VOLUME 20 NO. 1 March 2011 the journal of the asian arts society of australia TAASA Review C o N t en t S Volume 20 No. 1 March 2011 3 Editorial TAASa rEViEW Josefa Green THE ASIAN ARTS SOCIETY OF AUSTRALIA INC. ABN 64093697537 • Vol. 20 No. 1, March 2011 4 RITUAL MUSiC oF tHE CHU KiNGDOM ISSN 1037.6674 registered by australia Post. Publication No. NBQ 4134 Liu Yang EditorIAL • email: [email protected] 7 MaSKS tHAT MAINTAIN tHE WORLD General editor, Josefa Green Michele Stephen Guest Editor this issue, Joanna Barrkman Editorial assistance this issue, Sandra Forbes 10 rEVEALEd iN tHE rUiNS: BUDDHA IMaGES aND rELIQUARIES FrOM a BaGaN PaGODa Bob Hudson publiCatioNS Committee Josefa Green (convenor) • Tina Burge 12 FROM TRADITIONAL TO MODErN: ThE IMPACT OF ENTrEPrENEUrShIP ON SOUThEaST aSIaN TEXTILES Melanie Eastburn • Sandra Forbes • Ann MacArthur Jim Masselos • Ann Proctor • Susan Scollay Gill Green Sabrina Snow • Christina Sumner design/layoUt 15 tHE art oF liViNG WITH tHE NoMADS oF MoNGOLIA Ingo Voss, VossDesign Gregory Fournier PriNting 18 SQUARE CLOTH FOR SQUARE taBlES: aLTAR aPrONS IN CHINESE TEMPLES IN SE aSIa John Fisher Printing Trevor Vale Published by The asian arts Society of australia Inc. PO Box 996 Potts Point NSW 2011 20 EXHiBITION PrEViEW: JaPaN IN SYDNEY: arThUr LindsaY Sadler, www.taasa.org.au JaPaN and AustraliaN modernism 1920S – 1930S Enquiries: [email protected] Maria (Connie) Tornatore – Loong TAASA Review is published quarterly and is distributed to members of The asian arts Society of australia Inc. TAASA Review welcomes 22 iN tHE PUBLIC doMAIN: a ThaI Buddhist Banner aT ThE NGa submissions of articles, notes and reviews on asian visual and Melanie Eastburn performing arts. all articles are refereed. additional copies and subscription to TAASA Review are available on request. 24 InnoVations aNd CrEatiVity iN aNCient QiN: a joint seminar No opinion or point of view is to be construed as the opinion of BY ThE arT GallerY of NSW and Sydney University The asian arts Society of australia Inc., its staff, servants or agents. John Millbank No claim for loss or damage will be acknowledged by TAASA Review as a result of material published within its pages or 26 travellEr’s CHoice: Museum of Islamic arT, DOha in other material published by it. We reserve the right to alter or omit any article or advertisements submitted and require Marion Macdonald indemnity from the advertisers and contributors against damages or liabilities that may arise from material published. 27 BooK rEView: SouthEast AsiaN CeramicS Museum – BangkOk University all reasonable efforts have been made to trace copyright holders. David Rehfuss TAASA MEMBErSHiP ratES 28 at the NGa: HerE and ThErE: ContemporarY Photomedia artists in Asia $70 Single Gael Newton $90 Dual $95 Libraries 29 rECENt taaSa aCTIVITIES $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: MARCH - MaY 2011 advertiSiNG ratES Compiled by Tina Burge TAASA Review welcomes advertisements from appropriate companies, institutions and individuals. Rates below are GST inclusive. Back page $850 Full inner page $725 Half page horizontal $484 Third page (vertical or horizontal) $364 Half column $265 Insert $300 For further information re advertising, including discounts EaGle HuntEr in WestErn Mongolia (detail). FOr centuries kazakh men have for regular quarterly advertising, please contact advertising@ taasa.org.au hunted on hOrseback with Trained golden Eagles. Photo: GregorY Fournier, 2010. MOrE images of Mongolia caN be seen on pp15-17. The dEadliNE For all artiCles for our next issue is 1 aPrIL 2011 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 MaY 2011 2 t a a S a C o mm i t t ee E d i t o r i a l Gill Green • President Josefa Green Art historian specialising in Cambodian culture CHRISTINA SUMNER • VIcE President Principal Curator, Design and Society, A general issue is always so stimulating, symbolic altar aprons generally used to Powerhouse Museum, Sydney allowing the TAASA Review to range over decorate side altar tables in Southeast aNN GUILD • TrEaSUrEr a great variety of topics, many related to Asian Chinese temples. Gill Green explores Former Director of the Embroiders Guild (UK) current events and exhibitions. the link between two antique textiles – a KATE JoHNSTON • SECRETARY cotton batik sarong from central Java and Intellectual property lawyer with Asian arts enthusiasts in Sydney have a silk tie dyed textile from Cambodia – an interest in Asian textiles been particularly well catered for recently which share a remarkably similar pictorial composition featuring early 20th century Hwei-fe’N CHEaH with two major and interrelated Chinese The First Emperor: icons of modernity. Her current research is Lecturer, Art History, Australian National University, exhibitions at the AGNSW: with an interest in needlework China’s entombed warriors and Homage to the attempting to establish what the impetus was JoCELYN CHEy Ancestors: Ritual Art from the Chu Kingdom. for such radical change to traditional motifs Visiting Professor, Department of Chinese Studies, In this issue, Dr Liu Yang of the Art Gallery in each region and what the connection was University of Sydney; former diplomat of NSW focuses on the significance of music between Java and Cambodia in relation to in the ritual life of the Chu Kingdom based this development. Matt CoX on musical instruments excavated from Chu Study Room Co-ordinator, Art Gallery of New South Wales, with a particular interest in Islamic Art of Kingdom tombs from the late Western Zhou Staying in Southeast Asia, another collector Southeast Asia (c800 BCE) to the Warring States period (c475- shares her passion and expertise with TR PHilip CoUrtenay 221 BCE). All the instruments he discusses readers. Michele Stephen’s article on Balinese Former Professor and Rector of the Cairns Campus, James can be currently seen in the latter exhibition. masks convinces us that these objects must Cook University, with a special interest in Southeast Asian be seen, not just as aesthetic objects of ceramics While The First Emperor exhibition itself great workmanship and variety, but also as lUCiE FOLAN was covered in the December TR, this issue vehicles for performance art and, above all, Assistant Curator, Asian Art, National Gallery of Australia provides a lively review by Dr John Millbank as evocations of sacred energies and powers Innovations essential at temple festivals and many SaNdra Forbes of the associated 2 day seminar, and Creativity in Ancient Qin, jointly held by domestic rituals. Editorial consultant with long-standing interest in South and Southeast Asian art the AGNSW and Sydney University. Josefa Green We are also privileged to publish Dr Bob General editor of TAASA Review. Collector of Chinese Another exhibition soon on show at the Hudson’s article on a horde of Buddha images ceramics, with long-standing interest in East Asian University Art Gallery, Sydney University and reliquaries unearthed from under the art as student and traveller will celebrate the legacy of Arthur Lindsay Hsutaung-pyi pagoda in Bagan in the 1975 GERALDINE HARDMaN Sadler, Professor of Oriental Studies from earthquake. Archaeologists only later realised Collector of Chinese furniture and Burmese lacquerware 1922 to 1947, in stimulating exchange that some of these relics dated to the 13th century MiN-JUNG KiM between Japanese print making traditions and when the pagoda was originally consecrated. Curator of Asian Arts & Design at the Powerhouse Museum Australian modernist artists. As co-curator Bob Hudson was invited to photograph these Maria (Connie) Tornatore-Loong explains, pieces before they were re-enshrined in the aNN PROCTOR this show will explore parallel developments restored stupa, and their publication in this Art historian with a particular interest in Vietnam between Australian and Japanese modernist issue provides valuable material for comparison SaBRINA SNoW prints, juxtaposed with European expressionist with Bagan finds in other locations. Has a long association with the Art Gallery of New South prints, bookplates and journals. Wales and a particular interest in the arts of China Buddhist ritual art is also the subject of HoN. aUditor Gael Newton, Senior Curator of Photography at Melanie Eastburn’s article describing a Rosenfeld Kant and Co the NGA gives us a tantalising glimpse of works 19th century Thai Buddhist painted banner S t a t E r ep r esen t a t i ves currently on display in the NGA’s Photography recently acquired by the NGA. This cotton Gallery. A common thread in the diverse banner is likely to have been displayed in a AUSTRALIAN Capital Territory images on show in Here and There: Contemporary Buddhist temple in association with a festival roByn Maxwell photomedia artists in Asia is the way in which held in veneration of the 28 Buddhas of the Visiting Fellow in Art History, ANU; these artists explore their cultural identities in past and Maitreya (the future Buddha). Such Senior Curator of Asian Art, National Gallery of Australia the context of the current cultural engagement events continue to take place in Thailand as Northern Territory between the Euro-American “west” and Asia. well as Cambodia, Burma and Laos. Joanna BarrkmaN Curator of Southeast