Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám in a Contemporary Australian Setting
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
The Hunter Rubáiyát : Illustrating Edward FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám in a contemporary Australian setting. Tallulah Cunningham BNHI (Hons) PhD Natural History Illustration March 2015 i ABSTRACT Edward FitzGerald’s poem Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám has been illustrated over a hundred and fifty times during the decade and a half since its first publication. These illustrations have depicted exotic, arcadian other-places that ignore the poem’s frequent endorsement to live with immediacy. My Practice-based Creative PhD project has focused on producing a visual interpretation that reflects the immediate landscapes of my own physical situation: modern Australia. I have crafted illustrations that use the current landscapes and biotic content of the Hunter Valley, NSW, to emphasise not only the ongoing relevance of this poem to the brevity of human life but also my interpretations of the poem. To describe the poem’s frequent references to the passage of time I have drawn on my experience as a Natural History Illustrator, integrating the cycle of seasonal climatic events, plant and animal behaviour into my visual interpretation. I have also inverted the existing trend of exotic illustrations in a familiar physical context (that of a book) by presenting my depiction of the familiar, local environments in two exotic formats. These formats are based on Japanese narrative-scrolls and woodblock prints, providing unusual and intentionally tactile creative objects. ii THE EXEGESIS The exegesis consists of the contextualisation and documentation of my practice- based creative project. The research project was not undertaken with the intention of answering a question but rather to address limitations I had identified in the existing visual representations of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám and to create a version that conveyed my own connection to the text. THE CREATIVE WORKS The creative work of this research project, described in entirety as The Hunter Rubáiyát, consists of two sets of illustrations. The first, The Hunter Rubáiyát Scrolls, are two hand scrolls which I differentiate with the titles Summer Scroll and Winter Scroll. The second set of illustrations consist of the Kúza-Náma Woodblocks, five laser-etched woodblocks, and the five Kúza-Náma Prints which were produced from the woodblocks. For ease of identification I refer to these individual images in text-based on the main imagery of each: Cockatoo, Wattle, Wasp, Bat and Lizard. Physically accompanying this exegesis are reproductions of the two Hunter Rubáiyát Scrolls and original prints of the five Kúza-Náma Prints. In order to protect the outer surface and to provide a tactile surface similar to the original objects I have attached fabric covers to the scrolls. This fabric differs from that of the originals but shares the same style of linear pattern, texture and Japanese origin. The prints are from the editions I produced for my exhibition held at Maitland Regional Art Gallery, Maitland, NSW, March-May 2014. All images in this exegesis, unless stated otherwise, were created by the author of this document. REFERENCING THE CREATIVE WORK Throughout this exegesis I reproduce details from my sketchbooks, draft scrolls and the final creative works. The four sketchbooks are chronologically sequential and, for clarity of reference within this exegesis, are labelled Sk1, Sk2, Sk3 and Sk4. The relevant page numbers are indicated in the sketchbook identity: thus “Sk1.p3-6, 12” indicates pages three to six and page twelve from the first sketchbook. These, and all of the compositional draft scroll and woodblock designs, are accessible on the accompanying Image Appendices DVD. A NOTE ON NAMES The spelling of Omar Khayyám and the word rubáiyát vary depending on the author. I have applied the version used by FitzGerald and the majority of modern Western scholars. Where I discuss Japanese authors and craftspeople using their full names I follow the Japanese convention of the surname preceding the given name (e.g.: Toda Masako). When iii I otherwise refer to them I use the prescribed method of referring to them by last name only (e.g.: Toda, 1969). The text of FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám is widely referred to as a single poem. Directed by this established mode I apply the word poem and Rubáiyát when referring to the text as an entire object; I use the word rubáiyát in lower case to refer to multiple verses and the word rubá’i to refer to a single verse. When quoting a specificrubá’i , I append the line with a Roman numeral indicating its place in FitzGerald’s First Edition. For example of such: “Wine! Wine! Wine! Red Wine!”(Q.VI), Q.VI indicates the quote originates from the sixth quatrain of the original text. FitzGerald’s First Edition, in its original order, is reproduced for reference in Appendix A. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS どうもありがとうござ いました No work is accomplished in isolation. Especially not a creative work such as this. Being situated in the University has given me the opportunity to call on the knowledge of many individuals both within and beyond my faculty. To my supervisor, Dr Trevor Weekes, and co-supervisor, Dr Anne Llewellyn. go my first thanks. I am in their debt for their guiding, and occasionally checking, hands on the reins when I have had the bit between my teeth. Thank you both for keeping my feet on the path while my mind was chasing rabbits. Thank you also to: Stuart McDonald, the UoN Design IT technician, wrangler of scanners, software and calibrator of scanners, printers and laser-cutters. UoN Design Lecturers: Jane Shadbolt, Michael Dickinson, Caelli Brooker, Roger Quinn and Chris Lawrence for unstintingly sharing their knowledge and constructive opinion. UoN Printmaking and Sculpture technicians, Sharon Tompkins and Michael Garth, for their assistance and allowing access to equipment. UoN Environmental and Life Sciences’ Dr Michael Mahony, his son Stephen Mahony, and Rhiona Tindal, for their advice on Hunter Valley frogs and reptiles. UoN Electron-microscope technician, Mr David Phelan for his assistance and enthusiasm for examining paper structures. UoN Cultural Archives’ curator Hayley Halliwell and Librarian Lyn Keily for their assistance and enthusiasm in displaying The Hunter Rubáiyát Scrolls. Maitland Regional Art Gallery and the staff for facilitating my 2014 Exhibition, held in their wonderful art space. Mr Okumura, his assistant Ms Yoshida and Mr Matt Bacskai for their part in finishing the scrolls to such a high standard. Finally I would like to express my gratitude to my gentleman Robin Fisher, and to my family, for their support over the course of this journey and many others. The creative work is dedicated to my grandparents: George Bertram Matthews and Lois Muriel Matthews who, through the romantic exchange of a small book long ago, created another footnote in the ongoing “Romance of the Rubáiyát”. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Statement of Originality Abstract.............................................................................................. i A note on the Creative Works and Exegesis....................................... ii A note on Names................................................................................. iii Acknowledgements............................................................................. iv Contents........................................................................................... v List of Figures.................................................................................. vii Abbreviations................................................................................... xii Introduction..................................................................................... 1 Chapter One - Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám...................................... 4 1.1 Personal Connections..................................................... 4 1.2 What is a Rubáiyát........................................................ 6 1.3 Who was Omar Khayyám.............................................. 7 1.4 Who was Edward FitzGerald......................................... 9 1.5 Edward FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám ........ 11 1.6 Common and recent illustrations.................................... 16 1.7 Recurring elements.......................................................... 27 Chapter Two - Key Elements of Influence......................................... 28 2.1 NHI and The Hunter Valley Region .............................. 28 2.2 Australian Artists............................................................ 29 2.3 Other Cultures................................................................ 30 2.4 Alternative Formats........................................................ 38 Chapter Three - Illustration Process................................................. 42 3.1 Reference collecting........................................................ 43 3.2 Materials and Tools........................................................ 49 3.3 Media techniques............................................................ 61 3.4 Illustrating The Hunter Rubáiyát................................... 71 Chapter Four - Annotated illustration content ................................. 106 4.1 Persian references............................................................. 106 4.2 Spring-Summer Scroll...................................................... 107 4.3 Autumn-Winter Scroll..................................................... 112 4.4 Woodblock Designs......................................................... 117 4.5 New