above, and rope to drop down beside the figure’s raised following south to the surviving foundations hand, to follow the narrow track past the At the base of the eastern flank of the mountain of the Joseon Period (1392 -1910) fire alarm remains of the temples. The path follows the is Sochulchi, a lotus pond over which is beacon, there is fine a view looking down on watercourse down until it turns into a creek, suspended an elegant scholar’s pavilion. Chilbulam in its splendid setting. finally entering the upper rice fields where it Following the road past the site of the ruined irrigates the fields according to season. Path temple Namsansa, the route leaves the fields The summit of Namsan is the peak named turns into road and finally a bus stop, and and, entering the Ponghwagol (Fire Alarm Kumho-bong, a golden ridge that defines the after a short bus ride the distant world of Silla Beacon Valley), narrows to a track leading midpoint of the main ridge of the mountain. is washed away in the hot water of the public upward into a deep valley that becomes From this point there are many routes to bath and the busyness of the modern city. increasingly dark and overgrown. The track both east and west, all of which are dotted culminates in a steep set of 130 steps, rising with monuments from the Silla period. This Peter Armstrong teaches in the Faculty of to Chilbulam or the ‘retreat of the seven multitude of riches takes many expeditions Architecture, Design and Planning at the University Buddhas’. Once a great temple, it has the most to visit, and each has its pleasures. Some of Sydney. He was made an honorary research complete ensemble of statuary remaining on routes are travelled by both local people and fellow of the Korean Government’s National the mountain. A Buddhist triad is carved into tourists, while others are neglected. Among Kyongju Research Institute of Cultural Heritage in a granite rock five metres high. The majestic the latter is the Yaksugol (Mineral Water 2005. All illustrations in this article are taken from central figure is flanked by two bodhisattva, Spring Valley) route. Overgrown and with sketches made by Peter Armstrong on his many trips with further figures sculpted into the flanks. fixed ropes, the route once contained three to Namsan. Pieces of sculpted granite lie scattered about temples in the valley, overlooked by a great the site, indicating the scale of the buildings Buddha figure. Headless, it stands some 17 REFERENCES that once sheltered the Enlightened One from metres high, finely engraved into a natural Adams, E.B. 1979. Kyongju Guide, Seoul International Tourist the elements as he gazed out over the eastern outcrop high on a ridge near the summit. Publishing, Seoul edges of the capital. Despite the passing of some 1200 years, the Korean National Commission for UNESCO (ed.). 1998. Kyongju: finely chiselled drapery still hangs elegantly, City of Millennial History, Hollym Seoul Behind the group, the mountain rises and the hands are raised, teaching the dharma Yun, Kyong Nol. 1994. Namsan, Buddha land Company, Seoul symbolically to the clouds. Following the path to those who pass by. The separately sculpted and climbing higher using fixed ropes, some head was originally fixed by an iron bar
12 TAASA REVIEW VOLUME 18 NO.2 BEIJING’S ALTAR OF EARTH AND ITS RITUAL CERAMICS
Iain Clark
Part of a side altar setting using replica bronze vessels and an arrangement similar to those
used at the Altar of Earth. Confucian Temple, Beijing, 2008. Photo: Iain Clark
he Asian collections at the Art Gallery of T New South Wales include several highly distinctive Qing Dynasty (1644 - 1912) imperial monochrome ceramic ritual vessels made in the 19th century for use at Beijing’s Altar of Earth. This article outlines the historical context of Beijing’s Altar of Earth and its unique ceramic ritual vessels.
China’s use of distinctive vessels in ceremonies of sacrifice was already well established in the Western Zhou Dynasty (1027 - 771 BCE) (Lau 1993: 83), where the rulers and members of the aristocracy knew the importance of ritual in maintaining authority and their place in society. The hierarchy of the ruling class on earth, with the king and his ministers, was imagined to be a reflection of that above, where heaven’s ‘Supreme Ruler on High’ held court with a number of subordinate gods (Ma 1986: 24). The heavenly court, together with imperial ancestors, were all due respect platform surrounded by a moat and enclosed practice. It was a ceremony of state, performed and homage in order to sustain spiritual within a double wall, all conforming to a only in Beijing, with the Emperor as the only and political order within the earthly realm. complex web of ritual, custom and regulation. priest (Simpson 1874: 175). Difference in rank, both amongst the gods and This set of requirements determined their earth bound devotees was demonstrated everything related to the rituals, notably The first Ming Emperor, Hongwu (r. 1368 - not least by the number and size of ritual the colour, form, number and position of 1398) decreed in 1369 that ceremonial vessels vessels, which at that time were cast bronze. sacrificial utensils. used in state sacrifices should be made of porcelain, rather than gold, silver and bronze The ritual vessels were highly symbolic both Tiles on the walls surrounding the Altar and which had, until that time, been the case in form and decoration, becoming media on the roofs of ancillary buildings should, like from antiquity. It appears that this change through which the rulers believed they might the emperor’s robes and ritual ceramics, all be coincided with an increase in the number of communicate with the gods and their ancestors yellow, the colour of the soil. All the numbers ritual utensils required and made the time to ensure the prosperity, harmony and general used in the measurements and elements of and cost of producing vessels less onerous. well-being of society (Ma 1986: 28). the Altar are even, yin, numbers, just as at the Altar of Heaven, all the number used in The Ming records, in particular the Da Ming The Rituals of Zhou and the Book of Rites measurements are uneven and yang (Chan Huidian compiled in the 16th century used the provide contemporary descriptions of state 1992: 90). following names, generally drawn from archaic ceremonial occasions during the Zhou bronze vessel shape names (Lau 1992: 86): Dynasty and instructions on how the emperor, Sacrifices at the Altar of Earth took place on the Son of Heaven, should offer sacrifices on the summer solstice, the 21st day of the 6th Bian, Deng, Dou, Fu, Gui, Jue, Xing, behalf of the state to Heaven, Earth, the Sun, lunar month, when yin forces were in the Zhan, Zun. the Moon, imperial ancestors, and guardian ascendant with shortening days (Chan 1992: spirits of the State, Agriculture and Harvests 90). They involved prayers written on yellow Apart from the Jue and Zun, no examples (Lau 1992: 83). paper, specially slaughtered animals and of Ming Dynasty ceramics conforming to yellow ritual silks, all of which were buried these shapes are known. Research based Beijing’s Altar of Earth was established in 1530 at the conclusion of the ceremony, unlike the on diagrams in the Da Ming Huidian now by the Ming Emperor Jiajing (r. 1522 -1566). Altar of Heaven where the offerings were proposes (Lau 1992: 92) that during the Ming When the Ming Emperor Yongle (r. 1403 - burnt. dynasty, the Bian, Dou, Fu and Gui archaic 1424) planned the city in the early 1400s, all shapes were replaced by plates or dishes and state rituals involving heaven and earth were The character of the imperial worship at the the Deng and Xing with bowls, whilst the intended to be conducted at the Altar of Heaven Altar of Earth was substantially the same as traditional shape names were retained. (Chan 1992: 87) and only subsequently were the the Altar of Heaven, except that the spirits separate altars we see today constructed. worshipped were those of the mountains, Ming Dynasty records also confirm that rivers and seas. The ritual and worship there were strict regulations regarding the Unlike the circular Altar of Heaven, the north performed at the Altar of Earth should not be choice of colour for these ceramics (Lau 1992: facing two-tiered Altar of Earth is a square confused with Daoist, Buddhist or Confucian 83). Colours were assigned to the different
TAASA REVIEW VOLUME 18 NO.2 13 Altar vessel ‘Fu’, mark and period of Tongzhi (r. 1862 – 1874). Porcelain with yellow glaze, 27.4 x 30.0 x 23.0cm.
Collection: Art Gallery of New South Wales, purchased 1987
principal altars as follows: deep blue for the Altar of Heaven, yellow for the Altar of Earth, white for the Altar of the Moon and red for the Altar of the Sun.
The unique monochrome ritual vessel forms we see today first appeared during the high Qing, when Emperor Qianlong (r. 1736-1796) was in the midst of a campaign to rebuild and refurbish Beijing, the like of which has not been seen since, until the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.
Qianlong supervised over many years a review of the state ritual system, regulating important aspects including the ritual utensils. This work culminated in the Illustrated Regulations for Ceremonial Paraphernalia of the Qing Dynasty, printed first in 1766. The Regulations set out in great detail not only the sacrificial vessels, but also the costume and jewelry, musical and astronomical instruments, flags and banners and even weapons involved in state rituals at many altars, temples and palaces, including the Altar of Earth.
The Regulations also describe the ceramic utensils to be used at the Altar of Earth, including the number of each type in the 10 separate settings on the Altar (see p15).
The Bian covered stem bowl is not included here since, in the Illustrated Regulations, it is a vessel made from bamboo rather than ceramic material.
It appears that the diagrams in the Illustrated Regulations were heavily influenced by a Song Dynasty catalogue, the Xuanhe Illustrated Guide to Antiquity (Medley 1959: 11), which listed 839 bronzes collected by Emperor Song Huizong (r. 1100-1125 CE) (Yu 2007:5), the greatest of all Chinese collectors before Emperor Qianlong. Further, the design of ritual vessels is part of a wider movement during the 18th century to adopt archaic themes in decorative arts, reflecting the Emperor’s view of his place in history.
According to the Illustrated Regulations, yellow coloured ritual ceramic vessels were not used exclusively at the Altar of Earth. This helps explain why today, the yellow coloured vessels are by far the most often seen. On the other hand, red coloured vessels of identical form and decoration made for the Altar of the Sun are extremely rare.
During the succeeding reigns of the Qing Dynasty, it appears from surviving examples that the court in Beijing ordered new vessels only to replace those lost or broken over the
Altar vessel ‘Dou’, mark and period of Jiaqing (r. 1796 – 1820). Porcelain with yellow glaze, 29.0 x 16.5cm.
Collection: Art Gallery of New South Wales, purchased 1967
14 TAASA REVIEW VOLUME 18 NO.2 years, rather than to mark the enthronement yellow, ritual ceramic vessels made for ancillary buildings in the park have been of a new emperor. (Records of the orders ceremonial use at the Altar of the Earth extensively rebuilt since the 1980s, and the themselves and the extent to which they in Beijing helps draw us into a web of ritual ceramic vessels on display are modern survive remain to be investigated.) Chinese history and culture stretching back replicas, but many ancient trees, witness to so Consequently, while many examples of into antiquity, with links and connections, many magical ceremonies, survive. monochrome ritual ceramics are marked references and allusions beyond imagining. Qianlong and examples of all shapes can be Iain Clark is a collector and independent researcher found today with Qianlong marks, complete And the Altar of Earth, the setting for with special interest in Qing Dynasty imperial sets of vessels from the succeeding reigns are imperial rituals for nearly 500 years may still monochrome ritual ceramics. unknown. be visited in Beijing today. Ditan Park covers 40 hectares just outside the Second Ring Road REFERENCES This family of highly distinctive monochrome to the north of Beijing City. The Altar and Chan, Charis. 1992: Imperial China, Penguin Books
Huangchao liqi tushi, Illustrated Compendium of Qing Rituals. 1766: Guang Ling Press, Yangzhou, 2004. Deng Dou A covered A covered Lau, Christine. 1993: ‘Ming Ceremonial Monochrome Wares’, stem bowl for stem bowl for Colloquies on Art & Archeology in Asia No. 16, Percival David offering meat. offering meats, Foundation of Chinese Art The cover has a the cover solid, spherical with an open Ma, Chengyuan. 1986: Ancient Chinese Bronzes, Oxford University knob. twisted rope Press Qty: 10 handle. Medley, Margaret. 1959: Illustrated Regulations for Ceremonial Qty: 112 Paraphernalia of the Qing Dynasty, Oriental Ceramic Society
Simpson, William. 1874: Meeting the Sun: A Journey All Round The World, Longmans, Green, Reader and Dyer
Wang, Guangyao. 2003: ‘A Brief Discussion of Porcelain Ritual Vessels in the Qing Dynasty’, Beijing Palace Museum Journal, 2003 No 2, Volume 106
Yu, Huichun. 2007: The Intersection of Past and Present, The Fu Gui Qianlong Emperor and His Ancient Bronzes, Dissertation to A covered Like the Fu, this Princeton University rectangular is a covered and angular, vessel, but straight rounded and sided vessel the lid with for cereal four winged offerings. feet. It too The cover can would contain stand on its cereal, possibly wavy flange. rice. Qty: 20 Qty: 20
Jue Xing A three legged A covered drinking three legged, vessel for deep bowl with wine offerings, two dragon closely head handles following for soup. The a bronze domed cover precursor. has three leaf Qty: 30 like flanges matching the feet. Qty: 8
Zhan Zun A plain The Zun wine wine cup. storage jar Qty: 120 has no surface decoration. It has two animal head handles. Qty: 10
TAASA REVIEW VOLUME 18 NO.2 15 INSPIRATION AND INTERCHANGE: THE JAPANESE - AUSTRALIAN POTTERY CONNECTION
Janet Mansfield
Mitsuo Shoji, Platter. 2008. Stoneware. 45 cm/wide. Cudgegong Gallery, Gulgong. Photo courtesy of Cudgegong Gallery
he teachings of Bernard Leach, Soetsu T Yanagi and others of the Mingei movement in Japan found resonance with potters during the 1960s and ’70s in Australia, and around the world. Statements such as “Losing oneself in one’s art in order to find oneself”, whether directly through tradition and hard repetitive work as a journeyman potter, or by the intense search and self- discipline of ‘satori’ or self reintegration, inspired many a hopeful potter.
The principle of becoming ‘a complete person’ with the correct training through a rocks, popular in Japan and China, are made Both styles, established in the second half of master potter, the ‘acceptance of one’s own with use, containership or contemplation in the 16th century, are still in favour. So too character’, and ‘to earn one’s living through mind. As with so much successful Japanese are the styles of Shino, Tenmoku and Seto, one’s work’ were attractive philosophies in ceramics, they seek to be in harmony with all familiar to practising potters today. The the burgeoning craft movement of the day. nature. tea masters set the taste for the day, and The pilgrimage to Japan began and aspiring they possibly still do. And vessels for the tea potters took the opportunity to travel there, While many Australian potters obtained their ceremony perhaps set the style for the making staying either months, like myself or, in some inspiration directly from training in Japan, of functional wares. cases, years, often overcoming hardships but Japanese potters and Mingei proponents such believing fully in the proposition that this was as Shoji Hamada and Soetsu Yanagi were Pilgrimages to Japan by Australian potters the right way for them. We had read Bernard invited to Australia to lecture and teach and usually include visits to the six old kiln sites Leach’s A Potters Book (1940, Faber & Faber) their philosophy was given an enthusiastic of Shigaraki, Tokoname, Bizen, Seto, Tamba and his A Potter in Japan (as quoted above, reception. When Shiga Shigeo, then Hiroe and Eichizen. Here one can be immersed in 1960, Faber), and then came Yanagi’s The Sven settled in Australia, the connection the history of ceramics and see a range of Unknown Craftsman (1972, Tokyo). was confirmed. Shiga returned to Japan contemporary domestic wares: different styles after 13 years’ residency but continues to and shapes to match the variety of foods These books and others that came out act as a bridge between the two countries presented, a wealth of ideas for future practice. subsequently served to reinforce our purpose. through exhibitions and visits. Hiroe Sven, Returning potters gave lectures, wrote articles with her precise Kyoto style and flawless But the inspiration for Australians has not and took on their own apprentices in the craftsmanship, set an example for women only been focused on the domestic. Yasuo Japanese style, further encouraging the desire to be recognised in the field of ceramics in Hayashi, Japanese ceramic artist who visited to experience such training. Les Blakebrough, both countries. Later, Mitsuo Shoji settled in Australia in 1991 to conduct workshops at Milton Moon, Peter Rushforth and others Australia, working and teaching at the Sydney the Canberra School of Art, spoke about were both articulate and persuasive in their College of the Arts, exhibiting his work and his involvement as one of the founders, in attitude to Japan. generously inviting colleagues from Japan to 1948, of the Shitokai school of contemporary spend time lecturing in Australia. Heja Chong ceramics, a breakaway group which took Les Blakebrough became a student of Kanjiro was another admired and respected female an experimental approach to working with Kawei in Kyoto, and has continued to explore potter who had trained in Bizen ceramics in clay. The Sodeisha movement followed seven the beauties and subtlety of porcelain. Milton Okayama, Japan. years later, under the leadership of Kasuo Moon spent a year in Japan in 1974 and Yagi and the Kyoto school. These breaks returned many times to study with Zen Collections of Japanese art in major Australian with traditional ceramics represented a new masters. His Zen meditation practice is state museums and galleries as well as those attitude towards visual art and altered the reflected in the way he brings a sense of in private homes were also influential, some expected use of ceramic materials, while serendipity to his pottery, and the way his collectors even building Japanese style tea still taking advantage of the centuries old pots have an ability to make his audience seek houses and gardens. The practice of the tea techniques of making and firing. Avant-garde to understand the ideas behind them. Peter ceremony, with its emphasis on tea bowls and works remain tied to clay and its valued Rushforth’s ceramics, with their distinctive the attendant forms of water containers, vases processes and offer a new framework in Jun-glazed surfaces on platters and blossom for ikebana, incense burners and tea caddies, which the traditional and the experimental jars, explore the calmness and naturalness has persisted prominently in the range of in Japanese ceramics provide inspiration to that is the hallmark of the Japanese Mingei wares produced by potters. These are forms potters worldwide. school philosophy. that can date back to the simple styles of the tea master Sen no Rikyu or the more Since 1986, the municipality of Mino, Gifu My own work has been inspired by East Asia, decorated and relaxed, even deliberately Prefecture, centred around the town of Tajimi, where the forms used for flowers or scholars’ deformed, pots promoted by Furuta Oribe. has offered substantial prizes for ceramics,
16 TAASA REVIEW VOLUME 18 NO.2 Shiga Shigeo, Group of Three Pocelain Jars. 2006. Boutwell Draper Gallery.
Photo courtesy of Boutwell Draper Gallery Surry Hills NSW in categories both of design and art. Held every three years, and attracting thousands of entries, a number of Australian ceramists have submitted their work to this international festival and competition. In 1996, on the panel of judges, I noted five Australian finalists among the 180 selected from more than 3000 works. Again, three years later, and on the judging panel again, there was similar success for Australian ceramic artists. This festival, held in an area of historical ceramic significance and home to many potters, Japanese and international including Australian, celebrates the birth of Shino and Oribe ware in the 16th century, but also recognises the ground-breaking new styles that inject vitality into works made today, individual and industrial. This history of ceramics is heady stuff for Australian potters in a country whose history is so recent.
Visits to Australia by Japanese ceramic artists continue as well as reciprocal visits to Japan. My first visit to Japan was in 1970 and since that time I have held two solo exhibitions at the Sidney Myer Ceramic Awards in quality to Yasuda’s work, an element all good in Tokyo and one in Kyoto, as well as a Shepparton, Victoria. Kiyomizu works as a pottery should contain. It draws upon all the number of group exhibitions. During these sculptor using clay to make fine slab forms qualities that inspired Australian potters to visits many connections have been made, with sharp refined edges; he calls upon study Japanese ceramics and which influenced followed by visits to Australia by Japanese science and art to bring yet another direction our work in the first place. ceramists. One memorable visitor was Ryoji to Japanese tradition. Takeshi Yasuda, trained Koie, invited to Gulgong for a project on my in Mashiko, Japan, and now resident in China I would estimate that the connections between property in Gulgong, NSW, in 1995. One of at the Pottery Workshop, in Jingdezhen, is Japan and Australia in relation to ceramic the most avant-garde of Japanese ceramists, always a welcome visitor to Australia. As a art involve hundreds of exchanges: visits, he is a consummate artist interested in current master demonstrator in 1993 at the National workshops, conferences, events and further events, influenced by everything from the Ceramic Conference in Adelaide, he will again study. Long may this connection continue. bombing of Hiroshima to functional work be an honoured guest at the 2009 Triennial using local materials however rough and Ceramics Conference to be held in Sydney in Janet Mansfield is a ceramic artist and author. natural they may be. July. Yasuda’s work combines the traditional She is President of the International Academy of and the experimental, it gives functional work Ceramics based at the Ariana Museum, Geneva, Another visitor was Rokubei Kiyomizu, an 8th a new vitality, is bold and sensual, made with Switzerland. She lives in Gulgong, NSW. generation Kyoto potter, and a prizewinner passion and spirit. There is an intellectual
TAASA REVIEW VOLUME 18 NO.2 17 TRANSFORMATION: THE WORK OF TAKAHIRO KONDO
Trevor Fleming Orkney Monolith Series, 2008, Kondo Takahiro. Slab formed porcelain with ‘gintekisai’ (silver mist glaze).
‘Transformation’ Exhibition at 101 Collins St, Melbourne. Photo: William Hung. Courtesy of Lesley Kehoe Galleries.
he work of Takahiro Kondo draws T one into the otherworldly sphere of Zen Buddhist transience. ‘One time, One meeting’- ‘ichi-go ichi-e’ - from the philosophy of tea practice, holds that all encounters are unique and decisive. As a chawan (tea bowl) presents as a physical metaphor for a pathway to enlightenment, so do Kondo’s works magically capture spiritual life energy and evanescence deriving from the transformation of clay.
“One has a sense of a perpendicular axis, vertical rather than horizontal. A monolithic object connecting the skies and the firmament, heaven and earth”, says Kondo explaining the inspiration behind his ‘Monolith’ series. (Kondo 2008) During his stay in Scotland he viewed the ancient standing stones and the ‘Ring of Brodgar’ in Orkney. On the mist condensation or ice; others with long dripping works; the National Gallery of Victoria is to covered primeval structures, he observed effects redolent of a rain soaked window. acquire two spectacular monolith works from the connection of earth, sky and, of course the show, and a smaller vertical piece is to be water. Kondo’s work is concerned with the The use of glass in many of Kondo’s pieces donated to the National Gallery of Australia. transformation of earthly elements. Porcelain expresses his preoccupation with water in Kondo’s works are also represented in many is derived from clay, and glass from sand, all its forms. While undertaking a Master private and public collections. with fire the transforming catalyst. of Design at Edinburgh College of Art, he studied cast glass techniques. He has Despite his pedigree, Kondo thinks of himself Takahiro Kondo (b.1958) is the third generation since used glass not as an addition, more a as a contemporary artist using sculpture as of a renowned family of ceramicists. His significant feature. His smaller works reflect context for sharing sensibilities. He challenges grandfather, Yuzo Kondo (1902-1985) was the tension between opposing colours and the notion that using porcelain compels one named a Living National Treasure in 1977 for geometrical planes. They are drawn together to be bound by rules of functionality. This his work in sometsuke, or underglaze cobalt by cast glass and pate de verre variations that artistic philosophy has similarities with the blue decoration. Despite being surrounded by extend the exploration of the water theme. contemplations of the avant-garde Sodeisha or a pottery tradition from a young age Kondo Importantly, Kondo’s use of glass does not ‘Society of Running Mud’, founded in 1948 did not come to ceramics until 1986. While his dominate the porcelain but instead augments by Yagi Kazuo, and advocating form over early ceramics followed the more traditional the work - a beacon of light atop an earthen function in ceramic art. Similarly, Kondo seeks techniques favored by his grandfather, he bound object. to transcend the ‘ceramic as functional art’ quickly established his own artistic voice with paradigm. In particular, his monolith series the ‘Time & Space’ series’ before developing Australian audiences had their first are purely sculptural works that lean towards the gintekisai ‘silver mist’ technique and opportunity to view Kondo’s works at two the notion of concept art and autonomous experimenting with new media, particularly exhibitions hosted by Lesley Kehoe Galleries artistic expression and away from the world metal and cast glass. in the magnificent foyer of 101 Collins St and of functional wares. Importantly however, in the showrooms of Deutscher and Hackett Kondo remains true to the medium, to that of ‘Silver mist’ is able to capture the concept of in Sydney, as well as at Hamilton Art Gallery, clay and that of earth. water in a state of flux, much like the ever- Victoria. In total, 16 pieces were created changing passage of time. He does this by for the Australian exhibitions including six Trevor joined Lesley Kehoe Galleries in 2001and dealing with two things that are normally works from the Orkney monolith series. has had extensive work experience in Japan. antithetical: fire and water. Gintekisai is an The monoliths in the Melbourne show were He holds a BA (Asian studies) with a Japanese overglaze technique that comprises silver, placed in 101 Collins’ water ponds casting language major, and is currently undertaking a gold, platinum and glass. After the piece is majestic reflections and like the stones of Masters Degree in Arts Administration. formed and the underglaze colour is applied, Orkney, inspiring a meditative response. gintekisai is painted on and the piece re-fired, REFERENCES crystallising the surface. Kondo remarks, The highly successful ‘Transformation’ Wilkinson, J: Takahiro Kondo, Time & Change. Ceramics Art & “this is the sense in which I am using fire exhibition was viewed by an estimated 5000 Perception, Issue 65, 2006 to create water”. (Kondo 2008) The versatile people. Hamilton Art Gallery has added to Aoyama, W: Japanese Ceramics Now #2, www.yakimono.net 2004 manifestations of ‘silver mist’ are astonishing: their impressive collection of contemporary Kondo, T: Mist. DVD Presentation 2008 some pieces stand with apparent dense Japanese ceramics, now owning three Kondo
18 TAASA REVIEW VOLUME 18 NO.2 IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN: AN IZNIK TILE IN THE POWERHOUSE MUSEUM
Paul Donnelly Plate from Saunders 1987, Pl. 3, manipulated to show equivalent section to Powerhouse tile removed.
Courtesy of Victoria & Albert Museum and with thanks to Jean-Francois Lanzerone for manipulation
e should be grateful that high points W in world history frequently remain represented long after their demise by splendid survivors of art, literature and music. The height or classic phase of the imperial style of the Ottoman Empire’s long rule can be seen in an Iznik tile of c.1575 in the Sydney Powerhouse Museum’s collection It was purchased in 1983 along with 35 others from the region using funds from the ‘Patrons of the Powerhouse Museum’.
Within a century of Ottoman control of Byzantine Constantinople, the rebuilding into Istanbul began apace. It was the construction of the Süleymanye Mosque (beginning 1550) that prompted a dramatic demand for tiles, met for the next half century by the Iznik workshops situated 100 kilometres to the south west of the capital. Iznik already had a history of ceramic production as ancient Nicaea but it found renewed fame through examples drawn in situ at the Ayub Ansari Topkapi Palace for example it is known a experiments in crafting a stark white body of (Eyüp Sultan) mausoleum complex in Istanbul number of rooms had been ‘improved’ during quartz (silica and frit) in imitation of Chinese (Saunders 1987: 11, pl. 3). Comparison of the the 18th century by replacing Iznik tiles with porcelain, and decorating it with a startling but Museum’s tile with the illustration showed Dutch Delft. Such are the vagaries of novelty, controlled palette of black-outlined designs in for the first time that the Powerhouse tile is a but it is just such activities that have released ‘sealing wax red’, turquoise, blue, purple, and rectangular portion cut on two sides leaving tiles to the market and institutions. When green. The designs were dominated by the approximately 55% of the original square we remember that constructions such as the celebrated red, which stands out proudly on tile. Closer scrutiny of the tile itself shows Blue Mosque of Sultan Ahmet contained the tile’s surface. Its first dateable occurrence the glaze of the uncut sides gathering along approximately 20,000 tiles, it is easy to imagine is on a mosque lamp of 1557 (Atasoy et al. the edge whereas the glaze of the cut sides opportunities when maintenance and change 1989: 224). end abruptly. Interestingly only one of the have released tiles such as this gem now in cut sides is angled at 90 degrees, whereas the the Powerhouse Museum collection. The Powerhouse tile fits stylistically with other cut side mirrors the manufactured sides this height of Iznik production in the last in being undercut at 75 degrees. Dr Paul Donnelly is a Curator of Design and Society half of the 16th century. Between 1550 and at the Powerhouse Museum. His doctorate focussed 1620 some of the most celebrated monuments It is safe to guess the Powerhouse tile was on Bronze Age earthenware vessels of the Levant. were completed under Süleyman II (the trimmed either through necessity at the time Magnificent, 1520-1566) and his immediate it was originally used, or because it was REFERENCES successors, including the Süleymanye damaged during removal and the edges Atasoy, Nurhan, and Julian Raby, 1989. Iznik: The pottery of Mosque, sections of the Topkapi Palace in straightened later for sale. The mosque, Ottoman Turkey, Alexandria Press with Thames & Hudson, London Istanbul, and the mosque of Rüstem Pasha. mausoleum and bathhouse architecture upon Denny, Walter B. 1977. The ceramics of Rustem Pasha and the The crucial link in this period was Sinan which tiles were affixed is typically complex Environment of change, New York, 1977 (1489-1588), the justly famous and prolific and tiles frequently required cutting to fit Denny, Walter B. 2004. Iznik: the artistry of the Ottomans, London chief Ottoman architect. around pillars, and within panels, mihrabs Saunders, Gill, 1987. Tile Paintings. Victoria & Albert colour books, etc. The difference in finish of the cut sides Webb and Bower, London The Powerhouse tile’s crisply applied and of the Powerhouse tile might be significant in Petsopoulos, Y., 1982. Tulips, Arabesques and Turbans: decorative arts from the Ottoman Empire, Alexandria Press, London fired motifs are in the hatyayî style, dominated suggesting different times for the trimming: by a combined turquoise serated saz (reed) possibly a combination of pre and post use. leaf and tulip with quarter palmettes at opposite corners in purple and ‘sealing wax’ Tile designs were usually commissioned for red respectively. Tying the design together specific projects and while it is not impossible are Chinese-inspired sprigs of blue and red that the same tiles were used on another prunus flowers on brown stems – with one building it is exciting to speculate that the idiosyncratically ‘snapped’ at an angle to Powerhouse tile had been removed during fit the field. Gratifyingly while researching renovations of the Ayub Ansari at some stage this article a perfect match was found with in its renovations over the centuries. In the
TAASA REVIEW VOLUME 18 NO.2 19 ONCE UPON A MIDNIGHT: THE OZASIA ROCK MUSICAL
Alex Vickery-Howe L to R: Composer/musician Tim Lucas; Kango, the Kappa (Shimabukuro Hiroyuki); Yoshiki the Tengu (Tenchou) a nd Scratch, the werewolf (Chris Asimos) in opening number Bring on the Night. Music Town, Okinawa City, July 2008.
Photo: Tomoaki Kudaka. Courtesy of Kijimuna Festival office n 2007, Adelaide’s OzAsia Festival gave I focus to Australian artists’ relationship with Asian cultures. The work in the inaugural festival ranged across retrospective reflections of Asian migrants, such as Anna Yen’s poignant Chinese Take-Away and Hung Le’s tongue-in-cheek I Still Call Australia By Phone, the experience of Australians with diverse cultural backgrounds, such as Australian-Chinese artist William Yang exploring his cultural roots in China, right through to direct encounters between different cultures, most notably Julie Janson’s Eyes of Marege, a collaboration between artists from Sulawesi’s Teater Kita Makassar and Australian Indigenous performers.
But what of the next generation of artists? The strong presence of young people at the Moon Lantern opening of the festival demonstrated their enthusiasm for cross-cultural engagement. Kelsey, played by Lauren Henderson, is afraid - a subversive space where “werewolves, How does the emerging generation of of everything around her, including her own vampires, vultures, tengu and ningyo make Australian artists engage with their Asian peers relatives and household appliances. Her suitable travelling companions, but fairies in a globalized age with Internet file sharing, a older brother, Ryan (Matthew Crook) tries to show no mercy!” (Once Upon a Midnight viral pop culture and a transnational flow of cure her phobias by giving her Nozomi (Mai publicity 2008) references in film and television? Kakimoto), a fierce Japanese warrior-doll, as a 14th birthday present. When the lights go Heavily influenced by anime and punk rock, In 2008, Once Upon a Midnight set out to out, Nozomi springs to life and lures Kelsey musical director Tim Lucas, translator Ken address that question. The third collaboration into an underground world of magic and Yamamura and myself as writer combined between the Flinders University Drama Centre monsters. The Underground is threatened our skills to develop a narrative and a style in South Australia, and the Kijimuna Festival by the well-meaning Blue Fairy, Angelica that would appeal to a contemporary youth in Okinawa, Japan, Once Upon a Midnight, a (Michelle Pastor) and only by teaching the audience, whilst at the same time travel bilingual rock musical with a fantasy setting, world’s most frightened child to conquer across cultural and linguistic barriers. Ken tells the story of the world’s most frightened her fear can Nozomi and her friends prevail. Yamamura explains our rationale: child, cardigan-clad teenager Kelsey Clarke. Through Nozomi, Kelsey learns to overcome not only her fear, but her small-mindedness, “People will see Kelsey finding her courage, prejudice and self-doubt. and see her friendships, and understand that no matter what culture you come from It was in early 2006 that the project’s producer, it doesn’t mean that others are ‘evil’. This is my teacher and friend Julie Holledge, what I think the play is about. That should approached me with the unexpected question: be very clear for all of us.” “How do you feel about Japanese monsters?” Holledge had previously collaborated with Under the direction of Australian Catherine Japanese artists on Masterkey (1998 Adelaide Fitzgerald, with choreography by Japanese- Festival, 1998 Perth Festival) and with Butoh born performance artist Yumi Umiumare, performer Tomiko Takai on Exile (2000). In the production played to sold-out houses partnership with Hisashi Shimoyama, the in both Okinawa, as flagship production of producer of the Kijimuna Festival, students of the 2008 Kijimuna Festival, and Adelaide, as the Drama Centre had performed in bicultural “runaway hit” of the 2008 OzAsia Festival productions Culture Shock (1994) and Red Sun, (Adelaide News, 29 September 2008). Red Earth (1996). Once Upon a Midnight was a new kind of challenge. The production The narrative was born from a desire to not only had a specific focus on youth explore the cultural other, to acknowledge culture but the cast itself was comprised of difference and awkwardness and precipitate 7 Australian and 7 Japanese performers, the a frank cross-cultural engagement. At first, majority of whom are in their twenties. We this journey appeared to be similar for the set out to create a nightmare world on stage artists involved. Nozomi, the Ningyo (Mai Kakimoto) vs Yoshiki, the Tengu
(Tenchou). Music Town, Okinawa City, July 2008. Photo:
Tomoaki Kudaka. Courtesy of Kijimuna Festival office 20 TAASA REVIEW VOLUME 18 NO.2 Nozomi (Mai Kakimoto) and Kelsey Clarke (Lauren
Henderson) travel to the Underground. Music Town,
Okinawa City, July 2008. Photo: Tomoaki Kudaka.
Courtesy of Kijimuna Festival office
For Mai Kakimoto, who performed as the centred on much of the slapstick and physical sword-swinging Nozomi, the production was humour which was, ironically, inserted during a first encounter with westerners. Mai had rehearsals to aid cross-cultural understanding travelled from her home in Tokyo to Naha and to ‘lighten’ the tone for youth. In Japan city in Okinawa to take part in the show. young audiences expressed appreciation for While her English language skills developed the Australian actors attempting Japanese dramatically over the rehearsal period, she and found the results amusing, but it was still was initially perplexed. the dark and dangerous characters of Nozomi and Damon who were singled out and asked “On the first night, I was invited out to dinner for autographs. Such feedback is important with the cast. I stepped outside and there was as the question of how theatre can capture this bunch of foreigners. I had never really “youth” as a unique and valuable culture, seen westerners outside of TV. I didn’t know vital to the future of the art form, is ongoing. what to say, or how to behave… I didn’t know who was who, or what to call everybody. But What young Japanese and Australians I was very happy and excited.” demonstrated effectively in this instance, both as artists and as audience members, was a Early interactions were tentative in this way. remarkable ease when crossing linguistic and Those who spoke both languages were in ethnic boundaries. The common other were high demand as artists from two cultures previous generations. tiptoed around each other. It was only when our translation crutch was removed that An emerging generation of artists, and the communication became more fluid. audiences they draw, interact in a different news media, retained by older generations style, with a different set of guiding principles, “(The production is) not really cross-cultural (for whom the Second World War is still from those that have come before. Where the if I translate it all. It’s just literal, you get the fresh) and subtly reinforced by social norms, exploration of ethnic difference lies at the heart meaning but there’s no communication. I was evaporated in the summer heat. of much past cross-cultural collaboration, tired so I thought, why don’t I just let it go? and many theories have been drawn around Let them communicate… it actually worked Within the rehearsal room, performers shared the dichotomy of East/West, the future of and it was much better. “ (Ken Yamamura) physical and vocal warm-up techniques. The theatrical partnership may deconstruct those Japanese demonstrated their skill in crafting binary opposites. At this point, early in the rehearsal process, dynamic, physical characterizations; the the core strength of Once Upon a Midnight Australians demonstrated a textual approach, Likewise, Oz/Asia is a dichotomy that puzzles proved to be its youthful and adaptive cast. working analytically through a dissection of second and third generation teenagers of Actor, Melissa Matheson, observes: the text, creating their characters from the Asian descent who wonder which camp they inside out. Pop culture references and humour should join. The question of how the emerging “It only took a day or two to break the not only continued to be the shorthand of our generation of Australian artists engages with ice with each other. I was very surprised day-to-day interactions but a sense of the fun, their Asian peers, the question that spawned (because) all of us were very nervous about the reflexive and the shared was imbedded in Kelsey’s adventure, led to further, more the language barrier…We seemed to mingle the text. I was pleased when members of the complex questions about youth identity in a quite easily without using words so much as audience chuckled at, for example, a tongue- globalised world. There are new stories to be drinking games or television, or quirky sign in-cheek reference to Mister Miyagi from The told on that front. language. Actually, I found the generation Karate Kid, a character who lived in Okinawa. gap became more dominant while working.” The encounters between the participants in Whereas Kelsey’s story had been intended Once Upon a Midnight opened the doors for Whilst the character of Kelsey floundered to bridge the gap between East and West, candid, honest communication. Theatre, in in the dark, the young performers swiftly sharing ideas outside the rehearsal space led this way, functions not only as an on-stage bonded and found common ground. A shared, the young Japanese and Australian artists cultural exchange, or as spectacle, but as a nostalgic interest in the Back to the Future to take their connection beyond this simple means to bring groups together and facilitate trilogy, watched together after rehearsals, and journey and question the relevance of the forthright dialogue. Youth and youth culture Disney songs sung at karaoke became easy East/West divide altogether. have a unique voice to lend, chaired by a new icebreakers. There were collective childhood generation of exciting artists. references, from Astroboy to Miyazaki, and Similarly, the young audiences, largely the Australians quickly developed a taste for High School groups, voiced a much stronger Alex Vickery-Howe is a South Australian author and popular Japanese music, fashion, slang and interest in the production’s portrayal of playwright currently completing his PhD in Drama at Match, the drink of champions. contemporary youth culture than in the cross- Flinders University, Adelaide. national aspects. In Adelaide, they requested Close relationships based on connections the adventure be presented ‘darker’ and REFERENCES between individual personalities blurred the ‘harder’ in subsequent productions, revelling Once Upon a Midnight publicity 2008. Japanese/Australia dichotomy, the divide in Nozomi’s relationship with blood-crazed http://www.adelaidefestivalcentre.com.au/ozasia/ upon which the production and festival were vampire Damon (David Hirst) and Kelsey’s Adelaide News, 29 September 2008. based. Fear of the other, that most visceral flirtation with the dark side, but disregarding http://www.adelaidenews.com.au/oz-asia/ yet childish of emotions, reflected in the the ‘cheesy’ aspects of the staging. Their gripes
TAASA REVIEW VOLUME 18 NO.2 21 EXHIBITION REVIEW: FROM THE HANDS OF OUR ANCESTORS
Maryellen Hargreaves
Headdress, early–mid 20th Century, Atara Ermera, silver alloy, 1.5 x 15 x 17cm, MAGNT Collection (SEA 03541).
Image courtesy of Museum & Art Gallery Northern Territory his comprehensive exhibition features T objects from the newly formed National Collection of Timor-Leste together with holdings from the Museum and Art Gallery Northern Territory. Exquisite carved ancestral figurines and ceremonial house doors, crafted jewellery, hand-woven textiles and earthenware vessels are presented along with contemporary two-dimensional art, videos and interactive multimedia.
At the heart of this exhibition is the preservation of the ‘material marks of [the island’s ancient] cultures’ as stated by His Excellency Xanana Gusmão in the exhibition’s stunning, tri-lingual catalogue. ceremonial houses within which rituals were Returning Home and Independence Day that The exhibition recognises Timor-Leste’s rich performed to pay homage to the ancestors. remind the viewer of the nation’s volatile artistic inheritance through celebrating the history. survival of its cultures following decades of A set of beautifully carved roof finials feature destruction and conflict. Also illuminated prominently inside this chamber. The finials, A DVD entitled Living Cultures provides a by the exhibition are the ingenious skills of originating from the Lospalos region, are ‘an nation-wide overview to intangible cultural Timor’s artisans. iconic emblem of the distinguished culture practices and a musical sound-scape that of the Timorese people’ (Barrkman 2008:92). permeates From the Hands of Our Ancestors. The curatorial strategy, employed by Each finial features a carved bird, symbolic of Together with interactive media featuring Joanna Barrkman the exhibition’s curator, the clan’s ancestral spirits. When in situ these other collections of Timor-Leste material uses complementary opposites as a visual extended from the house roof and soared up culture in Europe, these remind the viewer distinction, delineated by colour and space. into the sky. ‘Annual purification ceremonies that the marks of Timor’s cultures, although The concept of duality, which underpins occurred in [these] houses whereby rainwater scattered, endure as a lasting reminder of a Timorese culture ushers the visitor between was poured down from the roof, between distinguished Timorese past. the esoteric and mundane worlds presented the finials, into the ceremonial house and in From the Hands of Our Ancestors, providing onto the clan members gathered inside. The From the Hands of Our Ancestors: Husi Bei an insight into the nuanced cultures act of pouring the water between the bird- Ala Timor Sira Nia Liman continues until 12 of Timor. In a study of Timorese society, adorned finials symbolised the blessing and July 2009 at the Museum and Art Gallery of the anthropologist David Hicks observes it is purification by the clan’s ancestors of the Northern Territory, Conacher St, Bullocky Point, the inter-relatedness of opposites, such as water and their descendants’ (Pers comm. Darwin. earth and sky, sacred and profane, sun and Simith V, 22 Nov. 2008). moon, feminine and masculine, that give Maryellen Hargreaves is a post graduate student, them their true meaning. (Hicks 1976:107). Also housed in the exhibition’s inner chamber undertaking an Honours degree in Creative is a selection of Timorese body adornment. Arts and Industries at Charles Darwin University, Upon entering the gallery, vibrant orange Traditionally worn for ceremonies, gold and Northern Territory. walls sweep the visitor into the expansive, silver jewellery articulates the cosmic world worldly realm of light, life and masculinity. of complementary opposites. The kai bauk REFERENCES Here a series of ancestral figurines, customarily headdress represents the feminine waning Barrkman, J. 2008. Husi Bei Ala Timor Sira Nia Liman – From used as grave markers intended to honour clan moon whilst the belak breastplate denotes the the Hands of Our Ancestors, Museum and Art Gallery Northern ancestors stoically appear. Alongside these masculine sun. A side chamber presents aspects Territory, Darwin, p. 92. figurines, hand-woven ikat and supplementary of enmity protection, including an array of Gusmão, X. 2008. Husi Bei Ala Timor Sira Nia Liman – From the Hands of Our Ancestors, Museum and Art Gallery Northern wooden face masks and a female warrior. weave textiles are displayed, reflecting Timor’s Territory, Darwin. p.11. regionally diverse textile virtuosity. Hicks, D. 1976. Tetum Ghosts and Kin, Waveland Press Inc. Illinois, Upon exiting the blue chamber, the visitor p.107. returns to the mundane sphere to view ‘vessels In contrast to this dynamic, expansive space is Rothwell, N. 2008. Our neighbour’s heirlooms, The Australian, 21 an inner blue walled chamber that resonates of sustenance’, consisting of earthenware pots November 2008. as the sacred realm of darkness, death and and woven fibre containers. A selection of Personal communication with V. Simith, 22 November 2008, femininity. Emulating a Timorese ceremonial contemporary art illustrates the emergence of Museum and Art Gallery Northern Territory, Darwin. house, entrance into this chamber necessitates a distinctive visual art movement by Timor’s Traube, E. 1986. Cosmology and Social Life, Ritual Exchange among passing a series of ornately carved doors youth. They provide a personal insight into the Mambai of East Timor, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago of totemic crocodiles, mermaids and rulers the mayhem of Timor’s recent past with titles and London. that traditionally ‘guarded’ the doorways of such as Santa Cruz Massacre; Leaving Dili;
22 TAASA REVIEW VOLUME 18 NO.2 BOOK REVIEW: THE ANCIENT TALE OF A JAVANESE BUDDHA-PRINCE
Pamela Gutman
Sutasoma – The time many variations have evolved. In this the key to his success as a World Protector Ancient Tale Of A epic version the poet has elaborated on the and Universal Monarch. Buddha-Prince From original story and added new characters and 14th Century Java episodes, setting the tale in a Javanese milieu Today the Sutasoma is still studied by “masaban” by Kate O’Brien and imbuing it with a uniquely Javanese groups as it has been for many generations. Orchid Press, Bangkok world-view. It continues to be a popular subject in the 2008. art of Bali. O’Brien has selected her profuse Available from The Asia Apart from being a journey to enlightenment, illustrations from those adorning the ceiling of Bookroom, Canberra. this is also a love story and a moral story telling the Bale Kambang of the Taman Gili, the water rrp A$64.95 of the fight of righteous kingship against evil. garden of the palace at Klungkung in Bali, as A series of minor wars leads to an eventual well as from the modern repertoire of Balinese Kate O’Brien is well-known for her scholarly showdown, a world-threatening conflict and painting. The Tantric aspects of the text are yet accessible elucidation of Tantric themes in conflagration that would do justice to many explained through diagrams and illustrations the literature, art and architecture of Java and a movie epic. O’Brien presents an updated of mandalas in Tibet and Ladakh. Sutasoma is Tibet. Many will recall her lectures on Candi and complete translation which presents recommended reading not only for specialists Jago as an illustration of the theory of the the reader with a highly approachable and but for those who wish to better understand union of means and wisdom in the attainment lively rendition of this epic, comparable in the literary and religious background to Bali’s of enlightenment. Her latest work relates the complexity and scale to that of the Ramayana, incomparable culture. story of Sutasoma as told in Mpu Tantular’s yet significantly less known or understood. epic Old Javanese Buddhist kakawin or poem, Pamela Gutman is an Honorary Associate, School of written in the 14th century at the height of the O’Brien’s accompanying analysis reveals a Letters, Art & Media, University of Sydney. Majapahit empire, and discovers, again, the fascinating aspect of the poem, until now underlying theme of means and wisdom. not fully explored. Aside from its function to elucidate the compatibility of Buddhahood The poem follows Prince Sutasoma, born an and kingship, it also reveals what amounts incarnation of the Jina-Buddha Wairocana, on to a literary mandala, as complex and as both his spiritual journey to enlightenment philosophically rich as the beautiful mandala and his temporal journey through marriage, images of Tibetan Buddhism, yet firmly kingship and eventual victory over the rooted in the Javanese milieu of the Majapahit mighty, world-threatening demon Porusada. polity which gave rise to this version of the Sutasoma’s subduing of the demon is well- ancient tale. It is this literary mandala that is known throughout Buddhist Asia and over the path to Sutasoma’s enlightenment, in turn
EXHIBITION REVIEW: NAM BANG!
Ann Proctor
There is still a chance to catch Nam Bang!, an Vietnam War and ultimately create a space intelligent and visually engaging look at the for reconciliation and healing. The key note post- Vietnam war era. The exhibition continues speaker at the conference was Lucy Lippard, at Casula Powerhouse until June 21. the renowned USA writer, activist and curator.
Nam Bang! includes 25 artists from Vietnam, Works in the exhibition include a documentary Australia, North America, Europe and other project, ‘Memories of the American War’ by William Pacific and Asian nations. In the words of Short b. 1940, who served in Vietnam in 1969 and the curator, Dr Boitran Beattie-Huynh, the who now lives in Los Angeles. This collaborative exhibition sets out to explore the aftermath of work presents a heart-broken review of the war. the Vietnam War from global and generational Another outstanding work is the installation by the perspectives. Using a wide variety of media, French based Vietnamese artist Tran Trong Vu (b. the artists address a range of issues from 1964) who uses layers of suspended plastic sheets traumatic stories, a critique of the post-Vietnam painted with vibrant images to cleverly expose the War policies, to the positive aspects of a more absurdity of all wars. tolerant, multicultural world. The exhibition, and two-day conference held at the Casula Ann Proctor is a Lecturer in Asian Art at the National Powerhouse on April 17-18, investigate the Art School, Sydney. complex representation of the aftermath of the
TAASA REVIEW VOLUME 18 NO.2 23 THE 2ND ASEAN TRADITIONAL TEXTILE SYMPOSIUM
Gill Green
Participants to the symposium on the steps of the National Museum of the Philippines. Photo Gill Green
1-3 February 2009, Manila, Philippines.
The National Museum of the Philippines was the venue for this symposium, co-hosted with the Museum Foundation of the Philippines. The ASEAN Foundation/Japan ASEAN Solidarity Fund provided primary funding supported by Himpunan Wastraprema (Indonesia), the symposium’s founding organization and host of the first symposium in Djakarta in 2005.
The theme, Habi: Sustaining Traditional Textiles of the ASEAN, discussed ways of promoting, preserving and maintaining sustainability of plant fibre production, weaving and dyeing methods deeply rooted in the cultures of ASEAN communities. Invited speakers from the 10 ASEAN nations - Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore Thailand, Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar
and Vietnam (Cham and highlands) - shared Their skill emphasized continuity with their knowledge and possibly frustrations their predecessors who, using pina, created in keeping traditional fibre production and Spanish-style gowns in past centuries as well use alive. Speakers from Iran, Guam and as the long sleeved shirt barong tagalog which Australia also participated. remains the formal garment for Philippino men today. The variety of plant fibres used in these traditions - cotton, abaca (banana leaf fibre), pina The concluding activity was the signing (pineapple leaf fibre), and even fibres stripped of an “Agreement on the Establishment, from hibiscus plants and rattan canes are a Organization and Management of the testament to the ingenuity of traditional peoples ASEAN Traditional Textile Art Community”. in the ASEAN community in utilising materials This agreement commits the signatories to to hand. Lengths of cloth woven from these “recognise that the continuity of traditional fibres were offered for sale in the ‘Marketplace’ Southeast Asian textiles lies in the reintegration held over the three days of the event. A group of textiles back into the life and culture of Bagoba women from south central Mindanao of the people”. Integral with these aims is wearing their traditional wrap round skirts recognition of ‘Living National Treasures’ of woven abaca fibre patterned in warp ikat in weaving; monitoring ethical practice in were welcomed and performed traditional entrepreneurial schemes and identifying dance providing a context for appreciating textile areas in danger of extinction. their costume and traditions. A number of demonstrations of traditional handweaving The next symposium is planned for were arranged. A backstrap loom weaver from 2011 with Malaysia the host nation. The Myanmar and a Cham weaver demonstrating organisers plan to publish the papers from the unusual Cham frameloom - operated from the 2009 symposium on the HABI website the side rather than from one end - exhibited in the near future. http://aseantextiles09. their skills. museumfoundationph.org/
A fashion show of modern designs using Gill Green was an invited speaker at the only pina cloth rounded off the symposium. Symposium. She is Vice President of TAASA and Invited modern designers demonstrated convenor of TAASA’s Textile Study Group. that this exquisite, fine cloth, painstakingly made by hand could be transformed into supermodel clothing for the modern day.
24 TAASA REVIEW VOLUME 18 NO.2
RECENT TAASA ACTIVITIES TAASA MEMBERS’ DIARY JUNE – AUGUST 2009
TAASA NSW conjunction with ACAPA (Australian Centre TAASA VICTORIA EVENTS for Asian and Pacific Art). Dr Baoping Li , Other worlds: Tai textiles - 13 June 2009 Textile Study Group Bob Maher (collector) and Ruth McDougall Speaker: Russell Howard At our April meeting we had the (ACAPA) participated in the program. A Venue: Behruz Studio, 1509 Malvern Road, opportunity to view the antique Uzbeki silk report follows in the next TAASA Review. Glen Iris, Phone: 95102282 embroidered wedding bed cover purchased Russell Howard, collector of Tai textiles by Textile Study Group members in memory from Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia of Dee Court. This textile has been donated TAASA VICTORIA and Burma, will discuss the textiles he has to the Powerhouse Museum collection. collected from his most recent trip to the region. The textiles will be on display in the Nicky Court, Dee and Peter Court’s eldest TAASA members’ walkthrough: Dressed exhibition Other Worlds, at Behruz Studio daughter told of her trip to India with her to Rule: Imperial Robes of China, 11 – 27 June. husband and son, and spoke movingly of National Gallery of Victoria International, their journey to scatter Dee’s ashes in the 26 April 2009 Traditional arts of Uzbekistan: Cities Ganges. Ruth Clemens, collector of Chinese Imperial and museums of the Silk Road - 7 July costume and textiles, took TAASA members Speaker: Laura Jocic TAASA book launch - 26 February through the NGV’s current Asian art exhibition Venue: To be confirmed Around 50 people gathered in Barbara Dressed to Rule: Imperial Robes of China. Ruth Laura Jocic is Curator, Australian Fashion Rogers’ Gurner St Paddington gallery for the revealed the layers of meaning encoded and Textiles, at the National Gallery of launch of Gill Green’s latest book ‘Pictorial in the robes on display, through symbols Victoria. She is also a collector of and Cambodian Textiles’. Gill, introduced by embroidered and woven into the sumptuous specialist in Central Asian textiles and TAASA President Judith Rutherford, gave fabrics, the structure of the garments, and the costumes. She takes annual tours to an interesting overview of her research use of colour and composition in the robes’ Uzbekistan and in this talk will discuss for this book, and described her visit to decoration. She explained how costume the museums, markets and textiles she has Phnom Penh, where the National Museum of and accessories, including rank badges, encountered on her journeys. Enquiries: Cambodia presented the first exhibition of its shoes and hats, designated the status and Carol Cains 03 8620 2288 textile collection, and provided the venue for cultural identity of the wearer, and how the Cambodian launch of her book, hosted by this differentiation blurred at the end of the TAASA NSW EVENTS the Australian Embassy. Qing dynasty. It was a fascinating discussion TAASA NSW Textile Study Group that enhanced members’ enjoyment and All meetings 6-8 pm, Briefing Room, TAASA QUEENSLAND understanding of the exhibition, curated by Powerhouse Museum. Forthcoming program: Dr Mae Anna Pang, Senior Curator of Asian 10 June: Show and Tell – bring a piece On 9 May, TAASA Committee member Art. The exhibition runs to 6 September. of Asian jewellery with a story. Philip Courtenay organised a half day 29 July: Liz Williamson – The Significance Seminar at the Queensland Art Gallery in of Shawls and Scarves. No meeting in August. All enquiries contact: Gill Green 9331 1810.
TAASA Symposium on Jewellery and Adornment of Asia - 25 July, Art Gallery of NSW This full day seminar will explore a range of tantalising topics: ritual SE Asian ornaments, Central Asian nomadic adornment, sumptuous Indian jewellery, Kingfisher feather ornaments in the Chinese Imperial court and more. Includes free entry to the AGNSW Silk Ikats of Central Asia exhibition. Brochure is included in this issue.
Cities of the Silk Road - 5 September, Powerhouse Museum This one day event is the next in TAASA’s series ‘Great Cities of Asia’. Five speakers will present views of Central Asian cities, long celebrated for their role as trading centres along the Silk Road.
Examining the textile donated to the Powerhouse Museum. L-R: Melanie Pitkin, Assistant Curator, Society
and Design, Powerhouse Museum, Cilla Warre, Peter and Nicky Court, Roz Cheney. Photo: Gill Green.
TAASA REVIEW VOLUME 18 NO.2 25 WHAT’S ON IN AUSTRALIA AND OVERSEAS: JUNE – AUGUST 2009
A SELECTIVE ROUNDUP OF EXHIBITIONS AND EVENTS
Compiled by Tina Burge
AUSTRALIA SANAA: Kazuya Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa SOUTH AUSTRALIA - an architectural intervention NEW SOUTH WALES Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation Tibetan Buddhist Art 3 July – 26 September 2009 Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide Littoral Drift University Technology Sydney Gallery, Sydney The contemporary Japanese architects This ongoing exhibition features paintings, 2 June – 3 July 2009 Kazuya Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa will give sculpture and decorative arts dating from Sydneysiders a first-hand glimpse of their around the 12th century to the modern era, Brings together artists based in India, architectural aesthetic at the Foundation’s made possible through the loan of 15 rare Malaysia, Indonesia and Australia who gallery in July. works from the private Tibetan art collection use photography and video to explore how For further information go to: of Alan Myren and Lee Grafton. The highlight coastal areas, shores and rivers have been the www.sherman-scaf.org.au of the display is eight Buddhist religious settings for human exchange for centuries. paintings (tangka). Curated by Matt Cox, artists featured include NORTHERN TERRITORY For further information go to: Nadiah Bamadhaj, Tejal Shah, Krisna Murti, www.artgallery.sa.gov.au Yee I-Lann, Ricky Maynard and Simryn Gill. Husi Bei Ala Timor Sira Nia Liman – From the Hands of our Ancestors VICTORIA For more details go to: www.utsgallery.uts. The Traditional and Contemporary Art edu.au/gallery and Craft of Timor-Leste Dressed to Rule: Imperial Robes of China Museum and Art Gallery Northern Territory, Darwin National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne Silk Ikats of Central Asia. From the collection 22 November 2008 - 12 July 2009 17 April – 6 September 2009 of the Islamic Arts Museum Kuala Lumpur Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney Features 138 works from the National Exhibits imperial robes of China from the Qing 2 July - 11 October 2009 Collection of Timor-Leste, presented Dynasty (1644–1911). Mostly drawn from internationally for the first time since the the NGV Asian Art Collection, the exhibition Robes, tunics and textile panels from the nation’s independence in 2002, complemented features robes as well as accessories worn by the late 19th century display the remarkable by the Timor-Leste collection of the Museum Qing Emperors and members of the imperial artistic achievement and technical virtuosity and Art Gallery Northern Territory and loans court, combining Chinese elegance with the of Ikat silk designers, dyers and weavers from other public and private collections. nomadic barbaric splendour of the Manchu. of Central Asia. For more details go to: For further information go to: www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au www.nt.gov.au/nreta/museums A series of lectures to complement the exhibition include: Arts of Asia - Decoding Dress QUEENSLAND Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney 21 June at 2.30pm, Ruth Clemens: ‘Beauty, Tuesdays 1-2pm, Term 2 from 28 July 2009 Frame by Frame: Asia Pacific Artists on Tour Pain and Pleasure – The History of Foot A travelling exhibition from the Queensland Binding In China’. Art Gallery The second term of the Arts of Asia 2009 series 3 July at 12.30pm, Leslie Uren: ‘Silk and Metal Gold Coast City Art Gallery from focuses on modern Asian dress and begins Thread in Traditional Chinese Embroidery’. on 28 July with Antonia Finnane’s lecture, 16 May – 28 June 2009 ‘Barbarian and Chinese: dress as difference Bundaberg Regional Art Gallery from 31 July at 12.30pm, Alan Black: ‘Silk -Trade in Chinese art’. For a full listing go to www. 15 July – 23 August 2009 & Emperors’. artgallery.nsw.gov.au/events/courses where 21 August at 12.30pm, Mae Anna Pang: ‘Cosmic course bookings can also be made. Showcases 50 photographic and moving Symbols and the Emperor’s Robes’. image art works by leading contemporary Japan Studies of Australia forum - Japan, Asian and Pacific artists from the Queensland For more information about programs China, Elsewhere: Literary and Cultural Art Gallery’s Asia Pacific Collection. See: associated with the exhibition, go to: Interplay in Pre-modern and Early Modern www.gcac.com.au and www.bundaberg.qld. www.ngv.vic.gov.au/ngvinternational. Japan gov.au. 13 July 2009 from 1 - 5pm Five Elements – Water Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney Small acts National Gallery of Victoria, International Queensland Art Gallery, Gallery of Modern Art 15 May – 26 July 2009 In this Japan Studies of Australia Association 25 July – 15 November 2009 pre-conference event, six scholars in the Master Tetsunori Kawana is an internationally fields of art history, literature, intellectual Features artists’ videos, including early works renowned practitioner of contemporary history and theatre, explore the ways in by Nam June Paik and Yoko Ono as well as Japanese bamboo sculpture, whose bamboo which the Japanese imported, appreciated, contemporary works by artists including Tsui installations are of a spectacular scale unseen and interpreted an imagined ‘Other’ over the Kuang-yu, Ghazel, Kimsooja and Song Dong. in the related traditional practice of Ikebana. course of a millennium. For further information go to: He will transform the Grollo - Equiset Garden See: www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/events/ www.qag.qld.gov.au with his creation ‘Five Elements – Water’. For further information go to: www.ngv.vic.gov.au/ngvinternational.
26 TAASA REVIEW VOLUME 18 NO.2 Ancient Hampi: A Hindu Kingdom now on view. For further information go to: USA brought to life www.smb.museum/smb Immigration Museum, Melbourne Beyond Golden Clouds: Japanese 13 November 2008 - January 2010 KOREA Screens from the Art Institute of Chicago and the Saint Louis Art Museum This interactive exhibition offers visitors the Fascination of Europe: Western-style June 26–September 27, 2009 opportunity to immerse themselves in the Paintings in Modern Japan Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago stunning World Heritage site of Hampi in National Museum of Korea, Seoul southern India. Using state of the art digital 13 November 2008 – 11 October 2009 This exhibition, shown at both museums, technologies the visitor can travel back to includes 32 screens dating from the 16th 14th century Hampi and visit the seat of the century to contemporary. Go to: www.artic. Vijayanagara Empire. For more information Highlights a group of western-style paintings edu/aic go to www.museumvictoria.com.au by modern Japanese artists collected and Go to http://place-hampi.museum for more displayed in the Yi Royal Museum from Brilliant Warriors. Artistic Masters information about the international digital 1933 to 1943. For further information go to: 12 June – 20 September 2009 project. www.museum.go.kr Asian Art Museum, San Francisco
INTERNATIONAL UNITED KINGDOM Features more than 160 works from the Hosokawa family collection housed in the GERMANY Garden and Cosmos: The Royal Paintings Eisei-Bunko Museum in Tokyo, the Kumamoto of Jodhpur Castle, and the Kumamoto Municipal Cultural Exchange on the Northern Silk Road British Museum, London Museum in Kyushu. These include suits of Kulturaustausch auf der nördlichen Seidenstraße 28 May – 23 August 2009 armor, armaments (including swords and Museen Dahlem, Berlin guns), formal attire, calligraphy, paintings, 1 April - 1 September 2009 A rare chance to see 56 paintings from the teaware, lacquerware, masks, and musical 17th to 19th centuries, from miniatures to instruments. For further information go to: The newly opened Chinese Cultural Centre, monumental artworks, loaned from the royal www.asianart.org/Samurai in Berlin’s Tiergarten district, focuses on the collection of the Mehrangarh Museum Trust, art of the world-renowned Mogao Caves Jodhpur (modern day Rajasthan). in Dunhuang at the eastern hub of the Silk For further information go to: Road. Copies of two of the rock-cut temples www.britishmuseum.org have been recreated to original size and are
BURMA: THE ESSENTIAL CAMBODIA: ANGKOR BACKROADS LAOS: LAND OF EXPERIENCE WAT AND BEYOND OF BURMA THE LOTUS-EATERS
30 October – 08 November – 17 November – 28 January – 18 November 2009 25 November 2009 03 December 2009 10 February 2010 TAASA contributor Dr Bob Hudson Angkor’s grandeur is unmissable. One trip to Burma is simply never Enigmatic and relatively undeveloped, guides our annual program which But Cambodia offers a host of other enough. Backroads of Burma is ideal landlocked Laos offers travellers contains extended stays in medieval travel experiences: outstanding for the second-time visitor or travellers an intimate glimpse of traditional Mrauk U, capital of the lost ancient ancient, vernacular and French colonial who enjoy remote and bucolic locations. Southeast Asian life. Gradually kingdom of Arakan (now Rakhine architecture; spectacular riverine Starting and finishing in Yangon, our emerging from its tumultuous recent State) and Bagan, rivalling Angkor environments; a revitalizing urban schedule wends south into Mon State, history, Laos is a gem of Indochina Wat as Southeast Asia’s richest capital; and beautiful countryside. Join visiting Kyaiktiyo and Moulmein before with interesting art, architecture, archaeological precinct. Experiences Gill Green, art historian, author and heading north to Sri Ksetra, the ancient French and Lao cuisine, intricate river in Yangon, Inle Lake, Mandalay and Vice President of TAASA and Australian Pyu capital. Mystical Mount Popa, systems, and rugged highlands. Darryl a private cruise down the mighty expatriate university and museum Bagan, Monywa and the spectacular Collins, long term Southeast Asian Ayeyarwady are also included. lecturer Darryl Collins on a repeat of cave temples of Po Win Taung, Sagaing resident, has designed and will guide our successful 2008 program. and Mandalay follow. Dr Bob Hudson is a comprehensive tour of Laos which Land Only cost per person program leader. ex Yangon from $4450 Land Only cost per person includes wonderful Luang Prabang, ex Phnom Penh from $4500 Land Only cost per person the historic royal city and Wat Phu ex Yangon from $3900 Champasak. Land Only cost per person ex Vientiane from $4100
For a brochure or further information phone Ray Boniface at Heritage Destinations on (02) 9267 0129 or email [email protected]
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