VOLUME 19 NO. 4 D the journal of E c em b E the asian arts society r 2010 of australia TAASA Review indonesia and timor-leste C o N t en t S : INDONESIA AND TIMO r -LESTE Volume 19 No. 4 December 2010 3 Editorial TAASa rEViEw Joanna Barrkman, Guest Editor THE ASIAN ARTS SOCIETY OF AUSTRALIA INC. ABN 64093697537 • Vol. 19 No. 4, December 2010 ISSN 1037.6674 4 CoNSErVATION aND CARE oF CULTURAL COLLECTIONS: aUSTRALIA, iNDONESIA registered by Australia post. publication No. NbQ 4134 aNd tiMOR-lEStE PARTNErSHiPS Kristin Phillips and Sandra Yee EditorIAL • email: [email protected] General editor, Josefa Green 7 COLLECTOR AND COLLECtEd: EXPLORING THE INtErCULTURAL NATUrE OF A MUSEUM COLLECTION Guest Editor this issue, Joanna Barrkman Siobhan Campbell Editorial assistance this issue, Sandra Forbes 10 tHE rEViVal oF EMBROIDErED STORY CLOTHS iN NEGARA, BALI publiCatioNS Committee I Made Rai Artha Josefa Green (convenor) • Tina Burge Melanie Eastburn • Sandra Forbes • Ann MacArthur Jim Masselos • Ann Proctor • Susan Scollay 12 tHE SaCrED HoUSE oF tiMOR-lEStE Sabrina Snow • Christina Sumner Eugénio Sarmento design/laYoUt 14 DILI: a CITY iN SEARCH oF itS SoUl Ingo Voss, VossDesign Jill Jolliffe PriNting John Fisher Printing 16 tHE iSLAMiC HERITAGE oF iNDONESIA’S art published by The Asian Arts Society of Australia Inc. James Bennett pO box 996 potts point NSW 2011 www.taasa.org.au 19 aMBaSSador oF iNDONESIAN BATIK: iwaN tirta (1935-2010) Maria Wronska-Friend Enquiries: [email protected] TAASA Review is published quarterly and is distributed to members 20 BrEaStCLOTHS oF JaVa aND BALI of The Asian Arts Society of Australia Inc. TAASA Review welcomes Joanna Barrkman submissions of articles, notes and reviews on Asian visual and performing arts. All articles are refereed. Additional copies and subscription to TAASA Review are available on request. 22 iN tHE PUBLIC doMAIN: KALA FrOM THE ArT GALLErY OF SOUTH AUSTrALIA Russell Kelty No opinion or point of view is to be construed as the opinion of The Asian Arts Society of Australia Inc., its staff, servants or agents. 23 JoHN HUiE aNd tHE CHiNESE GARDEN CHaMBER MUSiC FESTIVAL No claim for loss or damage will be acknowledged by TAASA Review as a result of material published within its pages or Paolo Hooke in other material published by it. We reserve the right to alter or omit any article or advertisements submitted and require 24 EXHiBITION PrEViEw: The FIrst EMpErOr: China’S Entombed WArriorS indemnity from the advertisers and contributors against damages Ann MacArthur or liabilities that may arise from material published. All reasonable efforts have been made to trace copyright holders. 26 CoNFErENCE rEPORT: bOrNEO INTErNATIONAL bEADS cONFErENcE 2010 Hwei-F’en Cheah TAASA MEMBErSHiP ratES $70 Single 28 Recent taaSa aCtiVities $90 Dual $95 Libraries 29 A MESSaGE FROM taaSa’S PrESIDENt $35 Concession (full-time students under 26 pensioners, unemployed, with ID supplied) 29 TAASA MemberS’ diarY $115 Overseas (individuals and libraries) $650 Life membership 30 wHAT’S oN iN aUStralia aNd oVErSEaS: DEcEMbEr 2010 - FEBRUArY 2011 Compiled by Sabrina Snow advertiSiNG ratES TAASA Review welcomes advertisements from appropriate companies, institutions and individuals. Rates below are GST inclusive. Back page $850 Full inner page $725 Half page horizontal $484 Third page (vertical or horizontal) $364 Half column $265 Insert $300 ideR-ideR, story clotH (detail), prESUMED FrOM NEGArA, bALI, INDONESIA, 20TH cENTUrY. HAND EMbrOIDErED cOMMErcially woven cotton AND rayon THrEADS AND GLASS bEADS, For further information re advertising, including DIMENSIONS (OF cOMpLETE TExTILE) HT 350 cM x 4600 cM long. GIFT OF MrS MArY Abbott, discounts for regular quarterly advertising, please contact cOLLEcTION MUSEUM AND ArT GALLErY OF THE NOrTHErN TErritorY. THE cUrrENT revival [email protected] OF SUcH EMbrOIDErED TExTILES IS DIScUSSED ON pp. 10-11 OF THIS ISSUE. The dEadliNE For all artiCles for our nexT issue is 15 decembEr 2010 a FUll iNdex of artiClES PUBlished in TAASA Review Since itS BEGinnings The dEadliNE For all aDvertiSing in 1991 is aVailaBle on tHE taaSA wEB SitE, www.taaSa.orG.aU for our nexT issue is 1 februarY 2011 2 t a a S a C o mm i t t ee E d i t o r i a l : INDONESIA AND TIMO r - L E S T E : p r ESE r V I N G c ULTU r A L H E r ITAGE Gill Green • president Art historian specialising in Cambodian culture Joanna Barrkman, Guest Editor CHRISTINA SUMNER • VIcE president cloths is experiencing a gradual revival. I Made Principal Curator, Design and Society, I recall inviting Mrs Inez Casimiro, a Powerhouse Museum, Sydney senior member of Darwin’s Timor-Leste Rai Artha records the process of re-engaging community, into the Southeast Asian textiles artisans with sulaman Negara, hand aNN GUILD • TrEASUrEr Former Director of the Embroiders Guild (UK) storeroom at the Museum and Art Gallery of embroidered textiles such as the one on the the Northern Territory after she had agreed cover of this issue, which until recently have KATE JoHNSTON • SECRETArY Intellectual property lawyer with to ‘co-curate’ a display of Timorese objects. teetered on the edge of disappearance. an interest in Asian textiles Viewing the collection, she was drawn to ear- rings, hairpins and bracelets similar to those Revival and reconstruction are themes implicit HwEi-fe’N CHEaH which she’d worn as a young woman in her Lecturer, Art History, Australian National University, in Eugénio Sarmento’s exploration of the with an interest in needlework homeland, before fleeing to Australia as a significance of ceremonial houses in Timor- refugee in 1975. Leste. Sarmento reminds us that material JoCElYN CHEY Visiting Professor, Department of Chinese Studies, architectural forms are embodiments of University of Sydney; former diplomat A woven fibre food cover – lo’u metin – intangible cultural values as he convincingly immediately caught Mrs Casimiro’s eye. She illustrates how Timorese cultural identity Matt CoX is inherent within the traditional ume lulik Study Room Co-ordinator, Art Gallery of New South explained that as a girl she had watched her Wales, with a particular interest in Islamic Art of aunt make similar food covers in her home architecture of Soibada. Alternatively, Jill Southeast Asia village of Same. She had never expected to see Jolliffe considers the changing city of Dili one again - especially not in Darwin, Australia! and reflects on whether, as development PHilip CoUrtenaY Former Professor and Rector of the Cairns Campus, and construction proliferate, Dili’s culturally James Cook University, with a special interest in This anecdote illustrates the good fortune varied architectural heritage has a place in Southeast Asian ceramics of Australian cultural institutions that have this city’s future. lUCiE FOLAN developed Indonesian and Timor-Leste Assistant Curator, Asian Art, National Gallery of Australia collections and the obligations of custodianship Issues of Indonesian art and Islamic cultural resulting from this boon. These collections heritage are examined by James Bennett, SaNdra Forbes Editorial consultant with long-standing interest have important roles to play in fostering who considers the role of Islam as a source in South and Southeast Asian art bi-lateral research, training and exhibitions. of artistic inspiration in Javanese art during They are also resources for the revitalisation the early modern era. He argues, using the Josefa Green General editor of TAASA Review. Collector of Chinese of cultural practices, heritage preservation and example of a stunning pair of 18th century ceramics, with long-standing interest in East Asian the documentation of intangible heritage in loro blonyo sculptures, that the widely art as student and traveller Indonesia and Timor-Leste. propagated notion of a syncretic layering GERALDINE HARDMaN of indigenous, Buddhist-Hindu and Islamic Collector of Chinese furniture and Burmese lacquerware Because it is they who physically care and treat aesthetics is inadequate for the appreciation of its iconography, which is pervaded with MiN-JUNG KiM the items, it is conservators who often develop Curator of Asian Arts & Design at the Powerhouse Museum the most intimate relationship with collection references to contemporary Muslim beliefs. objects. First in this issue of TAASA Review, aNN PROCTOR the observations of international exchange We sadly mark the passing of Iwan Tirta on Art historian with a particular interest in Vietnam training programs in museology practice by 31 July 2010. A celebrated Indonesian batik SaBRINA SNOW Sandra Yee and Kristin Phillips remind us artist and fashion-designer, Tirta successfully Has a long association with the Art Gallery of New South that neighbouring nations such as Timor- reconstituted batik into a vibrant modern art- Wales and a particular interest in the arts of China Leste and Indonesia often enjoy only limited form and fashion. Dr Maria Wronska-Friend HoN. aUditor access to collection care resources enjoyed by documents Tirta’s legacy to shaping Indonesia’s Rosenfeld Kant and Co Australian institutions. Valuable collections cultural identity on the international stage during the late 20th century. Still on the S t a t E r ep r esen t a t i ves remain vulnerable to natural disasters, civil unrest and economic pressures. The exchange Indonesian focus, Russell Kelty discusses a rare AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY of skills and techniques between Australian terracotta mid 9th century Buddhist-Hindu robyn MaXwEll museum conservators and Timorese