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VOLUME 20 NO. 4 DECEMBER 2011 Review TAASA c o n t en t s
Volume 20 No. 4 December 2011
4 Editorial: 20 YEARS oF taaSA 36 A NEW NAGa riSING: CAMBODIAN CONTEMPORARY art Josefa Green Darryl Collins
TAASA’S lEGACY 38 GALLERY 2902 & CONTEMPORARY SINGAPORE PHOTOGRAPHY Gael Newton
6 BUILDING oN taaSA’S FOUNDATIONS Gill Green 42 BEYOND FIRSt iMPRESSIONS: STUDENT PERSPECTIVES oN ASIAN art
10 TAASa rECOLLECTED Phoebe Scott Jackie Menzies and Heleanor Feltham 44 HINDI CINEMa aNd tHE PARADOX oF GLOBALISATION
12 A COMMUNITY oF iNTEREST: tHE taaSa tEXTILE GROUP Adrienne McKibbins
46 ASIAN daNCE iN aUSTRALIA 14 TAASA MEMBERS’ MEMOIRS Jill Sykes
State of tHE arts 48 EARLY ENCOUNTERS WITH aSIA Peter Sculthorpe 20 AN iMMERSIVE EXPERIENCE: iNNOVATIVE aSIAN art EXHIBITIONS iN aUSTRALIA 50 IN PERFORMANCE: aSIAN MUSIC MAKING iN aUSTRALIA Katherine Russell
23 20 YEARS oF CONTEMPORARY aSIAN art iN aUSTRALIA: Repository oF riches A PERSONAL PERSPECTIVE Gene Sherman 54 CURATOR’S CHOICE: aSIAN trEASURE FROM aUSTRALIA’S PUBLIC COLLECTION
26 APt tHEN aND NOW Michael Desmond 60 RECENt taaSa aCTIVITIES
28 DOUBLE diP: tHE aSIAN BIENNALE aNd art FAIR 60 TAASA Members’ diary: DECEMBER 2011- FEBRUARY 2012 Gina Fairley
62 What’S oN iN aUStralia and oVErseas: 31 PLACE.TIME.PLAY: CONTEMPORARY art FROM tHE WEST DECEMBER 2011-FEBRUARY 2012 HEAVENS to tHE MIDDLE KINGDOM Compiled by Tina Burge Chaitanya Sambrani
34 50,000 DAYS IN ASIA: THE ASIALINK ARTS RESIDENCY PROGRAM Lesley Alway
a FUll iNdex of articlES PUBlished in TAASA Review Since itS BEGinnings in 1991 is available on tHE taaSa WEB Site, WWW.taasa.org.au
2 T A A S A c o m m ittee
Gill Green • President TAASA REVIEW Art historian specialising in Cambodian culture THE ASIAN ARTS SOCIETY OF AUSTRALIA INC. Abn 64093697537 • Vol. 20 No. 4, December 2011 CHRISTINA SUMNER • Vice President ISSN 1037.6674 Principal Curator, Design and Society, Registered by Australia Post. Publication No. NBQ 4134 Powerhouse Museum, Sydney ANN GUILD • TREASURER editorIAL • email: [email protected] Former Director of the Embroiders Guild (UK) General editor, Josefa Green Dy Andreasen • SECRETARY Has a special interest in Japanese haiku and tanka poetry publications committee Josefa Green (convenor) • Tina Burge Hwei-fe’n cheah Melanie Eastburn • Sandra Forbes • Ann MacArthur Lecturer, Art History, Australian National University, Jim Masselos • Ann Proctor • Susan Scollay with an interest in needlework Sabrina Snow • Christina Sumner
JOCELYN CHEY design/layout Visiting Professor, Department of Chinese Studies, Ingo Voss, VossDesign University of Sydney; former diplomat printing Matt Cox John Fisher Printing Study Room Co-ordinator, Art Gallery of New South Wales, with a particular interest in Islamic Art of Published by The Asian Arts Society of Australia Inc. Southeast Asia PO Box 996 Potts Point NSW 2011 www.taasa.org.au Philip Courtenay Enquiries: [email protected] Former Professor and Rector of the Cairns Campus, James Cook University, with a special interest in Southeast TAASA Review is published quarterly and is distributed to members Asian ceramics of The Asian Arts Society of Australia Inc. TAASA Review welcomes submissions of articles, notes and reviews on Asian visual and LUCIE FOLAN performing arts. All articles are refereed. Additional copies and Assistant Curator, Asian Art, National Gallery of Australia subscription to TAASA Review are available on request. Sandra Forbes No opinion or point of view is to be construed as the opinion of Editorial consultant with long-standing interest The Asian Arts Society of Australia Inc., its staff, servants or agents. in South and Southeast Asian art No claim for loss or damage will be acknowledged by TAASA Josefa Green Review as a result of material published within its pages or General editor of TAASA Review. Collector of Chinese in other material published by it. We reserve the right to alter ceramics, with long-standing interest in East Asian or omit any article or advertisements submitted and require art as student and traveller indemnity from the advertisers and contributors against damages or liabilities that may arise from material published. MIN-JUNG KIM Curator of Asian Arts & Design at the Powerhouse Museum All reasonable efforts have been made to trace copyright holders.
ANN PROCTOR TAASA MEMBERSHIP RATES Art historian with a particular interest in Vietnam $70 Single Yukie Sato $90 Dual Former Vice President of the Oriental Ceramic Society of $95 Libraries (in Australia) the Philippines with wide-ranging interest in Asian art $35 Concession (full-time students under 26, pensioners and culture and unemployed with ID, Seniors Card not included) $115 Overseas (individuals and libraries) SABRINA SNOW Has a long association with the Art Gallery of New South advertising RATES Wales and a particular interest in the arts of China TAASA Review welcomes advertisements from
Hon. Auditor appropriate companies, institutions and individuals. Rates below are GST inclusive. Rosenfeld Kant and Co
Back page $850 state re p rese n tatives Full inner page $725 Australian Capital Territory Half page horizontal $484 Third page (vertical or horizontal) $364 Robyn Maxwell Half column $265 Visiting Fellow in Art History, ANU; Insert $300 Senior Curator of Asian Art, National Gallery of Australia
Northern Territory For further information re advertising, including discounts for regular quarterly advertising, please contact Joanna Barrkman [email protected] Curator of Southeast Asian Art and Material Culture, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory The deadline for all articles for our next issue is 15 DECEMBER 2011 Queensland The deadline for all aDvertising Russell Storer for our next issue is 1 FEBRUARY 2012 Curatorial Manager, Asian and Pacific Art, Queensland Art Gallery
South Australia James Bennett Curator of Asian Art, Art Gallery of South Australia
Victoria Carol Cains Curator Asian Art, National Gallery of Victoria International 3 E D IT O R I A L : 2 0 Y E A R S o f T A A S A
Josefa Green, Editor
As you can see, this is a very special issue of ground through their innovative designs and engagement between Australian artists the TAASA Review, to celebrate TAASA’s 20th experiential approach. and Asia are also covered in this issue. The anniversary. Director of Asialink Arts, Lesley Alway, One major private sector player in the explains the aims of its Residency program Given the central place of the TAASA Review Australian cultural scene since the early and gives tangible examples of how some over TAASA’s 20 year life, it seemed fitting to 1980’s has been the Sherman Contemporary have benefited from it. Phoebe Scott do something special, an idea enthusiastically Art Foundation (SCAF). Gene Sherman interviews some of our current arts students, supported by the Publications Committee. provides a personal account of what inspired exploring what has motivated them to learn We felt that this was an opportunity for us her to promote contemporary Asian art with more about Asian art and culture, and how to step back, not only to review TAASA’s such passion, and outlines the impressive list this has affected their work to date. past activities, but, more broadly, to assess of exhibitions and related initiatives taken by developments in the Asian arts in Australia the then Irving Galleries and now SCAF. Her TAASA has tried to maintain a commitment to over the last 20 years to the present. article also acknowledges some of the other cover the performing arts, and this is reflected major players in the contemporary Asian arts by the remaining articles in this State of the Arts This conception has driven the approach scene in Australia in the same period. section. Adrienne McKibbins dissects Hindi taken in this issue. It is divided into 3 main cinema, arguing that the terms ‘Bollywood’ and sections. TAASA’s Legacy aims to honour the One major initiative mentioned by Gene ‘globalisation’ are both misleadingly applied many people who have been involved with Sherman is covered more fully by Michael to this industry. Jill Sykes offers personal TAASA over time – committee members, Desmond’s article. This is the Asia Pacific insights into where Asian dance has gone in service providers, supportive art institutions Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT) Australia over the last two decades. And we are and members. In State of the Arts, we have which was launched in 1993, with great delighted that Peter Sculthorpe has contributed commissioned a number of experts to assess prescience, by the Queensland Art Gallery. a piece which describes the beginnings of his developments in the Asian arts field, including Michael Desmond assesses the way in which engagement with Asia, its music and ideas. performing arts, and have widened our successive APTs have encouraged interest in reach beyond Australia to cover interesting the arts and wider culture of Asia, at the same Finally, in our “In Performance” segment, four developments elsewhere. Finally, in Repository time putting Brisbane on the cultural map. groups or individuals who currently perform of Riches, we have tried to give a feel for the Asian music in Australia are profiled: Adrian range of Asian objects which can be found in As Michael Desmond points out, the current McNeil with Bobby Singh; Queensland the collections of our major arts institutions. proliferation of rival biennials in the Asian Conservatorium’s Gamelan Ensemble, the region has affected the impact of the APTs. Nefes Ensemble and Riley Lee. Our opening article in the TAASA’s Legacy This is illustrated by Gina Fairley’s article, section is by current TAASA President, Gill which notes that around 25 of the 80 or so So to the last segment of our ‘twice the size’ Green. In outlining TAASA’s history, she takes international biennales/triennials are now TAASA Review. Repository of Riches dips into the the opportunity to thank the many people held in Asia. She examines how Asian cities treasure chest which is the Asian art collections involved in its creation and consolidation. such as Singapore and Hong Kong are of our public art institutions. We asked the We hope you enjoy the archival photos dug competing to offer the ‘hottest’ shows and key curators from a selection of institutions up from some of the very earliest issues of the fairs, and wonders how artistic achievement to nominate one significant piece from their TAASA Review. can be critically assessed given the way collection, and to explain why it is significant in which these events have become ‘so both as a work of art and in the context of The remaining articles in this section offer thoroughly massaged and hyped’. the wider collection. We hope you enjoy the reminiscences by those who have been results! closely involved with TAASA over the years: We offer three further articles on the current ex-President Jackie Menzies and our first international contemporary arts scene – As a final comment, this issue represents, TAASA Review editor, Heleanor Feltham; four aimed more at providing a tasting menu than like TAASA, a community of interest. It has members of our very active Sydney based a comprehensive review. Chaitanya Sambrani involved many people generously offering Textile Study Group and finally, the voices explains the intention behind a fascinating their time and expertise: past and present of a range of TAASA members who discuss multi-disciplinary project he co-instigated, committee members, expert contributors, how they became interested in Asian arts which involved a select group of Chinese and TAASA members and above all, members of and involved with TAASA. We are only too Indian artists undertaking journeys to each the Publications Committee who worked hard conscious that space has not permitted us to other’s countries. The visual art component to produce it. Thanks also to the Powerhouse include the many other Asian arts enthusiasts opened in Shanghai in 2010. Museum for its generous sponsorship of this and loyal TAASA supporters that make up special anniversary issue. our membership. Darryl Collins provides a very useful overview of current developments in Cambodia, where TAASA gratefully acknowledges the State of the Arts is the central component of we are witnessing a mushrooming of private generous sponsorship provided by the this issue. A number of articles focus on key galleries in the capital and elsewhere. Gael Powerhouse Museum for the production of initiatives in the Asian arts field over the last Newton surveys current developments 20 years. Katherine Russell covers some of the in photography in Singapore, beginning this anniversary issue of the TAASA Review. main Asian art exhibitions we have enjoyed with her observations while participating around Australia, convincingly arguing in the inaugural Singapore International that, while these have not often achieved Photography Festival in 2008. ‘blockbuster’ status, they have forged new Two initiatives aimed at encouraging
4 T A A S A R E VI E W V O L U M E 2 0 N O . 4 TAASA’S LEGACY
T A A S A R E VI E W V O L U M E 2 0 N O . 4 5 b u IL D I n g o n taasa ’ s f o u n d ATI o n S
Gill Green, TAASA President LEFT TO RIGHT: CARL ANDREW, KERRY WALKER, DR JOHN YU, JILL SYKES, JOHN MERSON
AND JIM MASSELOS AT THE LAUNCH OF TAASA, OCTOBER 1991
AASA emerged in 1991 as a germ of an T idea stimulated by a visit to a passionate collector’s stash of Chinese dress and accessory items. The Powerhouse Museum’s Carl Andrew and Claire Roberts, together with esteemed Chinese textile dealer Judith Rutherford, had been invited down from Sydney to view Roger Grellman’s collection (notable at the time and still growing today). While travelling, these luminaries got thinking about the necessity for a forum where private collectors and enthusiasts of Asian arts could meet to share their passions and collections with each other and a broader public. Soon after, on the occasion of the Powerhouse Museum’s Material World exhibition, a group of interested people took advantage of an exotic space installed by Ross Langlands (a Turkmen felt yurt, see p. 15) to meet and discuss the question further. Hence TAASA’s origin myth of being ‘hatched in a yurt’ (for more detail on this, see Joyce Burnard’s article celebrating TAASA’s 10th anniversary in TAASA Review Vol.10/4, December 2001).
More supporters with similar interests emerged, and the first TAASA committee was set up, comprising Carl Andrew, Jackie Menzies, Paul Genney, Ian Brookes, Heleanor Feltham, Ross Langlands, Jim Masselos, Claire Roberts, Adrian Snodgrass, Judith Snodgrass, Christina Sumner and John Yu. Max Davis was the Hon. Treasurer and John Morrissey the Hon. Solicitor.
The Committee set to work on the practical requirements – legal and financial - for setting LEFT TO RIGHT: JACKIE MENZIES, JIM MASSELOS AND ANNE FAIRBAIRN AT THE LAUNCH OF TAASA, OCTOBER 1991 up this not-for-profit, incorporated society. Paul Genney recalls that each Committee member disc references the Japanese mon, an emblem Editorial page of this (and every) issue of TAASA put in $100 and that $8000 was donated by the used to decorate and identify an individual or Review - pondered the question of whether ANZ Bank. This total of nearly $10,000 became family. Its original green colour was in time TAASA has achieved its original aims: to TAASA’s seed money. Other supporters gave changed to a cinnabar red. provide a forum for members and to contribute in kind. Paperpoint donated that pale grey to the wider Asian arts community. We believe recycled paper on which TAASA Review was So, ready to go. With the generous cooperation we – and that ’we’ includes everyone who over printed for its first few years. Spatchurst Design of Edmund Capon, Director of the Art Gallery of the years has served on TAASA Committees – Associates set up the design template for the NSW (subsequently declared TAASA’s first Hon. have achieved those aims, and over the past 20 TAASA Review and created the logo, based on Life Member) a meeting was held at the AGNSW years have created what we term a ‘community the committee’s concepts. to launch this new Society on the national scene. of interest’. What constitutes this ‘community’? A large audience packed the available space in TAASA is independent and national; we Needless to say a lot of thought was put into the Gallery, of whom, according to the first issue have a broad appeal to experts, collectors and TAASA’s distinctive logo. The Committee of the TAASA Review (January 1992), more than enthusiasts; we cover a wide range of topics; aimed to encapsulate both the geographic 200 subsequently signed up for membership. and finally our activities provide members with spread as well as the diverse cultural Carl Andrew became TAASA’s inaugural the opportunity to meet and share knowledge spectrum of what constitutes ‘Asian arts’. This president, followed by Jackie Menzies OAM, and interests. may well have seemed a daunting task. What Judith Rutherford AM, and currently myself. was eventually adopted was a simple disc How, over the past 20 years, has this containing the acronym ‘TAASA’ in a white Two decades later in 2011, the current community of interest been achieved and what stylised font on a blue/green background. The Management Committee - see listing on the have been milestones? The TAASA Review is
6 T A A S A R E VI E W V O L U M E 2 0 N O . 3 JUDITH RUTHERFORD (RIGHT) WITH HELEN PERRELL IN HELEN’S APARTMENT IN HONG KONG, MARCH 1996 the principal avenue of communication with members. It has been published continuously since its first edition in January 1992, under the successive editorship of four dedicated members: Heleanor Feltham, Ann MacArthur, Sandra Forbes and currently Josefa Green. The quarterly cycle of publishing in March, June, September and December became the norm from 1994. From black and white, the journal morphed into principally colour from March 1998, when it sported its first full colour cover image. Since September 2003, the journal has been full colour throughout. The high level of editorship and design required for the production of the TAASA Review has resulted arguably in the most significant journal on Asian arts outside the formal academic and institutional realm published in Australia.
Relationships with supportive institutions have clearly been instrumental in facilitating TAASA’s aims. These relationships have principally Australia. We have also been very lucky to through the generous initiative of its Director, been with the Art Gallery of NSW; Sydney’s have had a number of commercial galleries, Dr Dawn Casey, is a sponsor of this special Powerhouse Museum, of which TAASA is bookshops and dealers nationally support issue of TAASA Review), the National Gallery of an affiliated society; the National Gallery of our activities by providing their premises for Australia and the National Gallery of Victoria. Australia in Canberra; and the National Gallery meetings – and also, of course, by advertising of Victoria. In the last few years we have built in TAASA Review. To cater further to members’ specific interests, a relationship with the Queensland Art Gallery focus groups have been set up at various through the auspices of ACAPA (Australian TAASA has organised many seminars and times over the years. Of these, the Textile Centre for Asian and Pacific Art). These talks, some 30 since 1995, mainly in Sydney Study Group in NSW has been the longest- institutions have provided venues for TAASA and Melbourne, but also more recently in lived, having met on a monthly basis for the seminars, as well as on occasion inviting TAASA Brisbane (see list in this issue). The current past 15 years at the Powerhouse Museum. In to jointly organise seminars. New relationships Events Committee is chaired by Ann Guild this issue of TAASA Review a number of long- are being established, most recently with the and her skills in planning and attention to time members of the Textile Study Group State Library of Victoria (SLV) where TAASA is detail are much appreciated. Study Days on record their memories of the early days of this a sponsor of a major event early in 2012. This a variety of subjects have been arranged, with group and the impact it has had on them. is a fresh initiative which we hope will revive private viewings of institutional collections at TAASA’s activities in Melbourne and result AGNSW, National Gallery of Australia, the This year being TAASA’s 20th anniversary, in an ongoing relationship with the SLV. Here Australian Museum and the National Library the Committee decided that a ‘bumper’ it is appropriate to acknowledge the sterling of Australia in recent years. Curator-led edition of the TAASA Review, twice the efforts of the members who were instrumental walkthroughs of major exhibitions have been usual size, be published. This ambitious in progressing TAASA’s activities in Victoria enjoyed at the Powerhouse Museum (which edition could not have been attempted let in earlier years – Marjorie Ho, Bill Coaldrake, Tonia Eckfeld, Ruth Clemens, Ann Roberts and Ken Capes, to name just a few.
TAASA also has a cooperative relationship with the Sydney-based arts organisation VisAsia, the Australian Institute of Asian Culture and Visual Arts. VisAsia currently purchases copies of the TAASA Review for distribution to its members, thus further extending TAASA’s reach. TAASA has also a close relationship with the Oriental Rug Society of NSW with whom we share many members. We now have 20 academic and gallery libraries signed up as subscribers to the TAASA Review both in Australia and abroad, this being an acknowledgement of the high quality of its peer- reviewed, scholarly papers. Statutory copies of all TAASA’s printed material are deposited in the State Library of NSW and the National Library of VIETNAMESE CERAMICS WORKSHOP WITH KERRY NGUYEN-LONG (RIGHT), DECEMBER 2000
T A A S A R E VI E W V O L U M E 2 0 N O . 3 7 DEE COURT (LEFT) AND GILL GREEN (CENTRE) WITH GUEST LECTURER
SHEILA PAINE (RIGHT) AT THE SILKEN STEPPES EXHIBITION OPENEING THE ’YURT-HATCHERS’ OF TAASA. FROM LEFT: HELEANOR FELTHAM, CHRISTNA SUMNER, CARL ANDREW AND CLAIRE ROBERTS.
AT NOMADIC RUG TRADERS, SYDNEY, SEPTEMBER 1999 PHOTO: JEAN-FRANCOIS LANZARONE, DECEMBER 2001
alone produced without the manifest skills with professionalism, with goodwill and improved with the recently established email of Josefa Green, current editor of the TAASA with many hours of voluntary time – as list of those 90% of members who have Review. It has been a huge undertaking which has been the case with everyone who has supplied their email address. This advance Josefa has orchestrated with consummate served on TAASA’s various Committees clearly saves the Committee a huge amount of professionalism and in which she has over the past 20 years. Here I would like to time as well as making possible a substantial been ably supported by the Publications acknowledge the contribution of the current saving on postage costs. Committee members whose names appear on TAASA Vice President Christina Sumner, the Contents page. Principal Curator, Design and Society at the The Management Committee’s activities are Powerhouse Museum. Christina was one of supported by a number of indispensible external In this 20th anniversary year, TAASA for the TAASA’s founder members and has been a services. Over the last decade Ingo Voss of first time organised an essay competition with tower of support over the years. VossDesign has worked closely and seamlessly $2000 in prize money, open to undergraduate, with successive TAASA Review editors to honours and masters students at Australian Within the current Management Committee produce the publication with its indisputable universities. This initiative was undertaken we have expertise in database management, standard of excellence both in content and to encourage students of Asian arts in their finance and accounting, event management, design. Ingo also works with seminar organisers studies and is a demonstration of TAASA’s editing and publishing and legal matters. This to produce attractive brochures for TAASA commitment to the furthering of Asian expertise has facilitated the recent undertaking activities, and is instrumental in designing arts scholarship in Australia. A TAASA of a number of necessary updates and activities. and producing all TAASA stationery. TAASA’s subcommittee reviewed the entries and In 2011 TAASA’s Constitution was amended in annual accounts are currently audited by submitted a number for scholarly review. As accordance with changes to the legislation of Rosenfeld Kant and Co. on a pro bono basis. it eventuated, two essays were declared prize- the Office of Fair Trading as well as our own worthy, so the prize was divided between requirements for plain language. To sum up, TAASA can be proud of its Hannah Beasley (ANU) and Matt O’Farrell achievements over the past 20 years. It can (also ANU). Their essays are published as a A major initiative of recent years has been the be proud that, as a not-for-profit Society run supplement to this issue of the TAASA Review. initial funding and creation, and subsequent by a voluntary Committee, it has managed its Congratulations are due to the winners yearly updating, of an Index covering all issues affairs with professionalism and dedication and thanks to all those who entered the of TAASA Review since Vol.1/1 in January 1992. and has achieved a significant presence in the competition and to the scholarly reviewers The index, an invaluable tool for members Asian arts scene in Australia. The Society’s 20th who generously gave their time. and other researchers, is available on TAASA’s Anniversary celebration on 6 December, held website www.taasa.org.au, set up in 2003. with the generous cooperation of the Sherman Supporting these special initiatives, TAASA’s Contemporary Art Foundation in Sydney, has day-to-day activities are handled by a TAASA’s website is an indispensible portal as its principal guest speaker the Society’s first Management Committee. We have a wealth for enquiries not only for members and Hon. Life Member, retiring Director of the of expertise and depth of talent in Committee prospective members but also as a hub for AGNSW, Edmund Capon. The publication members on which we can and do call. Skills information exchange. A major overhaul is of the December edition of the TAASA Review acquired professionally or through outside planned for 2012, which, when completed, coincides with this celebratory event. interests or commitments have proved will enable the provision of additional services invaluable in both complying with routine for members, such as the option of paying for Gill Green is President of TAASA and an Honorary necessities as well as identifying interesting seminars and memberships electronically. Associate in the Department of Art History & Film initiatives. All activities are undertaken Communication with members is now vastly Studies, University of Sydney.
8 T A A S A R E VI E W V O L U M E 2 0 N O . 4
T A A S A S E M I N A R S A n d E V E N T S S I n c E 1 9 9 5
TAASA’s first lectures and seminars were held soon after its launch in 1991-92 – in fact, the President’s report to the Annual General Meeting held February 1993 reports that the Society had presented 26 events during the past 12 months. The list below is therefore by no means complete. As with many voluntary organisations, the records themselves are not comprehensive or detailed.
A fuller compilation of a record of TAASA-organised events over the past 20 years is a work in progress. If any member has information to add, or can advise on sources of information other than back issues of TAASA Review, please email us at: [email protected]. Thanks to Gill Green (Sydney) and Marjorie Ho (Melbourne) for the compilation to date.
m A J o r T A A S A se m i n ars
Textiles of NE Asia PHM 1995 Walking with Chinese Dragons PHM 2002 Textiles of the Lower Mekong PHM 1996 Foreigners in Asia PHM 2003 Dancing to the Flute AGNSW 1997 Art and Symbolism- Five Cultures. Melbourne 2002 Cities of Asia Sotheby’s 1997 Travels through Asia Minor Fragrant Space Chinese Museum 2002 Chinese Ceramics Symposium Sydney & Melb. 1997 China Trade: Insights into a Commerce that Traversed AGNSW 2003 Chinese Dress 1700s to now PHM 1997 Seas, Continents and Centuries Contemporary Cambodian Culture PHM 2004 Prehistoric Threads and Mummies National 1998 Celestial Silks AGNSW 2004 National Tour: AGNSW, James Cook University Townsville; Shipwrecked Ceramics Melbourne 2004 ANU; University of Adelaide; La Trobe University; So You Want to be a Collector AGNSW 2005 University of Sydney; interview at AGNSW Rajput, Sons of Kings (with VisAsia) AGNSW 2005 Introduction to Himalayas and India Melbourne 1998 Angkor: Artefacts to Empire (with U. of Sydney.) Women’s College 2006 The Grand Heritage of Indian Architecture Melbourne 1998 The Great Wall of China PHM 2006 Photography and Beyond: Vestiges of the Raj Melbourne 1998 Shanghai Old and New: City of Dreams PHM 2007 On the Ashram Trail, 10 years before the Beatles Melbourne 1998 Cities of Mainland Southeast Asia: the Lands PHM 2007 The Silk Roads: Their Role in World History AGNSW 1999 Below the Winds Beijing-Xanadu: Past, Present and Future. PHM and NGV 2008 Silken Steppes: Textile Arts of Central Asia (with PHM 1999 Chinese Ceramics QAG 2009 Oriental Rug Society of NSW) Asian Textiles QAG 2009 The Traditional and the Contemporary in Japanese Art Melbourne 1999 Jewellery and Adornment of Asia AGNSW 2009 Caravanserai: Journey through Central Asian Textiles Melbourne 1999 Cities of the Silk Road PHM 2009 Lands of Gold: Intra-Regional Cultural Exchanges in Southeast Asia AGNSW 2000 Iranian Arts and Crafts PHM 2010 Hats, Turbans, Topkots. The Vocabulary of Headwear in Asia COFA 2000 City Images: A Symposium on Indian Cities SMSA 2011 BUDDHA: Radiant Awakening (with VisAsia) AGNSW 2001 Innovation & influence: Ceramics of Southeast Asia PHM 2011 Art and Archaeology of Burma AGNSW 2001 Threads: Contemporary Textiles and the Social Fabric GoMA 2011 Vietnamese Arts: Tradition and Modernity PHM 2002 (with ACAPA - Australian Centre of Asia Pacific Art) Tradewinds and the Textiles of Southeast Asia PHM 2002
PHM = Powerhouse Museum, Sydney; AGNSW = Art Gallery of NSW; QAG=Queensland Art Gallery; GOMA=Gallery of Modern Art., SMSA = Sydney Mechanics School of Arts; COFA=College of Fine Arts, UNSW.
Other TAASA activities TAASA has organised a range of other activities for members. A number of special interest groups have been formed over the past 20 years, their survival dependent on the energy and support of members. This includes Indian and Himalayan, Ceramics, Film and Theatre, and Textile groups in Melbourne and Ceramics, Textiles, Jewellery and fine metal groups in Sydney. The Textile Study group, which meets at the PHM, is still going strong in Sydney.
Events have included weekend study trips to Canberra and most recently a visit to Opera Australia (Sydney) to view the costumes for the opera Lakmé, and a two location study day entitled ‘Drama and Delight’ to view collections at AGNSW and Australian Museum.
TAASA has launched a number of newly published books including those of Dr Pamela Gutman, Anne Warr, Gill Green, Dr Milton Osborne and Dr Solomon Bard. On occasion members were offered these publications at a discount price.
TAASA has been offered preview viewings at auction houses dealing in Asian artefacts by Mossgreen Auctions (Sydney), Sotheby’s (Melbourne) and Vietnamese ceramics from the Hoi Ann Hoard supported by E-bay (Melbourne and Sydney). Special ‘walk through’ events at various Asian art exhibitions have been arranged, such as the recent Japan in Sydney exhibition talk at the University Art Gallery, Sydney University.
On occasion, TAASA members in NSW have celebrated the Chinese Moon Festival at the Observatory and at Glover Cottage, Sydney. And our end of year parties in Sydney and Melbourne, including our popular bazaar in Sydney, provides us with a congenial opportunity to get together.
T A A S A R E VI E W V O L U M E 2 0 N O . 4 9 TA A S A R E c o LLE C T e d : WH E R E H A V E T H E TAASA GLASS E S G O N E ?
Jackie Menzies THREE GODDESSES: JACKIE MENZIES (CENTRE) AND THE LATE MARGARET OLLEY (LEFT) ADMIRE AN INDIAN SCULPTURE OF DURGA ON LOAN FROM THE VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM, LONDON, AT THE OPENING OF THE EXHIBITION GODDESS: DIVINE ENERGY IN 2006
y memories of TAASA are from the M time I was on the Society’s Committee: from its inception in 1991 through to 2000. When TAASA arose, there was a feeling of exhilaration and expectation: at last a platform for Asian art lovers to share rare treasures and new realms of wonder, to open the eyes of the world to tantalising and unfamiliar pleasures.
A lot of thought went into the establishment of TAASA, and members still benefit from the foundations laid by early Committee members. I remember how everyone was particularly grateful for the work done by our first Secretary, Paul Genney, who insisted on proper elections, rotation of committee members, annual audits (done gratis by Max Davis) - all the processes one would think were normal and yet are surprisingly dysfunctional in so many volunteer organisations. A big thankyou is due to Paul. Also to John Spatchurst, who designed the TAASA logo, and established the prototype layout for the Review; and to Carl Andrew, It was policy that committee meetings and in 1999, when Elizabeth Barber, author of The the first President, and to the members of the functions were in various venues: apart Mummies of Urumchi, undertook a lecture tour first Committee (listed in Gill Green’s article). from select institutions, dealers such as Ross organised by (now President) Gill Green. Thanks too to ANZ who provided seeding Langlands, Bill Evans, the late Cito Cessna funds, to Paperpoint who provided paper and others in Sydney were generous. Other I recall the debates as to whether TAASA for the first few years for the Review and for fun functions were held when Paul Genney could afford for the Review to be published in stationery, and to those early members who ran his Quadrivium gallery in the Queen colour, and then the pride we felt at the success believed enough in TAASA to take out life Victoria building (1996-2002). Functions of the first colour issue: Vol.7 No.1, March membership. I recall how grateful Committee were for fund-raising as well as engagement 1998, devoted to public collections, with members were to the Editors of the Review and education. Moon-viewing to musical sponsorship I had negotiated from the newly for the demanding job they had volunteered accompaniment and end-of-year parties/ formed Asia Society AustralAsia Centre in to do: Heleanor Feltham (1991-1994); Ann bazaars were innovative and rewarding, Melbourne. I recall the Committee’s pride in MacArthur (1995-2000); Sandra Forbes (2001- socially and financially. the establishment of focus groups (Textiles in 2007) and now Josefa Green. 1994; Ceramics 1995; Jewellery and fine metal No one predicted the success of TAASA. 1995; Indian and Himalayan 1997), and its Early committee meetings were passionate Members kept coming to events, and attempts to include music and performance affairs with excessive talking, eating and renewing their subscriptions, even though in its events and within the Review; and the drinking: suppressed genii suddenly let loose, some Committee members felt so exhausted efforts for an interim Newsletter which keen to share their knowledge with the whole they wondered if TAASA should be allowed proved to be too high-maintenance. community, and insistent in giving priority to to quietly expire. However, TAASA and its their particular area of interest. It was great supporters were made of tougher stuff, and it Overall what I remember was the constant fun as members vied for their ideas to be is fantastic to see how the Society continues experimentation as we sought to give heard and implemented. to grow. members engaging, up-to-the-moment events and articles, while constantly monitoring Right from the beginning the emphasis was I remember the ambitions as well as the their responses. The continuing success of on events and the Review: emphases that have achievements. Personally I have many TAASA is a credit to all the past as well as the been maintained. Early functions were nervous great memories: obviously other committee current Committees, the fantastic job they do, affairs as we waited to see how many members members will recall different events. Proud and the input of TAASA members. Hopefully would turn up and how engaging the speaker achievements were the numerous symposia: the next 20 years are even more successful. would be; catering was done by Committee I recall particularly the two-day Dancing to members, and there was the TAASA box of the Flute symposium in 1997, ambitiously Jackie Menzies is Head of Asian Art at the Art Gallery of glasses which was lugged around with cartons mega and organised in conjunction with the NSW. She was President of TAASA from 1992-2000. of wine and diverse samples of Asian food. AGNSW’s newly-formed Centre for Asian Art Where have the TAASA glasses gone? Studies. And the first TAASA National Tour,
10 T A A S A R E VI E W V O L U M E 2 0 N O . 4 TA A S A R E c o LLE C T e d : A C e l e bration o f D iv e rsity
Heleanor Feltham
HELEANOR FELTHAM AND THE LION OF COMMAGENE, TURKEY 2006
find it almost impossible to believe that I 20 years have passed since TAASA began. Those of us who came together to discuss the founding of an Asian Arts society in Sydney were all convinced from our differing experiences that the time was right: there were now enough people with an interest in the field to justify us gathering to celebrate the wonderful diversity which constitutes the arts of Asia. Similar societies, some with long and honourable histories, already existed in Europe, America and the Far East, and there were useful journals, Oriental Arts and Arts of Asia for instance, that covered a range of topics. Was there really enough local interest to justify not merely a newsletter, but a quality journal, and were there enough of us around to sustain an esoteric society?
Well, 20 years later, the answer is a resoundingly obvious - yes! TAASA and willingness to communicate between academic ability to communicate simply and effectively its accompanying journal have gone from and other groups. In some ways the internet within a relatively strict framework to a broad success to success, maintaining membership, has made this attitude obsolete. I am, for range of interests. This is not merely because diversity of focus, and quality of scholarship. instance, a member of several on-line specialist we, from the start, defined ‘Asian Arts’ as associations, and there is a tremendous broadly as possible, incorporating every For me personally, this has been a deeply value in people from different disciplines time period and medium from Neolithic satisfying outcome. Something I loved and – archaeologists, museum professionals, jades to contemporary film, and every wanted to share has reached a receptive philologists, sociologists, historians – from all region and culture from Iranian tribal rugs audience. Now, far from being an innovator, I around the world coming together on-line to to Korean jewellery, but also because TAASA am more of a dinosaur and a new generation of discuss different issues. is essentially inclusive: we are all equally art makers and appreciators sees nothing exotic amateurs in one field or another and all in incorporating Asian elements and attitudes In much the same way, TAASA works together equally scholars in some specialist area. in their work, or in taking seriously areas with organisations such as the Art Gallery which were largely passed over or relegated of NSW, the Powerhouse Museum and the And not only that, but we enjoy each other’s to mere decorative functionalism. This is universities, as well as visiting specialists and company. Seminars, talks associated with particularly true of textiles, in many parts of local scholars and collectors, to provide a forum exhibitions at venues both public and private, Asia one of the few areas of creativity open to for the exchange of ideas and knowledge. And the Textile Study Group, the annual end-of-year women, whether as tribal rugs of Central Asia we have been very much at the forefront of party, all provide an opportunity for compatible or the brilliant ikats of Borneo’s Iban. a major cultural change that has seen Asian and interesting people to get together, have a languages, films, art, traditions and aesthetics, great time, and develop lasting friendships. TAASA’s recognition of textiles has been long- contemporary and traditional, expand from a TAASA has given me an enormous amount standing and significant, from the formation of minority interest to the level of acceptance that over the years - friendship, entertainment, the Textile Study Group to the development, can see, for instance, over 500 students enrol for specialist knowledge, a confidence in my own with input from professional members and a university summer school on the Silk Road. scholarship and my ability to communicate collectors, of major Art Gallery and Museum both through lectures and writing, a growing collections. Some individual TAASA members For me, the TAASA seminars, the TAASA sense of the unity of aesthetic expression and such as, Robin Maxwell, Christina Sumner and Review and the textile group have always the chance to share. May it continue to grow Gill Green, have played an active role not only provided a wonderful motivation for my own from strength to strength. in Australia, but internationally. research and the development of lectures and articles. Without that impetus, I doubt that I Heleanor Feltham has a PhD in International Studies TAASA from its foundation has always would have done nearly as much, let alone and specialises in Central Asian material culture. A appealed to four groups of people: the dealers, gone on to complete my PhD in material founding member of TAASA, and founding editor of the collectors, the museum people and the culture. TAASA has provided a tremendous the TAASA Review, she has published articles on a academics, as well as those with a general incentive, and a great venue for the exploration variety of subjects, including silk, jewellery and lion interest in Asian arts. When we started this was of ideas. TAASA Review demands two things, imagery. Now retired, she still lectures for the annual rather unusual; different disciplines were much a genuine depth of knowledge, checked by UNSW Summer School on Silk Road. She is an more segregated and there was often a lack of the editorial and peer review process, and the impassioned and eclectic collector.
T A A S A R E VI E W V O L U M E 2 0 N O . 4 11 A c o m m u n IT Y o f I N TEREST: THE TAASA TE X T I L E G R o u p
J u dith R u th e r f ord
traditional textiles and so lift the profile of at that time, was very helpful and stressed textiles as a formal area of study. that one original concept of TAASA had been to encourage such focus groups. Looking back it seems hard to believe This relationship had many advantages, there was still a perception that textiles principally that bureaucratic issues would were ‘women’s work’ and not really to be be dealt with by the TAASA executive considered as serious cultural works of art. committee. Also, as TAASA was an affiliated One person did even ask me if I saw the society of the Powerhouse Museum, this group as something that would take place institution became the venue for meetings. in my living room, and that made me even more determined not only to go ahead but In 1995 Cathay Pacific sponsored a TAASA also to make sure that the study group did Textile Group tour to Hong Kong and many function as professionally as possible. The Study Group members and their friends first convenor of the group, AnneB aker, also took part. Here they attended one of the first Eighteen years ago (1993) on one of my felt strongly that serious research and study international Chinese Textile Conferences visits to Hong Kong, I spoke with Diana were part of the brief, the high standard held in Hong Kong organised by Diana Collins about the idea of forming a textile continued with subsequent convenors Dee Collins and the Hong Kong Textile Society. study group in Sydney and hopefully, Court and Gill Green. The Australian contingent was the largest long term, linking up with similar groups from any country and that was a coming in Southeast Asia and beyond. Diana, an One of the first decisions that had to be of age for the group. It is also interesting to Australian conservator and Hong Kong made was whether to have the group as note that this focus group is the only one of resident was in the process of forming the a stand-alone entity or whether to link in the original focus groups still active. Hong Kong Textile Society. We both felt that with TAASA. It seems quite strange now such groups would assist in promotion, that we spent so much time discussing Judith Rutherford AM (Founder, Textile Study appreciation and understanding of this issue. Carl Andrew, TAASA President Group, President TAASA 2001 – 2010)
S O R AYA R A J U
- fellow souls with a deep love of textiles. of wearing the sari. As a professional image Many of these women have inspired me: consultant, this topic interested me and I the late Dee Court, Heleanor Feltham, have since delivered similar presentations Gill Green, Lenore Blackwood and including ‘Bollywood’s Gift to the West – Joyce Burnard. It was also at TAASA A Modern Take on the Traditional Sari’. that I reconnected with a long lost friend and ex-colleague – Helen Perry. I always look forward to coming to Study Group meetings as it is a welcome experience It was Dee Court who encouraged me at the end of a hard working day. My to share the history of my late mother’s knowledge has been enriched by everyone’s legacy – a collection of over a thousand contributions and I look forward to sharing saris. I researched an unknown aspect of many more experiences with TAASA. the sari history – the phenomenon of the synthetic sari (a post-war export from Japan Soraya Raju is President-elect, Association I have always loved textiles and the to Southeast Asian countries). In 2002, I Image Consultants International - Sydney stories they weave, as well as the role they gave a presentation on the Malaysian sari at Chapter play in the history of societies. Imagine TAASA’s seminar ‘Tradewinds and the Textiles my joy when I joined TAASA in 1996 of Southeast Asia’. That initial interest and at the invitation of Judith Rutherford. research into my mother’s sari collection Joining the Textile Study Group has then took me in a totally different direction. introduced me to some amazing women I started exploring the more than 120 ways
12 T A A S A R E VI E W V O L U M E 2 0 N O . 4 R oz C h e n e y
a very good embroiderer and an excellent exquisite fine dhoti cloth from India. tailor and seamstress. My loves rather were reading and history. Unfortunately I have none of those skills I pursued my love of textiles feeling and attributes but somehow or another, the ignorant and incompetent about warp and gene has come through to me in the form weft, about dyeing, about quilting and of a love of textiles. I recall with passion embroidery. Finding the Textile Study a shimmering gold lamé evening dress Group though, has helped me integrate all my mother made in the fifties from fabric these interests. I’m still hopeless at practical bought by my father on a trip to India. Or skills and indeed specialist knowledge, but the beautiful, intense colours of the woollen being a member of the group has enabled fabric used in Donald Davies’ dresses of me to be surrounded by skilful and the sixties. Or the embroidered cloths passionate makers and collectors. Their from Hungary we saw in the sixties and knowledge is always placed in historical My grandmother was a wonderful woman the seventies. And I still have an exquisite and cultural contexts. Over time my hope who made her own lampshades, wore black chiffon flapper’s dress embroidered is that some of this passion and experience very stylish hats and had a weakness for with black jet that used to belong to my will rub off on me. glamorous silks and taffetas. Her daughter great aunt Vera. And then there are the had a loom on which she used to weave wonderful woven and brightly coloured Roz Cheney was an executive producer and tartan cloth before marriage: children left textiles from Tanzania, no longer made but manager with ABC Radio from 1970 to 2001. her no time for such things. She was also sitting in my box at home along with the
L E NOR E B L A C KW O O D
their rightful place with other arts. then Curator of Decorative Arts at the Powerhouse Museum and gorge ourselves At those first meetings around a table in a on a carefully chosen selection of the small room at the Powerhouse Museum, almost indigestible riches in the Museum’s Study Group members learnt that they collection, or to sally forth for a tailored were expected to be highly motivated tour. We perused some of the Australian and disciplined too, nothing slapdash or Museum’s textile collection where Anne ad hoc would be acceptable. Prospective was a volunteer, crossed the Harbour members were almost vetted for serious Bridge to the home of group member intention and willingness to contribute, Alex Biancardi and felt wonderfully knowledge was to be shared with the group privileged as this discriminating collector and research undertaken, no slacking. opened a huge carved wooden trunk and unfolded treasure after treasure. It was quite challenging for some of us When the Textile Study Group started we at times. There was to be no holding up These were responsibilities and delights were a very small band, just six to a dozen of a textile treasure as a ‘piece picked for a small group. As we grew, burgeoned disciples gathered around our guiding spirit, up in a roadside market’, it had to be even, the nature of our group changed. convener and guru, Anne Baker. Drawing presented as if in a museum catalogue; This was, I think, part of the success of on her rich encyclopaedic knowledge of no casual run down of a recently seen the group. The word had spread and textiles worldwide and her pedagogic skills, textile exhibition, a serious appraisal was so had the interest. Textiles were on the Anne inspired and nurtured our studies required. But a word of approval from up and up, no longer on the back shelf. and at the same time was always eager Anne brought a glow of warm satisfaction to learn from what we could contribute. and her own enthusiasm and her interest I have loved and appreciated the Textile in every aspect of textile art was infectious. Study Group from its inception and Anne had a scholar’s approach to the study Those who were once only mildly through all its stages. Long may it prosper. of textiles and her vision for the group was smitten became dedicated aficionados. ambitious. It was to play an important Lenore Blackwood is an avid traveller and educational role in the community. A The small room at the Powerhouse later collector and dealer in textiles crusading attitude was encouraged, if became a larger one with a longer table but textiles had been neglected they were now we were always ready to go nomadic, to to be taken out of the cupboard and given follow Anne to a waiting Christina Sumner,
T A A S A R E VI E W V O L U M E 2 0 N O . 4 13
T A A S A M E m b E R S ’ M E m o I R S
JOYC E B U RNARD proliferation of textiles – they were simply plant material in Yunnan made us forget the everywhere, not only in the colourful saris of cold. The experience of friendly gatherings the women but in the men’s clothes too, mainly and shared expertise continued over the white as it was August and very hot but with next few years through various talks and touches of colour in sashes and turbans. I gatherings around Asian art as diverse as researched for ten years to find out where it all Afghan textiles, Southeast Asian ceramics came from, resulting in my book “Chintz and and Indian paintings. TAASA members were Cotton…..India’s Textiles Gift to the World”. very generous in sharing their treasures and knowledge, and the stalwarts of the committee Back in Sydney I wanted to talk to like- were, until recently, indefatigable! It has been minded people about what I had discovered a privilege to meet curators, collectors, gallery as well as learn something about other places owners and enthusiasts through TAASA, in Asia. This is why I joined TAASA, the to discuss Asian art with them and to have JOYCE BURNARD, JOURNALIST, ENTREPRENEUR, TEXTILE HISTORIAN textile group in particular. I have learnt a the opportunity to exhibit works from their AND LONG TERM TAASA MEMBER great deal about other Asian countries from collections in exhibitions at the NGV. There was a time when my knowledge of fellow members who have traveled in the Asia was very superficial. I traveled to various area and who have given talks and written places in that part of the world without any articles. Robyn Maxwell, of the department P hilip C o u rt e nay real knowledge of their history and culture but of Asian Art, National Gallery of Australia, fascinated as a tourist with the exotic atmosphere wrote a definitive book on the textiles of everywhere. Places I visited were Hong Kong, Southeast Asia, and Gill Green, now President Japan, and Thailand several times, because my of TAASA, has written two beautifully brother was a New Zealand diplomat there. The illustrated books about Cambodian textiles only textile I bought at the time was a length and has given several excellent lectures. of beautiful silk from Jim Thompson’s famous shop in Bangkok. A visit to India was never Being a member of TAASA and learning considered – too hot, too unusual, too many so much about Asian culture and meeting people, too much curry, etc. etc. so many interested people has been a most enriching experience. All this changed when, back in Sydney, I PHILIP COURTENAY AT HALONG BAY, VIETNAM, 2006 received from an Australian friend living in Delhi a bunch of samples of Indian hand- CAROL CAIRNS My interest in Asian arts, particularly Southeast loomed furnishing cottons with beautiful Asian ceramics, evolved as a hobby during my textures. My friend was connected with the professional work as a researcher and lecturer distributing firm Fabindia and sent them with in the economic geography of the region. It was the hope that I might become their agent or particularly stimulated when in 1981, my wife find someone who would. I showed them to Pam and I visited the 14th-15th century kilns at some interior decorators I knew and they all Sukhothai in central Thailand. My association pronounced them “brilliant. The prices were with TAASA began in 1994 when I first became good, too. I decided to go ahead, thinking it aware of the Society’s contribution to expanding would be a good hobby in addition to the free Asia-awareness in Australia and received my lance journalism I was already doing. In two first issue, vol.3, no. 2, of theTAASA Review. This weeks I took orders totalling l,000 m of fabric. very impressive and scholarly journal was my
This was l974 and there was a scarcity of good CAROL CAINS, CURATOR OF ASIAN ART AT THE NATIONAL GALLERY only contact with the Society until 2003 when affordable furnishing fabrics. Everyone loved OF VICTORIA, TACKLES THE GANGES I corresponded with Sandra Forbes, the then them, and the business, now called Ascraft editor, in relation to publishing an article. Fabrics, boomed. Soon the time came when a I became the Victorian representative for visit to India was needed. TAASA when I moved to Melbourne to Given the Sydney-focused emphasis of the work in the Asian Art Department at the Society, my Brisbane location made it difficult I loved India from the minute I arrived and National Gallery of Victoria in 2003. One to become involved in TAASA’s lectures and was soon absorbed in the fabulous scene. I of the first TAASA events I attended was seminars. An enquiry as to the Queensland visited the village looms where my cottons a walk through the South China garden at membership led to my being encouraged to were made, spoke to the weavers, one of whom the Royal Melbourne Botanic Gardens with initiate some functions in Brisbane. With the told me he was a seventh generation weaver. the Southern Chinese Collection’s curator generous co-operation of the Queensland Art I soon realized what history lay behind both Terry Smyth. It was a freezing, rainy day, Gallery, these have evolved slowly and led to the weaving and dyeing and began to wonder but the welcome from TAASA members was my invitation to join the TAASA management where it all began. In Delhi I marveled at the very warm, and Terry’s stories of collecting committee. These experiences have contributed
14 T A A S A R E VI E W V O L U M E 2 0 N O . 4
to the development of friendships with time, it provides me with the opportunity golden moments over twenty years. Does individuals sharing similar interests in Asian to present to other members the outcomes that sound corny? Well, I mean it! Living in arts as well as expanding my own and Pam’s of my research, especially on the textiles of Canberra means I can’t always attend TAASA knowledge and enjoyment in this wide field. Southeast Asia, as well as presenting relevant events and the Review, grown smarter in all collections and activities of north Queensland. ways in two decades, is always excellent, and Being a TAASA member has many rewards – special issues bring a miraculous focus on a D ick R ichards one of them is that a feel I am a member of country or a region or a subject – photography a family of like-minded people who share and jewellery spring straight to my mind. my passion and appreciation of the art of The same magical immersion happens at the Australia’s neighbouring countries. symposia and despite distance I have enjoyed many. How utterly brilliant to spend a day mentally transported to Shanghai or Central H e l e n H olm e s Asia, or an afternoon in four Indo-Chinese cities or a plunge into unusual aspects of India – I made great friends through that one, with whom I regularly meet in India. Thanks and congratulations TAASA and best wishes for the future.
DICK RICHARDS, FORMER CURATOR OF ASIAN ART AT THE ART
GALLERY OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA, WITH WISTERIA SINENSIS R oss L anglands Prior to the advent of TAASA, Asian art aficionados in Australia could only join overseas groups and societies to keep in touch with advances in scholarship and to make HELEN HOLMES IN DOWNTOWN YAZD, IRAN contact with other specialists. The arrival of TAASA brought immediate and exciting T=tantalizing treasuries of trans-oriental changes to our lives; suddenly we were drawn travel; thrilling tales and tempting trips by into an expanding world of Asian studies talented tutors that transfix, transform and in both Australia and overseas; younger tower triumphantly. A=articulate, animated scholars found a voice and our interests were accounts by adventurous academics and broadened to include textiles, jewellery and alumni. A=always amid amicable amis and decorative art. TAASA’s inclusive seminars, associates. S=sensuous sights at soirees ROSS LANGLANDS (NOT PICTURED) STILL OWNS THIS TURKMEN often in support of exhibitions, have made supplemented by splendidly stimulating YURT WHERE (FAMOUSLY) TAASA WAS ‘HATCHED’ IN 1991 a major contribution to the cultural life of sojourns to see secluded stellar stashes. the country, while the quarterly journal is A=absorbing, addictive and awakening; and 20 years! Goodness gracious! How the outstanding in content and design; the policy an advancing and affirming advocate for Asia. milestones fly by and what a burgeoning of of involving guest editors ensures that each interest we have seen in Asian art. Our interest edition is innovative and special, and the was initially in what we dealt with and knew, book reviews, diary and activity reports are C la u dia H yl e s oriental rugs and textiles. However, you soon very valuable; even the ads are enticing! learn as a dealer that, while you encourage TAASA 20? Wonderful! others, your own world is equally enhanced by the intensity and diversity of your clients’ M A R I A F RI E ND passions.
TAASA and our Asian textile interest arose out of an already passionate interest in textiles from the Oriental Rug Society and the former Costume and Textile Society, ignited by the generous support of the Powerhouse Museum and the AGNSW. Without ongoing institutional generosity, such societies could CLAUDIA HYLES AND SIR ROY STRONG IN CALCUTTA, 2011 – not survive. There is now a resultant popular HIS FIRST VISIT AND HER 28TH realisation that textiles are actually central to On what I remember as a perfect Sydney all Asian cultures. We are proud to have been summer afternoon, a special TAASA founder members of TAASA conceived at the MARIA FRIEND, TEXTILE SPECIALIST, WITH TEXTILE SPECIALIST FRIEND AT gathering was held in a pretty room in the Art PHM in this very yurt, where the embryonic THE WINOTOSASTRO BATIK WORKSHOP IN YOGYAKARTA, CENTRAL JAVA Gallery of NSW – Pam Gutman in a gorgeous steering committee sat cross legged on a As I live in far north Queensland, far away garden party outfit I recall. The Committee Turkmen tent main carpet, ‘chewed the fat from the major Australian centres of debate presented foundation life members with and kicked the Asian gong around!’ and promotion of Asian art, TAASA is the vital membership cards inscribed in gold. What link that connects me with persons of similar an auspicious start – golden weather, golden interest elsewhere in the country. At the same words and the start for me of many more
T A A S A R E VI E W V O L U M E 2 0 N O . 4 15
J oan M c C l e lland M arjori e H o a sunken cargo of Chinese Ming dynasty 17th century ceramics. Speakers included Dr Roxanna Brown, Dr Michael Fletcher and Roger McElroy. Melbourne had never seen so many ceramics before!
Many more seminars followed, often in cooperation with other Asia-oriented organisations such as Asialink, the Asia Society of Australia, and the Chinese Museum. TAASA brought together anyone keen to learn about Asia; my gallery East and West Art, which deals in Asian art and antiques, with JOAN MCCLELLAND IN HER OFFICE AT THE JOSHUA MCCLELLAND MARJORIE HO, DIRECTOR OF THE EAST & WEST ART GALLERY other Asian dealers promoting their speciality, PRINT ROOM, MELBOURNE, IN 2011 IN EAST KEW, MELBOURNE and new faces from all walks of life – linking I think I have been a member of TAASA for Until 1997, the Asian Arts Society of Australia student to teacher, academics to housewives – most of its 20 years, and was certainly one of (TAASA) had been very active in Sydney but TAASA in Victoria came alive! We had a hard the Society’s earliest members in Melbourne. not Victoria. To fill this gap, TAASA in Victoria time keeping up with the keenness generated; Having been in the ‘business’ of Asian art was launched on May 28th 1997 with a very there were several changes in the committee for over 50 years, I continue to be constantly active committee drawn from academia, over the years, and it finally found a home at impressed by the wide range of information business and the art world. Members the National Gallery of Victoria under a new that TAASA Review provides, and would like to included Professor William Coaldrake, Freda co-ordinator, Carol Cains in 2003. record how very useful I have always found it. Frieberg, Sybille Noras, Julia Lim, Robert I was also very flattered to be the subject of a van de Groenekan, Robert Bezuijen, Deborah Members from Victoria have long been able profile in theReview in December 2000, written Hambleton, Wendy Doolan, Robert Bradlow, to benefit by attending the many seminars by my friend Sue Hewitt. Thank you, TAASA. Tonia Eckfield and myself. Over 8 years, and talks held by TAASA in Sydney – where seminars and talks were held to spread the TAASA’s national management committee culture and art of the East to Victoria. is based. A great exchange of ideas is owed M ilton O sborn e to the organising abilities of this overseeing Our first seminar was “Cities of Asia” in 1997, committee, which includes representatives followed by “Mummies of Xinjiang” starring from national museums and art galleries in Elizabeth Barber from the USA. It was an the various Australian states. astounding success with people seated on the floor and others turned away. In 1998 Asian art today has a changing membership TAASA formed four focus groups which ran as contemporary society influences art and monthly meetings for members with shared culture, but there will always be people who interests in a particular art form or geographic love history and we can keep them informed. region: Indian and Himalayan, ceramics, film Thank you for starting TAASA in New South and theatre, and textile group. Each group Wales, it means so much to me as a Chinese presented seminars on their subject areas, and from Singapore witnessing the spread of a series of prominent experts were invited to Asian art and culture in Australia. MILTON OSBORNE IS A PUBLISHED SCHOLAR, IN PARTICULAR address these meetings. IN THE HISTORY AND CULTURE OF CAMBODIA
One of the greatest pleasures about returning Coinciding with the Japanese Film Festival, a Y vonn e T e n Pas to live in Sydney in 1993, after an absence of film group was launched in May 1999 to hold 35 years, was to find the existence of TAASA screenings and lectures by film scholars and film and its Review. Having become a life member, makers. A seminar covering aspects of Japanese I have been a beneficiary of its seminars and art was convened that year, and the textile group its Review, and of course of the opportunity was very active, holding meetings on both to exchange ideas with other members. It is Central Asian and Southeast Asian textiles. 2001 a tribute to those who have been so active saw a major seminar addressed by Sylvia Fraser in promoting the Society’s activities that it Lu on Burmese lacquer, and in 2002 lectures were is today such a vibrant organization, a fact heard from curators and scholars on Chinese splendidly reflected in the high quality and painting, from bird and flower symbolism to interest that TAASA Review has maintained. Tang murals from the Palace of Prince Li Xian. In
That such a publication has been produced the seminar ‘Art and symbolism – five cultures, LONG TERM TAASA MEMBER, YVONNE TEN PAS on a voluntary basis is little short of a miracle travels through Asia Minor’, lectures were and deserves our admiration and gratitude. heard from experts on subjects from Indonesian TAASA has opened a window for me on textiles and Arab women’s costumes to Tibetan the East bringing me in contact with some sculptures and Vietnamese ceramics. very knowledgeable and wonderful experts, as well as the pleasure of shared interests In 2004 a major symposium was held on with many of the members. The committee ‘The Binh Thuan Shipwreck’, which contained has been very generous with their time
16 T A A S A R E VI E W V O L U M E 2 0 N O . 4
in organising wonderful and informative in non-mainstream topics alive, whetting soon embraced China, Japan, and Vietnam, seminars, providing so many happy appetites for more and, quite often, delivering their history and culture. It was given a more happenings (I remember a Canberra visit unexpected extras. practical outlet when I lived and worked in with Robin Maxwell as guide of the Indonesia Hong Kong between 1956 and 1990, before exhibition); and TAASA would not be TAASA Secondly, as a by-product of delivering this moving to Sydney. if it did not publish its beautifully illustrated remarkable range of activities and topics, magazine, TAASA Review. especially in the last 10 years, TAASA has I joined TAASA in its early years and served opened up delightful new worlds of interest on the Committee in the 1990s. During this and aesthetic experience to many who time, I arranged various visits to places S u san S collay might otherwise have never ventured far around the Sydney area with an Asian beyond their chosen fields. I count myself in connection, organised the talks program, this category, and extend my thanks to the participated in symposia, and contributed to admirable mix of scholars, curators, writers, the Review. As a long time Council member photographers and informed enthusiasts who of the Royal Asiatic Society in Hong Kong, I have made, and continue to make, TAASA the had been similarly engaged over many years. vital organisation it is today. It was almost second nature for me to follow on, and I felt privileged to do so.
J am e s H ay e s There was a need for TAASA at that time. Australia was becoming more involved in the Asia-Pacific region, and we could assist in spreading knowledge and promoting ART HISTORIAN, SUSAN SCOLLAY, IN A DUST STORM AT RASAFA understanding, in a modest way. Fortunately, IN THE CENTRAL SYRIAN DESERT, 2006. PHOTO: DR FIONA HILL. our membership has always provided the For people like me with very specialised means and the zeal! Many Australians have areas of interest within the general field of the lived and worked in Asia, and some collect arts of Asia, TAASA has been the proverbial in a variety of fields. TAASA has provided a godsend – for two main reasons. Firstly, after focal point, and an outlet, not least through returning to Australia after lengthy periods the Review. of living and working in the thick of things overseas, the gap in institutional collections JAMES HAYES IN HONG KONG, 1991. We have been able to do much in the past 20 and curatorial focus in some areas of Asian art years, but since the ongoing study of Asia in Australia could seem insurmountable. This I became ‘hooked’ on Asia during my National represents both a heritage and a task, our has seemed at times especially so in my own Service when serving in Korea from June to work is never done: we must reach out to the field of Islamic art and culture. Yet somehow November 1953. After nearly two months, now far larger Asian communities, expand the regular issues of TAASA Review, the when the fighting stopped, I was able to take our membership among them, and enlist their variety of seminars and occasional individual local leave, visiting the derelict palaces in the skills to boost our own. lectures have managed over the years to keep capital and old monasteries in the hills behind both fledgling and more developed interests the coast. These sparked off a love affair which
Nomadic Rug Traders CONGRATULATIONS TAASA ON 20 GOOD YEARS
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T A A S A R E VI E W V O L U M E 2 0 N O . 4 17
18 T A A S A R E VI E W V O L U M E 2 0 N O . 4 STATE OF THE ARTS
T A A S A R E VI E W V O L U M E 2 0 N O . 4 19 A N I m m E R S I V E E x p ERIE n c E : I n n o VATIVE ASIA N A R T E X HI B ITI o n S I N A U STRALIA
SENATOR HON. GARETH EVANS, NGA DIRECTOR BETTY CHURCHER Katherine Russell AND MR PICH KEO (DIRECTOR, NATIONAL MUSEUM OF CAMBODIA) WITH BUDDHIST MONKS AT THE AGE OF ANGKOR MEDIA LAUNCH,
1992. PHOTO: NATIONAL GALLERY OF AUSTRALIA
he concept of the ‘blockbuster’ exhibition 595,000 visitors, with many indicating T has been with us since at least the 1960s through surveys that more exhibitions with and is most closely linked with either ancient ‘Chinese/oriental’ themes would appeal if Near-Eastern art (for instance Tutankhamun offered in the future. and the golden age of the Pharaohs) or European ‘Old Masters’. In other words, exhibitions Throughout the 1980s momentum was building that offer, as art historian Andrew McClellan for the surge of Asian art exhibitions, developed puts it, ‘[a] steady diet of impressionism, by Australian curators for Australian audiences mummies, and anything with “gold” in the and drawing on local scholarship, that began title’ (2008: 184-85), and which are heavily in earnest in the 1990s. If indeed there was any promoted to generate high visitor numbers. doubt as to Australian audiences’ hunger for Asian art, then the tour of The Entombed Warriors Major exhibitions of Asian art in Australia (major state galleries 1982-3), should have put Phnom Penh, The Age of Angkor enabled 30,000 have differed quite markedly from this those fears to rest, with over 200,000 visitors plus visitors to the NGA to witness exquisite approach, and yet have forged new paths at AGNSW and 50,000 people visiting the examples of the art of this unique culture. based on the need to engage visitors with exhibition in only nine days when it was shown largely unfamiliar images and ideas. Through at the then new National Gallery of Australia The first Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary considered display, scholarly catalogues and (NGA) (Turner 2011). Art (APT) at the Queensland Art Gallery international symposia, as well as innovative (QAG) in 1993 and subsequent exhibitions related programs, over the last two decades Extraordinarily swift in its genesis, The Age of and events in the series have set the direction these exhibitions have made a significant Angkor: treasures from the National Museum of of QAG’s engagement with contemporary contribution to increasing public awareness Cambodia (NGA 1992) came about as part of Asian art. While not an exclusively Asian art and altering perceptions of Asian art. Australia’s diplomatic efforts in Cambodia event the APT phenomenon has had a broad spearheaded by then Foreign Minister, Gareth impact on the arena of Asian art exhibitions, Described as ‘the most significant portent Evans, coupled with the NGA’s interest in and demonstrates the increasing level of public for the future of art exhibitions in Australia’ Asian art and offer of conservation assistance interest in art from Asia. Since its inception, (Turner 2011), The Chinese Exhibition: a selection to the National Museum of the war-ravaged more than 1.8 million people have visited the of recent archaeological finds of the People’s country. Consisting of examples of ancient APT, peaking with more than 700,000 visitors Republic of China travelled to a number of state Khmer sculpture and curated by Michael to APT5 at the new Gallery of Modern Art galleries in 1977. The Chinese Exhibition had Brand and Chuch Phoeurn, Dean of the Faculty (GoMA) and QAG in 2006. APT6 in 2009/10 unprecedented drawing power, attracting of Archaeology, University of Fine Arts, was listed in The Art Newspaper (April 2011) as one of the top ten most visited contemporary art exhibitions in the world for 2010.
Organised in collaboration with the National Museum of India in New Delhi, Vision of Kings: Art and Experience in India (NGA 1995), also curated by Brand, was Australia’s first major exhibition of Indian art. Vision of Kings dealt with the sacred and royal imagery of India’s rich visual cultures. The exhibition’s public program reflected the art’s diversity with a Makar Sankranti Hindu religious observance within the show, Indian cooking classes, a film festival, children’s workshops, concerts and a plethora of interpretive talks. The innovative installation of the exhibition, stylistically recreating the architectural spaces (niches and pedestals) in which the works would have been originally viewed, along with dramatic lighting, underscored the exhibition’s theme of the experiential nature of Indian art. The elaborate design and ambitious scale of the exhibition, along with its comprehensive public program demonstrated the institution’s faith in the ability of Asian art to attract audiences. INSTALLATION OF THE VISION OF KINGS: ART AND EXPERIENCE IN INDIA EXHIBITION, NATIONAL GALLERY OF AUSTRALIA, 1995.
PHOTO: NATIONAL GALLERY OF AUSTRALIA
20 T A A S A R E VI E W V O L U M E 2 0 N O . 4 VISITORS ENJOYING THE BUDDHA: RADIANT AWAKENING EXHIBITION, 2001. PHOTO: KATHERINE RUSSELL
The 1997 exhibition, Dancing to the flute: music and dance in Indian art at the Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), curated by Jackie Menzies, Jim Masselos and Pratapaditya Pal, took the combination of immersive exhibition content, design and programming to another level. Music, dance and ritual from Indian classical and folk traditions brought the exhibition to life from within, through a dedicated public programs space inside the exhibition plus activities, symposia, film and performances throughout the Gallery. A space in the exhibition was given over to performers to demonstrate the diverse dance and music traditions of the subcontinent. Also within the exhibition, on significant days in the Hindu calendar, puja rituals were performed and explained to visitors by a Hindu priest.
One innovative way to ensure that an Asian children’s workshops. The Gyuto Monks of region, the exhibition was a vehicle for art exhibition can achieve ‘blockbuster’ status Tibet were in residence at AGNSW for three cultural exchange and remains so beyond the was demonstrated by Monet & Japan (NGA weeks, during which they created the richly period of the exhibition, with the substantial 2001). Curated by Virginia Spate and Gary coloured Sand Mandala of Guhyasamja, catalogue presented in English, Indonesian Hickey, this scholarly exhibition explored the culminating in a dissolution ceremony. One of and Malay. link between the work of the ever popular the most important programs initiated during French Impressionist artist Claude Monet BUDDHA was Community Ambassadors Goddess: Divine Energy (AGNSW 2006), (1840-1926) and the Japanese aesthetic – a program of volunteer guides from non- also curated by Menzies with assistance through examples of Monet’s paintings and English speaking backgrounds who provided from Chaya Chandrasekhar, was the first the Japanese woodblock prints, screens and tours of the BUDDHA exhibition in Asian major exhibition in Australia to address painted scrolls which influenced his work. languages. Ambassadors now conduct tours the ‘divine female’ in Hindu and Buddhist Monet & Japan attracted a total of 227,872 of the entire AGNSW collection in several art, with works of art ranging from c. 2000 visitors in Canberra, then travelled to the Art Asian languages. BCE through to the 20th century, from India Gallery of Western Australia (AGWA) in Perth to Tibet and from Hinduism to Tibetan where it received a further 173,892 visitors, a Crescent Moon: Islamic Art and Civilisation in Buddhism. Like BUDDHA, the exhibition was record for the Western Australian gallery. Southeast Asia curated by James Bennett of divided into brightly coloured rooms, with a the Art Gallery of South Australia (AGSA) ‘room goddess’ image selected for each space. BUDDHA: Radiant Awakening (AGNSW, 2001), was shown in both Adelaide and Canberra in Lighting ranged from subtle patterned effects curated by Jackie Menzies, was an ambitious 2005-6 and made a significant contribution to to theatrically darkened spaces that placed exhibition of the highest calibre of Buddhist Australian audiences’ understanding of Asian a dramatic focus on the sculptural works. art from across Asia. Achieving high impact cultures. Crescent Moon was a collaborative Animated popular contemporary goddess through an engaging exhibition design, music exhibition bringing together works of art from imagery was projected onto the upper wall piped from a specially commissioned recording collections in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore of one gallery in the exhibition – adding a (an approach also used with Dancing to the and Brunei as well as Australia. In profiling celestial dimension to the experience. Flute), and an accompanying public program, it Islamic art from the faith’s most populous demonstrated that myriad forms of Buddhism were indeed alive in contemporary Sydney. This was achieved, for the most part, through The Wisdom Room: a dedicated space within the exhibition where every week a different Buddhist group or organisation demonstrated aspects of their particular tradition. Activities ranged from the folding of paper lotuses to chanting and gong playing.
The exhibition was aligned astutely with simultaneous Buddhist events in Sydney, including the Mind Body Spirit Festival and Buddhist Blessings in the Domain – part of the Sydney Festival. Lunchtime seminars with ABC Radio National’s Rachael Kohn were extremely popular, as were dance performances, curator’s talks, an international symposium, evening meditation, films and THE GODDESS DURGA IS CELEBRATED IN A TRADITIONAL HINDU CEREMONY DURING THE GODDESS: DIVINE ENERGY EXHIBITION, 2007.
PHOTO: ART GALLERY OF NEW SOUTH WALES
T A A S A R E VI E W V O L U M E 2 0 N O . 4 21 THE DRAMATIC INSTALLATION OF LIFE DEATH AND MAGIC: 2000 YEARS OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN ANCESTRAL ART, 2010. PHOTO: NATIONAL GALLERY OF AUSTRALIA
The public program of talks, dance conventional ‘blockbusters’, have allowed BUDDHA exhibition and the performance demonstrations, workshops and film also curators, educators and designers of these space in Dancing to the Flute provided the featured a month-long installation related to shows greater flexibility in two main areas: precursor concept for a programming space the Hindu goddess Durga. Craftsmen from display and public participation. These two within paid exhibitions. This model has been the Crafts Council of Bengal in Calcutta crucial aspects of Asian art exhibitions are embraced by QAG GoMA in their Children’s created traditional sculptural icons in the now often incorporated into exhibitions of all Art Centre, and more recently in the dedicated public spaces of the Gallery, with the resultant genres. The example set by major Asian art children’s spaces within all major temporary Goddess figures blessed with offerings of exhibitions in Australia over the last 20 years exhibitions at the NGA. flowers and sweets in an elaborate ceremony has encouraged curators in all disciplines, as culminating in the figures’ immersion in the well as exhibition and lighting designers, to It is the pioneering, experimental and most Parramatta River. use unorthodox colours and overt display importantly, experiential nature of Asian art devices within exhibitions to enhance exhibitions through which new pathways have Curated by Robyn Maxwell, Life, Death and engagement with the works on display. been forged for major temporary exhibitions in Magic: 2000 years of Southeast Asian ancestral These elements now provide the immersive this country. Asian art curators, along with their art (NGA 2010) focused on the animist art experience people have come to expect of art design and public programming colleagues in practice of Southeast Asia, ancestral traditions exhibitions. The public programs pioneered as Australian galleries and museums, should be that have been maintained alongside part of Asian art exhibitions, with an emphasis applauded for their prescience. peoples’ adoption of Hinduism, Buddhism on performance, have set the current standard and later Islam and Christianity. Life, Death for major exhibition programming. Katherine Russell is the Manager of Learning and and Magic was particularly notable for its Access Programs at the NGA. Her previous roles dramatic installation of sculptural works AGNSW’s Art After Hours program has grown include work in the Education and Public Programs and extraordinary lighting effects achieved from late-night openings and a number of sections of the AGNSW and the National Portrait through the creation of shadows of the celebrity talks during the BUDDHA exhibition Gallery. She has recently completed an MA in sculptures on the walls in the otherwise into a continuing institutional commitment Learning and Visitor Studies at the University of completely darkened exhibition space. every week of the year – with significant Leicester in the UK. interpretive licence to attract people who might Attendance at recent exhibitions of Asian art, not otherwise go to the Gallery. They come REFERENCES such as The First Emperor (AGNSW 2010), in their thousands, lured to art by the hook McClellan, A. (2008). The art museum from Boullee to Bilbao. Berkeley, curated by Liu Yang and Edmund Capon, of celebrity. The NGV also has its Art After Calif. University of California Press, London. following the success of the British Museum Dark program, which runs during temporary Turner, C. (2011). International Exhibitions. Understanding Museums: show curated by Jane Portal, then curated at exhibitions. Thanks to the lead taken by Asian Australian Museums and Museology. D. Griffin and L. Paroissien, National Museum of Australia. http://www.nma.gov.au/research/understanding- the British Museum, with 305,000 visitors, exhibitions, major Australian art institutions museums/CTurner_2011.html have proven beyond doubt that Asian art routinely schedule a full suite of programs for can draw large numbers of visitors. The large exhibitions, encompassing performance, ancillary elements that enhance engagement symposia, film, talks and celebrity events – with works of art, and that initially set the public now simply expects this level of major Asian art exhibitions apart from other programming. The Wisdom Room within the
22 T A A S A R E VI E W V O L U M E 2 0 N O . 4 2 0 Y E A R S o f c o n TE m p o RAR Y A S I A N A R T I N A U STRALIA: A P ERS o n A L P ERS P E C TIVE
Gene Sherman
hy has Asia’s cultural infrastructure and nationwide were in serious decline, while was hugely generous with advice and with his W overall development been such a driving their Asian counterparts were vigorously guidance I found myself in Japan for the first force in my professional journey? Why make increasing student numbers. After a six- time. The trip proved seminal and paved the 43 trips to Japan, some seven or eight to China year stint running the modern languages way for twice- or thrice-yearly explorations of and four to both Taiwan and Korea? Why department of a Sydney private girls’ school, I Japanese contemporary art, opportunities for include the Middle East, and what was the turned to my parallel interest – art. Australian artists in Japan, and the formation relevance of those cultural forays? These are of a contemporary Japanese fashion collection some of the questions that I seek to explore Contemporary art galleries need a core now in Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum. here whilst paying tribute to TAASA and the sensibility that signals the soul of the magazine’s 20 year publishing history. operation and guides visitors and collectors as China followed, starting with Hong Kong and to the nature of the art they might encounter. moving to the mainland, as did Taiwan, Korea, My interest in diverse cultures was sparked Sherman Galleries’ first emphasis was on Singapore, Turkey and Israel. I found I was in in childhood. My extended family was sculpture (started in Sydney in 1981 as the my element. I read the translated literature of multilingual and geographically dispersed. Irving Sculpture Gallery) but the necessity the countries I explored, mounted exhibitions Languages spoken include Russian, to broaden the terrain became evident to in far-flung places, as well as in Australia of Lithuanian, German, Yiddish, French, Dutch, me after two years. With Asia clearly on the course, and learned about a whole new world Afrikaans, Hebrew and English. A middle horizon, I made a decision to work with artists whose religions, histories, social and cultural class Jewish family with a clear focus on art, from Australia, the Asia-Pacific region and the life had hitherto been in the margins of my literature and music, as well as medicine, Middle East. consciousness. law and business, inevitably produced practitioners in these areas. Japan was my first port of call. In 1987 several The world of contemporary Asian art was of my represented sculptors had been invited rich in material and diverse in scope. Irving I turned to French literature, completing to participate in an exhibition at the Saitama Galleries’ (the renamed Irving Sculpture a doctorate in 1980, only to find that in Museum of Modern Art on the outskirts of Gallery, 1988–1992) reputation in this field Australia, my newly adopted country Tokyo. Doug Hall, then newly appointed is, I believe, directly linked to the staging of since 1976, university French departments Director of the Queensland Art Gallery (QAG), two modestly scaled but key exhibitions:
THROUGH, 2007-8, AI WEIWEI (INSTALLATION VIEW), IRON WOOD (TIELI WOOD), QING DYNASTY (1644- 1911), TABLES, BEAMS AND PILLARS FROM DISMANTLED QING DYNASTY TEMPLES.
COMMISSIONED BY SHERMAN CONTEMPORARY ART FOUNDATION, 2008. PHOTO: PAUL GREEN
T A A S A R E VI E W V O L U M E 2 0 N O . 4 23 KUZUYO SEJIMA + RYUE NISHIZAWA/SANAA, 2009,
ACRYLIC, SANAA ORIGINAL RABBIT CHAIRS, DIMENSIONS VARIABLE.
COMMISSIONED BY SHERMAN CONTEMPORARY ART
FOUNDATION, 2009. PHOTO: PAUL GREEN cultural relationship with Asia. Cross-regional Savanhdary Vongpoothorn, My Le Thi from museum directors, curators, writers, academics Vietnam, Iranian-born Hossein Valamanesh, and editors have worked collaboratively to raise Beijing-born Guan Wei, and John Young and aesthetic, intellectual and collegial awareness in Felicia Kahn, both from Hong Kong, were and between the many countries that make up among the artists selected. A six-venue tour the Pacific Basin. Stunning displays, scholarly followed, taking in Brisbane City Gallery, publications, robust seminars and fabulous the Hong Kong Arts Centre, the Singapore parties bring people together as never before Art Museum, the Holmes à Court Gallery – and an initially wary broader public began in Perth, the S.H. Ervin Gallery in Sydney looking at our neighbours afresh with opened and the Campbelltown City Bicentennial eyes and minds. Art Galley (opened in 2002 and now called Campbelltown Arts Centre). An elegant and At around this time two important richly illustrated catalogue with supplements publications were initiated: TAASA Review in simplified and complex Chinese characters in 1992 and ArtAsiaPacific (an Art & Australia accompanied the show. sister magazine) in 1993. ArtAsiaPacific is now Echoes of China: From Behind the Bamboo based in Hong Kong. With savvy editorship, Other galleries sprang up. Gallery 4A, opened Curtain – Three Contemporary Chinese Artists focused agendas and expert advisory boards, in 1997, has clearly proven a longstanding, (1991) and Orient-ations: The Emperor’s New both publications continue to contribute to valuable player in the Asian-Australian Clothes (1992) curated by Claire Roberts, then cultivating new knowledge and perspectives contemporary art world. Originally in a tiny Curator of Asian Decorative Arts at Sydney’s on the visual practice and cultures of our region. upstairs Sydney Chinatown space, the gallery Powerhouse Museum. There were works by Under Elaine Ng’s leadership, in tandem with moved a few years later to a refurbished Guan Wei, Ah Xian, Liu Xiao Xian (the three world wide growing interest in the region, Heritage Council building in Hay Street. artists in the 1991 show), Shen Shao Min ArtAsiaPacific has built on its Australian origins Inaugural Director Melissa Chiu has gone (now amongst Asia’s art stars), Tang Song going from strength to strength. on to lead New York’s Asia Society and is and Xiao Lu (fresh from their 1989 pistol-shot in demand for many Asia-focused shows, performance at the National Museum of Fine From the mid-90s Sherman Galleries catalogues and forums. Current 4A Director Arts in Beijing and their subsequent flight embarked on what was perhaps, at the time, Aaron Seeto continues the original emphasis from China), Ren Hua and Jia Yong. a little understood plan to connect Australia on Asian-Australian artists and exhibitions with Asia. We curated and raised funds for two are reaching increasingly large national and The pace rapidly quickened. Around 22 multi-city international touring exhibitions. regional audiences. Artist-to-artist grassroots shows per year in two distinct spaces in The 12-person exhibition Systems End: connections are encouraged and the gallery’s Paddington allowed the renamed Sherman Contemporary Art in Australia (1996–97) was financial health seems at last to have been Galleries to accommodate artists who co-curated by Takeshi Kanazawa, formerly of strengthened with longer term government stand today amongst the most potent and the Hara Museum and a key player in Edge support, a coterie of enthusiastic private successful international artists of our time. to Edge: Contemporary Australian Art (1988), patrons and a sound-thinking Board. Wenda Gu (From Ink Kingdom to Biological which had toured Japan, and William Wright, Millennium, 4 October – 17 November 2001), then Sherman Galleries’ Curatorial Director. Individuals, too, continue to play key roles in Xu Bing (Reading the Landscape (after John the Asian contemporary art arena. Professor Glover) in Austral-Asia Zero Three, 27 February Systems End toured to Osaka (Oxy Gallery), John Clark from the University of Sydney has, – 22 March 2003) and Cai Guo Qiang (Still Hakone (Hakone Open Air Museum), Seoul over many years, added serious art-historical Life Performance, Biennale of Sydney, Art (Dong Ah Gallery) and Taiwan (Kaohsiung scholarship to the equation, as have Dr Gallery of NSW, 22–29 May 2000, supported Museum) – a challenging task but one that Claire Roberts, Dr Caroline Turner from the and produced by Sherman Galleries) were assisted the exploration of cross-cultural Australian National University and Suhanya amongst those artists we invited to Australia. East/West connections. Artists travelled, Raffel, Deputy Director of the Queensland curators shared ideas, writers worked with Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art. New They were top-tier practitioners who exhibited translators and editors, meals were shared kids on the block include National Portrait early in their professional lives under the and cuisines compared. On-the-ground Gallery curator Christine Clark, with her auspices of our energetic private gallery experiences between Australian, Japanese, informed, succinct and visually compelling in Sydney. Each one left China, ultimately Chinese, Korean and Taiwanese creative and 2011 touring exhibition Beyond the Self: arriving in the United States, and each one cultural industry people brought a richness Contemporary Portraiture from Asia. Asia-savvy has subsequently returned to their country of and depth to the dialogue that enhanced young architects are leading the way too, with origin, keeping studios, bases and hard-won understanding and left many with lifelong Koichi Takada, Kiong Lee and Chris Bosse connections operating in both East and West. colleagues and friends. following in the footsteps of exemplary, multi- award winning, Asia-inspired and Asia-busy On the State gallery front at this time a grand That first tour set a precedent. In 1999–2000, architect Richard Johnson. movement was seeded and continues to flourish Sherman Galleries set to work on an even unabated. QAG, under then Director Doug more ambitious venture. The Rose Crossing, The rigorous and robust writer and sinologist, Hall and Deputy Director Dr Caroline Turner, inspired by Nick Jose’s novel of the same Linda Jaivin, continues to add her experienced established Australia’s most significant and name set within a fictitious 17th century voice to the conversation and the formidable influential Asia–Australia visual cultural event. East–West naval crossing, was comprised scholar Professor Geremie Barmé recently The Asia Pacific Triennials launched in1993 of work by 13 artists, at least half of whom launched and now directs the $35 million represent, in the view of many, best practice in our were Australians of Asian origin. Laos-born Australian Centre on China in the World at the
24 T A A S A R E VI E W V O L U M E 2 0 N O . 4 ERASURE, 2011, DINH Q. LÊ, (INSTALLATION VIEW), 2K HD VIDEO, FOUND PHOTOGRAPHS, WOODEN BOAT FRAGMENTS, DESK, COMPUTER, SCANNER, DEDICATED WEBSITE, SANDSTONE.
PHOTOGRAPH: AARON DE SOUZA. COMMISSIONED BY SHERMAN CONTEMPORARY ART FOUNDATION. PROUDLY SUPPORTED BY NICHOLAS AND ANGELA CURTIS.
Australian National University, an initiative now often described. Ai Weiwei’s Under participating in the recently set up Asia of former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. Construction launched the Foundation in Literacy Ambassador program. The program 2008 and in 2012 we are looking forward to encourages Asia literate companies and There are far too many players and far too Janet Laurence’s After Eden (working title), a individuals to share their enthusiasm with little space to document the varied major new installation by Alfredo and Isabel senior school students and young adults. contributions of Australia’s contemporary Aquilizan, and About Face: Portraits from I now spend regular time with interested Asia-literate cultural community. Best get the Uli Sigg Collection, curated by Dr Claire girls at Randwick High, and the students back to base, to familiar personal territory and Roberts and mounted by SCAF in partnership participate in the Sherman Contemporary the Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation, with the National Portrait Gallery, Canberra. Art Foundation’s longstanding Asian cultural launched in 2008. projects, exhibitions and events. Each commission reigns supreme in the The not-for-profit Foundation commissions Foundation space for approximately 10 Clearly, the Tate and Asialink initiatives, three large-scale projects each year, occasionally weeks, and during that time Culture+Ideas together with many others projects and mounting exceptional pre-existing work never Forums take place, exploring via interviews, programs organised worldwide, bear seen on our side of the world. The projects conversations and panel discussions various testimony to the fast-growing interest in Asia are focused on Australian and Asian visual issues raised by the work. Margaret Throsby, by Australian and international policy makers practitioners, bringing together the two our key cultural investigator, interviews and cultural institutions. In tandem with strands that have underpinned my thinking the artist, scholar, academic or curator. the Gene and Brian Sherman private Asian and fuelled my interest for the last 25 years. Broadcaster and journalist Caroline Baum and Australian art collection currently being Artists, architects, designers, filmmakers and curates her own writers’ interview – directly honed, toned and more rigorously shaped, I visual practitioners of all persuasions from or indirectly related to the project at hand hope the Foundation’s work will continue to Australia and Asia are allocated a $100,000 – and I moderate or speak at a third panel make a small contribution to the conversation project grant out of which a scholarly, visually where participants draw on their expertise we as Australians must all have: a conversation compelling catalogue (with an approximate from outside the art world. with our neighbours that transcends trade $20,000 budget) must be funded. A ‘dream issues and relies on tolerance, common ground work’ is the hoped-for outcome; a work that In 2011, I took on two new roles which have and the curiosity in diversity that makes for a could not or would not have been possible to allowed me to build on the 25-year link we stimulating and harmonious world. create within commercial or museum spaces have developed with our Asian neighbours. where tighter budgetary considerations, I had the honour of being invited to join the Dr Gene Sherman is Chairman and Executive Director bureaucratic requirements and marketing Tate Asian Acquisitions Committee which of the Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation, Sydney. agendas may prevail. meets twice yearly - once in London and once in the region itself - to formulate policy REFERENCES Two out of three substantial annual projects and identify key work for the institution’s For details of the Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation’s are devoted to practitioners from Asia, growing collection of Asian contemporary art. exhibitions, events and publications to date see www.sherman-scaf. org.au including China, Japan, India, Vietnam and the Philippines. In addition, the program I have also intensified my connections with For the work of Sherman Galleries see www.shermangalleries.com.au encompasses projects from further afield, Asialink, Melbourne University’s Asia- including West Asia, as the Middle East is focused think-tank and advocacy body by
T A A S A R E VI E W V O L U M E 2 0 N O . 3 25 A P T T H E N A n d n o W
Michael Desmond
INSTALLATION VIEW OF APT 6, GALLERY OF MODERN ART 2009. COURTESY: QUEENSLAND ART GALLERY
nder the Keating government at the U beginning of the 1990s, Australia asked itself what it might be like to be an Asian country, or at least, a culture within the Asian region rather than an outpost of the West. Keating spoke of the ‘big picture’, envisaging Australia as part of a global society. Looking beyond Australia’s traditional relationships to incorporate Asia as a neighbour has profoundly reshaped our cultural perspective.
The Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT), inaugurated at the Queensland Art Gallery (QAG) in 1993 was part of this Zeitgeist. There had been smaller exhibitions of contemporary Asian art in Australia – Change and Modernism in Thai Art at the Canberra Contemporary Art Space in 1991 for instance – but perhaps it was the discussions held at the Australian National University to coincide with this exhibition that brought together many key art historians, curators and Asian specialists, including Apinan Poshyanada and John Clark. The example of the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum in showing contemporary art from the Asian region in the 1980s was also inspiring.
Doug Hall, Director of the QAG, was astute enough to see this as an opportunity for a major and regular review of contemporary developments in Asian and Australian art. The first APT included Dadang Christanto, Montien Boonma and Bul Lee among others and ratified their careers as international stars. Effectively, this exhibition established QAG as a new force – for the first time Brisbane became a nationally prominent cultural centre. This APT also made Australia an international player, as the world recognised its leadership role in bringing contemporary Asian and Western art together in significant depth. The animated contemporary works reflected today. Xu Bing’s A book from the sky 1987-91 the emerging Asian ‘Tiger’ economies, whose lifted us into the realm of poetry, Cai Guo The first APT was magic: it seemed like all at ongoing development can in a sense be traced Qiang bridged (metaphorically and physically) the opening, subsequent performances and by succeeding APTs. The integration of Asian the QAG watermall, Michael Parekowei talks sensed this was history in the making. art into an Australian context also reflected thrilled and brought us down to earth with his There was an astonishing and democratic Australia’s changing demography. Ten Guitars. This third triennial also produced intimacy, and a club-like atmosphere of the Kids APT – for the first time the gallery conviviality. Works shown at the APT entered The second APT in 1996 was superb, expanded added a seriously good children’s section. public collections – Montien Boonma’s Lotus and better branded as the Queensland team’s Kids APT was not about talking down to small Sound 1992 (with the work of 14 other artists) expertise came into play. Audiences doubled people, was not a debased and compacted was purchased for QAG and the lively from 60,000 to 120,000, eager to see Cai Guo version of the main game but an independent display of new works gave renewed energy Qiang, Takashi Murakami, N. N. Rimzon and section with its own logic, appeal and specially to Asian collections in Australian galleries other hot artists. commissioned works of art. which had previously favoured historical objects. Galleries in Canberra, Melbourne and The 1999 APT remains a classic with a line up By this time the excitement had spread: Sydney followed, albeit to a lesser degree. of artists, works and themes that still excite biennials sprang up all over Asia, and are
26 T A A S A R E VI E W V O L U M E 2 0 N O . 4 OPENING OF APT6 AT THE GALLERY OF MODERN ART 2009.
BRIDGE CROSSING, 1999 CAI GUO QIANG, INSTALLATION VIEW FROM ‘APT 1999’. COURTESY: QUEENSLAND ART GALLERY COURTESY: QUEENSLAND ART GALLERY
now in Singapore, Fukuoka, Shanghai, and literal in defining the shape of an idea. questions of gender and identity, a concern Yokohama, Taiwan and Gwangju. The newest The inclusion of North Korean works was a with the environment – though with local festival of international contemporary art, triumph of politics over aesthetics but brought idiosyncrasies. However, there are more the Indian Kochi-Muziris Biennale for 2012, home the importance of cultural diplomacy voices in the art world than two decades ago was announced a few months ago. Asian that underlies the whole enterprise. and many major artists of the present are from artists have their own circuit now, and, with Asian countries, China in particular. Some the rise of the market for contemporary art, I recall meeting colleagues at the Los Angeles of the artists shown at the APTs compete especially Chinese, their superstars – Ai Wei County Museum soon after the second APT. internationally while others have primarily Wei being perhaps best known. Displaying For the first time, American curators were local loyalties. There is no agreed standard contemporary art has become expected and asking about events in Australia, specifically in the ‘world art’ now shown in international more competitive. Art itself is becoming Brisbane. There was a buzz. The Triennials biennales. There is a broader spectrum of art less local and increasingly geared to the gave prominence to Australia and Australian styles and greater opportunities for artists, international circuit. art, reaching a high point during the third Asian and Australian. The succession of APTs APT in 1999. Its impact has somewhat enabled the creation of new networks not The 2002 APT took this into account by diminished since then with the proliferation previously possible. including fewer artists but showing them of rival biennials in the Asian region and the in depth, tracing the ancestry of new art inclusion of much travelled and increasingly The interest in the contemporary art of through major figures such as Lee U Fan, familiar art world stars – artists not chosen Asia and the broader culture of this region Yayoi Kusama and Nam June Paik. APT 5 in by curators in Australia but by world acclaim marked a significant cultural shift. Australia 2006 coincided with the opening of GoMA and the market. As the 2012 APT approaches, now has a substantial population with Asian (Gallery of Modern Art), and took into signalling 20 years of engaging visual connections and a greater understanding of account technological changes in art, with dialogue, selection of works is still by country, non-Western cultures. The economies north of greater emphasis on screen-based work as rather like an Arts Olympics – though the 2002 Australia are flourishing and the importance well as performance. The seminars that had APT had trialled an alternative approach, by of the Asia Pacific region is recognised as part supported the APT in the past were effectively focusing on significant artists in depth. of an international cultural engagement. The replaced by short talks and a long party. exoticism of the first triennial is now remote, The thesis of the first triennial, announced in almost lost: the APT has become simply an APT 6 in 2009 was grand, the biggest display the catalogue by Caroline Turner, then QAG exhibition of contemporary art, admittedly of Asian and Pacific art ever seen in Australia. Deputy Director, ‘that Euro-Americentric with a particular bent to encompass the art of There was no shortage of powerful works perspectives are no longer valid as a formula Australia and its neighbours. The global has and a greater geographic spread than ever for evaluating the art of this region’ is become local. before with artists from isolated enclaves such undoubtedly proven. It’s fair to say this was as Tibet and North Korea, middle eastern more by evolution than revolution, if the Michael Desmond is Deputy Director at the National countries Turkey and Iran, and smaller Asian look of Australian art today, still resolutely Portrait Gallery, Canberra. He previously worked at nations Cambodia and Myanmar (Burma). an oil and water combination of Western the National Gallery of Australia and the Powerhouse Cambodian artist Sopheap Pich was a and Indigenous, is any guide. Major themes Museum. He is currently planning an exhibition of standout, his bamboo forms both suggestive that dominated Western art remain – Neo Gothic art and literature.
T A A S A R E VI E W V O L U M E 2 0 N O . 4 27 d o u b L E D I P : T H E A S I A N B IE n n A L E A n d A R T F AIR
Gina Fairley TIME MUSEUM, SATELLITE VENUE FOR THIRD
GUANGZHOU TRIENNIAL, 2008. PHOTO: GINA FAIRLEY
here are over 80 international biennials Asia, many of them linked to or hosting T and triennials today, an overwhelming these biennales. Governments are offering number of which began during the 1990s; tax incentives and attractive packages for 25 of them held in Asia. These events have international galleries to choose their art fair not only brought significant international art over others, or invest in these enterprises and artists to Asian cities, but also fostered a themselves as key stakeholders, such as new regional contemporary art identity, first Singapore’s Art Stage, significantly backed through an awareness of localised activities by the Economic Development Board and and secondly by uniting artists and providing Singapore Tourism Board. a platform for dialogue on shared issues. These composite activities have emerged as Between 2000-08, the number of Asian an intoxicating cultural/economic cocktail, biennales doubled in parallel with Asia’s answering a local hunger which parallels growing prosperity. If you add the growth of the current global enchantment for the art fairs across East, South and Southeast Asia market brand of ‘Contemporary Asian Art’. – a staggering 35 new fairs since 2000 and It has even been touted that the art fair is the counting – the numbers collectively say more new biennale within Asia, perhaps a more about these individual locations than the art comfortable fit with the kind of consumerist they are showing. As the sociologist Pascal expansionism at play. Gielen (2009) observes, the biennale “...fits Council concurs: “...art and culture can easily in a neo-liberal city marketing strategy Clearly the circuits of recognition and also be the lubricant and the genesis of an of so-called ‘creative cities’.” distribution have shifted. In the past it was economically vibrant and cultured society.” about the ‘arrival’ of an Asian modernity (Kolesnikov-Jessop 2010). Most of Asia’s biennales are funded by within the international museum frame; now governments eager to promote themselves it is the affirmation of an extremely diverse and To understand this new ‘geography’ we need as developed cultural destinations and articulate contemporary Asian art directed to step back to the historical biennale model. increasingly aware of the global nature of largely from within and speaking a new We know the biennale was born with Venice their market. New museums devoted to language of cultural tourism and economics. in 1895. However, its pedigree or Euro- contemporary art have sprung up across Benson Puah of Singapore’s National Art centricity is not of interest here; rather its roots
CIGE ART FAIR, BEIJING 2009. IMAGE COURTESY THE DRAWING ROOM, MANILA.
28 T A A S A R E VI E W V O L U M E 2 0 N O . 3 INSTALLATION VIEW “BEST OF DISCOVERY”, SHCONTEMPORARY08 ART FAIR, SHANGHAI. PHOTO: GINA FAIRLEY
as a tourism initiative of-the-day offers the inviting, not just being invited. We need to see premise. It is an interesting consideration, this greater legacy to the Asian biennale. Korean ourselves in a global context.” parallel of technology flavoring how art is critic Jinsang Yoo makes the alert observation: made with the ‘biennalisation’ of Asia. “Global politics and economies are already This adaptation is taking place with being led by cities, not countries…Therefore, extraordinary rapidity and flexibility. Visiting Lee (2009) believes the needs and local desires it has become important for local cities to the Shanghai Biennale (2008) I was astounded of individual nations are driving this beast. enhance brand values and showcase their to see crowds snaking their way around the Take China for example. Before 1996 it didn’t original cultural capacities. The most effective museum waiting to get in just days after have a single biennale - it reportedly now has tool for them is contemporary art, which SHcontemporary art fair hit record attendances. seven. ArtZineChina further reports: “Four is a kind of common language that enables One can only surmise that the biennale audience years ago there was only one art district - the universal understanding and satisfies cultural today sits primarily outside the vernissage art 798 in Beijing; now seven cities around this and intellectual demands of both the East and caravan and, in China in particular, addresses country have art districts and Beijing alone the West.” (Yoo 2008:60) an imploding domestic tourism industry. What enjoys nine art districts...Art Galleries grew currency, then, does the voice of the ‘super- from less than 30 five years ago to at least 300 In understanding this new model of the curator’ have to this local population where he at present…70% of all [Chinese] collectors Asian biennale we need to recognise that or she steps centre stage for a short moment to have emerged in only the last two years.” the traditional Western curatorial model was then disappear? It is a swift shift from art world (Gi 2008:158) This explosion is not specific to based on the paradigm of ‘nation’. In our times rhetoric to mobile-phone-moments snapped China. Between 2006 and 2008, the number of post-nation existence, regional inflections with ’the art’, later to be posted on Facebook, the of art fairs across Asia multiplied as rapidly or nodes of productivity increasingly define local quickly usurping ownership of the event as the prices for the art itself. Over 50 major culture. I suppose the simple analogy is the once the art entourage has passed. It is a very fairs where held in 2008 and 21 of those were fake Louis Vuitton handbag, its signature Asian sensibility. hosted by Asian cities. design embraced, appropriated, and morphed into a version that is more reflective of local What has struck me repeatedly visiting Asia’s As the price of Asian art continues to escalate, tastes and aspirations than its ‘native’ self. biennale are the numbers clustered around the the world sits eagerly speculating if, and video installations, diligently watching them when, the bubble will burst. If the ongoing Several Asian biennales have shifted from from start to finish. They are hungry for this impact of the Global Economic Crisis local survey exhibitions to international multi- media. Technology functions as a universal continues to be weathered by these shows, dimensional events. Shanghai, Guangzhou, language that enables communication across this will be evidence of their sustainability Taipei, Busan, Gwangju, and Yogyakarta geography, ethnicity, age and religion and, for as the new curatorial model. Local popular have all made this shift, the most recent being this singular reason, affirms its place within interest in contemporary art continues with the 2009 Jakarta Biennale, despite starting in the biennale genre. Further, it indicates a ferocious appetite across Asia. How these the1960s as a painting show. In an interview growing affluence within Asian localities; biennales and fairs morph and fuse to cater with Indonesian curator Ade Darmawanhe, mobile phones and computers are ubiquitous to popular demands and imbue their western he points out that: “This international context today. The medium itself offers the entry formulaic frame with local relevance will be is very important for us because we are point to engagement rather than a curatorial watched with great interest globally.
T A A S A R E VI E W V O L U M E 2 0 N O . 4 29 JACK TILTON GALLERY PACKING UP XIANG JING’S SCULPTURE
“AND YOU?”(2005), PAINTED FIBREGLASS 163 X 60 X 64.5 INCHES.
SHCONTEMPORARY08 ART FAIR, SHANGHAI. PHOTO: GINA FAIRLEY
Two ways already proving successful in The most obvious is Art Basel with the staging these dialogues are the use of the Venice Biennale, which started the trend. satellite venue and bringing the biennale Art Dubai coincides with Sharjah Biennale, closer to the art market by timing them SHContemporary opens within days alongside fairs. Using raw (un)familiar sites of Shanghai Biennale, the 4th Korean has increasingly become a marketing chip for International Art Fair changed its dates to attracting local and international audiences. relate to three major biennales: Gwangju, They usher the pedestrian public to a more Busan and the Seoul International Media level playing ground, a place unfamiliar to Art Biennale. And if the boundaries weren’t us all and yet one that carries the residue of a blurred enough: “...the Swiss MCH Group city: its history, its collective memory, its trade organizers of Art Basel and Art Basel Miami and contemporary gentrification. Beach announced that they have acquired a majority stake in Art HK” (AAPEditors For example, the inaugural Singapore 2011:39). The competitive jostling between Biennale (2006) used religious sites under these events has become manic and, with its theme Belief, stating it was taking the in-bed advantage assigned to biennale contemporary art to places that were curatoriums of the past flowing into art fairs comfortable and familiar for locals. The Third as the real geographic power-brokers of the Guangzhou Triennial (2008) chose a half-built day, Asia is at the forefront of this push. residential development in the commuter suburb of Guangdong, and XIII Jakarta What is perhaps more interesting than Biennale (2009) located artworks within the these power structures, is the way art fairs trained on established international events ritzy Western-styled Grand Indonesia Mall, are redefining themselves with curated and, with the lack of art critics on the ground commenting on the profusion of Asian mall- components and commissioned works by in Asia to gauge these events, as well as their culture and the commodification of art. What ‘celebrity artists’ featured within their selling currency with local and regional audiences, these satellite sites say about the development halls. SHContemporary’s Best of Discovery the greater danger is not the economic burn- and embedding of these art events within says it all: blatantly hijacking the biennale’s out of these events but rather our inability their own communities is a more revealing platform for announcing ‘the state of now’. to assess contemporary Asian art outside the conversation than the artworks themselves Art Stage Singapore in its inaugural event this endorsement of the market. I return again that collectively take on ‘biennale sameness’. year was rumored to have muscled exhibitors to the fake Louis Vuitton handbag and the Today this very locality is key to growing over what they showed on the grounds of question: is what we are witnessing real or is biennales rather than the antiquated concept presenting a curatorially fresh fair. Similarly, what we are told the more real? of the nation-based survey. Asia’s hottest fair of the moment, Art HK, presented Asia One, a new section made up of A former arts manager in America and Australia, Such tactics beg the question: what is the more 47 galleries from Asia presenting solo shows Gina Fairley is a freelance curator and writer accurate narrative - the contemporary reality of Asian artists as well as its Art Futures specialising in contemporary Southeast Asian art. She of the site or the reality constructed by the section, which had grown to include 45 newly is Regional Contributing Editor for Asian Art News artworks? One might even ask whether the established galleries. and World Sculpture News [Hong Kong], and lives in biennale has become so thoroughly massaged Sydney and Manila. and hyped that it has backed itself into a With its attendances up 38% on last year, it corner of staged dialogues allowing art fairs ratchets up the old competitive challenge to REFERENCES to fill the fissures. Singapore, vying for the position as Asia’s AAP Editors 2011. ‘Pecking Order: Art Fair Report’, Art Asia Pacific, leading cultural hub. Both cities are heavily Issue 74, July/August, p 36 Layer that with the trend to package invested in this position with what could The Asian Art Archive, Hong Kong - survey of Asian Biennales (2008) these exhibitions with other events and, be described in marketing terms as ‘a mix’ at: http://www.aaa.org.hk/onlineprojects/bitri/en/index.aspx understandably, their critical edge starts to blur. of museums, arts fairs, biennales, auctions, CLARKE, David 2002. ‘Contemporary Asian Art and its Western Reception’, Site + Sight: Translating Cultures, Earl Lu Gallery, It pivots on the marketing concept of ‘added and education – a billion dollar investment. Singapore value’, where the sincere idealism of curatorial Hong Kong’s high hopes for its new cultural GI, Zhu. 2008. ArtZineChina, Art in Asia, (Korea), No 8, themes has been sidelined by opportunism. Is district of West Kowloon and contemporary November Issue this simply an equation of accountability in museum M+, aligned with Singapore’s GIELEN, Pascal. 2009. ‘The Biennale: A Post-Institution for Immaterial today’s climate, where funding sponsors and Economic Development Board’s Creative Labour’, Open16 ‘The Art Biennale as a Global Phenomenon. governments hold the ultimate strings? Or is it Services Development Plan, its new Free Port Strategies in Neo-Political Times, (Netherlands), Vol. 16 a more astute understanding of their primary (a government developed free-trade zone KOLESNIKOV-JESSOP, Sonia. 2010. ‘Singapore looks for a softer audience post-vernissage? dedicated to high-end art storage), and The side of growth’, New York Times (America), 19 February National Art Gallery of Singapore (TNAGS) LEE, Yongwoo, 2009. ‘Discourse production frame and biennale It is not surprising that the commercial art scheduled to open in 2015, are challenging culture, Art in Asia (Korea), January Issue world lurks in the shadows of biennales, China’s success in catching the global eye. Universes in Universe - documented biennale published by especially given that relatively few curators Dr. Gerhard Haupt & Pat Binder at
30 T A A S A R E VI E W V O L U M E 2 0 N O . 4 PLACE.TIME.PLAY : c o n TE m p o RAR Y A R T F R o m THE WEST HEAVE N S T O T H E M I d d L E K I n g d o m
Chaitanya Sambrani RAILWAY FROM LHASA TO KATHMANDU, QIU ZHIJIE, 2010, INSTALLATION INCLUDING STEEL., THANG-KA PAINTINGS, PHOTOGRAPHY, AND WOOD. PHOTO: THOMAS FUESSER
t is one of the enduring ironies of I contemporary Asian art that most intra- Asian conversations are mediated via non-Asian locations such as Australia and the USA. As a post-graduate student in an “Asian” country (I studied Art Criticism at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Baroda, India over 1992-95), I found scarce mention of modernist or contemporary art in the Asian region in the syllabus. We were aware of the history of modern art in India, and we were schooled in the history of what we called “modern art” by which was understood the history of modern art in Europe and the USA. I first encountered modern and contemporary “Asian” art in Australia.
We are now well aware of the hyperreality of Asia as a cognitive category. Teaching courses on modern and contemporary Asian art, I have come to realise the relatively recent advent of modern and contemporary Asian art as a scholarly field, which simultaneously matter of selling works domestically, or else in further afield, including imperial sites and emerged in eastern Australia and the east coast Euroamerican venues. Intra-Asian commerce Buddhist retreats. In both countries, we took of the USA in the early 1990s. In 1991, John had become viable. the opportunity to convene “moving forums” Clark (then at ANU) convened a conference that brought the travellers together with local on modernity in Asian art [Clark, ed., 1992]. The West Heavens Project artists in extended conversations. In 1992, Vishakha Desai (Asia Society, New I met Johnson Chang at my lecture on a York), convened a round-table with eminent previous project, Edge of Desire: Recent art in Place.Time.Play: the exhibition curators and artists from Asia. India (Sambrani et.al. 2005) at the Asia Art Place signals geography, time speaks of history, Archive, Hong Kong in 2008. I knew of Chang and play invokes the volition of artists to work The Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, as a co-founder of the Asia Art Archive and with, or subvert, the given rules of the game. embarked on the Asia-Pacific Triennial of a curator and scholar who had contributed to Reckonings with place imply an understanding Contemporary Art in 1993. In 1993, Art and the international emergence of contemporary of contextual difference, and an attempt to enter Australia sprouted a supplement called Art Chinese art. Chang wanted to know how another site or location. Taking time is both a and Asia Pacific, the predecessor of Art Asia contemporary Chinese artistic and academic requirement of this process, and an opportunity Pacific. Notwithstanding traditions of writing cultures might benefit from interactions with to encounter a different sense of historical flux, on modern and contemporary art within their Indian counterparts. We arrived at the and for artists to think about the formidable national boundaries and with the exception idea of inviting a select group of Indian and burdens of tradition as well as current economic, of the Asian Art Shows at the Fukuoka Chinese artists to undertake journeys to each political and artistic conditions. The invitation Asian Art Museum (1977-), the “invention” other’s countries, to engage in dialogue, and to play was extended on the premise that the of contemporary Asian art took place produce work as a result of these interactions. ludic instinct, a fundamentally life-affirming outside Asia. Poshyananda and Clarke have The overall project name ‘West Heavens’ came gesture, is too often lost in the quest for topical written incisively about this phenomenon from the ancient Chinese name for India, as issues. Through the invitation to indulge in a (Poshyananda, 1993, Clarke, 2002). the place where the Buddha was born, lived basic human activity, we hoped for an enduring and attained enlightenment. series of relationships between art communities Recent years have seen the gradual undoing across the two nations. of this situation via various commercial West Heavens (www.westheavens.net) has exhibitions and museum projects. Japanese since developed into a multi-disciplinary Despite market interest in the contemporary organisations have again taken the lead, project incorporating visual art, social art of these two countries, there has been with the Japan Foundation’s project Under theory and film. Place.Time.Play: India- little interaction between the two art cultures Construction: New Dimensions of Asian Art China Contemporary Art was the visual art in recent times. For artists in India or China, (2003) involving eight young curators component of this larger project. We travelled awareness of each other’s art practice has from seven Asian countries. The first major to various locations in India with a group largely been limited to occasional encounters exhibition of Indian art in China took place of Chinese artists and curators in March at biennales and art fairs in different parts of in 2006, sponsored by the Korean-owned 2010. In April 2010 Indian artists travelled the world. For all their historical connections, Arario Gallery. It was clear that the trade in to Shanghai, Hangzhou, Yiwu and other what did contemporary artists from either contemporary “Asian” art was no longer a places of interest in the Yangtze delta and country really know of each other’s work?
T A A S A R E VI E W V O L U M E 2 0 N O . 3 31 THE REALISATION OF KANTHAKA, TUSHAR JOAG, 2010, MAPS, MOTORCYCLE SPARE PARTS AND TOOLS,
DIMENSIONS VARIABLE. PHOTO: THOMAS FUESSER
the Chinese art community to continue its Indian engagement. A few projects from the exhibition are featured below to give the reader a sense of the variety of responses from artists to the possibilities and impossibilities of working across China and India.
Driven by a wanderlust that is at once deeply personal and profoundly political, Qiu Zhijie enacted in 2006-07 a journey on foot from Lhasa to Kathmandu. The trigger for this project came from the inauguration in July 2006 of the Golmud-Lhasa railway line, the latest in a series of invasions of the mythical Shangri-La, hermetic realm of spirituality and peace but also a geopolitical prize fought over by the British and Chinese empires. His research into the “discovery” of Tibet led him to Nain Singh, an Indian soldier in the British army sent into Tibet to chart its topography in 1866. Qiu Zhijie set about replicating Nain Singh’s journey in reverse, using the same technology for navigation and measurement (including wearing steel shackles to mimic In choosing which artists to invite, we first In what was constituted an “Indian” view Nain Singh’s measured footsteps of precisely considered ongoing concerns within the of Indian tradition? How did contemporary 33 inches). The idea of Tibet as an object of artists’ work. Work that crossed boundaries; Chinese artists situate their tradition - an ancient desire sandwiched between British India that aspired to speak to audiences other history of learning and international contact and Imperial China, and its fate in the 20th than the accustomed binary of local self - and the modern world with Euroamerican and 21st centuries was presented through and Euroamerican other was especially colonisation and Japanese imperialism added photographs, a video, a series of thangka- interesting. We were impatient with intra- to the destruction wrought during the Cultural like paintings and railway tracks made from Asian contact being routed via Western Revolution? What were the gains and losses in melted objects of ritual, musical and religious Europe, North America and Australia, fed by understanding shared and divergent histories purpose that Qiu collected on his journey. the growing ambitions and strengths of the in recent times? India and China, in addition Chinese and Indian (art) economies. to being regarded as the two major economic Another kind of journey was performed growth engines of the current decade, are also by Tushar Joag who rode from Mumbai to We understood the aspirations of artists who participants in long-running border disputes, Shanghai on a 1950s-designed Enfield Bullet insistently straddled continents and cultures in and are competing for primacy over the motorcycle. His Quixotic overland quest from their work, confounding inherited structures resources of poorer Asian and African nations. the West Heavens to the Middle Kingdom of belonging. We debated the display of The cash registers of auction houses are was punctuated by halts at the Sardar Sarovar specific national or regional characteristics that ringing with big sales achieved for the work of project on the Narmada river in India and the marked an artist’s work as being an authentic superstar artists from one country or another. Three Gorges on the Yangtze in China, both representation of an original culture. Who What then might it mean for artists from these nation-building projects involving huge dams would this display be for? Was a display of countries to indulge in mutual congress? and power plants that have been executed “Indian” or “Chinese” authenticity more valid despite massive destruction of communities when it appealed to Western desires? What Ultimately, what did we have to learn from and natural habitats. Joag has in the past characteristics would the work display if it each other? As curator, I do not hold that worked in collaboration with activists from the were aimed at a Chinese (or Indian) audience? the works in the exhibition necessarily lend Narmada Bachao Andolan (Save the Narmada As an exhibition, Place.Time.Play sought to themselves to this entire range of inquiry. In Agitation) who sought to highlight the plight address these questions and throw up new a process-driven and exploratory exhibition, of displaced indigenous communities. Joag’s questions about the possibilities and limits of it would be futile to expect every work to journey to Shanghai followed in reverse earlier artistic conversation across major art cultures. address intractable issues of inter-cultural journeys such as that of the monk Xuanzang communication, especially among countries who journeyed to India to retrieve original We also considered which artists we felt would such as China and India. Buddhist sutras, and also made reference to the be willing and able to accommodate within Buddha’s journey of renunciation on his horse their work the challenges of interaction with a The exhibition opened in three non-gallery Kanthaka, and ‘Che’ Guevara’s travels of self- parallel civilisation: a civilisation that seemed spaces in Shanghai from October to December discovery in Latin America. Having reached historically so well known, so inextricably 2010 and was greeted with much enthusiasm Shanghai, Joag dismantled his motorcycle to linked with ones own, and yet so far removed in Shanghai and in the international press. make from it a sculptural installation immersed in modern experience, except in an adversarial (Turner, 2011). A reciprocal exhibition in in water from the Yangtze. role. National histories and traditions, India has not yet materialised, though the especially in their authorised guises, were a continuation of the overall West Heavens Qiu Anxiong’s cubic globes allude to ancient frequent feature of the conversations. project into 2011 indicates a hunger among Chinese understandings of the cosmos (a
32 T A A S A R E VI E W V O L U M E 2 0 N O . 3 CUBIC GLOBE, QIU ANXIONG, 2010, INSTALLATION (WOOD), 120X60X60CM X 5 PIECES. PHOTO: THOMAS FUESSER
MADAGASCAR: A WORLD APART
15 May – 08 June 2012 Archaeologists believe that people first arrived in Madagascar from Indonesia and Malaya about 2000 years ago. Before this, Madagascar evolved over millions of years in isolation. The result is a country like no other, an incongruous mixture of wildlife and culture with an unparalleled array of plants and animals found nowhere else. Dr Steven Goodman, resident since 1989, recognised expert in Malagasy biodiversity and perhaps the country’s finest field biologist, is our program leader. Land Only cost per person twinshare ex Antananarivo $6800
INSIDE BURMA: THE ESSENTIAL EXPERIENCE round Heaven and a square Earth) to suggest Parallels reveal sometimes touching, and often, 26 October – 14 November 2012 a subversion of contemporary geopolitical conflicting juxtapositions between the careers of Few people have immersed themselves as lineaments. His five cubic earths elaborate the Mahatma and the Chairman. deeply in Burma as TAASA contributor Dr Bob Hudson. His longstanding annual Burma program on topographical, geological, climatic and features extended stays in medieval Mrauk U, political ramifications of this alternate Place.Time.Play was but the beginning of a capital of the lost ancient kingdom of Arakan configuration of the world. Qiu’s cubical process that looks set to continue. Already a (now Rakhine State) and Bagan, rivalling Angkor earths question the relations of power and commercial gallery in Shanghai has hosted Wat as Southeast Asia’s richest archaeological marginality between as well as within another India-China exhibition (Pearl Lam precinct. Exciting experiences in Yangon, Inle Lake, Mandalay and a private cruise down the mighty nations. Tying into adventurous traversals Galleries, Shanghai, Window in the Wall: Ayeyarwady are also included. in the works of Tushar Joag and Qiu Zhijie, India and China—Imaginary Conversations, Land Only cost per person twinshare Qiu Anxiong’s flat-faced earths propose their co-curated by Gao Minglu and Gayatri ex Yangon $3990 own theory of distance, spatial relationships, Sinha, 9 September to 9 November 2011). and positions of centrality and peripherality. The West Heavens project has continued into As the ongoing realignment of global power an independent cinema festival You Don’t CAMBODIA: ANGKOR WAT and looming battles over resources re-draw Belong, featuring the work of video artists and AND BEYOND the political and economic landscape, Qiu filmmakers from India in Beijing, Shanghai, Anxiong’s work asks for a new vantage point, Guangzhou and Kunming under the 28 October – 14 November 2012 perhaps situated on one of the pointed corners curatorship of Ashish Rajadhyaksha (http:// Angkor’s timeless grandeur is unmissable. Yet Cambodia offers a host of other important cultural of his new worlds, looking with fear and westheavens.net). A much-needed space for and travel experiences: outstanding ancient, desire towards one of the three visible facets. intra-Asian dialogue and an internationalism vernacular and French colonial architecture; Ours then would be the position of the forever not modulated by the West would seem to be spectacular riverine environments; a revitalising marginal, always doomed to live on the edge in the offing. urban capital in Phnom Penh; interesting cuisine and in danger of being flung into space as the and beautiful countryside. Gill Green, President Chaitanya Sambrani is Senior Lecturer in Art Theory of TAASA, art historian and author specialising in new earths rotate. Cambodian culture and Darryl Collins, prominent at the Australian National University School of Art, Australian expatriate university lecturer, museum Gigi Scaria’s concerns with the successes and an independent curator. curator, and author who has lived and worked in and failures of physical and philosophical Cambodia for over twenty years, have designed and co-host this annual program. modernisation extend to an investigation of the REFERENCES meanings associated with cultural icons and Clark, John, ed., 1992. Modernity in Asian Art, Wild Peony Press, Land Only cost per person twinshare ex Phnom Penh $4600 historically significant figures. With No Parallels, Sydney. Scaria chose to focus on the incongruence Clarke, David, 2002. “Contemporary Asian Art and its Western between the political careers of Mahatma Reception”, Third Text, Vol 16, Issue 3, pp. 323-242. Gandhi and Chairman Mao, their political Poshyananda, Apinan, 1993. “The Future: Post-Cold War, To register your interest, reserve a place or for Postmodernism, Postmarginalia (Playing with Slippery Lubricants)” philosophies and personae. And yet, they have further information contact Ray Boniface in Caroline Turner, ed., Tradition and Change: Contemporary Art of in common the status of national icons, symbols Asia and the Pacific, Queensland University Press, Brisbane H ERITAGE D ESTINATIONS NATURE • BUILDINGS • PEOPLE • TRAVELLERS of liberation who committed their lives to the Sambrani, Chaitanya, et.al.2005. Edge of Desire: Recent Art in emancipation of their peoples, and whose India, Philip Wilson Publishers, London PO Box U237 lives continue to be churned out in a series of Turner, Caroline, 2011. “There is also the West Heavens: A University of Wollongong NSW 2500 Australia set poses through authorised photographs. In Chinese Indian Conversation” p: +61 2 4228 3887 m: 0409 927 129 every case though, there is a sense of a fleeting Art Monthly Australia, Issue 238, April 2011. e: [email protected] essence being resuscitated on the screen, even ABN 21 071 079 859 Lic No TAG1747 as the flipping panels of the animation in No
T A A S A R E VI E W V O L U M E 2 0 N O . 4 33 5 0 , 0 0 0 D A Y S I N ASIA: THE ASIALI N K ARTS RESI D E n c y P R o g RA M
Lesley Alway
OPENING OF THE EXHIBITION, HARD SLEEPER AT REDGATE GALLERY, BEIJING. OCTOBER 2010. PHOTO: CATHERINE CROLL
rtist in Residence’ is a term for an artist A who lives and practices their art for a period of time with a host organization, away from their usual environment. Asialink residencies have contributed significantly to the health and vibrancy of the arts community in Asia and provided extraordinary creative stimulation to Australian artists, writers, performers and arts managers who have worked in Asia.
The Asialink Arts Residency program currently sends at least 30 performers, writers and arts managers from Australia to Asia each year. Originally established in 1989 by the Australia Council with three project “Volcanic Winds” comprised three The residency experience may result in further Visual Arts/Craft residencies in Thailand projects: ILMU: Hiphop and electronic music exchanges, collaborative projects, reciprocal and Malaysia, the residency program was festival, Jogjakarta, September, 2010; Tropis// residencies and institutional links. Steve devolved to Asialink in 1991. Asialink has Subsonics: Sound and Image Program Eland, Director of 24HR Art in the Northern managed the program since then, expanding Jogjakarta, January 2011, and a tour of the Territory, undertook a residency in China in it into the areas of Performing Arts and Arts Senyaya, experimental music duo to Australia 2009 and has since developed projects both Management in 1996 and Writing in 1997. in July 2011. there and with Indonesia and the Philippines. In his ‘First Life Residency’ Project, he Resident artists, writers, performers and arts In her residency report, Kate noted that: “My developed an exchange project with three managers spend up to three months or more, Asialink Residency gave me a point of focus, Australian and three Chinese artists who working on projects they have devised. Each a host, and an easily understood ‘reason for journeyed together throughout Arnhem Land resident is hosted by an arts organisation being’ in Indonesia that I was then able to and Tibet. The Australian artists Tony Lloyd, or tertiary institution and the interaction leverage and expand upon in to other areas Ben Armstrong and Sam Leach then returned between the resident and the host is an of professional interest and with other artists to Beijing for the opening of the exhibition important aspect of the program. Residents and organizations”. During 2010 Kate also arising from their partnership with Chinese commonly present talks and workshops or completed the Asialink Leaders Program artists Wu Daxin, Shi Jinsong and Cang Xin. engage in formal teaching. Many also direct and is now based at the Australian High performances, organise events, exhibit in solo Commission in Delhi working on the 2012 Through 24HR Art, Steve also initiated a and group shows and perform readings. To Australia/India cultural program for 2012. new residency program in Beijing that gives date, there have been residencies in over 20 priority to artists from regional Australia, countries including Japan, China, Singapore, A residency may be a catalyst for ongoing supported by both the Australia Council and India, Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia, involvement with the host country. Newcastle- Asialink. At the same time, Steve is working Cambodia, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam based Catherine Croll is a community with curators Sudjud Dartanto, Yogyakarta and Mongolia. cultural development specialist with a great and Norberto Roldan, Manila, on the project skill for matching people and projects and ‘Immemorial: reaching back beyond memory’ The experiences of residents often stimulate bridging cultural divides. In 2010 Catherine that offers an extraordinary collaboration profound changes in artistic direction and undertook a residency with Redgate studios and dialogue between Northern Territory, career. Some recent examples are illuminating and Gallery in Beijing to work on the 10th Indonesian and Filipino artists. ‘Immemorial’ not only in terms of experiences for the artists, anniversary of their residency program and was exhibited at the Chan Contemporary Art but also for the contribution made to their a series of exhibitions held in China as part Space in Darwin in late October 2011. host organisation and country. of ‘Imagine: The Year of Australian Culture in China’. These included an exhibition titled Steve’s extensive experience in Asia has A residency may provide increased “Hard Sleeper” based on a train journey by given him a deep understanding of cultural opportunities for arts practitioners to continue six Australian artists to artist colonies and exchange issues. He notes that: “Australia’s working in the Asian region. Kate Ben-Tovim studios in Chengdu, Chonqing, Lhasa and funding agencies need to seriously address combined her academic background in music Beijing. Catherine is currently working on the issue of reciprocity if they wish to continue performance and international relations a 20th anniversary Redgate Gallery tour encouraging the exportation of Australia’s with her interest in cultural exchange by of Chinese contemporary art through both culture northward as ‘cultural exchange’. I working on projects in China, London, Papua China and Australia in 2011 and 2012. Her applaud opportunities enabling us to generate New Guinea and Indonesia over the last networks of the Chinese contemporary and sustain artistic friendships and partners in 12 years. Her recent projects in Indonesia art scene are invaluable for artists and Asia - it would be nice to have the means to grew out of her 2009 residency there. The managers wanting to work in China. invite these friends to ‘our homes’ occasionally.”
34 T A A S A R E VI E W V O L U M E 2 0 N O . 4 LOCUST JONES, OPEN STUDIO IN SEOUL KOREA, 2010
The Asialink residency program has also provided an alumnus of experienced arts practitioners who can assist with contemporary cultural initiatives in Asia. In 2010, Catriona Mitchell, with previous experience at the Ubud Readers and Writers Festival, The Melbourne Writer’s Festival and the Melbourne International Film Festival, undertook a residency with the Indian project group Teamwork Production to assist with the planning and delivery of the Jaipur Literary Festival. This broadened her programming, managerial and production experience to develop her career as a Literary Programmer. Her experience has proven invaluable for planning of a writer’s exchange program through Asialink for Jaipur Kong Art Fair in May 2011. One large-scale residence at Changdong Art Studio in Seoul, at in 2012 funded through the Literature Board work from this series was included in an the Korea International Art Fair in September of the Australia Council and the Australia exhibition at Carriageworks, Sydney in 2010. 2011 where Australia was the focus country. International Culture Council. While Asialink’s emphasis has been on The theory behind artist residencies is that Catriona reflects that: “In terms of achieving sending Australian artists to Asia, there an immersive experience in another culture my objectives, my research into contemporary is increasing demand for reciprocal and and place can be a stimulus to an artist’s or Indian literature was so rich and informative collaborative exchanges. Asialink currently arts manager’s practice. Asialink residencies and useful, and the willingness of the writers has three reciprocal exchanges: between are ‘engaged’ residencies rather than ‘studio’ to participate so helpful, … it took me way Taipei Artist Village/Fremantle Arts Centre; based residencies where the objective is to find beyond where I had expected to go”. Changdong Art Studio, Seoul/Artspace, time and space to work on one’s own projects. Sydney and Tokyo Wonder Site with Monash For Asialink residents, the place and culture are Residents can have an impact in their host University Museum of Art, Melbourne. all important and they must actively engage community. Sydney arts lawyer and curator, with their local and/or arts communities. The Cass Mathews had previously studied at Japanese artist Midori Mitamura creates process is often transformational, personally Yamanashi University and returned to Japan installations from photographs, videos and and professionally. in 2009 to work with the fourth Echigo found and recycled objects. Trained in fashion Tsumari Arts Triennial, which is located north and photography, she has held residencies in Given the emphasis in the proposed new National of Tokyo and focuses on strong community Finland and London and exhibited extensively Cultural Policy on linking the arts to other areas engagement with leading international and in Asia and Europe. In residence at the Monash of government activities and the importance of local artists. While artist in residence, Cass University Museum of Art in early 2012, Asia for Australia’s future prosperity, Asialink worked with the Australian Embassy in Midori continued her ‘Art & Breakfast’ project, residencies join many of the dots across the Tokyo to establish “Australia House” in an old initiated in Stockholm and continued in portfolios of arts, trade, foreign affairs, education, farmhouse as a residency space and showcase Tokyo and Berlin. Midori hosted breakfast for communications, and community development. for Australian artists. Unfortunately, Australia visitors in the gallery space and transforms her However, to keep at the forefront of residency House was destroyed in the Japan disaster memories, observations and breakfast objects models and practice, Australia needs to increase in early 2011 and the Australian Embassy into dramatic visual narratives. its investment in this area. There are many new in Tokyo is currently raising funds and residency models to explore such as utilising undertaking a design competition to build Korean artist Yongseouk Oh undertook a technology to create ‘virtual’ and ‘green’ a new one, hopefully in time for the fifth residency at Artspace, Sydney in 2011. He residencies as well as developing ‘multilateral’ Echigo Tsumari in late 2012. Ulanda Blair, stitches together film excerpts and stills to residencies and investing in the necessary the curator at the Australian Centre for the reconstruct reality in video works that confuse infrastructure to enable Australia to host more Moving Image, worked on three projects for the past and present by amalgamating real reciprocal residencies. the Setouchi International Festival in 2010 and imagined places. In combining personal and will return to Japan to work on the 2012 and found imagery, he examines the boundary Because Asia is ‘hot’ we can no longer take our Echigo Tsumari Festival as an Asialink Arts where individual and collective memories geographic proximity for granted. Europe, the Management resident. collide. With funding from the Australia United Kingdom and increasingly the USA are Korean Foundation (AKF) Asialink was able targeting Asia and making serious investments Residencies provide the stimulus for new to assist Yongseouk with an exhibition on in cultural engagement. The ball is currently in creative work. Based in Korea in 2010, visual the digital screen in the Atrium at Federation Australia’s court – but not for long. artist Locust Jones made a series of large-scale Square in Melbourne. The title of his project, ink drawings incorporating Korean news “Square by Square”, references the multiple Lesley Alway is Director of Asialink Arts. She has imagery. He chose Korea because of its rich viewpoints offered by the artist’s video works experience across the government, non-profit and paper making culture and used the fibrous and the physical reality of being screened at commercial art sectors. Her previous roles include Hanji paper, made in rolls from the mulberry Federation Square. Managing Director, Sotheby’s Australia; Director and tree and perfectly suited for his large-scale CEO, Heide Museum of Modern Art; Director of Arts drawings. A number of these works were AKF funding also supported a project ‘Body Victoria and Director, Artbank. successfully exhibited and sold at the Hong Request’ by Guy Benfield, Australian artist in
T A A S A R E VI E W V O L U M E 2 0 N O . 4 35 A N E W N A G A R I S I n g : C A m b o d IA N c o n TE m p o RAR Y A R T
Darryl Collins
SOLDIERS ARRIVE AT THE PALACE, 2010, LEANG SECKON, COLLAGE, MIXED MEDIA ON PAPER. IMAGE © COURTESY THE ARTIST
y all measures, contemporary art in B Cambodia is a young and vibrant offspring, rising Naga-like from the chaos of the 70s and 80s. A first glimpse was provided by New Art Gallery (now under new management), whose inaugural exhibition ‘New Style for a New Subject’ was held in January 1994, featuring self-taught artist Svay Ken (1933–2008). Within five years, Svay was to be one of the first internationally recognised Cambodian artists featured in the prestigious Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale, Japan.
Whether by neglect or intention, there are few avid Cambodian collectors of contemporary art works and little government interest shown in young emerging artists, with no public museum or national gallery spaces dedicated to forming permanent collections. Collectors who purchase from local exhibition spaces tend to belong to the international expatriate community and important modern works of art inevitably leave the country when members return to their countries of origin. The Singapore Art Museum (SAM) is a leading institutional Dana recently observed that local artists are with the 2008 Architecture+Urban Design collector of contemporary Cambodian art, as growing in stature. In the past she nurtured month and is involved with ecological issues is the Queensland Art Gallery through the on- emerging artists by covering exhibition costs in relation to development projects, is now a going ‘Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary and by not charging commission but since lively multifaceted arts event. Art’ – the most recent showing included four 2008 her prices reflect commercial interests, Khmer artists (Svay Ken, Rithy Panh, Vandy the quality of mature artists’ work and an Artist Leang Seckon has commented that Rattana and Sopheap Pich). Hong Kong added influx of international buyers. A artists are ‘growing’ and finding their way collectors also snap up Cambodian works from number of Phnom Penh curators and gallery with increasing experience. He noted that commercial galleries. owners now support artists on contract. the interest shown by international collectors contributes to a rise in professional standards Acting as a counterpoise to the neighbouring Popil Gallery (now closed) with founding and observed that Cambodia is still ‘a popular Cambodian painting shops in ‘Art photographer-director, Stéphane Janin sometimes exciting taste’ for visiting collectors Street’, Reyum Institute of Arts and Culture opened its doors in 2005 to provide access of contemporary art. Seckon is an extremely (established 1998), comprising a gallery and to photography through classes, an elegant committed artist who is concerned for the research centre, was founded by Ly Daravuth gallery and reference library space for fragile balance between the past, development and Ingrid Muan (1964–2005). Several survey interested gallery goers. Photography as and the environment. Since 2006 he has shows titled ‘Visions of the Future’ and a medium with immediacy quickly found instigated several incarnations of the ‘The ‘Through Our Eyes’ featured contemporary favour with young Cambodian artists and Rubbish Project’ with Fleur Bourgeois Smith, artists; while ‘Painted Stories’ was devoted to an important component of Janin’s legacy featuring everything from creative fashion paternal figure, Svay Ken. Svay was at every are members of the Sa Sa (Stiev Silapak) (apparel created from recycled plastic), to a show in Phnom Penh he could manage to group. Robert Turnbull writing for the New highly acclaimed installation of a 225 m long attend: first with his walking stick and at his York Times in June 2009 reported on the Naga serpent which ‘appeared’ in the Siem last public appearance in a wheelchair at the history of recent photographers in an article Reap river to herald World Water Day in 2008. Bophana Centre tribute exhibition. His quiet entitled ‘Cambodians Take Back the Lens’. presence offered assurance to countless artists He noted: “The other significant change has A more recent explosion of Southeast Asian from a new generation. ‘Sharing Knowledge’ been the advent of photo festivals. Following and international art contacts, electronic was dedicated to his ambition – to record his the Angkor Photography Festival in Siem and print media, artists’ networks and memories of what his friend Dana Langlois Reap, PhotoPhnomPenh was inaugurated in art exchanges has resulted in overseas art fitfully dubbed, ‘a life less ordinary.’ November 2008.” exhibitions and enabled Cambodian artists to visit Europe, Japan, the United Kingdom, Java Arts (established 2000) by Dana Langlois, The VAO or Visual Arts Open was inaugurated United States, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand has proved to be an important venue for both in 2006. Besides showcasing artists throughout and Hong Kong, propelling local artists emerging and established Khmer artists. the capital, this event, which developed links into the international arts arena. In January
36 T A A S A R E VI E W V O L U M E 2 0 N O . 4 THOAMADA (17 MAY - 12 JUNE, 2011), VUTH LYNO, INSTALLATION VIEW. IMAGE COURTESY THE ARTIST AND SA SA BASSAC.
2010 Michelle Vachon, arts journalist for the Cambodia Daily reported: “Acclaimed contemporary artist Leang Seckon shipped his latest series of art works to London ... for a one-man show... at Rossi & Rossi, a gallery specializing in Himalayan and Asian art located in London’s fashionable Mayfair district.” The show opened on March 30 and was a spectacular success. Marine Ky has returned from Singapore where ‘theatres on the bay’ hosted her ambitious installation ‘L’Epiderme de la Terre & Mekong (Peace)’ - an Esplanade Commission exhibited during March-April 2011 in the entrance concourse.
In May 2011, an exhibition at Java Cafe & Gallery celebrated the work of Meas Sokhorn, an artist focusing on art produced from discarded possessions simply titled ‘Pore’. ‘Pore’, as Natalie Pace, independent curator has noted: “refers to the production of sweat during of these architectural forays into new gallery During an interview in Phnom Penh, she physical labour; the works acknowledge the spaces in Siem Reap. confided that many resident Cambodian declining ability of craftsmanship to provide artists still suffer from under-exposure in the a sustainable livelihood due to a reduction in There is a growing tendency for young artists international market, in the main due to the demand and motivation …‘Pore’ is a lament to use installation and performance works to paucity of documentation outside the country. to the creativity and physicality of diminished comment on the contrasting past and present, This should be remedied by the publication of craftsmanship.” international affiliations throughout Southeast ‘Art Watch: Contemporary Art from Cambodia’ Asia, Cambodian society, disadvantaged to be released in mid-2012 authored by Erin In an earlier exhibition, an installation by groups, heritage and development issues. with detailed illustrated entries and sponsored Khorn at Java entitled ‘Contemporary Art Discussing the preoccupations of the art by Monique Burger of the Burger Collection. Museum’ (2010) was created “to highlight the collective Stiev Selapak, Francesca Sonara, fact that Cambodia has no contemporary art a graduate from the Center for Curatorial The rapidly approaching New York, NY museum despite the fact there are a number Studies at Bard College, NY, has written: salute Seasons of Cambodia festival planned of artists creating work now”. He continued: for the spring of 2013 will also surely “We lack such a place, we’re showing in “At the very least, Stiev Selapak and promote co-development of artist, gallery shops and galleries, we need it because we are the increasing number of concerned and performance, reappraisals and a whole limited to small pieces.” and inspired young artists engaging in new international critical eye for what will contemporary practices are creating a certainly be an amazing debut – the Naga Private galleries are mushrooming in the record of the community threatened by the should certainly rise to the occasion. capital and elsewhere: an obviously healthy New Phnom Penh. Even if this city, like so sign for the growth of contemporary arts in many others, has lost itself, their art has Darryl Collins first journeyed to Cambodia in 1994 with all fields. During June 2011 the crop included inherited it and will bear the burden of a team from the National Gallery of Australia, to assist new spaces at ‘Romeet’ (Phare Ponleu Selpak: sharing this story with the world and the the National Museum of Cambodia in Phnom Penh. He arts & performance based in Battambang) and increasingly sterile future.” (‘Stiev Selapak: has lectured at the Department of Archaeology, Royal ‘Teo+Namfah Gallery’, as well as the new Sa Retelling Cambodia’s Story’, posted University of Fine Arts, Phnom Penh and resides in Sa Bassac art space, which opened in Phnom online at: http://Interventionsjournal.net, Siem Reap since 2007, where, together with architect, Penh on the first floor of a 50s apartment September 2011). Hok Sokol, he has relocated and restored a number of building at a prime location near the National traditional Khmer wooden houses. Museum of Cambodia and within sight of the Erin Gleeson, curator and consultant, said in Royal Palace. ‘The Presence of the Past: Contemporary Art SELECT ARTS WEBSITES IN CAMBODIA: from Cambodia’ for the International Lecture Phnom Penh http://www.canbypublications.com/phnompenh/ppsouven.htm Siem Reap, the city adjacent to the Angkor Series, 6th Annual Asia Pacific Triennial of http://www.ccf-cambodge.org/index.php?q=km temple complex, has an important growing Contemporary Art (2009): http://www.javaarts.org arts community with contemporary young http://www.meta-house.com Cambodian artists’ works exhibited in the “Deeply affected by war’s legacy of http://www.reyum.org Arts Lounge at Hotel de la Paix and the newer absence, the artists express a sense of http://www.phareps.org/index.php?option=com_content&view= category&layout=blog&id=65&Itemid=201&lang=en Thev Gallery under the curatorship of Sasha obligation to preserving and continuing a http://www.sasaart.info Constable. Occasional shows of work by national and cultural identity. Survivors http://sasabassac.com/about.htm young Cambodian photographers are held are often incredibly adaptable and creative http://www.teonamfahgallery.com/ at John McDermott galleries. The less frenetic with little means. This is exemplified by Siem Reap http://www.canbypublications.com/siemreap/srshopping.htm life style and pleasant surroundings coupled generations of Cambodians and most http://www.the1961.com/ with the influx of international tourists has recently by a great resourcefulness seen in http://www.hoteldelapaixangkor.com/en/arts_lounge/ given the retro epithet ‘cool’ to describe some contemporary art practices.” http://www.asiaphotos.net/
T A A S A R E VI E W V O L U M E 2 0 N O . 4 37 c o n TE m p o RAR Y S I n g A p o R E P H O T o g RA P H Y: A S U RVE Y
Gael Newton MASTERS, MANIT SRIWANICHPOOM, 2009, THAILAND, GELATIN SILVER PHOTOGRAPHS, COURTESY VALENTINE
WILLIE FINE ART, SINGAPORE
n October 2008 I found colleagues and Manti Sriwanichpoom - one of the greats of I friends were rather blank about my Southeast Asian art whose work has been upcoming two-week holiday in Singapore, two seen in the Asia Pacific Triennial in Brisbane days of which were allocated to participating and acquired by the Queensland Art Gallery. in the inaugural Singapore International Photography Festival (SIPF). The greater The National Museum of Singapore (NMS) merits of the ancient monuments and exotic and Singapore Art Museum (SAM) are the street life of India, Thailand or Cambodia, peak high arts government bodies. Both the beauties of Vietnam or pampered boat have collections of Southeast Asian and cruises up the Mekong, were all warmly select holdings of foreign art. NMS has a recommended to me as alternatives. cinematheque which can runs programs of past and present forms of the moving image. An invitation had come to me to participate in A range of energetic cooperatives, alternative the SIPF initially via Zhuang Wubin, a young and government agencies exist, some with a Singaporean documentary photographer, performance arts base. These are the Centre researcher, writer and curator. He wrote on for the Arts and art Museum at the National behalf of Festival Director Gwen Lee, director University of Singapore, the Nanyang of 2902 Gallery, then the only exclusive Academy of Fine Arts, and Lasalle College photoart gallery in Singapore and the largest of the Arts where the esteemed Australian in Southeast Asia. art historian, contemporary art curator and critic Dr Charles Merewether is Director of the in which an essay by Susie Lingham, an Arriving in Singapore the heat was no Institute of Contemporary Art. artist, co-founder and director of 5th Passage surprise; the art of short forays from the Artists Ltd in Singapore, gives an admirably hotel soon mastered. Singaporeans seemed Coinciding with the SIPF, the National lucid and detailed account of the history equally surprised when my partner and I Museum launched its first Season of of contemporary art since the late 80s and mentioned we were in town for a fortnight. Photography with Doubleness: Photography of the impact of the Singapore Government’s Yet everything about Singapore’s cultural Chang Chien-Chi put together by their curator ‘Renaissance City’ plan of 2000 which has situation was interesting, especially in Wong Hwei Lian in collaboration with Chang, directed energy from business to the arts. comparing attitudes and achievements of this a Taiwanese member of the elite European In a recent conversation, however, Charles small island nation of 5.8 million against my photoagency, Magnum. The exhibition had Merewether disputed the premise behind the own land approaching 23 million. a well-produced catalogue published by concept of ‘Southeast Asian art’, citing the Didier Millet of Editions Millet, Singapore. greater differences between the countries and A significant number of international curators The other two shows in the Museum’s season cultures that make up the region. and photography teachers had come to were of foreign multimedia artists: Mexican SIPF unfunded. I merely gave a talk on Pedro Meyer and American choreographer The acknowledged dominance of performance the Asia-Pacific collection at the NGA and composer /scenarist Robert Wilson. and installation art in Singapore referred to participated in a forum with key figures such by SAM catalogue contributors is borne out as photojournalist Alex Moh from Kuala A good account of the evolution of the regional in relation to photomedia. While conceptual Lumpur, who is currently working towards art scene can be found in the SAM catalogue, photoworks by important figures Manit a history of photography on Southeast Negotiating home history and nation: two decades Sriwanichpoom, Sabah-born Malaysian Asia, and Thai photomedia and video artist of contemporary art in southeast Asia 1991-2011, Yee I-Lann and Singaporeans Lee Wen and
ORANG BESAR SERIES: A ROUSING ACCOUNT OF MIGRATION IN THE LANGUAGE OF THE SEA, YEE I-LAN, 2010, ED 2/8 TRIPTYCH,
TYPE-C COLOUR PHOTOGRAPHS, COLLECTION NATIONAL GALLERY OF AUSTRALIA, © THE ARTIST
38 T A A S A R E VI E W V O L U M E 2 0 N O . 4 THE ILLEGITIMATE CROSS-DRESSING SON, TWO PRINCESSES AND THE ROYAL COOK, CHRIS YAP, 2009,
FROM THE FIVE TABLEAUX ON THE CHANGING LIVES OF A PERNAKAN FAMILY OVER THREE GENERATIONS, COLOUR GICLEE PRINT,
© THE ARTIST AND THE NATIONAL UNIVERSITY SINGAPORE MUSEUM
Amanda Heng, are included, there are no works by photographers making documentary or tableaux /staged imagery as such. International post-modern themes of hybridity and cross-gender appear but representation of the local vibrant Peranakan (Chinese-Malay- Indonesian) culture seems wan.
Peranakan cultural heritage nurtured over the same period and extending beyond the Straits, has been treated directly by Chris Yap Wooi-Hoe’s Of Fingerbowls & Hankies series, a commission from the National University of Singapore shown at their Baba House museum. The Peranakan Museum is a must- visit in the arts quarter of Singapore.
The SIPF acts to provide a depth of engagement with photography’s many lives as art and illustration, promotion, witness, propaganda and provocateur. This wider gamut of engagement is also at the core of programs at SIPF Director Gwen Lee’s own photoart gallery 2902, named for its start date in a leap year in 2008. It is housed in the Mount Sophia Old School arts studio space though headed for a new city space in the near future.
Lee manages a diverse program which recognises photography as art, craft and business that needs exposure and marketing. Following the program of exhibitions through the Gallery’s website introduces a strong core of local artists as well as adventurous choices of pan Asian and foreign artists. These include award winning John Clang (Ang Choon Leng) who also works out of New York. Clang studied at the Lasalle College of the Arts and had his first gallery shows with 2902 and SAM in 2009.
Dealer galleries are not over abundant in Singapore and few support photomedia to any Yap combines professional and personal work international trend where once permanent large degree. Kuala Lumpur and Singapore as a photographer and educator at his Light exile was the only real career option. based Valentine Willie Fine Art (VWFA) was Editions print workshop and gallery, started founded in 1996 by lawyer and collector in 2002. Yap has added historical shows to his Historical photographs which are outside the Valentine Willie and Asian art specialist Mee- program most recently work by his Pictorialist scope of this article, are served in Singapore by a Seen Loong as a gallery venue and force for uncle TM Chau, acquired by the Singapore permanent display in the National Museum and appreciation of modern and contemporary Museum and the National Gallery of Australia. by a few high and low end antique dealers across Southeast Asian art. It shows several Singapore (prices are however, at international photomedia artists: Manit Sriwanichpoom A different point of view from those artists levels). A number of private collectors, European and Yee I-Lann, video artist Emil Goh and bridging professional, commercial and and local, hold world-class Asian collections and performance artist Melati Suryodarmo. contemporary staged photography as a necessity quietly continue to build their collections. What in Singapore is taken by Zhuang Wubin, a is lacking is ready access to classic international Singaporean and Southeast Asian third generation Chinese Singaporean whose historic photographers’ works that have formed photographers, photocurators and website zhuangwubin.posterous.com contains much of the history of the medium, at least as photohistorians are often found working his extensive work on Chinese communities in written in Western photohistories, or even the simultaneously across commercial, reportage Southeast Asia and personal commitment to a regional works of famed 19th and 20th century and art projects destined for local and research based documentary photography. foreign photographers at work in Asia, such as international museums, commercial galleries Felice Beato and John Thomson, whose career and Festival venues. Art School courses are well Many local photomedia artists have been started in Singapore. established and, while photohistory is not a educated at art schools at home and abroad discipline, photographer-lecturers like Lasalle’s and are based between EuroAmerica and My own photographic interests are broad Gilles Massot offer course content, while Chris their homeland. This is increasingly an church to eccentric. I found all fronts were
T A A S A R E VI E W V O L U M E 2 0 N O . 4 39 ON THE EVE OF THE CHINESE NEW YEAR, ZHUANG WUBIN, 2008, A YOUNG VISITOR TO CHINATOWN IS SEEN HUGGING A MANNEQUIN
THAT HAS BEEN PUT UP FOR THE FESTIVAL,TYPE C COLOUR PHOTOGRAPH, COURTESY THE ARTIST AND THE CHINESE HERITAGE CENTRE
catered for in Singapore’s photomedia art making - artists do not need a forty page bi if not tri-lingual, balancing living tradition venues and antique dealers. I left a fortnight manual to ‘get’ a new idea, even one from and high tech futures, versed in Eastern and later as a fan of Singapore city and its astute overseas - but also a recognition that art Western culture, familiar with Buddhist and infrastructure development in the face of some writing can fall behind. Muslim religious traditions as well as local mighty economic and political challenges, Indigenous animist beliefs. I could not hope with its sophisticated arts community feeling As I walked around the galleries and observed to share this rich mix of background and its way under a new and more supportive the extraordinary transformation of a city even experience, yet the texts I read were all couched government arts policy. I have returned since to its Disneyesque Sentosa Island resort and new in such familiar language and concepts, word on three more visits. My initial response Marina Bay casino mall, I was aware that the perfect for London or New York or Australia, was a heightened sense of the robustness of other viewers were largely Asians - most likely that this raises the question: how can this material reflect the very different perspectives that informed the making of the art it describes?
Valentine Willie’s ‘An introduction to South East Asian Art’ on the VWFA website meets the claim that Asia is too diverse and inchoate to encapsulate meaningfully by affirming that: “…the cultural and civilisational brilliance of the region (and the rationale of much Southeast Asian contemporary art) lies in the way its people have been able to make the foreign and the alien familiar - shaping, for example, a localised Nusantara response to the great global faiths”. The Masters degree in contemporary Asian art now offered at Lasalle College will perhaps produce new generations of writers able to send melded culture messages in bottles back to sea to reach foreign shores.
Gael Newton is Senior Curator of Photography, National Gallery of Australia. TIME (CHINATOWN), JOHN CLANG, 2009, FINE ART ARCHIVAL PRINT. COURTESY OF THE ARTIST
40 T A A S A R E VI E W V O L U M E 2 0 N O . 4 T A A S A R E VI E W V O L U M E 2 0 N O . 4 41 B E y o n d F I R S T I m p RESSI o n S : S T u d E N T P ERS P E C T I V E S o n A S I A N A R T
Phoebe Scott
ANNE-MARIE JACKSON, 2011, BOWL WITH IRON BASED GLAZE, STONEWARE, (H) 9CM, (D) 12.5CM. PHOTO: ANNE-MARIE JACKSON
or students in Australia, there are many F sources of exposure to Asian art. It only takes a cursory look at the art world in Australia to see that Asian art has an important place in it. In Sydney alone this year, there has been a diverse range of exhibitions, from the blockbuster The First Emperor at the Art Gallery of NSW (AGNSW), to Dinh Q. Le’s installation at the Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation. Important shifts within the discipline of art history have also challenged arts educators to look beyond the ‘Western canon’ and explore the possibility of global art histories.
But what are the particular reasons that students in Australia choose to study Asian art? What are some of the obstacles and challenges of undertaking that study? What impact does undertaking those studies have? Being both a student of Asian art (studying for a PhD) and recently beginning to teach in the area at the National Art School, Sydney, these there. I went to an exhibition which was an of world culture. These students studied questions are close to my heart, personally entire room of carved seals. At that time, I Asian art as part of a broad program of study and professionally. To reflect on these issues, didn’t really understand what I was looking that might also include European, American, I spoke to some of my fellow PhD students in at, and I didn’t understand the importance of African or indigenous Australian art. Asian art at the University of Sydney as well calligraphy within that culture. So then it was as some of the students who have taken my interesting to study it later on and understand For me, the motivation to study Asian art courses at the National Art School, many of more about the status of those objects.” was related to a sense of Australia’s place in whom also study aspects of Asian art as part the world and a conviction that Australia’s of their studio practice. Other students saw the connection between growing engagement with Asia should be their interest in studying Asian art and coupled with a deeper cultural understanding. For many of the students, the initial their experiences growing up in Australia’s Rhiannon Paget, in her first year of a PhD motivation to learn more about Asian art came culturally-diverse society. Rosemarie Bilyk, at the University of Sydney in the field of from having a personal or emotional response now a painting student at the National modern Japanese art, agrees. She commented to the art objects. Tim Corne, now a painting Art School, commented that growing that: “Studying Asian art can make you feel student at the National Art School, recalled up in Southwest Sydney, she noticed a connected to the region. It can help you his first visits to the AGNSW, where he was disconnection between the art curriculum at to understand the region better, but it also drawn to the Asian art section: “I found it her school, and the multicultural environment makes you aware of your own ignorance, by really peaceful, serene and refined. It had a she experienced every day: “We still studied revealing how much there is to know.” sophisticated aesthetic that wasn’t cluttered traditional Western art. Even though perhaps or contrived.” Taking up Asian art as a field of half the class had Asian heritage, there was For programs of study that require language study was a means of building on this initial no attempt to make a connection between training and periods of in-country research, subjective attraction. what we were learning and our daily reality. this sense of connection takes very practical I didn’t get exposed to Asian culture in my forms. It is also important to acknowledge Many students also became interested in studies at that time, not until I pursued it at the significant place of international students Asian art because of their travel in Asia. Says university level.” studying art history in Australia. Simon Sophie Hopmeier: “It’s so easy to travel to Soon and Yvonne Low moved to Australia Asia, so that has made me feel emotionally Ruth Li, now studying ceramics at the to study because opportunities to study closer to Asia than Europe.” As a result of National Art School, grew up in Australia and art history at tertiary level were relatively her travels, Sophie has been particularly New Zealand, but was interested in learning limited in their home countries (Malaysia and inspired by the Japanese sculptor Enku (1632– more about Asian art and culture because Singapore respectively). Both are now first- 1695), Indian sculpture and the Cham art of of her Chinese heritage: “My parents don’t year PhD students at the University of Sydney, Vietnam. For ceramics student Anne-Marie talk about Asian culture that much…so it’s with Simon making a study of social installation Jackson, her travels in China exposed her not fascinating for me to learn about my heritage, and the transition to the contemporary in only to entirely new art objects, but also a new my roots.” Other students said that because of Southeast Asian art, while Yvonne is writing canon of value: “It was really interesting to the global nature of contemporary life, it was on women’s art in Singapore, Malaysia and see the different things that were valued over important to them not to ignore the diversity Indonesia. With many researchers working
42 T A A S A R E VI E W V O L U M E 2 0 N O . 4 BLOSSOM YOUNG, 2011, SELF PORTRAIT AS COSMIC WOMAN
(DETAIL), PENCIL AND DIGITAL COLOURING ON PAPER,
(W) 15CM, (L) 42CM. PHOTO: BLOSSOM YOUNG
between Australia and different Asian with their study of Asian art. Sophie Hopmeier, locations, one of the benefits of study in this who has studied Japanese art history, echoed field is the strong sense of being part of a this sentiment, commenting that she was most regional community of scholars. influenced by “the awareness of the qualities of the materials, and respecting those qualities, What, then, are the challenges of studying not trying to hide them with illusion.” Jason Asian art? The undergraduate students Cheng, from the painting department at the generally agreed that the biggest challenge National Art School, said that: “I think it was coming to terms with the large body improves your artwork, because you think of contextual knowledge needed to fully more, it opens your mind and you don’t just appreciate the art objects: history, geography keep doing one type of thing, you look at other and religion in particular. Very few had perspectives.” studied any Asian history at high school, although some students had studied aspects Cecilia Jackson had studied Asian of Asian art in their high school art course, printmaking techniques as background especially in contemporary art. The students research to her work, but commented that: described themselves as coming to Asian art “I personally don’t feel comfortable copying ‘without points of reference’ or ‘without any an Asian motif in my work, because I don’t markers.’ This can be daunting. Overcoming have a relationship to that culture, I don’t the students’ sense of disorientation without want to take something that’s not mine to diluting the material is a profound teaching use.” Cecilia’s comment represented a general challenge in this area. feeling among the students - having studied Asian art, they would be unlikely to make The students also noted that lack of familiarity use of superficially ‘Asian’ elements. For with Asian languages made it harder for them many students, it was an ongoing process of to recall names and terms. The challenge of experimentation, reflection and consideration the language barrier also exists at a different to decide if aspects of Asian art that they had level for students approaching PhD studies, encountered in their studies could, or should, who often need to acquire new language skills become part of their art practice. for their research. Yvonne Low for instance, although already bilingual (in English and These students reflect diverse perspectives - Chinese) is also learning Bahasa Indonesian different levels and types of study, different for her comparative research project. Among disciplinary backgrounds and different the Asian art PhD students, there was the connections to the subject matter. While it is wish that serious Asian language study could difficult to draw any overall principles from be more widely available in Australian high the experiences of such a small and diverse schools, and that more support was available group, perhaps one common thread was the for research-level language training as part of fact that all the students had come to Asian art postgraduate studies. through a multi-faceted program of studies in visual art, rather than seeing it as a discrete But despite these challenges, the study of area of specialisation. Asian art was seen as rewarding. According to ceramics student Blossom Young: “You If this is generally the case, then perhaps it is learn history through art, and it’s a beautiful important to consider how to teach Asian art way to learn history.” For some students at in the integrative context in which students the National Art School, learning about Asian encounter it. The challenge may be to techniques was also central to their working present thematic connections which resonate practice. Ceramics student Anne-Marie across different areas of art history, while Jackson’s works were inspired by the ‘hare’s still maintaining the sense of the historical fur’ and ‘oil spot’ iron glaze techniques of and cultural particularities of Asian art. For Chinese Jian ware bowls of the Song dynasty Jason Cheng, who grew up in Taiwan before (960-1279). Evoking the complex visual effects moving to Sydney for his university studies, of these glazes was a technical feat, especially such connections are already apparent: “I given the different kiln and clay types like to see the similarities between Asian and accessible in Australia. Western art. There are different points of view, but also some of the same issues, some of the The ceramics students were also struck by same visual language…it’s fun to see that.” the connoisseurship of ceramic art within traditional Asian culture, as demonstrated by Phoebe Scott is a PhD candidate at the University of the reverence given to ceramics in the Japanese Sydney, researching Vietnamese art between 1925- tea ceremony. More than any particular 54. She also lectures in Asian art at the National Art technique, it was this sense of value and School, Sydney. respect for the object that they most associated
T A A S A R E VI E W V O L U M E 2 0 N O . 4 43 HI n d I C I N E M A A n d T H E P ARA d o x o f G L o b ALISATI o n
Adrienne McKibbins
SHAH RUKH KHAN & KAREENA KAPOOR IN BILLU (2009), STILL COURTESY EROS AUSTRALIA
ince India’s rise as an economic force S there has been considerable discussion in various forums, both within and outside the Hindi film industry, about what has been termed the globalisation of Indian cinema (although actually referring to Hindi or, as it is popularly known, Bollywood film).
Both terms – globalisation and Bollywood – are controversial. The term Bollywood is disliked by many in the Hindi film industry as it is felt that it carries derogatory baggage. This is further complicated by the fact that outside India the word Bollywood is commonly seen as representing all Indian cinema.
What does the term globalisation mean when it is used to describe Hindi cinema? Does it mean that Bollywood has become international, has been adopted on a truly global scale? Do the many changes that have occurred in Hindi cinema actually the UK, and Malaysia used as locations over called traditional film has disappeared, films constitute globalisation? And, importantly, the last ten years. with the requisite song and dance sequences should this be seen as a positive or negative such as Veer-Zaara (2004), Band Baaja Baarat development? For some, globalisation is seen While film budgets continue to grow, the cost (2011), and Rab ne Bana de Jodi (2008), continue as a threat whereby national cinemas become of filming on the streets of Bombay (Mumbai) to be enormously popular both inside and homogenised, and national entertainment is increasing, making it likely that more films outside India. industries are absorbed by the dominant will be shot outside the city. Unlike other industries of the developed countries. national cinemas, Hindi filmmakers have Opinions are now divided on films shot in the advantage of using the English language, ‘exotic’ locations outside India. Audiences The Hindi film industry, which is as old as making it easy for a Hindi crew to work in the diaspora appear keen to see Indian cinema itself, and even predates Hollywood, overseas and international technicians to locations, while the Indian audience looks to has long had an international presence. Raj work on Hindi films. more exotic places for holiday ideas (and the Kapoor’s Awara (1950), for instance, was tourism aspect is one reason filmmakers get enormously popular in the Soviet Union in the Since 2002, Indian movie exports are estimated such good location deals). 1950s and Mehboob Khan’s Aan (1952) had a to have grown by about 60 percent, with the French release following its London premiere USA and Canada accounting for much of this So what has brought about this discussion in the early fifties, while his epic Mother India increase, followed by the UK, Mauritius (a of globalisation? Hindi films have certainly (1957) was the first Hindi film to be nominated favourite location for Hindi films), Dubai and begun to feature much more in international for an Oscar. Along with Sholay (1975), Mother other markets like South Africa, Fiji, Australia, film festivals and competitions. There isLagaan India is perhaps the most famous of Hindi New Zealand, Malaysia, some middle eastern (2001), with its Oscar nomination, Devdas (2002) films. As far back as 1926, Light of Asia was countries, and now Germany, which has a shown in a special presentation at Cannes, the first Indo-German co-production. But it’s growing love affair with Bollywood. and Kal Ho Naa Ho (2004) and Om Shanti Om really since the advent of DVD, the internet (2007) presented in Berlin. The Toronto Film and digital technology that the reach of Hindi Hindi films have seen a substantial Festival has also premiered a number of Hindi cinema has expanded so dramatically. transformation over this period, not only in films, London had a B ‘ ollywood Week’, and financing and production, but also in content. at least three Hindi stars now take their place Since the enormous success of Dilwale Outside India, the perception of a traditional in London’s Madam Tussauds – Amitabh Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995), set partly in Bollywood film is of a colourful song and Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai and Shah Rukh London and Switzerland, many Hindi films dance extravaganza with melodrama, thriller Khan. There are also regular Indian film are being filmed in overseas locations. Yash elements and epic love stories (referred to as festivals in the US, the UK and Germany, while Chopra has shot sequences for his films, Masala cinema), and noted for their length. the Australian Bollywood Film Festival, which usually the musical sequences, in Switzerland More recently, many Hindi films are made started in 2004, has now become ‘The Indian for so many years that there is a Swiss lake with niche audiences in mind, and are shorter, Film Festival – Bollywood and Beyond’. named after him. He was the most noted with the song and dance elements cut down director to venture overseas before this recent or even done away with, and much more Does the number of academic and popular flood, with Australia, South Africa, America, political and edgy storylines. Not that the so- books on Bollywood that have appeared in
44 T A A S A R E VI E W V O L U M E 2 0 N O . 4 AISHWARYA RAI BACHCHAN IN JODHAA AKBAR 2008 -
SHAH RUKH KHAN - INDIAN GLOBAL SUPERSTAR - STILL BILLU 2009 STILL, COURTESY EROS AUSTRALIA STILL UTV MOTION PICTURES
the last ten years provide more evidence of in the US and UK. Little of this international local Indian audiences. Whether in London, this so called globalisation, especially as most publicity made much of an impression in Sydney or Melbourne, the films are heavily of the academic books actually use the word Australia, and while My Name is Khan did promoted through the local Indian press and ‘globalisation’ in their titles? become the highest-grossing Hindi film in the Indian stores, and there are a multitude of overseas market, it didn’t really attract a huge on-line sites full of news of coming films and Some stars of Hindi cinema are internationally western audience. their release dates. Films rarely stay on the recognised. Aishwarya Rai has appeared on box office list for long, however, as pirated the red carpet at Cannes every year since 2002 So the big question is whether this supposed DVDs are available in local Indian stores (sometimes in her other role as the global globalisation of Hindi cinema has any effect within four or five days. face of L’Oreal). She appears on US television on western media, and subsequently the talk shows and has made several forays into western audience? Does the general public There is no doubt that Hindi films are being English-speaking cinema. Frieda Pinto, the know anything about Hindi cinema, its more widely distributed: even Australian young female star of Slumdog Millionaire, now stars and its films? The size of both their public libraries have started adding Hindi has a number of international films on her fan base and actual audience numbers, DVDs to their collections. For Hindi cinema to plate. Another female star, Shilpa Shetty, made a both within and outside India, may provide get a truly global audience, to be really known notable impression in 2007 when she appeared Hindi stars like Shah Rukh Khan, Rani outside the Indian diaspora, the current release on and won Celebrity Big Brother in the UK. Mukerjee, or Amitabh Bachchan (voted Star pattern will have to change so that the media of the Millennium in a BBC Poll) with global can learn more about the films, can provide Although some Indian actors have been recognition , but does that only indicate advance information, and local reviewers working in international cinema for years, this the extent of the ever-increasing NRI (non- can attend previews and write their reviews. is an exception rather than the rule. Most ‘big resident Indian) audience? Bollywood cinema stars’ in the Hindi industry (or indeed in other is certainly more recognised and written Non-Indian background film people may regional Indian cinemas) have no wish to about worldwide, and there is a growing non- know who Satyajit Ray is, but do they know move outside their own domain. They already Indian audience watching and enjoying these of Guru Dutt, Raj Kapoor, Yash Chopra, or have a billion strong audience, far larger than films, but to suggest it is a truly globalised even know the name of the director of Lagaan? that enjoyed by the biggest Hollywood stars. cinema like that of all-pervasive Hollywood is When Lagaan was nominated for an Oscar in surely stretching this concept. the Best Foreign Language category in 2002, it Globalisation may of course be coming from opened a door of interest in the west. Some film a different direction. US film companies, Hindi films have been released in Australia academics and a few western film critics took which have for some time been trying to since 2001 through two major distributors notice, articles about Hindi cinema appeared, make inroads into India, where a Hindi or and the number of Indian films screened is and there was a flurry of publication - but the Tamil film easily out-grosses an American the highest of foreign films released in this door is still only half open. There is a long way blockbuster, have more recently started country. When Hindi films are released to all to go before the attractions of Hindi cinema are investing in Indian productions and releasing venues on Fridays, the prints often only leave fully appreciated outside its national audience. the films worldwide. A notable example is India on the previous Monday, allowing a very My Name is Khan, which had money from limited window in which to clear customs, Adrienne McKibbins is the Executive Officer and Awards Fox Searchlight and Fox Star Productions and be classified and shipped to the multiplexes. Manager of the Film Critics Circle of Australia and Chair was filmed entirely in America. Unlike most This allows no time for preview screenings, of Features Selection Panel for the Asia Pacific Screen Hindi films,My Name is Khan had a staggered so how do these films regularly make it to the Awards. She is a long time researcher and writer on release, with selected previews and with the box office top ten on the week of opening, and Asian Cinema, specialising in Indian cinema. director, Karan Johar, and his stars, Shah Rukh how do people actually know anything about Khan and Kajol, doing saturation publicity the film, and even if it’s on? It’s those loyal and
T A A S A R E VI E W V O L U M E 2 0 N O . 4 45 ASIA N D A n c E I N A U S T R A L I A
Jill Sykes
nce upon a time, many years before Growing up in Adelaide, my performing arts next door or around the corner. The enormous O TAASA was born, there was a feeling world was expanded beyond my youthful influx of Asian migrants has reverberated of deep sadness among some newcomers to imagination by the Adelaide Festival: dance through what was originally an Anglo Australia that the general population knew from India – probably bharata natyam – and population, spiced up with Europeans after them only through their national dance and Bunraku puppets from Japan are among my World War II. music, and not through their poetry, prose, earliest memories of the arts of Asia. painting and more intellectual pursuits. So, as the first wave of visiting national dance Then we Australians of Anglo extraction The sheer exoticism – a word I dare use companies subsided, Australian groups with discovered their food, and so-called ‘ethnic today because it reflects what I felt at the their artistic roots in Asia and Southeast Asia restaurants’ sprang up everywhere. The earlier time – of these touring groups made an were growing up around the country. While disappointment probably turned into despair. enormous impact. It almost certainly gave the traditional dance styles sustained most of impression that there were more of them than them, they were reaching out in different Yet, in the last couple of decades, so much has was actually the case. ways to an audience that didn’t have the changed. Think of books like Shaun Tan’s The ‘baggage’ of the past and was therefore more Arrival and Nam Le’s The Boat. Artists like Even so, the popularity and profusion in open to change. Guan Wei and Ah Xian. The hopes of that earlier Australia of dance groups from Asia and immigrant generation have been realised in Southeast Asia in the mid to late decades In the 1980s, Chandrabhanu in Melbourne, ways they would never have imagined. of the 20th century was considerable. Arts Padma Menon in Canberra and Anandavalli festival directors and entrepreneurs found in Sydney led the charge of the Indian classical At the same time, dance enthusiasts have been them attractive because there was no dance practitioners with bharata natyam and rationed. When I began thinking about this language barrier between performers and Odissi as the main dance forms. article, I was quite downcast at the thought audiences, they had broad general appeal, that the profusion of dance from other parts and they didn’t cost as much to bring as a Striking out quite differently, the Penang-born of the world – Asian countries in particular – large company from, say, Europe or the USA. Chinese architectural student Kai Tai Chan wasn’t like it had been in ‘the old days’. This discovered contemporary dance, founded a wasn’t going to be a ‘good news’ piece. Meanwhile, Australians were travelling overseas company and created an utterly fascinating in greater numbers than ever before, especially body of work, both Chinese and Australian in But my analysis of the changing times led in Asia. We were getting the chance to see the its sensibilities, the two cultures inextricably to a different conclusion. Circumstances, dance of other cultures on its home ground. Our intertwined. One Extra Company flourished perceptions and expectations are different. We familiarity, knowledge and understanding of our under his direction from 1979 to 1991, employing have built on the traditional dance we were neighbours grew in a variety of ways. the talents and ideas of black, white and Asian seeing decades ago from imported companies performers in socio-political situations that in arts festivals. The dance has changed and One of the reasons for this was the arrival constantly asked questions and explored ideas so have we. It has become part of us. of our geographical neighbours to the house in a continuing dialogue with its audiences.
A SCENE FROM RASA UNMASKED, A COLLABORATION IN 2009 BETWEEN SYDNEY'S LINGALAYAM DANCE COMPANY AND KUALA LUMPUR'S SUTRA DANCE THEATRE. PHOTO BY SIVARAJAH NATARAJAN
46 T A A S A R E VI E W V O L U M E 2 0 N O . 4 CHINESE YOUTH LEAGUE MEMBERS, WHO OFTEN PERFORM AT THE AGNSW, AT THE 2011
MCDONALD'S SYDNEY EISTEDDFOD. PHOTO: COURTESY WINKIPOP MEDIA
There has been no one else like Kai Tai Chan in the past 20 years – the life of TAASA – though there have been many other interesting dance creators and performers. Tony Yap, also of Chinese Malay background, came to Australia to study graphic art and continues to make strongly individual, more introspective dance pieces in Melbourne, drawing on Malaysian trance dance and tai chi amongst a cross- section of movement styles. He has been involved in collaborations across cultures at home and overseas.
Butoh, the Japanese dance style that comes in various forms even in its home country, struck a chord with Australian audiences in the times when we had more Asian visiting companies through our arts festivals. It’s a bond that has grown through Australian resident butoh performers such as Yumi Umiumare, based in Melbourne, who once recalled in a public speaking engagement that when she returned to Japan after living in Australia for some years, her friends thought she had grown larger. On the contrary, she worked out, it was composed and performed by Alex Dea. It was presentation from Kerala, its story drawn just that her gestures and sense of space had an extraordinary, riveting event of classical from the Mahabharata and its traditions from expanded in sympathy with her new home. and contemporary styles that crossed cultures the 14th century. It was brought to Melbourne and kilometres through performances in and Sydney in 2010 by the indefatigable Tess de Quincey works out of Sydney, touring Australia, Malaysia, Singapore and India. Mohindar Dhillon to celebrate the 30th nationally and internationally with the ‘body anniversary of his Nataraj Cultural Centre, weather’ style of butoh that was developed So you can’t say we are lacking adventurous source of the best in touring Indian musicians in Japan, but which she has taken further as a events in Asian dance, despite being few and and dance artists. form of individual expression in her Australian far between. At least, those on a large scale. We surroundings. De Quincey Co, founded in 2000, are more likely to see small scale, meticulously This production was a glorious mix of often creates performances in unusual sites – prepared dance presentations such as those at raw and sophisticated, its larger-than- outback at Lake Mungo and near Alice Springs the Art Gallery of NSW, shown free by the life characters elaborately costumed and or, most recently, in the centre of Sydney on Gallery as companion pieces to exhibitions. symbolically designated with makeup that is the square outside St Mary’s Cathedral. Her a form of artwork which is animated by the work can be monumental and expansive in And that is where you might have seen some jumping eyebrows, rolling eyes and cheek wide open spaces – and engrossingly intense of Sydney’s superbly costumed and precisely tics. The eloquent body language of the when it is concentrated down to its essence, rehearsed Chinese dancers – whom you performers, the theatricality of music ranging as it was in The Stirring, an astonishing will almost certainly see in larger numbers from whisper sweet to warlike pounding, and exploration of industrial architecture that in events that welcome the lunar new year the glorious simplicity of the staging, made it makes up the Sydney performing arts complex, around Sydney late in January. They are great another benchmark of dance in this country. CarriageWorks. performers and proud purveyors of their traditions. So, how lucky we Australian audiences have Although she declares she has retired as a been – and still are. The events mentioned are performer, Anandavalli is reaching out in And just to complete the circle in this just a sample of what has been on show over interesting ways as a director of her Indian overview of where Asian dance has gone in many years. And while there may not be as classical dance company Lingalayam. Her Australia over the past two decades, there many now as there were, most of them are current project is a collaboration with the have been a couple of recent large touring well worth seeing. This has turned out to be a taiko drumming group, TaikOz, bringing companies. One came from China in 2011 on ‘good news’ piece after all. together dance and music traditions from a government exchange to launch the year India and Japan. of Chinese culture in Australia: The Legend Jill Sykes AM is dance critic for The Sydney Morning of Shangri La was an engaging show in its Herald. She has been a freelance arts journalist most In 2009, she worked with Malaysia-based focus on folk dance traditions from Yunnan of her career, writing about theatre, music and the Ramli Ibrahim, best known in Australia in province, less so in its final stages that were visual arts as well as dance. She is editor of Look, the the 1980s as an Odissi soloist and a member replete with Hollywood gestures and other membership magazine of the Art Gallery Society of of the Sydney Dance Company, but now western influences. NSW, author of the book Sydney Opera House – From artistic director of Sutra Dance Theatre The Outside In and editor of the book of the TV series in Kuala Lumpur. They both danced, The other was one of the most memorable Wine Lovers’ Guide to Australia. choreographed and directed Rasa Unmasked visiting productions ever to come from South for their combined companies, with music Asia: The Killing of Dushasana, a Kathakali
T A A S A R E VI E W V O L U M E 2 0 N O . 4 47 EARL Y E n c o u n T E R S W I T H A S I A
Peter Sculthorpe
PETER SCULTHORPE. PHOTO: BRIDGET ELLIOT, 2009
n 1938, on a visit to Melbourne with my garden, I didn’t find it particularly engaging. I mother, I met Percy Grainger. He was I asked one of my mother’s friends why all strolling in the Botanical Gardens with Professor the music was from Austria and Germany. W.A. Laver, who taught at the University ‘Because it’s the best!’ she declared. Conservatorium of Music. I’d come to know Professor Laver from his visits to Launceston as My experience in the Chinese market garden a music examiner for Trinity College, London. was not as uncommon as one might think. He always seemed enthusiastic about my early When very young, in Melbourne, Percy attempts at composition. Grainger visited a Japanese bazaar. He later wrote excitedly about it, and about the music I told Percy Grainger that, when I grew he heard there. He maintained that much of up, I, too, would be a composer. ‘My boy,’ his own music stemmed from that experience. he proclaimed, ‘You must look north, to In his teens, Grainger delighted in shocking the islands!’ At the time, I thought he was his piano teacher in Frankfurt. He announced referring to islands immediately north of that, if he won the prestigious Mendelssohn Australia. Much later, it became clear that he Prize, he’d spend the money studying Chinese meant Java and Bali, the Philippines and the music in China. His teacher told him that the islands of Japan. As it turned out, I followed prize was ‘not for idiots’, whereupon Grainger his advice, perhaps without realizing it. refused to have anything more to do with it.
During my childhood, I did have some contact In 1935, Percy Grainger wrote a piano piece with things Asian. Friends of an aunt and air performances would be mounted for our based upon the Chinese folk song Beautiful uncle often went on a cruise to Japan. They benefit. I was captivated by the strangeness Fresh Flower. Many years later, I arranged it always returned home with exotic presents of the nasal singing, and the twanging and for orchestra. It was in homage to him. for my cousins, Helen and Geoff. The grown- thudding of the stringed instruments. I don’t ups in the family scoffed a little: in those think my father enjoyed the music very My first opera has a Chinese subject. Written days, anything labelled ‘Made in Japan’ was much, but he was careful not to spoil my own when I was about nine, it’s based on a play regarded as cheap and nasty. enjoyment of it. called The Golden Fisherman. I wrote the words for the arias myself, but the content One present from Japan was a cardboard cut- A little later, my mother took me to a concert isn’t at all Chinese. One of the so-called arias out castle. It remains vividly in my memory. of orchestral music in Launceston’s National begins with what seems to be a description of Everywhere there were watchtowers, the Theatre. After the concerts in the market Minchinbury Sparkling Burgundy, which was upper levels diminishing in size, topped OPENING OF BEAUTIFUL FRESH FLOWER by countless curving gables. Inner citadels enclosed inner fortresses, and these enclosed armouries and even a small palace. It was probably the one at Nagoya, later destroyed in an air raid during World War II. Unlike anything in the Celtic recesses of my imagination, it would hardly have suited King Arthur.
We also delighted in a much-thumbed children’s version of The Tales of Genji. Geoff and I loved reading about Genji’s deeds as a warrior: ‘WINE, WINE, SPARKLING WINE,’ FROM THE GOLDEN FISHERMAN his bow was eight feet long. I still treasure the book, having persuaded my cousins to give it to me. I wish I’d persuaded them to give me the cardboard cut-out castle as well.
Around that time, in the mid 1930s, I even had contact with Asian music. The very first live concerts I heard were of Chinese folk songs. Once a week, my father took me with him to a Chinese market garden outside Launceston. There, he’d buy fresh vegetables to sell in his general store. Sometimes, open-
48 T A A S A R E VI E W V O L U M E 2 0 N O . 4 in the late 1950s, the situation was much the OPENING OF ETENRAKU same. I’d hoped to learn about all the musics of the human race. Perhaps I should have been an anthropologist.
Like Oxford, the teaching in Melbourne was devoted to the music of Western Europe. At least I’d grown to care for a great deal of it, especially music from the time of Palestrina and Bach. Writing in the style of Palestrina was one of my many joys. I was less enthusiastic about the 19th century. Wagner, for instance, had published an anti-Semitic manifesto later adopted by Hitler. It was impossible to like anything about him. I was told to keep my views to myself.
Next-door to the Conservatorium is the Grainger Museum. In planning it, one of Grainger’s stated intentions was to make it:
”…a centre for the preservation and study of the folk-music of the English-speaking world and of the art-musics and then very fashionable. Its buoyant melody the 1950s, I became a partner with my brother primitive musics of countries adjacent to was clearly inspired by Mozart. I still like the Roger in a gun shop in Launceston. Josef Australia, the South alliteration of the words. Conrad is still one of my favourite writers. Seas, Java, etc.” Over the years, I’ve made pilgrimages to some Several years later, I discarded the work. I of his ports of call in South East Asia, one to Unfortunately, exploring the museum was also discarded a second opera, for which I’d Surabaya. I found no trace of him. In his time, out of the question. It was always closed. written the entire libretto. Some of the arias there was a concert hall in one of the town’s One day, in the student library, I came across are in rhyming schoolboy French. This opera hotels. It boasted of an orchestra made up of a recording of an orchestral arrangement of sings of crime, passion, and mistaken identity women and conducted by a certain Maestro Japanese court music. It was Etenraku, Music at the time of the French Revolution. I’ll Zangiacomo. If it still exists, it also eluded me. from Heaven. Aptly named, it changed my always be grateful to my brother for retrieving life. Along with Indonesian gamelan music these two works from the rubbish heap, and At one stage in Surabaya I was caught in a and Aboriginal chant, Japanese court music for withholding them from me until I finished student riot. The police used several taxis, became one of the most powerful influences secondary school. including the one that I’d hired, as shields. on my own music. Gregorian chant, one of Pelted with rocks, all the driver and I could the great achievements of Western culture, At school in Launceston, it was almost as if do was crouch on the floor. It wasn’t the time exerted an equally powerful influence. Asia simply didn’t exist. For that matter, to wave a white handkerchief. The driver, Australia itself was regarded as of little who spoke not a word of English, seemed to I treasure my time in Melbourne and the importance. The world was Western Europe, be more afraid of the police than he was of friends that I made there. As I became more and its history more or less came to an end just the students. A week or so later, the Suharto aware of Australia’s place in the world, I felt after World War 1. The library at Launceston Government was overturned. far-removed from the turbulence of postwar Grammar did contain a few books about Asia, Europe, and the attendant intellectual climate. mostly biographies of such men as Brooke of While Conrad didn’t visit Tasmania, an Certainly, I didn’t feel a need to erase my past Borneo and Thomas Stamford Raffles. These important part of his life is there. His last and and build some kind of future, as my European were catalogued under English History. At happiest days at sea were spent working on peers did. I didn’t have much of a past to erase. least the Near East of Kinglake and Burton, the sailing ship, the Torrens. Built in 1875, at a and the Africa of Livingstone, were better cost of 27 pounds, the cutter made a number Rather than look to Europe, I began to look represented. The library did, however, contain of voyages to Australia. Later sold, the new towards Australia and Asia. When I first an illustrated monograph on a Japanese owner finally abandoned it near Hobart, on incorporated Asian musics and ideas into my potter. I often considered stealing it. One day the banks of the River Derwent. When I was work, I was accused of writing ‘Susie Wong somebody else did. growing up, I loved excursions to see the Music’. That, however, is a story of other remains of the Torrens. encounters, other journeys. I imagine it was an early love for the writings of Joseph Conrad that stimulated my interest In the year that World War II came to an end, Peter Sculthorpe was born in Tasmania in 1929. He in South East Asia. One of my boyhood I left Tasmania to study in Melbourne at the is Emeritus Professor of Music, University of Sydney, ambitions was to be a gun-runner in the Straits University Conservatorium of Music. Asian and one of Australia’s 100 Living National Treasures. of Malacca and the South China Sea. The music barely existed there, just as Asia itself closest I came to this was when, for a time in barely existed at school. When I was at Oxford
T A A S A R E VI E W V O L U M E 2 0 N O . 4 49 I N P ER f o R M A n c E : A S I A N m u SI C M AKI n g I N A U S T R A L I A
A SHARED PASSION: HINDUSTANI Through this intensive contact, I was able in Kolkata, Delhi, and Mumbai where we MUSIC OF ADRIAN MCNEIL AND to listen to Ashok Roy practice most days, receive a lot of guidance and encouragement BOBBY SINGH accompany him to concerts, receive almost from our colleagues and friends. Both of us daily individual lessons and have my own are committed to developing sustainable Adrian McNeil practice supervised. I ended up leaving the creative collaborations between musicians of guitar, an instrument that I had played since both countries. When I first heard the sound of the sarod in I was young and had studied at Monash See bobbysingh.com.au; adrianmcneil.com; 1980, I sensed there was going to be trouble. University. underscorerecords.com. The experience had a profound impact on me, but little did I realise just how much of a My initial three year post-doctoral research Adrian McNeil convenes the Masters Improvisation dramatic turn my life was to take because of fellowship at Jadavpur University in Kolkata Program at Macquarie University, Sydney and it. Bobby Singh and I have been practising and in 1996 stretched out to almost six. In the runs a doctoral research program in intercultural professionally performing Hindustani music process of writing a book on the cultural improvisation. His book, Inventing the Sarod together for just on two decades now. Bobby history of the sarod, I became completely (Seagull Publishers 2004) is widely regarded as the performs extensively in Australia in many immersed in the city’s vibrant and inspiring authoritative text on the sarod tradition. His latest CD intercultural and fusion ensembles, popular as musical and intellectual life. Eventually I left with Aneesh Pradhan was released by Underscore well as traditional, and is a prominent figure for Mumbai, with the help of an Australia Records, New Delhi in 2008. in Australia’s contemporary music scene. I Council grant, to learn from Ashok Roy’s perform Hindustani music with other tabla uncle, the late Professor Sachindra Nath players both here and in India. Somehow this Roy, and from the well-known vocalist and QUEENSLAND CONSERVATORIUM’S long shared history of Hindustani music has musicologist, the late Dr Ashok Ranade. GAMELAN ENSEMBLE created a mutual creative bond, respect and understanding between us. Bobby started his training on tabla in Mumbai Philip Courtenay and Gregg Howard when he was seven. He studied at the music My training on the sarod started in the early institution, Sangeet Mahabharati, set up by In 2007 Griffith University’s Queensland 1980s and from the beginning followed the legendary tabla player and educator Conservatorium acquired the use of a fine set of traditional precepts, involving staying with my Nikhil Ghosh, later continuing his formal Central Javanese bronze gamelan instruments teacher, Ashok Roy, for around six years in India instruction as a disciple of Aneesh Pradhan. that were constructed in Solo specifically for and in Australia while undertaking doctoral He also took guidance from, and performed a member of the Conservatorium staff. The research on the sarod tradition. Ashok Roy was with, Ashok Roy in Australia. In recent years complete set is impressive, with its golden a senior student of the legendary Ustad Ali Bobby has performed with some of the most bronze instruments: a particularly fine Akbar Khan and a very well respected musician well known names in the music industry and example of the art of bronze-working, set in in India. He came permanently to Australia in in 2010 his work was deservedly recognised intricately carved and gilded wooden cases. 1987 to teach at the University of Melbourne, by the conferral of an ARIA (Australian after earlier stints at Monash University where Record Industry Association) award. Gamelan is the collective term for an ensemble I first met him. I continued to learn from him of Indonesian instruments. It is derived from until he passed away in 2007. Bobby and I are regularly invited to perform the word gamel meaning a hammer or beater with which some of the instruments are sounded. Throughout Indonesia, there are many different regional kinds of gamelan ensembles, such Balinese or Javanese. The Conservatorium’s ensemble is a classical or court gamelan and plays a repertoire associated with the royal courts in the Central Javanese cities of Solo and Yogyakarta.
Its repertoire typically provides stand-alone instrumental pieces, the music used in the wayang kulit or shadow-puppet theatre, and dance accompaniments. Within the ensemble, the instruments may be grouped according to function:
Those playing a basic melody which is the foundation of the piece; Punctuating instruments situated in the back row, particularly gongs, which mark BOBBY SINGH (L) AND ADRIAN MCNEIL IN KOLKATA, JANUARY 2011. PHOTO: ANINDYA BANERJEE
50 T A A S A R E VI E W V O L U M E 2 0 N O . 4 QUEENSLAND CONSERVATORIUM’S GAMELAN ENSEMBLE. PHOTO: SANDRA BANTICK, 2011
at the beginning of each season. The sound of the long-necked lute (yaylı tanbur) played by Seher Cagin was particularly evocative in its setting of the mood of winter. Other Nefes musicians enriched the western baroque sound of Vivaldi’s masterwork, sensitively led by solo violinist, Işin Çakmakçioğlu. Here Rachel Atkinson’s cello moved seamlessly between west and east, at times creating a sound that was as redolent of Inner Asia as Bulkan Sevun Evcimen’s reed flute (ney) and Salih Resitoğlou’s consistently light touch on kanun (plucked zither).
Nefes Ensemble’s repertoire ranges across 500 years of Ottoman history, including the 13th century music of the sema, or spiritual ceremony of the Mevlevi Sufis, widely known in the west as the ‘Whirling Dervishes.’ As well, the group plays court music enjoyed by Süleyman the Magnificent in the Topkapi Palace during the 16th century, and works from the so-called ‘Tulip Age’ in the reign of Sultan Ahmet III in the early 18th century when the off and subdivide rhythmic cycles within NEFES ENSEMBLE: INSPIRING MUSICAL Ottoman court rivalled that of Versailles for a piece; COLLABORATIONS IN MELBOURNE its lavish parties and entertainments. Elaborating instruments, including the rebab or bowed fiddle, which ornament, Susan Scollay The group’s next exciting collaboration is with elaborate and develop polyphonic the Victorian Youth Opera under the direction patterns; Melbourne music lovers recently enjoyed of Richard Gill. Nefes musicians will join the Drums which lead the ensemble and direct a unique fusion of classical western music first ever performance in Australia ofThe Play the progress of each piece, changes of and the sounds and atmosphere of Asia. The of Daniel, a medieval miracle play considered tempo, movement from section to section Nefes Ensemble, who perform the music a forerunner of opera. Sung in Latin and and the conclusion; and of the Ottoman court and the music of the English, it tells the story of the prophet Daniel Voices, including solo female vocalists and Sufis, joined musicians from the Melbourne and his encounter with Darius, a character a group chorus of male voices, which sing Symphony Orchestra in presenting the The based on the figure of an ancient Persian king. traditional, classic verses involving subtle Four Seasons and the 1001 Nights. word play. The short season of only 5 performances will Antonio Vivaldi’s well-known four concertos, be held in the State Library of Victoria, whose Music for gamelan is classified according to Le Quattro Stagioni, first published in 1725 were historic interiors are ideally suited for such its cyclic structure. Each cycle of 8, 16, 32, 64 embellished by a solo improvisation (taksım) a work. Even more so on this occasion, as or 128 beats is subdivided by the punctuating on a different Ottoman/Turkish instrument the season has been planned in conjunction instruments in a defined rhythmic pattern and is further marked off by the sounding of the large gong on the final beat of the cycle. The large gong is the spiritual heart of the gamelan, with the increasingly complex elaborations of each of the other instruments expanding out from it.
Griffith University’s Queensland Conservatorium’s gamelan ensemble is made up of 15 enrolled Conservatorium students, members of the local Indonesian community and the Conservatorium’s gamelan lecturer. Visiting master musicians from Indonesia visit regularly to teach and lead performances and gamelan concerts are given several times a year.
Philip Courtenay was formerly Professor and Rector of the Cairns Campus, James Cook University. Gregg Howard is Senior Lecturer in Music at the Queensland Conservatorium and Director of the Gamelan MUSICIANS OF THE NEFES ENSEMBLE AND MELBOURNE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA AT THE MELBOURNE RECITAL CENTRE,
PERFORMING THE FOUR SEASONS AND THE 1001 NIGHTS. PHOTO: KATIE ATKINSON
T A A S A R E VI E W V O L U M E 2 0 N O . 4 51 RILEY LEE IN KAIDAN, A TAIKOZ/MERYL TANKARD CO-PRODUCTION. PHOTO: RUDI VAN STARREX, 2009 with the Library’s major international loan exhibition of Persian manuscripts (9 March -1 July, 2012) and conference (12-14 April), presented in partnership with the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford. See: www.victorianopera.com.au and www. slv.vic.gov.au.
Susan Scollay is an independent art historian specialising in the arts and culture of the Islamic world. She is guest co-curator of Love and Devotion: From Persia and Beyond at the SLV.
AUSTRALIA’S SHAKUHACHI GRAND MASTER
Riley Lee
TAASA is not the only entity celebrating an anniversary. Twenty-five years ago, in 1986, my family generously agreed to leave our home and friends in Hawai’i, so that I could pursue a PhD degree at Sydney University.
I gave my first shakuhachi concert in Sydney in the spring of that year. To my amazement, it was attended by a full house, and the respected music critic, the late Fred Blanks, favourably reviewed the concert, in the Sydney Morning Herald no less!
My career as a shakuhachi performer and teacher, and shakuhachi music in general, has thrived in Australia since that auspicious beginning. So much so, that I can imagine a time when the shakuhachi will be considered as much a part of the Australian musical scene as more well-known instruments.
That sentiment was expressed in the title of a concert held in Sydney in 2008, called As Australian as a Shakuhachi. The concert was part of the Sydney World Shakuhachi Festival 2008, for which I was Producer and Artistic Director. WSF08 featured numerous compositions by an orchestral piece by Gerard Brophy called TaikOz, and Anandavalli, Artistic Director Australians, many commissioned for the Book of Clouds with the Melbourne Symphony for Sydney’s Lingalayam Dance Company Festival. A future CD of mine for shakuhachi Orchestra, TaikOz and Synergy Percussion, I will be premiered in 2012. This cross-cultural and string quartet, will feature some of these began playing my shakuhachi solo part in the and cross-media performance will integrate Australian compositions. audience, walking slowly to my final position Lingalayam’s South Indian dance and music near the conductor. In 2009, also with TaikOz, with TaikOz’s unique brand of taiko music In early 2011, ABC Classics released a CD of I helped to compose, and performed at the and movement and my shakuhachi and Ross Edwards’ orchestral music, including Melbourne Arts Centre, the music for the Bell shinobue music. It will be a performance his ethereal Heart of Night, which I performed Shakespeare Company production of Pericles. worth waiting for. (2005) and recorded (2008) with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. I also performed Heart In August 2011, I performed on the main Riley Lee became the first ever non-Japanese of Night with the Western Australia Symphony stage at Korea’s Jecheon International Music Shakuhachi dai shihan (Grand Master) in 1980. He Orchestra in Perth in 2006. and Film Festival, playing music of my own co-founded TaikOz in 1997, performs extensively composition to accompany two classic silent world wide and teaches at the Sydney Conservatorium In 2007, together with TaikOz, I performed films: Passing Fancy and I Was Born, But…, by of Music. in a season at the Sydney Opera House of Japanese director Ozu Yasujirō (1903–1963). music and dance in Kaidan- a Ghost Story, choreographed by Meryl Tankard. That As for the present, a collaborative work production deserves a second run. In 2008, in with Ian Cleworth, Artistic Director for
52 T A A S A R E VI E W V O L U M E 2 0 N O . 4 REPOSITORY OF RICHES
T A A S A R E VI E W V O L U M E 2 0 N O . 4 53 c u RAT O R S ’ C H O I C E : A S I A N T R E A S U R E S F R o m A U S T R A L I A’ S p u b LI C c o LLE C TI o n S
A rt G A L L E R Y O F N E W S O U T H W A L E S
This elegant gilt bronze sculpture is an outstanding example of Avalokitesvara, the most revered bodhisattva in the Buddhist pantheon, variously known as Padmapani (Lotus- bearer), the Bodhisattva of Mercy and, most poetically, the Luminous Lord of Infinite Compassion. Acquisition of this sculpture accorded with the AGNSW’s aims to represent the great traditions of Buddhism with exceptional examples - a policy increasingly difficult to implement because rare and beautiful old pieces rarely appear on the market and, when they do, they understandably are very expensive. Accordingly the Gallery is most grateful to those donors who made possible acquisition of this piece which has pride of place in the Gallery’s Asian displays.
The figure once held a lotus in his left hand, while his right hand with a diamond incised on the palm faces the viewer in the wish-granting gesture (varada mudra). Avalokitesvara is regarded as an emanation of the Buddha Amitabha who reigns over the Western Paradise of Sukhavati, the Land of Bliss, and a small image of whom appears on the top of his tall chignon which is styled in the distinctive dreadlocks of an ascetic. His broad, kind face with soft features and wide-spaced eyes emanates compassionate understanding, sympathy, and an all-embracing spirituality. Cast in the lost wax method (cire perdue) and finished by hand, this sculpture is unusually large. The gilding, representative of the radiance emitted by Buddhas’ and bodhisattvas’ bodies that fills the universe with light, was the last part of the production process. While originally it was rubies and emeralds that enriched his costume, over time these have been replaced with coloured glass. THE LUMINOUS LORD OF INFINITE COMPASSION, NEPAL,
C. 13TH CENTURY. GILT COPPER, LAPIS LAZULI, GEMS, GLASS, Jackie Menzies, Head Curator, Asian Art, Art Gallery of New South Wales
HT 91.4 CM. COLLECTION ART GALLERY OF NEW SOUTH WALES,
PURCHASED 2010 WITH FUNDS FROM THE AGNSW FOUNDATION,
THE ART GALLERY SOCIETY OF NSW COLLECTION CIRCLE, THE
ASIAN BENEFACTORS' FUND AND INDIVIDUAL DONORS
N ational G all e ry o f V ictoria I nt e rnational
The Hamzanama was one of the earliest important commissions by the third Mughal emperor Akbar (r.1556-1605). It tells the story of the adventures of Amir Hamza, the uncle of the Prophet Muhammad, and in its original form consisted of approximately 1400 folios. These were unusual for their large format and because they were painted on cotton cloth rather than paper. Each page had a painting on one side and text on the other, and the paintings were unique in their bold composition, rich palette and ornamentation.
Only about 200 pages of the Hamzanama are extant, many famously discovered in the 19th century lining the windows of a Kashmiri teashop. Therefore the NGV is extremely fortunate to have this folio in the collection. It not only illustrates the genesis of Mughal painting, and thus complements the Gallery’s important collection of Indian court paintings, but also represents the pan-Asian tradition of oral storytelling, which has informed art throughout the region in all media. The Hamzanama was one of the most popular of the epics recited by bards across the Indo-Islamic world: its characters, plots and rollicking style have provided inspiration for many stories subsequently visualised in Asian art.
The production of the folios was an enormous undertaking for Akbar’s atelier, and several eminent Persian artists were employed to work on the project. They introduced the artistic conventions of Persianate Islamic Central Asia to Hindu Indian painting, and created a new, PAGE FROM THE DASTAN-I AMIR HAMZA (HAMZANAMA), distinctive Mughal style which eventually influenced artistic styles through the subcontinent. INDIA, C. 1567-1582. OPAQUE WATERCOLOUR AND GOLD
PAINT ON COTTON, 66.0 X 49.3CM (IMAGE), 67.8 X 50.8CM Carol Cains, CuratorAsian Art, National Gallery of Victoria International (SHEET). COLLECTION NATIONAL GALLERY OF VICTORIA,
FELTON BEQUEST 1978 (AS12-1978)
54 T A A S A R E VI E W V O L U M E 2 0 N O . 4 A rt G A L L E R Y O F W E ST E R N A U STRALIA
contemporary figurative works by artists such as Stanley Spencer, Lucian Freud, William Kentridge and Candice Breitz.
For over two decades, Bombay-based Malani has seen her work exhibited with accelerating frequency throughout the world, including at a number of Venice Biennales and, in Australia, at Asia-Pacific Triennials in 2002 and 2008. Originally trained as a painter, in the early 1990s she shifted her practice to embrace installation, theatre and video.
Malani’s work is influenced by the trauma of the Partition of India and her keen observations of history and the excesses of nationalist beliefs. Her works continuously place cultural stereotypes in a pressurised crucible of an interconnected global world, challenging fundamentalist constrictions and provincial nationalisms. The sacred and the profane is an illuminated group THE SACRED AND THE PROFANE BY NALINI MALANI, INDIA, 1998. SYNTHETIC POLYMER PAINT ON of four slowly rotating cylinders of painted mylar which project MYLAR, STEEL, NYLON CORD, ELECTRIC MOTORS AND LIGHTS, 3 X 5 X 11 M. STATE ART COLLECTION, intermingled shadows. The drawings on the cylinders cite the ART GALLERY OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA, © 1998 NALINI MALANI good versus evil stories of the Bhagavata Purana and use motifs reminiscent of the Bengali Kalighat style of the 19th century. While the Art Gallery of Western Australia does not have a Viewers are enveloped in an ever-circulating conversation of specialist collection of art from Asia, it collects works by Asian moving shadows that are simultaneously sumptuous, political, artists in the context of international contemporary art. The irreverent and empowering. AGWA endeavours to collect artists in depth, and currently represents Nalini Malani with nine works. Her The sacred Gary Dufour, Deputy Director and Chief Curator, Art Gallery of Western and the profane 1998 is a key work in a group of modern and Australia
HAMILTON ART GALL E RY
This pair of vases came from an Australian collection, which, together with their date, suggests they may have come from one of the Melbourne International Exhibitions held 1880 and 1888. Certainly their scale, richness and complexity places them in a class beyond the standard export examples of the Meiji period. They are the best examples of Meiji period metalwork in any Australian public collection – in fact, they are probably major examples of 19th century metalwork internationally.
A number of techniques were used in their production. Low relief chased gold inlay decorates the foot, shoulder and neck; and the phoenixes around the neck have a pin-head of raised gold to represent their eyes. The body of the vases is decorated with classic, Shijo-school-inspired Japanese birds and flowers applied in high relief. The branches of the cherry trees are made of shibuichi (an alloy of copper and silver), the blossoms of oxidised silver with a gold ball as their centre, the small stems of gold wire and the birds of silver, oxidised silver and shibuichi. Some of the shibuichi leaves are
PAIR OF VASES, BY KAJIMA IKKOKU II MITSUTAKA, JAPAN C.1890. BRONZE, GOLD, SILVER, OXIDISED gold plated but most are left in their natural brown shade.
SILVER, SHIBUICHI, H.45 CM, D. 21 CM. COLLECTION HAMILTON ART GALLERY, ACQUIRED WITH
ASSISTANCE OF THE FRIENDS OF HAMILTON ART GALLERY, MR GEOFF HANDBURY AND THE SHIRE OF Kajima Ikkoku II was a member of the Ikkoku metalworking
SOUTHERN GRAMPIANS family whose work features in the Kahlili collection, the Kiyomizu Sannenzaka Museum and the Ashmolean Museum. Hamilton Art Gallery is known for its outstanding collection of European and Oriental decorative arts, in particular, ceramics. In Daniel McOwan, Director, Hamilton Art Gallery recent years, the Gallery has sought to extend its collection of Meiji period ceramics to include Meiji period metalwork.
T A A S A R E VI E W V O L U M E 2 0 N O . 4 55 M u s e u m and G all e ry o f th e N orth e rn T e rritory
ARCHITECTURAL FINIAL, UMA KAKULUK, LAUTEM, TIMOR-LESTE, PRESUMED LATE 18TH CENTURY. WOOD AND NATURAL PIGMENTS, 220 X 30CMS. COLLECTION MUSEUM AND ART GALLERY
OF THE NORTHERN TERRITORY
This carved finial is one of a pair, a recent major acquisition by a Lautem building. Carved with stylised stars and flowers, they the MAGNT where the Southeast Asian collection, consisting of have remnants of red and white pigment in crevices that were over 4,500 objects, has a regional focus on eastern Indonesia and not exposed to the natural elements. The upper base of one finial Timor-Leste. A collection of ceramics acquired in the early 1970s features a serpent devouring a gecko. from Manatuto village, ‘Portuguese Timor’, forms the basis of an extensive collection of Timorese cultural material including The perched bird at the end of each finial is a representation of ceramics, jewellery, textiles, carved doors and figures. ancestral spirits associated with the upper world, from where they oversee the affairs of the mundane world. As part of a customary Such finials, known as uma kakuluk in the Tetun language, renewal ritual for the ceremonial house, water would be poured traditionally decorated the rooftop of ceremonial houses (uma from the roof between bird finials which purified the water as lulik) in the Los Palos region of Lautem, Timor-Leste. This pair it passed between them, cleansing both the house and the clan has survived the vicissitudes of time and war to become the only members gathered below. known remaining pair from this era and region. Joanna Barrkman, Curator, Southeast Asian Art and Material Culture, Originally, these the finials would originally have protruded Museum and Gallery of the Northern Territory and extended upward from the elongated thatched roof of such
N E WCASTL E A R T G A L L E RY
Newcastle Art Gallery has an important collection of Sodeisha ceramics, in which Yagi’s Design Plan (Face) is a central work. The collection was gifted to the Gallery by the Sodeisha Group after completing a national tour in 1979, and forms part of the most significant 20th century Japanese ceramic collection in Australia.
Yagi Kazuo (1918-1979), the son of a first generation potter who had come to Kyoto from Osaka, founded the Sodeisha group together with four other young ceramic artists in 1948. Under Yagi’s confident direction, the Sodeisha members worked steadily to develop a set of guiding principles, weaning their work step by step away from prevailing conventions of Japanese ceramic ‘taste’. The characters used in the name Sodeisha were found by Yagi’s calligraphy teacher in a lofty treatise on ceramics, and are literally translated as ‘crawling through mud’.
Yagi urged the other members of the group not to produce copies of historical wares, but to withdraw from the conventional vessel form – a container with a single opening at the top – and to experiment with ceramic forms unrelated to the usual notions of function. Sodeisha artists also began discarding the ceramic precedents of glazing. By the late 1950s, Yagi had begun to show works made of smoothly burnished clay, fired at earthenware
DESIGN PLAN (FACE) 1977 BY KAZUO YAGI, JAPAN. temperatures and heavily reduced at the end of the firing (with smoke from damp pine
BLACK-FIRED EARTHENWARE, 28.5 X 18.0 X 18.5 CM. needles) to coat the surface with carbon. This black pottery bore a colour integral to the
COLLECTION NEWCASTLE ART GALLERY, GIFT OF MEMBERS OF surface of the clay that had no precedent within Japanese ceramics.
THE SODEISHA GROUP 1981 Ron Ramsey, Director, Newcastle Art Gallery
56 T A A S A R E VI E W V O L U M E 2 0 N O . 4 NATIONAL GALL E R Y O F A U STRALIA
This striking figure of a woman, seated at her loom while she suckles her infant, is the rarest and most important bronze sculpture from Southeast Asia to enter the national collection. It survives as a fine example of an archaic Southeast Asian style still associated with animism in remote areas where Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam have had surprisingly little influence on the arts. The sculpture was created through the lost wax (cire perdu) method of bronze casting, most likely in the late 6th century CE.
The Bronze Weaver is extremely significant, not only for its rarity and aesthetic power, but also for the questions it poses about bronze technology and weaving traditions in the outer islands of Indonesia. While the sculpture survived as a family heirloom on the eastern Indonesian island, Flores, its origins are still speculative since little is known about the history of animist metalwork (as distinct from Hindu Buddhist bronze sculpture) throughout the Indonesian archipelago.
While the foot-braced body-tension loom depicted has not been observed in Flores in historical times, local looms with the back beam braced by poles are closely related. Identical foot-braced looms have, however, survived in remote districts of Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Taiwan, and Hainan. THE BRONZE WEAVER, INDONESIA (COLLECTED FLORES),
6TH CENTURY. BRONZE, 25.8 X 22.8 X 15.2 CM. COLLECTION The acquisition is especially fitting for an institution which holds one of the world’s finest NATIONAL GALLERY OF AUSTRALIA collection of textiles from the Southeast Asian region, many of which were woven on similar looms, display comparable designs and were created for cultures whose beliefs were possibly very compatible with those of the creator of The Bronze Weaver.
Robyn Maxwell, Senior Curator of Asian Art, National Gallery of Australia
A R T G A L L E R Y O F S O U T H A U STRALIA
architecture, although this art form is often overlooked in public art collections and the inevitable exposure of wood to the outdoor elements has meant few have survived intact today. Doors often contain a rich symbolic language that epitomises the aesthetic of the era in which they were made.
In recent years the Art Gallery of South Australia has actively sought to develop a representative collection of this art form. The most recent acquisition is the spectacular Balinese Temple doors, whose ornate carved decoration exemplifies the sculptural style that flourished in the island’s north coast kingdom of Buleleng. This pair of doors is especially significant as it features two painted side panels, albeit much faded through weathering, depicting elegant courtly figures. This style of door, closely resembling the grand gebyog of old Javanese houses, is found only in Buleleng and may trace its origins back to late Majapahit (15th-16th century) period wooden architecture. The florid baroque decoration resembles Buleleng palace architecture, but these doors are likely to have originated from a temple in Tejakula dedicated to the metalsmith (pande) caste, whose jealously guarded secrets included the art of making of magically charged keris (daggers).
Temple doors marked the transition from profane to sacred space. Four majestic winged feline creatures, called Singa Ambara Raja TEMPLE DOORS, INDONESIA, BALI (TEJAKULA, BULELENG), 18TH-19TH CENTURY. WOOD, PIGMENT, (King Heavenly Lion), guard the portals and are a reminder that the GOLD LEAF, METAL, 259.08 X 265.0 X 119.38 CM. COLLECTION ART GALLERY OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA, modern-day name of the Buleleng regency capital, Singaraja, means GIFT OF THE AGSA FOUNDATION 2011 ‘Raja Lion’. Thresholds possess potent significance in Southeast Asia James Bennett, Curator, Asian Art, Art Gallery of South Australia through defining spatial boundaries between outer and inner realms. Elaborately decorated doors are a feature of the region’s
T A A S A R E VI E W V O L U M E 2 0 N O . 4 57 T h e u N I V e rsity o f Q u e e nsland Q u e e nsland A rt G all e ry
The fine detail, large scale and excellent condition of this scroll painting make it a significant example of esoteric South Asian art and an important addition to the collection of the Queensland Art Gallery, which is renowned for its holdings in Asian contemporary art.
Tantrism entered Nepal around the sixth century CE, and has had a significant influence on Nepalese art and culture. Paintings such as this one express the complex intermingling of Hinduism and Buddhism in the Himalayan region, developed through centuries of cultural interaction.
GRAPE DISH, CHINA, MING DYNASTY, YONGLE PERIOD (1403-1424). PORCELAIN, BLUE AND The work features a large image
WHITE UNDERGLAZE, DIA. 45.0 CM, HT 6.5 CM. COLLECTION UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND, of the Cosmic Man, a concept
GIFT OF DR NAT YUEN THROUGH THE AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT’S CULTURAL GIFTS PROGRAM, which first appeared in the
2005. PHOTO CARL WARNER Rigveda sacred texts of around the 15th century BCE. The figure is connected to both the An exemplary Chinese collection of some 86 pieces was gifted earth and the sky, with a cone to the University of Queensland by former student Dr Natalis of flames from its head reaching (Nat) Yuen between 1995 and 2006. Spanning more than 4500 to the clouds and its splayed years, the collection comprises Neolithic and Han Dynasty feet balanced upon a sequence pottery, Warring States and Han Dynasty bronzeware, Tang of avatars and consorts of Dynasty figures, Song Dynasty bowls, Longquan celadon and the Hindu god Vishnu, who Ming to middle Qing Dynasty porcelain. inhabit the cosmic ocean. The pale physical body of the yogin The ‘grape dish’, a prized piece among the collection, displays a corresponding subtle exemplifies one of the most significant and formative periods body of energy pathways, in porcelain production: it embodies the fine craftsmanship punctuated by lotus-shaped and sophisticated taste of the Yongle Emperor, who left a great chakras up the central axis and legacy of cultural patronage. Although the establishment of a series of lingam-yoni (male- the Imperial porcelain factory at Jingdezhen preceded his female) symbols running down accession, it was during his reign that access to precious cobalt the arms. blue was acquired, and the skill and technical ability of potters could match Imperial ambitions in porcelain production. Blue Such paintings illustrate and white wares developed a quintessentially Chinese style metaphysical concepts to assist that would be exported westwards through Asia. Hindu and Buddhist yogic practitioners with visualisation Characteristically showing the popularity for restrained floral, and to enhance meditation. fruit and vine motifs, the dish bears three bunches of grapes They were produced as folding delicately surrounded by twirling tendrils and vine leaves – a manuscripts on paper, as well as common motif of the era, symbolising abundance of food and fabric scrolls. This work is a rare fertility. Embellished with controlled gradations of underglaze example of this South Asian blue, the inner and outer walls display foliate scrolls with 12 art form, and a fascinating seasonal flowers, and a stylised wave band encircles the rim. UNTITLED (CHAKRAMAN), NEPAL, 19TH combination of strictly Typically unmarked, the dish embodies the pure beauty and CENTURY. DISTEMPER ON COTTON, 293 X determined iconography and refinement of a period responsible for major developments in 51.5 CM. COLLECTION QUEENSLAND ART contemporary styles. Ming Dynasty ceramics. GALLERY, PURCHASED 2010 WITH FUNDS
FROM THE HENRY AND AMANDA BARTLETT Russell Storer, Curatorial Manager, Tarun Nagesh, Assistant Curator, Asian Art, Queensland Art Gallery/ TRUST THROUGH THE QUEENSLAND ART Asian and Pacific Art, Queensland Gallery of Modern Art (for the University of Queensland) GALLERY FOUNDATION Art Gallery
58 T A A S A R E VI E W V O L U M E 2 0 N O . 4 TASMANIAN M U S e u M AND ART GALL E RY
The Asian collection at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (TMAG) was built on donations, and until the turn of the century consisted mainly of souvenirs and mementos. A more systematic representation of Asian decorative arts began in 2003, with a substantial donation of Chinese antiquities by Professor Shiu Hon and Mrs Nancy Wong. On the strength of that, Mrs Janet Gale offered her fine collection of Japanese netsuke (toggles) and sagemono (containers) to the TMAG in 2007.
This collection consists of 91 netsuke, 16 of which are incorporated into sets with sagemono. The pieces, dating from the 17th to the early 20th century, are made from a diverse range of materials including wood, ivory, hornbill,metal and lacquer. Subjects fall into four broad categories: people, animals and plants, religious and mythological subjects, and everyday items. The six netsuke here are particularly fine examples and represent a diversity of subject and medium.
Beautifully carved in ivory, the animated figure of the monk Hotei has variousmon (crests) on his robe skilfully rendered in other materials. The Dutchman, one of the earliest pieces, SIX CARVED NETSUKE, JAPAN: THE MONK HOTEI, IVORY, HORN, represents the genre of comic representations of ‘foreigners’. The mask (probably an oni MOTHER OF PEARL AND SOFT METAL, TOKYO SCHOOL, 19TH C, 2.9 X or demon) is carved from rare hornbill, with the red-tinted material exploited to add 3.4 X 2.4 CM; DUTCHMAN ROLLING A CHEESE, EBONY, 18TH C, 4.4 X theatrical drama. The boxwood rice stook, a karakuri or trick netsuke, splits apart to reveal 4.6 X 3 CM; MASK, HORNBILL, MEIJI PERIOD C.1850, 5.3 X 4.7 X 2.2 CM; more detail within. The simplified, benignB aku (a folkloric hybrid animal) is carved from TRICK MECHANISM RICE STOOK, BOXWOOD AND IVORY, 19TH C, 3.6 X red lacquer incised with rhythmic decorative detail. The three tortoises are outstanding for 3.7 X 3.1 CM; THE HYBRID CREATURE BAKU, UNIDENTIFIED WOOD AND the animals’ characteristic demeanour and the virtuoso carving of shells and skin texture. LACQUER (CINNABAR), 19TH C, 2.7 X 3.7 X 2.9 CM; AND THREE TORTOISES,
BOXWOOD AND HORN, C.1870, 3.8 X 3.9 X 3.4 CM. COLLECTION Peter Hughes, Senior Curator (Decorative Arts), Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery TASMANIAN MUSEUM AND ART GALLERY, GIFT OF JANET GALE 2007
POW E RHO U S E M U S e u M
technology, evidence the dazzling aesthetics and superb skills of Asian artists and makers.
A significant example in the Museum collection is this apricot- yellow semi-formal Chinese dragon robe or jifu. In all societies, dress plays a significant role not only to protect the body but also to communicate the wearer’s social status and reflect cultural traditions and beliefs. The cut of the jifu and the choice of colours and motifs are design elements that inform us regarding different aspects of Chinese culture.
The cut refers directly to a significant historical event: when the Manchu rulers seized control of China in 1644, they changed the design of court dress to the Manchu style, whose front and back slits and horse-shoe cuffs referenced their northern horse-riding culture, indicating both their identity and their supremacy.
Colour signifies the wearer’s status: apricot-yellow was reserved for the Crown Prince, while yellow was worn only by the Emperor himself. The dragon motif represents the dynamic force of the universe and symbolises the Emperor as `Son of Heaven’. In this jifu, nine five-clawed golden dragons within a highly decorative JIFU OR DRAGON ROBE, CHINA, 19TH CENTURY. SILK-AND GOLD-WRAPPED THREAD EMBROIDERY schema represent the Chinese cosmos. Since only the Emperor, ON GAUZE-WEAVE SILK, 138 X 212 CM. COLLECTION POWERHOUSE MUSEUM, PURCHASED WITH Imperial princes and those awarded the privilege were permitted FUNDS GIVEN BY KEN AND YASUKO MYER, 1989 to wear five-clawed dragons, splendid robes such as this one From its founding in 1880 to the present day, Sydney’s Powerhouse clearly demonstrated the wearer’s rank. Museum has continued to strengthen its diverse Asian arts Min-Jung Kim, Curator, Asian Arts and Design, Powerhouse Museum collections. These reflect the varied Asian cultures represented Christina Sumner, Principal Curator, Design & Society, Powerhouse Museum in the Australian community and, in a museum of design and
T A A S A R E VI E W V O L U M E 2 0 N O . 4 59 RE C E N T T A A S A A C TIVITIES
Organising study tours since 1989. Australia’s oldest independent study tour company. During 2012 Alumni Travel is offering even more tours led TAASA NSW black-and-white talkie Holiday Bombay and other by TAASA officers and members. films made some of us wish we were there. City images: a symposium on Indian cities Christine Sumner has put together a special TAASA – 20 August Ann Guild, convenor of TAASA’s Events tour of Jordan and Lebanon. (She had planned to couple This symposium, one in the ongoing TAASA Committee, who organised all the Jordan and Syria but security in the latter seems problematic for series on Asian cities, attracted 85 participants (considerable) practicalities of the day, some time yet.) Details of this tour will appear in the for a day of fascinating information and most deserves many, many thanks. next TAASA journal. intriguing images. For this event, TAASA Sandra Forbes also trialled a new city venue, the Sydney Gay Spies will be taking her comprehensive annual Mechanics School of Arts, which appears DRAMA and DELIGHT: TAASA Study Day tour, Laos: Textiles and other Treasures from the positive feedback we received to – 27 August 2011 (25 Nov-18 Dec 2012), which as usual, will include the have contributed to the success of the day. This was a double-barrelled program with a That Luang Festival. The group size is limited to 8. morning viewing session of Japanese prints Dr Jim Masselos, the convenor of the at the Art Gallery of New South Wales with Terry Bisley will be taking a small group to Rajasthan to symposium, had planned the event to convey Dr Khanh Trinh, curator of Japanese Art, and focus on Art, Architecture and Culture (16 Jan–01 Feb) and also, a picture of India’s urban diversity: to show an afternoon one of Balinese paintings at the her second comprehensive tour to Burma (6–23 Feb). how its cities, through various kinds of Australian Museum with Professor Adrian activity, have developed their own special Vickers, University of Sydney and Dr Stan Rob Lovell will be exploring the NE, NW and southern and particular characteristics which are Florek, Collections Officer, Australian Museum. highlands of Viet Nam (8-28 April) learning about some of the reflected in imagery all their own. The six country’s 54 ethnic minorities. He will also be returning to the speakers’ diverse material united over the day Meeting TAASA committee member Matt Caucasus for an exploration of Azerbaijan, Armenia and to provide a sense of the interaction between Cox, AGNSW Study Room Co-ordinator, at Georgia (18 May-6 June), and will then be taking a group to the broad span of Indian city space and of the entrance, we went down to the Collection Uzbekistan in September. particular city activities. Study Room, where Dr Khanh had assembled a number of colour woodcut prints from DURING THE YEAR WE ALSO HAVE TOURS TO: In some cases these activities are primarily the late 18th to early 20th centuries from the Egypt (17 Jan-9 Feb), the standard tour but also including the religious, as in the temporary ‘’holding city’’ for Gallery’s collection of Japanese art. Arising out Siwa Oasis and Akhnaten’s Sun City and sites around Minya over 30 million pilgrims at the 12-yearly Kumbh of the urban culture of Edo, present day Tokyo, Mela (spectacular images illustrated this opening Ukiyo-e, or ‘pictures of the floating world,’ were lecture from Dr Kama Maclean); or in the holy scenes of fleeting beauty, of landscapes and the Ethiopia (14-27 Feb), including Aksum, Gonder, Lalibela and the Simien Mountains city of Varanasi described by Dr Assa Doron. seasons, from the realms of entertainment such Politics, on the other hand, created Delhi. First, as kabuki actors and courtesans, and tales from Imperial Delhi, whose changing landscapes were history and literature. Japan (2-20 April), from small traditional towns, to Samurai brought to verbal life by Dr Narayani Gupta castles and 21st C. Megacities and the calm inland sea (herself brought from Delhi by TAASA for this One woodcut drawn from literature was occasion). Dr Nayantara Pothen was the narrator particularly delightful: ’Garden in Snow,’ Travels through the Taklamakan (21 Sep–14 Oct), on New Delhi, a British planned city with its own illustrating a chapter from ‘The Tale of Genji’, the silk route through eastern China and into modern Kyrghzstan particular social quirks related to politics and the most famous novel of Japanese literature. power, later to develop its own way of handling It is a triptych depicting Prince Genji and Lady Ladakh (9-25 July), Leh, the Manali Highway, Dharamsala urban space as the national capital. Asagao watching three young girls making and Amritsar a snow rabbit on a moonlit winter’s night. Trade, of course, activated Bombay, and A collaborative piece, Utagawa Kunisada was Jim Masselos illustrated the city’s 19th responsible for the elaborately dressed figures Nepal, Bhutan and Sikkim, three nations squeezed between the great powers of China and India century development with fascinating early while Ando Hiroshige the background landscape, photographs. Last, Adrienne McKibbins a genre for which he is justly famous. discussed the hyperactive Bombay film scene, Iran: Off the Beaten Track (5-28 Oct), with John Tidmarsh, including Mashad, Tabriz, Kerman, as well as Isfahan and Shiraz. Bollywood films and the city in which the films Affordable for the rising class of merchants were made. The exuberant extracts from the and artisans due to mass production, these woodcuts were produced in single sheets as posters and illustrations for books. By the 20th Check our new website for details of these tours century, woodblock printing was less popular and more at www.alumnitravel.com.au. as photography had taken over, and it became For a hard copy brochure, please email: a more specialised activity. [email protected] phone: (02) 9290 3856 or 1300 799 887 At the afternoon session in the Museum, (ex Sydney metrop.), or fax: (02)92903857 we saw some Balinese paintings on cloth, with a few on bark cloth, which were part BHENDI BAZAAL ST., RAJA DEEN DAYAL C 1890S.
COURTESY: PORTVALE COLLECTION
60 T A A S A R E VI E W V O L U M E 2 0 N O . 3 of the collection of the late anthropologist, Cambodia and Vietnam. This was followed by a Professor Anthony Forge, put together during rare opportunity to view ceramics selected from TAASA MEMBERS’ DIARY fieldwork in Kamasan,B ali in 1972-3. Specially the Powerhouse Museum’s collection. DECEMBER 2011 – FEBRUARY 2012 commissioned pieces were added, and there were later bequests. Extensively documented, Dr Don Hein, an Adelaide-based archaeologist TAASA’s End-of-Year Event – it is an invaluable resource for scholars. specialising in Thai kiln sites, surveyed the 6 December 2011 development of Thai ceramics in Sukhothai and TAASA’s 20th anniversary party takes place on Tuesday 6 December, 6-8pm at Sherman Cloth paintings have traditionally decorated Sawankhalok. He argued that the earliest wares Contemporary Art Foundation, 16-20 royal pavilions for ceremonies and used made at Sawankhalok around the 10th century Goodhope Street, Paddington 2021. Guest in temples during festivities. Among the probably had indigenous northern Thai origins, of Honour will be Edmund Capon, our first paintings described as ‘visual narratives,’ are perhaps with some influence from Burmese Honorary Patron. We will be launching the auspicious calendars, depictions of Balinese potters. The kilns at Sukhothai started about special anniversary issue of the TAASA versions of the Hindu epics with their cast of 100 years later. Production was stimulated by Review, and awarding the TAASA Essay characters as well as folk tales. a Chinese ban on overseas trade from the 15th Prize to our two winners. Venue has been century. After the ban was lifted, competition provided by kind permission of Dr Gene In the storage area, laid out on a table, were from more refined Chinese wares spurred the Sherman, Director of SCAF. three spectacular paintings from the first half of Sawankhalok potters to improve their product, Contribution: $15 for members, $20 non- members. Drinks and Asian canapés the 20th century. There was a long ider-ider (strip for instance by introducing an innovative kiln provided. painting) valance, for hanging under the eaves furniture system to improve celadon glaze RSVP to Dy Andreasen at (02) 9361 4586; of buildings, depicting scenes from the wedding colour and eliminate unsightly stacking scars. email: [email protected] of Pan Brayut’s son, Ketut Subaya. Another Sukhothai kilns persevered with the production depicted a scene from the Bharatayuda of the of cheap, utilitarian wares. But by the 16th Special Viewing of “Love and Devotion: death of Abimanyu, painted by Pan Seken with century the competition from China began to From Persia and Beyond”, SLV, the addition of gold leaf and text, once displayed tell and the Thai kilns ceased production. Melbourne – April 2012 in his family temple. The third showed the A special viewing of this exhibition more familiar story from the Ramayana, of Sita’s Dr Li Baoping of the University of Sydney, guided by Susan Scollay, which will ordeal by fire. In one of the storage cases is a an archaeologist and art historian, told involve a trip to Melbourne for interstate based TAASA members, is planned painting by Mangku Mara with the marvellous how analysis of Chinese ceramic sherds is to coincide with the State Library of title of ‘The Churning of the Milky Ocean’ from being used in many ways to help chart the Victoria’s exhibition “Love and Devotion: the first part of the Mahabharata, the Adiparwa, development of greater Angkor. Comparisons From Persia and Beyond” (9 March -1 depicting dramatic stories of the origin of the between ceramic finds at Koh Ker in the north July 2012) and seminar “Persian Cultural world and the first human kingdoms. of Cambodia with pieces found in the 9th Crossroads” (12-14 April 2012), presented Jill Sutanto century Belitung shipwreck off Indonesia has in partnership with the Bodleian Library led to a reassessment of the chronology of that at the University of Oxford. TAASA Southeast Asian Ceramics Symposium – site, while pieces found in Angkor provide member Susan Scollay is co-curator of 15 October evidence of a resident Chinese community the exhibition and contributor to the Some 50 enthusiasts turned out for TAASA’s in the 13th and 14th centuries. Other datable magnificent catalogue. More details including costs will be symposium on Southeast Asian ceramics ceramics found on site inside Angkor Wat are advised at a later date. Indications of at Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum. The evidence that the temple was not completely interest would be appreciated to: Ann symposium’s three expert speakers reviewed abandoned after the capital was moved from Guild at [email protected]. ceramic production and export trade in Thailand, Angkor in the 15th century.
T A A S A R E VI E W V O L U M E 2 0 N O . 3 61 SYMPOSIUM PARTICIPANTS VIEW PHM CERAMIC DISH HELD
BY ROSS CLENDINNING. PHOTO: GILL GREEN
drop a sherd and break it, you have more sherds.” and wraps. She has been involved with several Attendees went away equally stimulated by the development projects in Asia working with presentations and the chance to get up close to skilled weavers. Each presented details of her actual examples of their subject. work illustrated by slides and samples. John Millbank Philip Courtenay
TAASA QUEENSLAND TAASA ASIAN ARTS ESSAY PRIZE 2011 Gamelan Concert – 2 September A small group of TAASA members attended TAASA is delighted to announce the joint Dr Ann Proctor linked past and present ceramic a gamelan concert on 2 September at the winners of the 2011 TAASA Essay Prize - industries in Vietnam by examining three old kiln Queensland Conservatorium. The music and Hannah Beasley and Matthew O’Farrell. sites around Hanoi where ceramic production dance performance featured Dr Joko Susilo, Both essays were considered worthy of who directed the Conservatorium gamelan continues. At Chu Dau beautiful high-fired the prize and as the judges were unable to ensemble, and Yulitta Owen, a Javanese blue-and-white ceramics were produced for decide between them, the prize of $2000 dancer from Melbourne, who performed three export to Indonesia and the Middle East and was split. via the Dutch East India Company to Europe. classical Central Javanese dances. Since 2001 a state-owned trading company The two essays are published in the Asian Textiles Seminar – 1 October carrying the Chu Dau brand has specialised special supplement to the December A number of members attended this seminar in reproductions of the old export wares. The 2011 TAASA Review. Their titles are: The which explored contemporary Asian textiles in Que Quyen kilns produced storage jars for the Birth of Nihonga in Japan: Potentials and the exhibition ‘Threads: Contemporary textiles and local market and exported teawares to Japan. By Pitfalls in Preserving Tradition (Hannah the 16th century the teawares were sufficiently the social fabric’ on display in the Queensland Beasley, BA (Arts/Visual Arts, ANU) and prestigious in Japan to be presented to the Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA). The seminar “‘…much that is barbarian and Scythian in Tokugawa shogun. Recently a private potter was jointly hosted by TAASA and ACAPA character…’: Orodos II between Cultures” has revived the production of unglazed teapots (the Australian Centre of Asia Pacific Art). It (Matt O’Farrell, BA (Arts), ANU). for local sale. Bac Ninh’s ceramic industry was addressed by two visiting speakers, Mary has its origin in supplying reproductions of Jose and Liz Williamson, and a tour of the To mark its 20th anniversary, TAASA 19th century Bleu de Hué wares for use in the exhibition was conducted by Ruth McDougall, launched this competition as part of its restoration of the citadel at Hué. Associate Curator, Asia and Pacific Art. ongoing role in supporting the study and appreciation of Asian arts in Australia. The Afterwards participants were able to closely Mary Jose is the Adelaide-based owner of examine significant ceramics from the PHM’s the Fabric of Life, a concern that provides for competition was open to undergraduates, collection, assisted by extremely helpful staff the care and presentation of a wide variety honours or masters candidates currently members, Paul Donnelly and Ross Clendinning. of antique and contemporary textile arts and studying at an Australian University. These were supplemented by numerous pieces serves museums, galleries and collectors. Twelve essays in all were submitted from from the collections of the three speakers and ANU, Universities of Sydney, Queensland TAASA Life Member Ian Brookes. One of the Liz Williamson is a Sydney-based internationally and Melbourne and from the National speakers, Li Baoping was especially excited by respected textile artist who has designed for Art School. This has been a very the extensive sherd collection brought by fellow industry, produced unique works for major encouraging response and we congratulate speaker Don Hein: “The thing I like is that if you exhibitions and maintained on-going studio all who entered. drop a whole piece, you have no piece; if you production, specialising in hand-woven scarves
62 T A A S A R E VI E W V O L U M E 2 0 N O . 4 WH a t ’S o N i N a US t r a l i a a N d o VE R SE A S: DECEMBER 2011 - FEBRUARY 2012 A SELECTIVE ROUNDUP OF E X HIBITIONS AND EVENTS
Compiled by Tina Burge
In the steps of the Buddha QUEENSLAND NGV International 17 December 2011 - June 2012 Yayoi Kusama: Look Now, See Forever Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA) This exhibition of 80 Buddhist and Hindu 18 November 2011 – 11 March 2012 works of art drawn from the NGV’s collection explores the development of Buddhist imagery Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama is one of the across Asia. From early Buddhist works most significant and influential artists working created in India in the 2nd -4th centuries CE today. ‘Look Now, See Forever’ transforms to contemporary Zen Buddhist ink and brush the dramatic spaces of GoMA with a series paintings in the Chinese tradition, In the steps of of spectacular immersive rooms, featuring the Buddha illustrates the changing image of the new sculptures and paintings as well as Buddha, bodhisattvas and guardian deities, film projection and installation. Showcasing and the connection between tantric Hinduism Kusama’s innovative work with colour, form, and Buddhism. The wide range of Buddhist space and perception, this exhibition shows a works include: ritual items; pilgrimage senior artist at the peak of her powers. souvenirs; a biographical painting; manuscript covers; sculptures of the Buddha, bodhisattvas AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY and Buddhist deities in bronze, wood, clay and lacquer. It includes works from Gandhara, The art of kabuki Burma, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Japan, China, Free lunchtime talk on Thursday 16 February 12.45 pm Tibet, Nepal and Bhutan. Lucie Folan, Curator, Asian Art, talks on This is a free exhibition presented during Japanese woodblock prints and theatre the refurbishment of the Asian Galleries. costumes in the national collection.
SOUTH AUSTRALIA The NGA’s exhibition Stars of the Tokyo stage: Natori Shunsen’s kabuki actor prints will tour in Beneath the winds: Masterpieces 2012 of Southeast Asian Art Art Gallery of South Australia NEW SOUTH WALES 18 November - 29 January Arts of Asia lecture series - LOVE Presents a spectacular selection of works of art Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney from the collection of AGSA, including many new acquisitions seen for the first time. The The uplifting, immersive and transformative exhibition features 120 works of art, which range experience of love is the topic for the 2012 in diversity from prehistoric stone sculpture Arts of Asia lecture series at the AGNSW. to present day ritual painting, and provides Drawing on the expertise of academics, an exciting introduction into the astonishing curators and critics, the aim is to offer fresh aesthetic heritage of Southeast Asia. insights into the interpretation of love in the religious, literary and artistic worlds. Areas Among the recent major acquisitions exhibited of focus include romantic love, devotional in Beneath the winds is the monumental Burmese love, parental love, forbidden love, abusive Temple bell, unique for its intact bracket depicting love and unrequited love. Topics as diverse Prince Siddartha. Visitors will also be given the as ‘kama’, the Indian concept of love and opportunity to glimpse the variety of textile art enjoyment, familial love in Confucian China in the Art Gallery’s collection. and otherworldly love of Japanese Noh The exhibition coincides with the release of the theatre explore the ancient wisdom and lavishly illustrated publication Beneath the winds: living traditions of love in the arts of Asia. Masterpieces of Southeast Asian Art from AGSA’s collection, available from the Gallery Shop. Tuesdays 1-2pm. Term 1 beginning in March 2012 focuses on the Near East, South and For a series of related guided tours and floor Southeast Asia and Term 2 beginning in talks, go to: www.artgallery.sa.gov.au. August focuses on East Asia. For bookings www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/calendar/type/ lectures/
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