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V OL UME

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NO.1

MA R C

H 2 0 1 3

THE JOURNAL OF

THE ASIAN ARTS SOCIETYOF AUSTRALIA

TAASA Review

7/23/2019 Review_22_1_2013_March


3 EDITORIAL

Josefa Green, Editor

4 UNCOVERING ALEXANDER’S ‘LOST’ CITIES

John Tidmarsh

7 LUXURIOUS ABSTRACTION: MOTIF AND DESIGN IN KUTCH COURT EMBROIDERY

Jim Masselos

10 TEXTILE DESIGNS IN STONE: THE LEGACY OF MEDIEVAL JAVANESE SCULPTURE

Lesley Pullen

14 TURKEY’S HASANKEYF: THE PLIGHT OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND ARCHITECTURALTREASURES IN SOUTHEAST ANATOLIA

William Gourlay

17 DECODING THE FORBIDDEN DESIGNS IN RAFFLES’ BATIK COLLECTION

Thienny Lee

20 SO UL OF SI MP LI CI TY – KOREAN CERAMICS EXHIBITION AT THE AGNSW

Khanh Trinh

24 APT: MORE THAN A SPECTACLE

Anne Kirker

26 COLLECTOR’S CHOICE: TWO BLUE & WHITE VIETNAMESE CHARGERS

John Yu

27 BOOK REVIEW: BALINESE ART

Niki van den Heuvel

28 RECENT TAASA ACTIVITIES

30 TAASA MEMBERS’ DIARY: MARCH 2013 – MAY 2013

31 WHAT’S ON IN AUSTRALIA: MARCH 2013 – MAY 2013

Compiled by Tina Burge

C O N T E N T S

Volume 22 No. 1 March 2013

2

A FU LL IN DE X OF AR TI CLES PU BL IS HE D IN TAASA REVIEW SINCE ITS BEGINNINGS

IN 1991 IS AVAILABLE ON THE TAASA WEB SITE, WWW.TAASA.ORG.AU

A PAGE FROM THE DESIGN BOOK OF THE COURT EMBROIDERERS OF KUTCH (DETAIL).

GOUACHE ON PAPER. PHOTO: JIM MASSELOS. SEE PP7-9.

TAASA REVIEW

THE ASIAN ARTS SOCIETY OF AUSTRALIA INC.Abn 64093697537 • Vol. 22 No. 1, March 2013

ISSN 1037.6674Registered by Australia Post. Publication No. NBQ 4134

editoriAL • email: [email protected]

General editor, Josefa Green

PUBLICATIONS COMMITTEE

Josefa Gree (coveor) • Tia burgeMelaie Eastur • Sadra Fores • Charlotte GallowayWilliam Gourlay • Mariae Hulsosch

Jim Masselos • A Proctor • Saria SowChristina Sumner

DESIGN/LAYOUT

Ingo Voss, VossDesign

PRINTING

John Fisher Printing

Published by The Asian Arts Society of Australia Inc.PO Box 996 Potts Point NSW 2011 www.taasa.org.au

Enquiries: [email protected]

TAASA Review is published quarterly and is distributed to members

of The Asian Arts Society of Australia Inc. TAASA Review welcomes

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.

No opinion or point of view is to be construed as the opinion ofThe Asian Arts Society of Australia Inc., its staff, servants or agents.

No claim for loss or damage will be acknowledged by TAASA

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in other material published by it. We reserve the right to alter

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or liabilities that may arise from material published.

All reasonable efforts have been made to trace copyright holders.

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FOR OUR NEXT ISSUE IS 1 APRIL 2013

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7/23/2019 Review_22_1_2013_March


E D I T O R I A L

Josefa Green, Editor

3

T A A S A C O M M I T T E E

Our rst TAASA Review for 2013 is a generalissue which offers a large variety of topics, ut which has a strog textile avour.

Three articles explore various textile topics.

Jim Masselos dips into his as yet unpublishedresearch undertaken in the 1980s on awoderful leather oud desig ook usedas a kind of catalogue by the last Kutch courtemroiderers i orthwest Idia. It was heldat the time in the government museum inBhuj and provides a unique insight into thecompositions and motifs used by over fourgeeratios of emroiderers whose practicetermiated whe the Kutch royal family lostdominance post independence.

In her article Textile Designs in Stone , LesleyPulle examies the textile desigs carved ove Javaese statues datig to c. 1300. Giventhe paucity of records and inscriptions, thesedesigns provide important information onwhere ad whe these ad other statues weremade ad the kids of textiles that could have ee i existece durig that period. A studyof these designs may also be able to highlightthe continuity and disappearance of designsover time.

Staying in the same region, Thienny Leediscusses two atiks ow held i the britishMuseum - part of the collection of Sir StamfordRafes, which he amassed while LieuteatGovernor of Java and the Dependencies from1811 to 1816. She challeges curret viewso the origi of these desigs as well as howthese cloths came ito Rafes’ possessio.

Followig o from the preview i theDecember TAASA Review of the Alexander theGreat exhiitio at the Australia Museum,

John Tidmarsh reports on current or recentexcavatios of a umer of sites i presetday Jorda, Afghaista ad Syria whereHelleistic cities were estalished followigAlexader’s defeat of the Persia empire. Johis curretly co-Director of the excavatios at Jordan and Syria.

Another area of great archaeological andarchitectural richess which is curretlyunder threat is discussed in WilliamGourlay’s article o Hasakeyf, a towship i

southeastern Anatolia in Turkey. He outlinesthe many historically important treasures

which will e destroyed should the TurkishGovermet forge ahead with its Ilısu damproject, not to speak of the displacement ofsome 60,000 people and the inundation ofaroud 2000 sites i the wider regio.

Two curret exhiitios are reviewed i thisissue. Opeig this moth is a exhiitio ofKorean ceramics at the Art Gallery of NSWgenerously lent to the Gallery by the Museumof Oriental Ceramics, Osaka. Khanh Trinh,Curator of Japanese and Korean Art at theAGnSW, provides us with a rief historyof the development of Korean ceramics inthe Goryeo and early Joseon periods, andexplais how the 38 pieces o show provideus with outstadig examples from thesetwo major periods whe Korea ceramic artreached its pinnacle.

Oe of the most sigicat art evets iAustralia - the 7th Asia Pacic Trieial ofContemporary Art at Queensland Art Gallery

- was covered i the Decemer TAASAReview. I this issue, Ae Kirker, who wasivolved with the rst four APTs as a curatorat QAG, offers her reectios o how the APTshould be seen, not only as a spectacle butalso as ogoig evet which has had a criticalad lastig iuece o QAG’s collectiopractices. You can still catch APT7 in Brisbaneuntil 14 April.

Two of our regular items should hopefully be of interest to our readers. In Collector’sChoice , Joh Yu discusses two charmigVietamese lue ad white ceramic plates ihis collection. In our Book Review, Niki vande Heuvel discusses Adria Vickers’ ewmajor and beautifully presented publicationon Balinese Art.

We have a larger than usual section on TAASAmatters in this issue. This is partly becausea number of events from the end of lastyear occurred too late to be included in theDecemer issue. TAASA evets for the ew

year are highlighted o p30, icludig whatshould prove to be a stimulating symposiumFrom Beginner to Expert on 9 March. TAASAis also very pleased to announce the longawaited lauch of a TAASA Ceramics StudyGroup, with its rst evet scheduled forThursday 4 April from 6 – 8pm.

Fially, we do have some importat matters toreport. Oe is the well deserved award of aOAM in the recent Australia Day honours toour Vice Presidet, Christia Sumer to whomTAASA offers heartiest congratulations. On asadder ote, we offer our est wishes to past

Presidet Jackie Mezies for a excitig ‘extcareer’ as she steps dow from her positio asHead of Asian Art at the AGNSW.

GiLL Green • PRESIDENT

Art historian specialising in Cambodian culture

CHriStinA SUMner •

VI CE PR ES ID EN TPrincipal Curator, Design and Society,

Powerhouse Museum, Sydey

An n GU iL d • TREASURER

Former Director of the Embroiders Guild (UK)

dy AndreASen • SECRETARY

Has a special interest in Japanese haiku and tanka poetry

HWEI-FE’N CHEAH

Visitig Fellow, School of Cultural Iquiry, Australia

National University.

JO CE LYN CH EY

Visiting Professor, Department of Chinese Studies,

University of Sydney; former diplomat

MATT COX

Assistant Curator, Asian Art, Art Gallery of NSW

CHARLOTTE GALLOWAY

Lecturer Asian Art History and Curatorial Studies,

Australia natioal Uiversity, with a special iterest

in the Buddhist Art of Myanmar

JO SE FA GR EE N

General editor of TAASA Review. Collector of Chinese

ceramics, with log-stadig iterest i East Asia

art as student and traveller

MIN-JUNG KIM

Curator of Asia Arts & Desig at the Powerhouse Museum

AN N PR OC TO R

Art historia with a particular iterest i Vietam

YU KI E SAT O

Former Vice President of the Oriental Ceramic Society ofthe Philippies with wide-ragig iterest i Asia art

and culture

SUSAN SCOLLAY

Is an art historian and curator specialising in the arts of

Islam ad i historic textiles. She is Fellow of the Royal

Asiatic Society of the UK.

SABRINA SNOW

Has a log associatio with the Art Gallery of new South

Wales and a particular interest in the arts of China

TODD SUNDERMAN

Former Asia atique dealer, with a particular iterest

in Tibetan furniture

MARGARET WHITE

Former President and Advisor of the Friends of Museums,

Sigapore, with special iterest i Southeast Asia art,

ceramics ad textiles

HON. AUDITOR

Rosenfeld Kant and Co

S T A T E R E P R E S E N T A T I V E S

AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY

MELANIE EASTBURN

Curator of Asian Art, National Gallery of Australia

QUEENSLAND

RUSSELL STORER

Curatorial Maager, Asia ad Pacic Art,

Queensland Art Gallery

SOUTH AUSTRALIA

JA ME S BE NN ET T

Curator of Asian Art, Art Gallery of South Australia

VICTORIA

CAROL CAINS

Curator Asian Art, National Gallery of Victoria International

7/23/2019 Review_22_1_2013_March


n the course of his 11 year conquest of the

Persia Empire (334–323 bCE), Alexader

the Great was said to have fouded some 70 cities;

subsequently his general and founder of the vast

Seleucid empire, Seleucus Nicator (r. 312–281

BCE), established a further 60 or more. Whilst it

is proale that these umers are exaggerated

- undoubtedly many (or most) of these so-called

foudatios were already settlemets i their

ow right prior to Alexader’s coquests - it

is certai that durig Alexader’s campaigs

ad the Helleistic period that followed, a large

number of Macedonians and other Greekscame to settle (volutarily or otherwise) i the

lads which stretched from the shores of the

Mediterranean to the Hindu Kush. It remains

striking, therefore, that despite these numerous

‘foudatios’ ad the large iux of Greeks ito

the Levat ad the lads eyod, our kowledge

of Hellenistic cities in the East (particularly

of their earliest phases) is so meagre. Even the

greatest of Alexader’s poleis , Alexadria-i-

Egypt, has revealed few traces of its Helleistic

remais which lie largely hidde eeath the

modern city.

The majority of settlements founded byAlexader ad Seleucus nicator would seem

to have ee estalished withi the territory

of the Seleucid empire which, at rst, exteded

from the Levant and the Aegean coast of

Turkey as far east as the Punjab. In their earliest

phases may would have served as garrisos,

occupying strategic positions on important

trade routes, river crossings or rich farmland,

or keepig watch over potetially restive ative

populations. Over time, as a result of the changes

which accompaied the marked shrikage i

territories held by the Seleucids, it seems that

may of these garriso sites were aadoedand their location forgotten. On the other hand,

some seem to have grow i size, ecomig

fully edged tows or cities i their ow right

whose life exteded well eyod the Helleistic

years. In many cases this has resulted in the

original Hellenistic foundation being all but

oliterated as a result of the extesive uildig

work carried out i susequet periods.

Such is the case at the University of Sydney

excavatios at Pella i Jorda where the

remarkable sequence of some 10,000 years of

almost uninterrupted occupation on the main

tell has made the important Hellenistic levelsdifcult to isolate, as they lie udereath

extesive byzatie ad Islamic uildig

(Tidmarsh 2002).

To the south of the main tell , on the very

prominent hill of Tell el-Husn, several ceramic

lamps of Athenian manufacture and dating to

the late 4th century or early 3rd century BCEhave ee recovered from mixed deposits,

suggesting the presence of at least a small

settlement or garrison on Husn during those

early years efore the widespread 2d cetury

BCE occupation on the main mound itself.

I this regard it is worth otig that ‘Pella’

(the capital of Macedon and birthplace of

Alexader) was clearly a Greek adaptatio of

the former name - Pihil or Fihil - of the Jordanian

city which is metioed i Egyptia texts as far

back as the 2nd millennium BCE. The practice of

giving such settlements the names of important

Macedoia tows seems especially commoamog Alexader’s geerals, most of whom

were of Macedoia origi. The presece o

Tell el-Hus of later structures which eed to e

preserved, i particular a extesive byzatie

fortress, makes it unlikely that this probable

garriso, eve if its positio is located, will ever

be completely uncovered.

Much further to the east, in modern

Afghaista, a chace d i 1961 ear the

modern village of Aï Khanum led to the

discovery of what, i its earlier phase, was

probably a military outpost established on

the left bank of the Amu Darya river (theaciet Oxus) durig Alexader’s campaigs

or y Seleucus soo after. It was fouded o

this site probably to control access to both

the fertile plain (already under irrigation in

Achaemenid times) and mineral resources

nearby. Its ancient name is still uncertain

although Alexadria-o-the-Oxus remais adistict possiility. Uiquely, it was fouded

on a virgin site and not re-occupied after

its inhabitants had been driven out by

nomadic incursions from the east just after

the mid-2d cetury bCE. Thus, for the rst

time, archaeologists had the opportunity to

investigate a purely Hellenistic settlement

lying close to the surface and not subjected to

destructive over-building.

Excavatios etwee 1965–1978 y a Frech

team led by Paul Bernard, then Director of

the Délégation Archéologique Française enAfghaista (DAFA), uearthed a expasive

palace and treasury, an arsenal, a theatre, a

very large gymnasium (dedicated to Heracles

ad Hermes) as well as two temples, several

private houses and the mausoleum of a

certai Kieas, proaly the rst goveror

of the city (Bernard 1982). Most of these

structures lay withi a imposig mudrick

wall stregtheed y towers which projected

some 10 metres from the wall itself. The

presece of the extesive palace alog with

evidence that the city later minted coins of

Greco-Bactrian rulers indicates that, at least in

its later phases after bactria had roke awayfrom the Seleucid empire, Aï Khanum served

as a royal city. It is possible that its name

was the chaged to Eucratidaea, capital of

4

I

U N C O V E R I N G A L E X A N D E R ’ S ‘ L O S T ’ C I T I E S

John Tidmarsh

T A A S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 2 2 N O . 1

PELLA, JORDAN. UNCOVERING THE HELLENISTIC LEVELS. PHOTO: JOHN TIDMARSH, 2011

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Bactria during the long reign (c.170–145 BCE)

of the powerful Eucratides.

The architecture of the city, alog with its small

ds ad iscriptios, reveals a itriguig

amalgam of Greek ad Easter iuece. Forexample, the mai sactuary (‘the temple with

iches’) with its high podium, exterior iches,

and tri-partite cella (inner chamber) bears

no resemblance to Greek temple architecture

yet marle fragmets recovered from withi

suggest that it housed a cult statue of Zeus in

Greek style. The palace itself was costructed

to a mainly eastern plan but included Greek

details such as terracotta atexes, a pele

mosaic with typical Macedoia ‘star’ patter,

ad a huge courtyard lied y colums with

Corithia capitals. The few iscriptios o

stone or on ceramic vessels recovered fromAï Khaum are i Greek, which was proaly

the language of administration; the names

of the administrators themselves are either

Greek or, less commonly, Bactrian.

Despite some 13 years of excavatio, much of

the city still remaied to e ucovered whe

the Russian invasion of Afghanistan in 1979

rought work at Aï Khaum to a premature

close. Tragically, the site has ow ee all ut

destroyed by some 30 years of constant looting.

O a rocky outcrop (‘Jeel Khalid’) towerig

some 100 metres over the right bank of theEuphrates River in northern Syria, Australian

archaeologists are currently unearthing a

city which ears a umer of similarities to

Aï Khaum, ot least the fact that it too was

fouded o a virgi site ad, with the exceptio

of a very small late Roma ecampmet, was

ot re-occupied followig its (seemigly

peaceful) abandonment around 70 BCE (Clarke

et al., 2002). Furthermore, as with Aï Khaum,

its aciet ame is still ucertai. The lower

courses of its beautifully constructed header-

ad-stretcher ashlar forticatio wall (some

3.4 kilometres o the ladward side) are stilli place while, i olique light, the outlies of

the city lying just beneath the modern surface

and arranged on a Hippodamian grid plan can

easily be discerned - a tantalizing prospect for

any archaeologist!

Under the direction of Emeritus Professor

Graeme Clarke (ANU), Dr Heather Jackson

(University of Melbourne) and, more recently,

myself (Uiversity of Sydey), excavatios

have been in progress since 1987. Over this

time a imposig Goveror’s Palace perched

high on the Acropolis and protected by its

ow forticatio wall, a rather squat Dorictemple (surrounded in its latest phase by

a rig of sacricial altars), ad a complete

housig isula have ee ucovered, while

numerous graves (unfortunately mostly

roed) outside the walls to the west of the

city have been investigated. Work is currently

uder way to expose a impressive palaistra

(a characteristically Greek small gymnasium

providing both sporting and educational

facilities) and a possible market area further to

the north. At present, numismatic and ceramic

evidece suggests that Jeel Khalid wasfouded ot y Alexader ut y Seleucus

Nicator, no doubt to guard this strategic

crossing point on the Euphrates River.

The Goveror’s Palace o the Acropolis

was plaed aroud a cetral courtyard,

emellished with a Doric coloade ad

possible formal garden, and contained large

banqueting halls or audience chambers

(aked y kitches ad service rooms), a

open area for religious ceremonies (complete

with a stadig drum altar surrouded y

deposits of ash and animal bone), administrativerooms, ad eve a washroom with adjacet

toilet trough. It is likely that both the north

ad south wigs supported upper-level rooms

which would have provided accommodatio

for the goveror’s family ad importat guests.

May of the palace rooms were adored with

painted plaster usually in plain red, black,

ochre, white or gree; i several of the larger

rooms, however, more orate patters imitatig

veined marble or depicting vegetal or geometric

desigs were employed.

To the orth of the Acropolis was situated

the temple, positioned to impress the visitoreither arriving through the Main Gate to the

west or, particularly, from the river to the east

(the remains of stone quays are still visible

on the shoreline). Although many of its stone

locks were roed i atiquity ad i more

recet times, eough remais to show that

the temple was aked y six colums o its

east ad west sides with fragmets of colum

capitals, metopes and triglyphs attesting to

its Doric order. The colums were, however,

uusually squat ad this, alog with the

absence of guttae and mutules (architecturalfeatures usually present on Doric temples)

ad the almost square, tripartite cella show

that although supercially Greek, the temple

was y o meas caoical. Fragmets of a

large (cult?) statue (in high-quality Parian

marle) as well as a smaller limestoe head of

a male with llet ad earrig have also ee

recovered from withi the temple; it remais

uclear as to whom the temple was dedicated.

Further to the north, some 1000 metres from

the Acropolis, on a south-facing slope and

thus protected from the cold orth wids ofwiter, a lock or ‘isula’ (dimesios 90x35m)

of houses was laid out early i the life of the

settlemet efore eig sustatially modied

i the later 2d cetury bCE. The walls, some

still preserved to a height of early two metres,

were maily of stoe with, for the more

important rooms, doorposts of tall vertical

stoes ad stoe thresholds. Floors were of

tamped earth or crushed limestone. In some

instances, the rooms had an interior plaster

coatig (usually of plai red) while withi a

large room, in seemingly the most important of

the houses, were recovered fragmets of a e

plaster corice with egg-ad-dart mouldigtogether with paited fragmets which, whe

reconstructed, depict a continuous frieze of

Erotes driving goat chariots.

AÏ KHANUM, AFGHANISTAN. CORINTHIAN CAPITAL IN PALACE COURTYARD

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As yet, no inscriptions on stone have been

foud. Of the umerous examples of grafti

and dipinti (usually scratched or painted on

ceramics) and stamped amphora handles from

the city, the great bulk are in the Greek language

ad script. Two of the 6 paited iscriptios

(dipiti) o locally made jars are, however, i

Aramaic letterig with Semitic (rather tha

Greek) ames while several stamped hadles

also bear Semitic names but in a Greek script.

These examples of Aramaic script or ames were

recovered from the later phases of occupation at

the site suggesting (as does the evidence fromthe terracotta guries ad pottery) a growig

iteractio etwee the Greek coloists ad

idigeous populatio for whom Aramaic

would have ee the lingua franca.

Although not all of its 50 hectare area seems to

have been occupied - part of the site seems to

have served as a quarry for the stone utilized

i its forticatios ad uildigs - there is o

doubt that many important structures remain

to e uearthed. Curretly, excavatios have

been suspended due to the on-going troubles

i Syria ut oce work resumes the esuig

seasons at Jebel Khalid should provide uswith a uique isight ito how those early

foudatios of Alexader ad his geerals i

the East were plaed ad settled.

John Tidmarsh is President of the Near Eastern

Archaeological Foundation of the University of

Sydney and co-Director of the excavations at Pella in

Jordan and Jebel Khalid in Syria.

REFERENCESBernard, P., 1982. “An Ancient Greek C ity in Cen tral Asia”,

Scientific American 246, no. 1, 148–159.

Clarke, G.W. et al., 2002. Jebel Khalid on the Euphrates I. Report

of the Excavations 1986–1996, Mediterranean Archaeology

Supplement 5, Sydney.

Jackson, H., 2006. Jebel Khalid on the Euphrates II. The Terracotta

Figurines, Mediterranean Archaeology Supplement 6, Sydney.

Jackson, H & Tidmarsh, J., 2011. Jebel Khalid on the Euphrates III.The Pottery, Mediterranean Archaeology Supplement 7, Sydney.

Rapin, C., 1990. “Greeks in Afghanistan: Aï Khanum” in

Descœudres, J-P. (ed.), Greek Colonists and Native Populations

: Proceedings of the First Australian Congress of Classical

Archaeology Held in Honour of Emeritus Professor A.D. Trendall,

Sydney, 9-14 July 1985,Canberra, 329–342.

Tidmarsh, J., “How Hellenized was Pella in Jordan in the Hellenistic

Period?” Studies in the History and Archaeology of Jordan VIII

(2002), 459-468.

JEBEL KHALID, SYRIA. THE DOMESTIC INSULA (THE EUPHRATES RIVER IN THE BACKGROUND). PHOTO: BOB MILLER, 2005

JEBEL KHALID, SYRIA. THE DOMESTIC INSULA. PAINTED FRIEZE

FRAGMENT: GOAT PAIR. PHOTO: BOB MILLER

JEBEL KHALID, SYRIA. THE DOMESTIC INSULA. PAINTED FRIEZE

FRAGMENT: EROS. PHOTO: BOB MILLER

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mog the est achievemets i Idia’s

textile traditio is emroidery from

the former princely state of Cutch, Kutch

or Kachchh as it was ofcially spelt after

idepedece. Emroidery was – ad still

is – commoly practised i small tows ad

villages i this orthwester regio where

wome work at their emroidery i odd spare

moments, creating items that are vigorous,

full of energy and characteristically of Kutch.

Parallelig such distictive praxis were other

customary embroidery styles, in particular

embroidery patronised by the royal court inthe capital city of Bhuj before independence

i1947. The court valued e detail i

embroidery, meticulous technique and a

rilliatly rich ad colourful palate. It was ot

created y the ladies of the court for whom,

unlike their royal sisters in Europe or indeed

equivalent royals in the Punjab hill states,

emroidery was either a hoy or a meas

of self-expressio or relaxatio. Istead the

court viewed emroidery much as it regarded

other e ad decorative arts, as somethig

to purchase, ejoy, ad sigal the court’s taste

and eminence.

The court purchased e quality emroidery

from professional male embroiderers and

their family uits i bhuj. by caste they were

leatherworkers or mochis who accordig to

tradition had learnt their art from a Muslim

fakir from Sind, perhaps in the 17th century or

earlier (Postans 1839: 175, 272-3; Gazetteer1880:

125-6). They later transferred to cloth their

expertise i stitchig o leather with a special

eedle, a awl or ari. The result was ely

detailed embroidery that properly became

famous, being sought after not only by the

Kutch royal family but nobles, merchants and,from the 19th cetury, y ew patros, british

civil servats (Irwi ad Hall 1973).

buyers exercised patroage i various ways.

They would uy emroidery from stock,

from udles of ished cloths take to the

court zenana for the wome to make their

selection (the late Maharani of Kutch 1982).

What the royal wome chose iueced

the work rought them i the future ad

perhaps affected the choices made by other

wome i the capital. Eve from their zenana

royal wome were ariters of pulic taste.

Other patrons might directly commission

items outside the emroiderer’s experiece

or traditio: so a british ofcial might order

a coat of arms or regimental colours, and his

wife a talecloth; or a atioalist sympathiser

in the 20th century might order a portrait of

Gandhi (Nanalal Jethabhai 1982). On occasion

a patron living outside Bhuj in one of the

coastal ports would rig a emroiderer

to his household for several moths to work

uder supervisio (Swali 1982). Usually

however emroiderers worked i their ow

quarter of bhuj. From there they were easilyavailale to execute whatever commissios

came their way, ready to work o aythig

ranging from banners, court regalia, fans,

and bolsters through to the staples of skirts,

louses ad shawls.

Whe a patro commissioed ew emroidery

the process might start with the emroiderer

producig samples of past work from stock, or

he might bring out sample cards or the family

book of designs. The cards had small pieces

of embroidery stuck or stitched on to them –

one card might have a selection of borders of

A

L U X U R I O U S A B S T R A C T I O N : M O T I F A N D D E S I G N I N K U T C H C O U R T E M B R O I D E R Y

Jim Masselos

A PAGE FROM THE DESIGN BOOK OF THE COURT EMBROIDERERS OF KUTCH. GOUACHE ON PAPER (FIG. 1). PHOTO: JIM MASSELOS

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leaves or vies, aother of owers ad shrus

ad so o. The desig ook was more elaorate

ad cotaied page after page of drawigs of

patterns the embroiderer could reproduce.

A desig ook ad, to a lesser extet sice theywere ot so comprehesive, the sample cards

summarised the essence of the art of the court

emroiderer. They were records of forms, ad of

variatios withi those forms. They delieated

the basic vocabulary of the embroiderer, its

preoccupatios ad parameters, ut excluded

unusual commissions.

A design book from the family of the last

Kutch court embroiderers survived in the

govermet museum i bhuj where I studied it

in the early 1980s. It had belonged to the family

of Mr naalal Jethhai whom I met. They hadstopped practising embroidery in 1948 after

patroage had dramatically declied whe the

British left and the royal family of Kutch lost

domiace followig idepedece. As for

the design book, he thought it had been begun

around the mid-19th century and said that four

successive generations of court embroiderers

from his family had contributed to it.

The book is a simple leather bound volume

cotaiig sheets of paper covered with

freehad drawigs. It has o clear structure

or organising principles nor is there any

idicatio of whe a particular patter wascreated. There are o ‘moder’ or ostesily

wester or similarly aerrat patters. There

is no indication of any changes over time or of

ay impact o the emroiderer’s vocaulary

of special commissions. Rather, the pages

of designs provide information about basic

matters, the range and idiom of designs liked

by clients. Presumably the patterns served as

an archive for the embroiderers, aide memoirs

of work doe i the past ad their usual

repertoire. The book suggests the contours

of their creative universe through constituent

parts of their ished items.

The design book is precisely that - a collection

of designs. Most are composites that aggregate

components into single motifs. Thus a sole

page (g.1) shows variatios of a sigle

leaf, though there are many other leaves in

patterns throughout the book. Other simple

basic elements like vines, petals and buds

appear only in composite designs: though

relatively simple in their structure, they are

still capale of apparetly iite variatio,

as the ook shows i colum after colum of

patterns. Furthermore, as basic elements in

the emroiderer’s vocaulary, these simplecomposites are deployed as modules, motif-

modules in larger aggregations that form even

more complex ad elaorated compositios.

Motif modules themselves are relatively

simple. Among the simplest in the book is

show i g. 1 where the patters hardly

make ay distictio etwee ope owers

ad circles – oe moves ito the other witha ease ad uecy that highlights the

techical virtuosity of the court emroiderer’s

draftsmaship – ad the ravura codece

of their control over shapes and patterns.

The page also cotais twigs with uds, tiy

owerig shrus ad the ‘paisley’ mago

seed shape that the book calls buti. There are

also variations of geometric designs based

on a diamond shape or continuous lines of

Vs (referred to as ler) that create a crenulated

effect some wome emroiderers i the

coutryside still use i their work ad like

to waves i the sea, castle attlemets or lies

of temple spires.

Such motifs are distinguished from others

by various combinations of dots, vines,

leaves, petals, whatever. These variatios

do not disguise the dominant form nor are

they disguised whe the butis become more

elaorate as i those o the left of g.1. The

same applies to the ower, wheel or star motifsi other examples. Eve complex desigs

formed from aggregated motifs need not have

a idepedet existece i the completed

embroidery but may be used repeatedly in the

overall emroidered eld. There are elaorate

shrubs (zad), owerig shru ad paisley-

shaped buti that, in enlarged form, are variously

called buto orbuta in the book. Thus shrubs (zad)

have more leaves, more sets of branches, and

more owers tha the tiy owerig shrus or

twigs of the buti. Zad may even acquire pairs of

parrots or suitably decorative peacocks. In some

instances designs are achieved by repeating

simpler design elements: a large embroideredwheel may cotai smaller wheels or smaller

buti; owers are repeated ad suordiated to

the larger design.

A PAGE FROM THE DESIGN BOOK OF THE COURT EMBROIDERERS OF KUTCH. GOUACHE ON PAPER (FIG. 2). PHOTO: JIM MASSELOS

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TWO PAGES FROM THE DESIGN BOOK OF THE COURT EMBROIDERERS OF KUTCH. GOUACHE ON PAPER. PHOTO: JIM MASSELOS

When the design book presents embroidered

items - topi (hats), skirts ( ghagharo), blouses

(kapadha), bolsters and cushions, fans, rumal

(decorative squares of cloth), umbrellas and

ceremonial objects - the pattern relates to the

item’s shape. A rumal has embroidered edges

with a domiat cetral motif ad a axis that

is ofte vertical, while a olster may preseta eld of butis arraged i orderly rows over

the cloth so as to create a sense of fullness and

richess. Skirts may have several rows of motifs:

i oe istace a row of peacocks ad a row

of maides i prole, each with a ose rig.

The rows ll the cloth aove the orders ad

couteract the liearity of the hem order (g.

2). More complicated blouses similarly repeat a

motif, like a buti , in serial order horizontally, and

in doing so they also suggest a sense of diagonal

placement. Blouses usually have border

embroidery and central medallions on either

side. Some of them in addition feature on theleft arm an elaborate strip module motif, called

bajuband. The term is used in Kutch for an upper

arm silver and gem armlet, here recreated by the

embroiderer in thread form on blouse pieces.

The range achieved by the repetition of motif

modules is enormous and the visual impact

of their lushness can be stunning, especially

whe every availale space o a cloth is lled

i with emroidered desigs. Whether they

have any symbolic meaning is another matter.

The designs are in part representational in

that they relate to natural objects – to living

plats, uds, owers, shrus, ad occasioallyaimals (parrots, peacocks) as well as people,

usually wome i this gere of emroidery. but

they easily move into symbolically auspicious

geometric forms – into circles, diamonds, stars

ad swirlig sus. Sigicatly, the desig

ook does ot cotai examples of elephats

nor of Lord Krishna, though published

examples of such court emroideries feature

both. One interesting page does have an

auspicious eight-pointed star, Surya the sun

god and Chandra the moon god, Lord Shiva,a deer, a lotus ad two separate cows. Clearly

the embroiderers could produce religious and

symolic imagery if required, though it would

seem not often needed given their paucity in

the design book.

Most of the effort of the emroiderers was

presumaly chaelled ito creatig works

that satised secular eeds. Through the sheer

impact of their rich lustrousess, they exude

cootatios of prosperity ad power ad a

sense of undifferentiated auspiciousness. And

all this through the luxurious deploymet ofidealised and abstracted organic designs.

The emroiderer was ot tryig to create

realistic depictios of owers, shrus, vies etc

but rather their essence. It is not a particular

peacock that the embroiderers present but

the idea of a peacock, its essence perhaps

ut eve more the ideas associated with

peacocks, connotations of richness, lushness,

other worldly eauty, colour– all pleasat

notions aroused by the regularity of the

pattern, the richness and sheen of the colours

and the contours of the design. They become

picturegrams evoking pleasurable responses.

The particular quality of Kutchi court

embroidery lies in the open-ended rhythms

of the patterig ad the juxtapositio of

motif elemets, comied with its allusio

to a orgaic world. Startig with a iitial

represetatioalism, it creates its ow rage of

astractio ad elaoratio, its ow luxuriat

universe of the senses and emotions.

The author took the photos reproduced here of pages from the Design Book of the court embroiderers of

Kutch in February 1982 with the permission of Mr

Vaidya, the ofcer in charge of the Kutch (Gujarat

state) museum where the volume was then held.

As the book was said to have been built up over

the course of slightly under a century from the mid

1800s it is not possible to provide specic dating for

any of its pages from the current available evidence.

Jim Masselos FAHA is Honorary Reader in History at

the University of Sydney. Thames and Hudson recently

published his edited volume The Great Empires

of Asia and Ravi Dayal and Penguin Books, Indiarecently reprinted his co-authored Beato’s Delhi 1857

and Beyond while Roli books have also produced a

second edition of his co-authored Bombay Then and

Mumbai Now.

REFERENCESGazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, Vol.V, Cutch, Palanpur, and

Mahi Kantha. 1880. Govt. Central Press, Bombay.

Irwin, J. and M. Hall, 1973. Indian Embroideries. Vol.II.

Ahmedabad, Calico Museum of Textiles.

Jethabhai, Mr Nanalal, the last of the embroiderers to the Kutch

court. Meeting. Feb. 1982. Bhuj, Kutch.

The then HH the Maharani of Kutch, Rajendra Kunver. Meeting.

Feb. 1982. Bombay.

Postans, Marianna, 1839. Cutch; or Random Sketches… London,

Smith, Elder & Co.

Swali, Mr Charandas. Meeting. March 1982. Mundhra.

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extile desigs i stoe appear i great

detail on the sculptures of the Hindu

Buddhist Singasari period of east Java.

The designs appear in the greatest variety

during the reign of King Krtanagara

(r. 1268-1292 CE), a kig kow for his

patroage of esoteric texts ad practice. Five

sculptures will e discussed i this article:

two guardia gures ad a statue of Durga

were foud at Cadi Sigosari, i east Java

built by King Krtanagara, the last king of the

Singasari dynasty. The fourth sculpture, of

Prajaparamita, was foud at the ow extictCandi E at Cadi Sigosari. The fth sculpture,

also of Prajaparamita, was excavated i 1975

at the Muarajami buddhist temple complex,

which spreads over 7.5 kilometers o the left

bank of the Batang Hari River, in Jambi, east

Sumatra. I the 11th cetury, Muarajami was

one of a number of esoteric Buddhist sites on

the island, an important religious center of the

Malayu kingdom c.11th-13th century (Miksic

2010: 260 , 25). All ve images have ee dated

to c.1300.

The Prajnaparamita in Muarajambi remains

i situ i the small site museum, whereasthe Singosari Prajnaparamita sculpture,

rst see i 1819 y the Dutch, was take

to Hollad i 1820, where it was deposited

in the Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde in

Leiden (Brandes 1909: 26). In1978 the statue

was retured to Museum nasioal i Jakarta.

Four remaining sculptures found at Candi

Singosari are of Nandisvara, Mahakala,

Durga mahishasuramardini, and Ganesa,

all of which display ‘textile’ desigs o oth

lower ad upper ody garmets. These four

sculptures (three of which are discussed i

this article) were also take y a Dutch scholarin 1804 to the Rijksmuseum in Leiden.

Up util ow, there has ee a geeral

agreement that stylistic comparison of the

two Prajaparamita images ased o their

oramets, ad the way the garmets fold over

the statues’ crossed legs idicates productio

by the same hand in the same place and period

(Reichle 2007). This view suggests that oth

images were the product of Sigasari ad that

the Muarajambi image might have been a gift

from King Krtanagara to the court of Malayu

in Jambi. The sculptures are stylistically similar

and dressed in cloth carved in relief in anintricate pattern of repeat roundels, yet the

patterig of the cloth wor y each image is

quite different.

The present article suggests an alternative

interpretation based on analysis of the design

pattern, contending that the Muarajambi image

may have been made in Jambi in the likeness

of the Singosari Prajnaparamita of East Java.

The hypothesis ts well with historical viewsof the afities etwee Sumatra ad east Java

stemming from Javanese political authority

over southeast Sumatra during this period

(Lieberman 2009: 793; Tarling 1999: 217) .

Prajnaparamita is the goddess of transcendental

wisdom. I Idoesia she is commoly

depicted seated cross-legged in the lotus

position, or padmasana with her two hads i

front of her chest in dharma-chakra (or teaching)

mudra. A lotus ower stalk twists aroud her

left arm with its ope loom supportig the

ook, the symol of kowledge. The image

at Muarajami is damaged, without a heador arms ad without a lotus ase or acksla,

whereas the image from Cadi Sigosari is

almost udamaged apart from roke gers.

She sits in sublime meditation on a double

lotus ase, upo a square platform with a

perfectly framed backslab.

Both images are depicted richly adorned, each

with upper arm ads, racelets, a ecklet adanklets. They display a crisply detailed belt and

log twisted chai of a triple strig of eads or

upavita aroud the eck which falls over their

folded legs to the asana or base.

Lack of records and inscriptions have made

research in relation to Java and Sumatra

problematic: sculptures such as these remain as

a legacy of the textiles that could have ee i

existece durig that period. both images are

decorated with two cloths, the kain or cloth used

as a sarog which lies i folds o the ase, ad

a sabut or sash which is wrapped aroud their

crossed thighs ad ties i a large ow at the side.

The image of Singosari has the same pattern on

the sash as the cloth or kain. The cloth displays

T

T E X T I L E D E S I G N S I N S T O N E : T H E L E G A C Y O F M E D I E V A L J A V A N E S E S C U L P T U R E

Lesley PullenSTATUES OF PRAJNAPARAMITA C.1300. (L) FROM MUARAJAMBI, JAMBI, SUMATRA, STONE, 80CM (H). ON-SITE MUSEUM,

CANDI MUARAJAMBI, SUMATRA, INDONESIA. PHOTO: L. PULLEN (R) FROM CANDI E AT CANDI SINGOSARI, MALANG, EAST JAVA, STONE, 1.26M (H).

MUSEUM NASIONAL, JAKARTA. IMAGE AFTER J. FONTEIN SCULPTURE OF INDONESIA, HARRY N. ABRAMS, NY 1990

(L) DETAIL OF SASH ON THE MUARAJAMBI PRAJNAPARAMITA. (R) DETAIL OF SINGOSARI PRAJNAPARAMITA

DEPICTING THE KAIN AND OVERLAYING SASH. PHOTO: L. PULLEN

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NANDISVARA , C.1300, STONE, 1.74M (H) FROM THE TOWER-TEMPLE AT CANDI SINGOSARI,

EAST JAVA. RIJKSMUSEUM VOLKENKUNDE, LEIDEN, NETHERLANDS. PHOTO: L. PULLEN

MAHAKALA , C.1300, STONE, 1.70M (H), FROM THE TOWER-TEMPLE AT CANDI SINGOSARI,


a motif of cocetric circles with a illdiamod shape oth of which depicts a

image of an open double vajra. The circles

display a cetral motif which depicts a

stylised lotus surrouded y what could e

the symbol of the ruyi , a talisman symbolising

power ad good fortue i Chiese culture.

The section of the sash that falls over the side

of the lotus cushion and on the visible section

of the ow at the side of the ody also displays

a double vajra motif. (Thompso ad Simcox,

pers.comm., Nov 2012).

The kain and the sabut on the Muarajambiimage depict quite different patterns to that

of the Singosari image. The kain is made up

of a simplied versio of cocetric circles

(ot visile i the illustratio) with a stylised

lotus in the centre. The sash of the Muarajambi

image on the other had depicts a very realistic

carvig of a lotus ower withi a scrollig vie

motif; the technical virtuosity is unique.

It is quite proale that the two Prajaparamita

were ot made y the same had or ideed i

the same workshop as they display distictly

different patterning. This conclusion is

sigicat, ecause util this period thereremai o kow images which are carved

i such detail with such ovious esoteric

Buddhist motifs on either Java or Sumatra.

The sculptures of Nandisvara and Mahakalaare oth guardias of the tower temple at

Candi Singosari and representations of Siva

i differet forms. The tower temple is all

that remains of Candi Singosari today, seen

as Siva’s residece ad the symol of Mout

Kailasa (Brandes 1909: 33).

nadisvara is the two armed eig image

of Siva. His kain is fasteed with a ig pouch-

shaped kot ad falls to his akles, he wears a

wide jewelled ad or diadem tied at the ack

with rios over a poited crow. The upper

odice which is joied at the frot is remiiscetof the type of garmet wor y Cham soldiers

depicted i relief o the walls of Agkor Wat

and the Bayon, dated to the 12th and 13th

centuries. The pattern on his bodice represents

a small lotus ower withi square ads or

rantai or chais, the kid of motif which is very

similar to the preset day supplemetary weft

techique i the Malay world kow as songket.

The plai sash wor across nadisvara’s

upper body may be a version of the sacred

thread or upavita , quite a distinctive feature

often depicted on Tibetan Buddhist images, but

this is more likely to be just a sash of the typeseen on a number of Indian images (Pal 2001:

99). There was collaoratio etwee Tieta

scholars and Indian Buddhist monks in the

Pala-Sena period of the 8th to 12th centuriesCE, and the many missionaries that travelled

etwee Idia ad Sumatra ad Java durig

this period (Schroeder von 2008: 70-84) . The

kain o nadisvara is decorated with a patter

idetied today as kawung , a pattern made

up of itersectig cocetric circles which

ca also e perceived as a four petal ower.

Kawung is a batik motif used as a larangan or

restricted pattern in the courts of Surakarta and

Jogjakarta since the 17th and 18th centuries.

Mahakala on the other hand is described as the

destroyer, a representation of Siva in his secondpricipal form. He stads with his right had o

a short heavy sword ad his left had restig

on a large club. His kain reaches to his knees

ad is fasteed with a wide sash or elt. It is

carved i relief with the kawung pattern; the size

of the design is larger than that on Nandisvara.

He also wears a short-sleeved upper ody

garmet, “which may reect the militat

ature ad fuctio of its wearer”. It is roughly

cotemporaeous with similar examples i

Camodia ad Myamar (Chutiwogs 2004:

109). The pattern on the bodice represents foliate

scrolls and lotus roundels depicted in horizontal

rows, a motif very remiiscet of Yua Chiesedesigs o ceramics ad cloth. These afities i

the patterig of textiles show iueces from

China and an esoteric Buddhist tendency is

7/23/2019 Review_22_1_2013_March


DURGA MAHISHASURAMARDINI, C.1300, STONE, 1.75M (H), FROM THE TOWER-TEMPLE AT CANDI SINGOSARI,


visile i the patters of all these ve sculptures,

especially in both Prajnaparamita statues and

that of Durga (Kinney 2003: 144-46).

The image of Durga mahishasuramardini is

depicted with a ope stace. Kempers otes

that: “for a Javaese wome this is a very

rude attitude” (berert Kempers 1933: 80).

The statue is damaged - all her attributes have broken off and disappeared, her shield alone

remaining. The treatment of the garment is

where the iggest differeces lie. I Idia the

statues of Durga are geerally preseted with

a smooth loincloth and sometimes engraved

with a poited chisel. Here the etire surface

of Durga “has been changed into a richly

decorated piece of textile”, ad the Javaese

sculptor’s work appears to “resemle a

moulder’s work” compared to the Idia

sculptor’s, which appears more paiterly

(Bernet Kempers 1959: 80).The upper bodice

depicts a pattern of lotus roundels, also visible

o the outer garmet o the lower ody whichreaches to her knee. The kain reaching to the

akles displays a geometric patter with lotus

roudels withi the squares.

This type of layout is very reminiscent of a

songket from the Malay world today, where the

rantai (chains) and the centre bunga (ower)

are identical (Inam Selvanayagam 1990). A

richly decorated elt ecompasses her waist,

over which she wears a rope or upavita in the

form of a snake. Symbols of esoteric imagery

are evidet i the skulls which are placed i

her piled hair. She has elaborate ornamentso the eck, arms, wrists ad akles, while

various waist ads secure her sarog. The

detailed depiction of the ornaments on the

small image of the demon Mahisa and on

the recumbent buffalo contributes to this

sumptuous image. The origin of her attire is

hard to attriute to ay oe traditio, with its

mix suggestig wester Idia, Yua Chiese

and Malay motifs, yet the overall style remains

totally uique i extat Idoesia sculpture.

To consider the potential inspirations for the

decoratio of ‘textile patters’ o these ve

sculptures enables us to assess the balanceof local ad imported desig iueces i

susequet Idoesia textiles. Eve though

Idia cotto ad silk textiles o dout

were traded ito Java ad Sumatra i huge

quantities, they are not necessarily the direct

source of inspiration for these carved patterns.

There has clearly been a transmission of

culture reected i the motifs carved o these

sculptures, whether from Chia or Idiaremains open to discussion - and certainly

a local iterpretatio of these ‘imported’

motifs. This article suggests this developed

i the cotext of iterchage with Tiet ad

Yua Chia as well as with the art of Pala ad

Sena in eastern India (c.750-1200). Ideas and

desigs o a rage of ojects were trasmitted

via Buddhist missionaries to Java and

Sumatra, ad vice versa. For example, i east

Java silk cloth i rocade was eig wove

i this period which was udoutedly used

locally ad susequetly exported to Chia

and to the Khmer court (Green 2007:442).

A further study of the textile desigs o early

sculptures in present day Indonesia, such as

the ve examied i this article, will provide a

rich source of evidence for a number of issues.

These iclude where ad i what period these

ad other sculptures were made ad the

iueces o textile desigs depicted o such

sculptures. A detailed study of the carved

textiles will also highlight the cotiuity ad

disappearance of designs and the cultural and

religious changes that may have affected this

corpus of material.

The author is the Co-Tutor of the Southeast Asia

module of the Diploma in Asian Art at SOAS, London.

This paper forms part of the author’s on-going

research degree with the Department of History of Art

and Archaeology, SOAS, London.

REFERENCESBernert Kempers, A.J, 1933. The Bronzes of Nalanda and Hindu-

Javanese Art, late E.J.Brill Ltd, Leiden.

Bernet Kempers, A.J., 1959. Ancient Indonesian Art, C. P. J. van derPeet, Amsterdam.

Brandes, J.L.A., 1909. Beschrijving van Tjandi Singasari

[microform)]…. ‘s-Gravenhage: M. Nijhoff; Albrecht & co, Batavia.

Chutiwongs, N., 2004. ‘Candi Singasari-A Recent Study’, inI.C.Glover, E.A. Bacus, and P.D.Sharrock (ed.), Interpreting

Southeast Asia’s Past, Monument Image and Text , British Museum:NUS, 100-21.

Green, G., 2007. ‘Angkor Vogue: Sculptured Evidence of ImportedLuxury Textiles in the Courts of Kings and Temples’, Journal of the

Economic and Social History of the Orient, 5, 424-51.

Inam Selvanayagam, G., 1990. Songket Malaysia’s Woven

Treasure, Oxford University Press, Singapore.

Kinney, A.R., 2003. Worshipping Siva and Buddha, The Temple Art

of East Java, University of Hawai’i Press, Honolulu.

Miksic, J., 2010. The A to Z of Ancient Southeast Asia, TheScarecrow Press Inc, Plymouth, UK.

Miksic, J., September 2010. ‘The Buddhist-Hindu Divide inPremodern Southeast Asia’, Nalanda-Srivijaya Centre, WorkingPaper Series No.1.

Pal, P., 2001. Desire and Devotion, Art from India, Nepal and Tibet,ed. The Walters Art Museum Philip Wilson Publishers, Baltimore.

Reichle, N., 2007. Violence and Serenity, Late Buddhist Sculpture

from Indonesia, University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu.

Schroeder von, U., 2008. 108 Buddhist Statues in Tibet, Chichago:Serindia Publications Inc.

Tarling, N (ed. ), 1999. The Cambridge History of Southeast Asia,

Volumne, From early times to c.1500, Cambridge University Press,Cambridge.

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he Tigris and the Euphrates, the rivers

of ancient Mesopotamia, rise in the

southeast of Anatolia, a remote corner of

Turkey’s Asia hiterlad. Desigated the

Fertile Crescet, this is also a regio where

peoples and civilisations have long clashed,

coalesced and overlapped. The result of

milleia of huma iteractio is a complex

cultural patchwork ad a stuigly diverse

archaeological and artistic legacy on display

at multiple sites across the region.

Travellers to present day Turkey tend to becoversat with the imperial gradeur of

Istaul ad, o Turkey’s wester littoral,

the relics of Classical antiquity at sites

including Ephesus, Troy and Pergamum. The

southeaster corer of the coutry, however,

remais little kow ad little visited. Closed

to foreigners until the 1950s and largely

off limits during the 1980s and 1990s as

the Turkish govermet waged war o the

separatist PKK, southeastern Anatolia has

received scant international attention.

O a easterly owig stretch of the Tigris

is the towship of Hasakeyf, oe of

southeaster Aatolia’s most remarkale sites.

Thought to have been populated for 10,000

years, Hasankeyf has long been regarded as

frontier territory (Bolz 2009). It sits on the edge

of the Aatolia uplads, south of which lie

the deserts of the Syrian plain. The Romans

fortied it as the oudary of their Asia

territories; beyond lay the Persian realm. The

Byzantines established a bishopric here in

the 4th century CE. After being enveloped by

the expasioary armies of Islam i the 7th

century, Hasankeyf remained a regional hub in

the cotested orderlad etwee Turkic, Araad Persiaate spheres util eig deitively

claimed by the Ottomans in the 16th century.

All of these competing dynasties and empires

left behind monuments that contribute to the

architectural richess of the tow.

This convoluted history may go some

way towards explaiig the cotrasts ad

paradoxes with which Hasakeyf aouds.

Near the edge of modern Turkish territory,

this is a tow that is ow populated largely y

Kurds. History is everywhere ut is swamped

y the tackiess of moderity: electrical wires

cut across a skyline punctuated by venerable

minarets; cheap plastic seats and tables are

arraged agaist aged, ely-cut ashlar

walls; a recess adored with muqarnas (tiered,

pointed masonry niches) becomes a repository

for rewood; miarets are emellished with

the most itricate tracery of Kuc calligraphy

and are abutted by cheap souvenirs stalls. In

these juxtapositios ad cotradictios it is

like so may tows i Turkey’s southeast –

ramshackle, chaotic, unsightly in parts, but

uzzig with a udeiale vitality.

Hasakeyf’s most sigicat cotradictiois that it oasts a wealth of architectural

and archaeological treasures, legacy of its

lengthy history, yet it apparently has no

place in the Turkish present. Former seat of

Byzantine bishops, Ayyubid emirs, Artuklu

and Akkoyunlu beys, designated a natural

conservation area in 1981 by the Turkish

Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Hasankeyf is

slated to disappear uder the waters of the Ilısu

dam project. The Ilısu is part of the Southeaster

Aatolia Project (Turkish: Güeydoğu Aadolu

Projesi, GAP), a decades old development

initiative intended to raise income levels and

livig stadards. I the ofcial view, this is

T

T U R K E Y ’ S H A S A N K E Y F : T H E P L I G H T O F A R C H A E O L O G I C A L

A N D A R C H I T E C T U R A L T R E A S U R E S I N S O U T H E A S T A N AT O L I A

William Gourlay

TIGRIS RIVER, HASANKEYF, TURKEY REMAINS OF ARTUKLU BRIDGE (1116) IN FOREGROUND PHOTO: WILLIAM GOURLAY

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more important than the architectural and

archaeological wealth of the tow.

Perhaps the most oteworthy of Hasakeyf’s

artefacts lies just outside the tow, o the orth

bank of the Tigris. The Zeynel Bey Türbesi is adomed tomb revealing Persianate and Central

Asia desig iueces datig from the reig

of the Akkoyunlu (White Sheep) Turkmen

cofederatio. It was uilt i 1473 y Uzu

Hasan, emir of the Akkoyunlu, for his eldest

son Zeynel, killed at the battle of Otlukbeli.

The tom’s iterior pla is octagoal with a

transition to the rounded base of the dome.

Its exterior is cylidrical, with a arched door

on the north side, constructed of brick and

decorated with a diagoal, geometric patter

of glazed turquoise and navy blue tiles. Rivals

to the Ottomans for control of Anatolia, theAkkoyulu ruled a domai that exteded

across what is ow easter Turkey ad Ira

through the 15th century: the Zeynel Bey

Türesi with its sturdy form ad comiatio

of apricot-coloured brick and deep-blue tiles

would ot appear out of place i Ira ad is

unlike any other tomb in modern Turkey.

Straddling the Tigris are the remnants of a

bridge built by the Artuklu Turks in 1116.

The bridge is reputed to have been the largest

in Turkey during the medieval period; all

that ow remais are two massive stoe

pillars and, on the northern shore, a stonearch. Of rule costructio clad with ashlar

stoework, the piers ear severely weathered

carved gural reliefs, thought to have ee

of the signs of the zodiac. At 40 metres apart

the piers were oce spaed y a timer

arch, which could e raised or removed, thus

protectig the tow from attack (Siclair 1987:

22). Today the piers stand like the severed legs

of some almighty ehemoth amid the swirlig

waters of the Tigris.

On the southern shore of the river stands the

main settlement of Hasankeyf. The river isow crossed o a moder cocrete ridge,

costructed i the 1950s, ut whe the traveller

ad writer Gertrude bell passed through i

1911 she was forced to cross o a raft loaded

with saddles ad packs, with her horses

i tow. Photographs of her Tigris crossig

(which she descried as “exhilaratig”) ad

of various of the tow’s architectural sites

are held in the Gertrude Bell Archive at the

newcastle Uiversity Lirary i the UK.

bell’s photographs illustrate that much of the

building stock of modern Hasankeyf has been

constructed in the last century. Nonetheless,the deig features of the tow remai those

that Bell observed. Most eye catching is the

miaret of the El Rızk Mosque, ad eyod it

the stone bluff that rises above the Tigris, the

site of Hasakeyf Citadel. The El Rızk Mosque

(1409) was uilt y the Ayyuids, who wrestled

control from the Artuklu emirs in 1232 and

who were descedats of perhaps history’s

est-kow Kurd, Saladi. The mosque itself

is ot particularly oteworthy, ut its miaret

commands the eye of travellers approachingthe tow from the west. Slim, pecil-like, it is

topped with a stork’s est. Local Kurds refer

to the storks as hajjis , as they arrive from the

south, from the direction of Mecca (Garen

& Carleton 2008). The biscuit-golden ashlar

masory of the miaret is itricately worked

with latticework ad teardrop ad vegetal

ornaments, rare in Turkey.

beyod the El Rızk Mosque, i the

southwester corer of the settlemet o a

bluff above the Tigris, Hasankeyf Citadel has

lorded it over the tow sice the 4th cetury.Estalished y the byzaties i 363, it was

built upon by successive conquerors. The

citadel, which has ee closed to visitors

since late 2012, is reached via a steep course

of limestoe steps which passes through four

gates. The Artuklu emirs used this as their

stronghold and capital from 1101 until 1232

at which poit the Ayyuids arrived (later

to e toppled y the Mogols). A sprawlig

expase, the citadel reveals various features

i varyig states of disrepair. noteworthy

are the main gate, bearing an inscription

in the name of Ayyubid Sultan Süleyman;

the domed and vaulted Küçük Saray (SmallPalace); tomstoes iscried with elaorate

Kuc letterig i several locatios; a mit

used by Artuklu and Ayyubid rulers, and on

the northern edge the so called Büyük Saray

(Greater Palace). This vantage point, above

a precipitous drop to the Tigris far elow,

affords reathtakig views of its surroudigs

ad of historic uildigs i the arrow streets

of the towship. I comiatio, the road

valley, the sweep of the river, the distictive

architecture ad golde stoework markHasankeyf as a spectacular and special site.

Should the Ilısu dam proceed, waters of the

Tigris will rise 200 feet. O its promotory,

the citadel would remai aove the water

level, but the tomb of Zeynel Bey, the Artuklu

ridge ad the lower tow would suffer the

fate of Atlatis, with oly the upper portio of

the El Rızk miaret emergig. I its etirety,

the dam would ood more tha just the

towship of Hasakeyf. Professor Zeyep

Ahunbay, of Istanbul Technical University,

has recorded that 2000 sites will e affected ythe dam: “Hasankeyf is the most visible and

representative of all, due to its picturesque

location and rich architectural content. It is

one of the best preserved medieval sites in

Turkey.” (bolz 2009)

Such concerns have not gone unnoticed.

The progress of the Ilısu project has ee

considerably delayed due to ongoing

cotroversy aout the fate of Hasakeyf’s

architectural heritage and its citizens. In 2000,

the british compay iitially awarded the

contract to construct the dam pulled out due

to international opposition. A consortium ofEuropea ackers was susequetly formed,

ut i late 2008 they too temporarily withdrew

funding due to concerns raised about the

EL RIZK MINARET (1409) HASANKEYF, TURKEY

PHOTO: WILLIAM GOURLAY

ZEYNEL BEY TÜRBESI (1473) HASANKEYF, TURKEY

PHOTO: WILLIAM GOURLAY

7/23/2019 Review_22_1_2013_March


impending destruction of cultural heritage

as well as lack of adequate compesatio or

plaig for the sigicat umers of locals

who would e forced to move should the damgo ahead.

Resistace to the dam from withi Turkey has

ee ogoig sice the project’s iceptio. The

residents of Hasankeyf itself are reported to be

almost universally opposed to the inundation

of their hometow. Icludig surroudig

villages, it is estimated that up to 80,000

people will e displaced (Gare ad Carleto

2008). Memers of Turkey’s Doğa Dereği

(Nature Society) mounted a campaign against

the dam, i so doig garerig scietic

opinion that suggested that Hasankeyf should

be added to the UNESCO World Heritage

list. The Nature Society also gathered a list

of signatures of almost 60,000 people, among

them iteratioally reowed Turkish

siger Tarka ad Orha Pamuk, Turkey’s

oly noel-Prize wier. The sigatures were

presented to Turkish Prime Minister Recep

Tayyip Erdoğa i the hope that he would

support a applicatio to UnESCO for world

heritage status for Hasakeyf (Doğa 2010).

Such hopes proved to be in vain. The

Turkish government has since secured

fudig ad forged o with Ilısu, adutil recetly it appeared that Hasakeyf’s

days were umered. Ideed, other dam

projects in southeastern Turkey have already

displaced local communities and claimed

archaeological sites, aleit ot as sigicat

as Hasankeyf. The Roman-era mosaics of

Zeugma were oly saved from iudatio y the dammig of the Euphrates whe they

were shifted to a museum i Gaziatep, ad

the miaret of Savaşa Köyü has ecome

a tourist attraction as it emerges forlornly

from the emerald waters of the birecik dam.

I these istaces it would seem that the

govermet prioritises the eets of regioal

developmet (the likelihood of which remai

disputed in the case of Hasankeyf) over the

concerns of local residents and the historical

and archaeological heritage of the region.

The government has proposed moving some

of Hasakeyf’s moumets, a suggestio

dismissed as impractical by archaeological

experts; further, to replace these treasures o

a site eary would hardly recreate the drama

and atmosphere of Hasankeyf as it currently

exists (bolz 2009).

by the ed of 2012, progress o Ilısu dam had

gathered such momentum that, as reported

in the Turkish press, a group of international

sculptors agreed to create in Hasankeyf

marle sculptures that would e iudated as

the waters rose to claim the tow. However, i

January 2013, the Turkish State Council ruled

in favour of a case brought by the Chamberof Architects and Engineers claiming

that the project did not have the requisite

evirometal clearaces. For ow, it appears

that the Ilısu is stalled, however, earig i

mind similar halts to the project in the past,

locals remain fearful that any immediate

celebration may be misplaced. To loseHasakeyf would e a ieffale tragedy, so

it is to e hoped that the eets of retaiig it

in its entirety are recognised and the demands

of its residents are listened to.

Further information can be found on Hasankeyf

Matters (http://www.hasankeyfmatters.com), which

also includes a link to a petition addressed to the

UNESCO World Heritage committee.

William Gourlay was formerly commissioning editor

for Turkey and the Caucasus at Lonely Planet and

is currently undertaking a PhD researching Turkish

cultural and ethnic identities at Monash University.

REFERENCESBolz, Diane M., 2009. “Endangered site: the city of Hasankeyf,

Turkey”, Smithsonian, Volume 39 (12)

Dogan, Yonca Poyraz. “Civil society keeps up challenge to protect

Hasankeyf”, Today’s Zaman, 18 April 2010

Garen, Micah and Marie-Hélene Carleton . “Deep divide”,

The Financial Times Magazine, 22 March 2008.

International Council of Monuments and Sites, “Turkey” in Heritage

at Risk: World Report 2006-2007, ICOMOS, Paris pp154-164

Sevinçlidir, Pınar, 2009. “Historic sites damned: the Turkish

government’s plans to flood two ancient towns”, History Today,

Volume 59 (2)

Sinclair, T. A., 1987. Eastern Turkey: an architectural and

archaeological survey, The Pindar Press, London.

GRAVESTONES, HASANKEYF CITADEL, TURKEY (PROBABLY AYYUBID,EARLY 15TH CENTURY) PHOTO: WILLIAM GOURLAY

7/23/2019 Review_22_1_2013_March


his paper examies two importat atik

textiles held y the british Museum

(BM). The most famous of the carefully

guarded Central Javanese Royal batik Parang

designs are found on these batiks collected

y Sir Stamford Rafes, who was Lieuteat

Governor of Java and the Dependencies for the

duration of the brief British interregnum from

1811 to 1816. Durig this time, Rafes set

home a number of batik pieces, unfortunately

destroyed whe the ship that carried them

burned at sea. A second shipment arrived

safely. I 1939 two pieces of atik, the focusof this paper, were doated y his family to

the Museum of Mankind in London (Helen

Ishwara et al 2012:18) ad are ow held i the

bM. They proaly arrived with the secod

shipmet or were rought ack y Rafes

himself. by explorig these two atiks i

detail, I questio 200 year old views o the

origi of these two desigs as well as how the

carefully guarded forbidden batik designs of

the Central Javanese royal courts came into

the hads of Sir Stamford Rafes.

batik is a textile usig wax resist decoratio

techique which ecame a major form of artisticexpressio i Southeast Asia, particularly i

the Idoesia archipelago. It was used as the

preeminent vehicle for demarcating social status

and for embedding religious beliefs in local

Idoesia cotext. Ulike wove textiles, atik

provides ear limitless desig scope withi

the coes of the e lies that ca e draw

directly with a canting, a tool made of bamboo

hadle ad copper spout cotaiig hot wax.

Among the enormous variety of batik designs,

those produced in Central Java are considered

the epitome of classical batik, especially thosecreated during the 18th century by Surakarta

and Yogyakarta kratons (courts). These two

principalities of the Islamic Kingdom of

Mataram (1582 – 1755) are regarded as the

twi capitals of classical atik. The pricely

families of Mataram were the great drivig

force behind the development of these

desigs, some of which are rooted i the

ancient Javanese culture and Hindu-Buddhist

civilisations of the Majapahit Empire, and

evident on the clothing of deities carved on

Java’s historical temples (Va Rooje 1993:41).

These classical designs have undergone changesi the course of time, ut withi the ouds of

an evolving tradition. They are characterized

y a arrow colour rage domiated y deep

lue or idigo ad a somer row kow as

soga. With the original crème hue of the cloth,

this led to the threesome of crème, indigo

ad row: colours so distictive of Cetral

Javaese atik. Origially these colours were

derived organically from the leaves of the

idigo plat (lue) ad tree ark (row);

chemical colours are widely used today.

It was i thekratons of Surakarta and Yogyakarta

that the eight reowed Larangan or forbidden

motifs were desiged ad produced exclusively

for court use, in particular after decrees

announced in 1769, 1789 and 1790 (Fraser Lu

1986:57). These desigs were elieved to e

talismaic of royalty: allowig others to use the

desigs might weake royal power (Kerlogue

2004:32). Each design contains a large variety

of visual elemets draw from ature, religio,

local myths, and other cultural sources. Some

Larangan batik designs incorporate Hindu and

Buddhist religious references. Under Islamiccourt rule they also inherited the tradition of

prohibiting anthropomorphic representation

which forids the portrayal of aimal ad

human forms. The resulting abstract designs

however are lled with visual metaphors.

Their hidde meaigs were oscure outside

the royal 18th century courts; and remain so,

today.

For many decades scholars have been trying to

decode the original meanings of these visualmetaphors but a consensus theory has yet to be

estalished. Accordig to boow: “the meaig

expressed i a atik patter is rarely veralised”

(boow 1988: 94). She came to realise durig

her years of study that it is almost impossible

to correctly assess and decode all the multiple

levels of Central Javanese forbidden batik.

Jasper and Pirngadie concluded that “the

meaig of the patters lies i the ames”

ad argue that the laelled ames of specic

atiks are symolic (boow 1988: 94). Kerlogue

however couters their argumet, suggestig

that the name may be discernible in the motif

which may ear o relatio to its acietmeaning. In short, to this day the pursuit of an

accurate interpretation of the motifs of these

foridde desigs remais complex.

T

DECODING THE FORBIDDEN DESIGNS IN RAFFLES’ BATIK COLLECTION

Thienny Lee PARANG DESIGN BEFORE DYEING PROCESS.

AFTER J.L. LARSEN, 1976. THE DYER’S ART; IKAT, PLANGI, BATIK .

LITTON EDUCATIONAL PUBLISHING. P114 PARANG DESIGN AFTER DYEING PROCESS

CONTEMPORARY BATIK WITH PARANG RUSAK DESIGN, JAVA.

COURTESY T. LEE

PARANG (KNIFE)

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The generally accepted eight larangan motifs

in use on kraton atik were Kawung, Parang,

Parang rusak, Cemukiran, Sawat, Udan Liris,

Semen, and Alasalasan (McCabe Elliott 2004:68).

I this article, I examie two of the most

famous forbidden designs - Parang and Parang

rusak. The two atiks that Rafes rought ack

to England feature the larangan Parang designs

and are considered to be some of the earliestsurviving items of Javanese batik.

Parang refers to a diagonally arranged design

or “ garis miring”. More tha 40 variats of

Parang atik desigs are kow; all of them

feature a series of broad light-coloured bands

bound by undulating or scalloped edges. A

Parang is oe of the most aciet weapos i

the Malay world, a log-laded hard edged

kife with hadle. Parang batik designs have

therefore ecome associated with kives,

ghtig ad war. If this assumptio is correct,

the a desig that geerates power was

aturally reserved for the sulta’s family. butseeing a Parang knife in the batik of Parang

design is not necessarily obvious at all.

Although the sketches of the Parang before the

dyeing process may appear knife-like, this is

lost followig multiple dyeig processes

Parang Rusak is another diagonally arranged

design and a softer version of the Parang

pattern. Rusak i Malay meas ‘damaged’

or ‘roke’ ad Parang rusak literally means

‘roke dagger’. The mai differece etwee

Parang and Parang rusak is that Parang hasstraight lies ruig dow from the scallop

shaped head, whereas Parang rusak has wavy,

udulatig lies. What is ‘roke’ is ot clear.

It is difcult to grasp why royalty would

cosider a ‘roke dagger’ a importat

symbol. One legend holds that Prince Panji of

Java was oce saved y the protective powers

of Parang rusak (Kerlogue 2004:74).

Some scholars have suggested that a broken

dagger sigies ‘eemy destroyig’ (McCae

Elliot 2004:68) but there is no evidence for

this. Leo Chu proposes, perhaps fancifully,

that both diagonal designs are so arranged forcamouage. He states: “The use of the parang

rusak pattern might be seen to relate to the

evirometal coditios of Idoesia which

has a tropical raiforest climate experiecig

convectional rain everyday and producing

diagoal lies everywhere…Durig a raiy

day, the patters help to camouage the

wearer ito the diagoal lies produced y the

rai, which corm the otio that they come

from the superatural world.” (Chu 2010:16).

He proposes o evidece for camouage

eig used durig the 18th cetury however.

During a recent visit to Danar Hadi Batik

Museum in Surakarta, my informant,

Mr Najib Nugroho, guide at Danar Hadi

museum, offered a differet ad somewhat

romantic interpretation. According to him,

the word ‘Parang’ used i this cotext is

ot from the Malay term ‘ parang’ meaig

dagger ut origiates from the Javaese word

‘ pereng’ meaig ‘slope’, specically referrig

to the ‘slope of coral reefs y the shore’. I

the Javanese English dictionary [http://

kamusjawa.ifo/], ‘ pereng’ is traslated as

‘slope’ ad ‘steeply sloping riverbank ormoutai side’ which appears to match

Mr naji’s explaatio. Also, i Roso

ad Wiisoo’s Javanese English Dictionary

TWO SARONGS DECORATED WITH PARANG BATIK DESIGN. JAVA, INDONESIA. 19TH CENTURY. COTTON. LEFT: 218CM (L) X 118CM (W).

RIGHT: 234CM (L) X 85CM (W). FROM THE COLLECTION OF SIR STAMFORD RAFFLES. © THE TRUSTEES OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM

7/23/2019 Review_22_1_2013_March


(Periplus 2002) two meaigs for ‘ parang’ are

give: ‘cliff’ ad ‘kife’.

naji also suggests ‘Parang rusak’ was created y

the rst kig of Mataram, Panembahan Senopati ,

whe he was meditatig o the souther coast of Java. Whilst watchig the waves reak over the

stadig coral, he was amazed at the slope of the

coral reefs, crushed y the waves of the ocea. It is

from here that the Javaese term ‘rusak’ meaning

‘roke’ may e derived. This is articulated y

the more wavy desig of the Parang rusak which,

unlike theParang desig, cosists of rows of steep

slopes. This Javanese interpretation may prove

to e a more roust explaatio tha log held

scholarly interpretations that decode a knife. And

there are ideed several coastal areas which have

long stretches of coral reefs along the shorelines

of the South Java Sea named Parang Kusuma ,Parang Tritis and a district of Parang Gupito in

southern Wonogiri.

I 1816 oe of Rafes’ aides recorded i his

journal that he had received from a Yogyakarta

Prince the gift of a batik cloth: “such as is

wor y the royal family” (Kerlogue 2004:32).

To date, it has generally been assumed that

these are the two atik cloths which are ow

housed in the British Museum, featuring the

forbidden Parang designs.

From the journal entry, Kerlogue surmises

it is ‘likely’ that they were a gift from thecourt. The laguage used here is however

ambiguous: it could be inferred that the batiks

were similar to those wor at court rather

than actual royal court cloth. They could be

of atik desigs that looked aki to what the

royal family was wearig, especially to the

uninitiated eye. One must at least question

why a early 19th cetury Yogyakarta Price

would preset these exclusive desigs to a

british Goveror who had ot oly captured

Java but also reduced the Sultan to a kind of

civil servant in the British colonial system.

Furthermore, the batik design layout on both

cloths in the BM collection is highly unusual.

The use of ‘Kepala Tumpal’ desigs (triagles

poitig towards each other) is ot commo

for courtly batik designs of that era. On

the Javanese north coast, at some distance

from the Central Javanese sultanate courts,

atik sarogs (cloth with oth eds sew

together to form a tue) were separated ito

sectios called ‘kepala’,’ papan’ ad ‘badan’.

‘Kepala’ or ‘head’ forms aout oe third of the

cloth ad is wor i the frot. ‘Papan’ is the

‘order’ at each side of the ‘kepala’. ‘Badan’ or

‘ody’ makes up the rest of the cloth whichis draped at the ack. Some writers oserve

that the development of kepala designs is an

iterestig iovatio exclusive to Javaese

north coast producers (Van Roojen 1994:81;

Ishwara, Supriyapto Yahya & Moeis 2012:26).

For centuries, the seaports of the northern

Javaese coast (kow as Pasisir) , have acted

as maritime trading centres and attractedmerchants and settlers from India, China and

the Ara world. It is importat to ote that

Pasisir coast batik designs had less ancient

symbolic value than those of Central Java,

partly due to the absence of a strict court

culture. While Central Java adhered strictly to

traditions, the more dynamic Pasisir constantly

developed ew desigs, itroducig vivid

colours of chemical dyes and incorporating

foreign elements, including Indian, Chinese

and European.

Early Pasisir atiks show a strog iuecefrom imported Idia textiles. Tumpal (triangle)

designs for instance are most likely rooted in

Idia. However, the divisio of atik sarog

into kepala and badan sections is essentially

north coast Javanese as observed by many

writers. Curiously, what survives of Rafes’

two pieces of atik i the british Museum ears

the courtly Parang design (not the Parang rusak

design as the BM, in my opinion, incorrectly

suggests), comied with the kepala section of

Tumpal desig. Thus, these textiles could e

linked to the Pasisir district of Java rather than

the courtly Kratons of Cetral Java. We kow

these two atiks possily came i through thesecod shipmet that Rafes set home, so we

caot eve e certai that they were the pieces

referred to y Rafes’ aide. Alteratively,

Rafes may have had copies made of the two

forbidden Parang desigs, perhaps somewhere

on the north coast of Java. The mystery of the

origi, as well as the meaig of Rafes’ two

atik cloths eed further exploratio.

Thienny Lee is a PhD candidate at the University of

Sydney. She studied in England at the University of

Hertfordshire and gained an MA in the History of Art and

Archaeology from the University of London (SOAS). Sheis currently undertaking a PhD in dress and visual identity

of the Straits Chinese in the former Straits Settlement.

REFERENCESBoow, Justine, 1988. Symbol and Status in Javanese Batik. Asian

Studies Centre, University of Western Australia.

Chu, Leo, 2012. The Forbidden Pattern - Operation of Patterns in

Space, unpublished paper.

Fraser-Lu, Sylvia, 1986. Indonesian Batik: Processes, Patterns and

Places. OUP Australia and New Zealand.

Ishwara, Helen, Supriyapto Yahya L.R. & Moeis Xenia, 2012. Batik

Pesisir, An Indonesian Heritage, collection of Hartono Sumarsono,

KPG (Kepustakaan Populer Gramedia), Jakarta.

Kerlogue, Fiona, 2004. Batik: Design Style & History. Thames &

Hudson; Illustrated Edition.

McCabe Elliot, Inger, 2004. Batik: Fabled Cloth of Java. Periplus

Editions/Berkeley Books Pty Ltd; New Edition.

Van Roojen, Pepin, 1993. Batik Design. Pepin Press.

To register your interest, reserve a place or for

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years ago. Before this, Madagascar evolved overmillions of years in isolation. The result is a country

like no other, an incongruous mixture of wildlifeand culture with an unparalleled array of plants

and animals found nowhere else. Dr StevenGoodman, resident since 1989, recognised

expert in Malagasy biodiversity and perhaps thecountry’s finest field biologist, is our program leader.

Limited places available.

Land Only cost per person twinshareex Antananarivo $7200

25 October – 13 November 2013

Burma is undergoing unprecedented change andpublicity. Few people have immersed themselves

as deeply here as TAASA contributor Dr BobHudson. His longstanding annual Burma program

features extended stays in medieval Mrauk U,capital of the lost ancient kingdom of Arakan (now

Rakhine State, currently off-limits) and Bagan,rivalling Angkor Wat as Southeast Asia’s richestarchaeological precinct. Exciting experiences in

Yangon, Inle Lake, Mandalay and a private cruisedown the mighty Ayeyarwady are also included.Now is the time to see Burma before 'progress'

changes it forever. Limited places available.

Land Only cost per person twinshare ex Yangon $5200

28 October – 14 November 2013

Angkor and Preah Vihear, temples of immensehistorical and political significance for the Khmers,

possess a timeless grandeur and generateunforgettable travel memories. Yet Cambodia

offers a host of other important cultural and travelexperiences: outstanding ancient,vernacular andFrench colonial architecture; spectacular riverine

environments; the ongoing revitalisation of PhnomPenh; interesting cuisine and beautiful countryside.Expatriate museologist, author, Siem Reap resident

and TAASA contributor Darryl Collins and GillGreen, President of TAASA, art historian and authorspecialising in Cambodian culture have designedand co-host this longstanding annual program.

Land Only cost per person twinshare ex Phnom Penh $4900

7/23/2019 Review_22_1_2013_March


imely i cojuctio with the start of

the seollal festivities, or Korean Lunar

new Year, the AGNSW opeed a exhiitio

Soul of Simplicity – Seven centuries of Korean

ceramics o 8 Feruary, 2013 i the Lower

Asia Galleries. The 38 ojects i this show

are draw from the outstadig collectio of

Korean ceramics of the Museum of Oriental

Ceramics, Osaka (MOCO).

Founded in 1982 by the city of Osaka to house

the extesive Ataka collectio of Korea ad

Chinese ceramics, purchased and donated tothe city by the Sumitomo Group, MOCO has

sice expaded its collectig ad research

activities and is today arguably one of the

most recognised centres of display and study

of Orietal ceramics worldwide. I compliace

with the Museum’s missio, MOCO has

orgaised umerous thematic exhiitios

for various Japanese and North American

museums that has helped to promote a

deeper uderstadig of the excellece of

Korean ceramics on an international stage

sice the early 1990s. From 2000 owards, the

Museum has also started ongoing long-term

loan programs for overseas institutions, mostotaly the Metropolita Museum of Art, new

York and the Museum of Asian Art, Berlin.

The AGnSW is the rst pulic istitutio

i the souther hemisphere to eet from

MOCO’s geerous overseas loa programs.

For a period of 15 months (until April

2014), the Australia pulic will have the

opportuity to explore the diversity ad

unique aesthetics of Korean ceramics through

a thoughtfully curated show that features

outstadig examples from the two major

periods durig which Korea ceramic art hasreached its pinnacle, namely the Goryeo (918-

1392) and Joseon (1392-1897) periods.

Lasting for over four centuries, the Goryeo

dyasty is widely ackowledged as the age

of enlightenment in Korean history. Under

the patronage of the court aristocracy,

whose pechat for elegace ad luxury

was umatched, culture ad the arts

ourished, ad the eld of ceramics i

particular experieced a uprecedeted

phase of creativity. Celado ware is the

most representative of ceramics made in the

Goryeo period. beside Chia, where thisparticular glaze was rst developed, celado

appeared oly i Korea ad a few areas i

Southeast Asia.

Goryeo celadon is made of clay containinga small amout of iro, coated with a glaze

that cotais 2 to 3 percet iro, ad red i

a reducig (de-oxidisig) eviromet at a

temperature of 1150 to 1300oC. In the early

stages of development, Goryeo celadon

displayed a greyish-green glaze similar to the

more well-kow souther Chiese Yue wares

produced in the 9th and 10th centuries. Also,

the shapes of the vessels and their standard

decoratios were strogly ideted to Chiese

prototypes. by the mid-12th cetury, however,

Goryeo potters and patrons began to evolve

an independent, native aesthetics epitomised by a preference for clean form, subtle blue-

green glaze and unpretentious but vibrant

designs. The luminous beauty of Korean

celadon attained such perfection in the 12th

century that even Chinese visitors commented

on it enthusiastically. In his “Illustrated record

of the Chinese Embassy to the Goryeo court

durig the Xuahe Era” (Xuanhe fengshi Gaoli

tujing) the Song envoy Xu Jing (1091-1153),

who travelled to Korea i 1123, oted the

similarities of Korea celado ad the Ru ware

manufactured in the imperial kilns in northern

Chia. bestowig o them the superlative

of eig ‘the rst uder Heave’, Xu praisedthe distinctive glaze of Goryeo celadon as

possessig ‘the radiace of jade ad the crystal

clarity of water’ (Itō/Mio 1991: 27).

Goryeo celadon is distinguished in three maincategories: monochrome, inlaid and painted

underglaze. With monochrome celadons,

the glaze is a more sigicat feature tha

the decoration. Sometimes delicately carved

or icised oral motifs further ehace the

striking beauty of the lustrous jade green

glaze. One of the most important inventions

i Goryeo ceramics, however, is the ilay

techique kow as sanggam. Inspired by

the itricate lacquer wares with mother-of-

pearl ilays ad metalwork ojects with silver

ad gold ilays that were popular i the 12th

century, Goryeo potters developed a methodi which the desigs are rst carved out o

the semi-dried clay body and the recesses

lled with either white or red iro-rich clay.

A trasparet glaze was the applied over

the etire vessel. Whe red, the white clay

remaied white, while the red clay tured

black. The overall effect is a lively – yet

harmoious – alace etwee the exquisitely

redered oral, gural or aimal motifs i

lack ad white toes that appear like ilays

in the subtle jade-green celadon background.

The sophistication and subdued elegance

of sanggam celadon is unrivalled in celadon

productio worldwide.

Other imaginative methods of surface

decoration involved the use of iron or copper

S O U L O F S I M P L I C I T Y – K O R E A N C E R A M I C S E X H I B I T I O N A T T H E A G N S W

Khanh Trinh

T

MELON-SHAPED EWER WITH INCISED DESIGN OF LOTUS SCROLLS, GORYEO PERIOD, 1100s,

CELADON, THE MUSEUM OF ORIENTAL CERAMICS, OSAKA (GIFT OF THE SUMITOMO GROUP)

7/23/2019 Review_22_1_2013_March


pigments to paint bold motifs under a

traslucet celado glaze. I the rig process,

the iro pigmet oxidised ad chaged to

a dark row or almost lack colour. Iro

oxide-paited wares have desigs that are

often vivacious in feel, irregular and rather

coarse. Moreover, their glaze is a yellowish-

row or dark greeish-grey, rather tha the

purer jade-gree. Celado wares decoratedwith copper oxide are extremely rare due to

the difculty of stailisig copper pigmets

uder a celado glaze. The few survivig

examples are therefore highly sought after

among collectors today.

The rise of the Mogols to power i Korea

in the 13th century is generally regarded as

having brought about a decline in the arts of

the Goryeo period. While celadon continued

to be produced throughout the 13th and

14th centuries, the quality of the glaze and

inlay technique deteriorated progressively.Simultaneously, the quantity of celadon

icreased as umerous kils were estalished

aroud the coutry to cater to the growig

demad y the commo people. Their ware

was, however, rather coarse ad uispired.

With the collapse of the Mongol rule in Yuan

China came also the demise of the Goryeo

dynasty. In 1392 General Yi Seonggye (1335-

1408) seized power ad estalished a ew

dynasty named Joseon. Yi Seonggye, later

kow as Kig Taejo, moved the capital to

Hanyang (today Seoul), and introduced Neo-

Cofuciaism as the ofcial state philosophy.Buddhism, the dominant religion sanctioned

by the ruling class for over a thousand years,

was ofcially aed. Alog with the kig,

a class of elite literati, collectively kow as

yangban , governed society during the very

log-lived Joseo period. They were also

the primary patrons of the arts, their strong

connection to Neo-Confucian ideology

informing the choice of material and themes

for various art forms including ceramics.

The two most importat groups of ceramicsproduced in the Joseon period are the robust

stoeware called buncheong and porcelain.

The term buncheong is an abbreviation of the

loger Korea expressio bunjang hoecheong

sagi , or ‘ceramic wares of a greyish-gree

clay ody covered with white slip ad a clear

greeish glaze’. Buncheong stoeware was

produced oly i the rst two ceturies of the

Joseo period. They were iitially reserved

for use in the rites and ceremonies for royalty,

spreading to the upper and middle classes

and eventually becoming everyday functionalobjects used by the broader population.

Technically, buncheong evolved from Goryeo

period celadon, albeit that slightly coarser

ad more greyish clay as well as a thier

glaze was used. Kils specialisig i the

production of buncheong wares were spread

throughout the coutry, leadig to a wide

variety of decorative techniques: inlaid,

incised, stamped, sgrafto , brush slip, overall

slip ad paited with iro oxide uderglaze.

Ofte, two or more decoratio techiques are

combined on one vessel.

For example, o oe ottle i the exhiitio

with trumpet-shaped mouth, ared lower

ody ad low feet decorated with desig of

peoies, dyamic strokes i white slip have

been applied over the entire surface of the

vessel using a coarse brush ( guiyal); the design

is then created using the sgrafto (scratched)

techique wherey the white slip is cut

through to reveal the underlying body colour.

Characteristic of buncheong ware of this

period are strikigly simplied ad stylisedplat motifs, which make ideticatio of

the plat types difcult. Istead of strivig

for elegance, Joseon-period potters clearly

placed more emphasis on dynamic patterns

ad the joy of experimetatio. The rustic,

irregular beauty of buncheong ware captivated

the imagination of Japanese audiences in the

16th cetury, especially those afliated with

the tea ceremony, chanoyu. Large numbers of

buncheong ware were imported to Japa ad

eagerly emulated by Japanese potters.

The obsession of the 16th century Japanesefor Korean ceramics is today generally

understood as one of the purposes for the

warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s (1536/37–98)

infamous invasions of the peninsula in 1592

ad 1597. I the wake of these two military

expeditios, umerous kils were raided ad

destroyed ad Korea potters were aducted

to Japan to help build up the native ceramic

idustry. The devastatio of Hideyoshi’s

ivasios as well as a growig popularity

of porcelain in mid-Joseon period society

ultimately led to the demise of buncheong

production at the end of the 16th century.

Porcelai, kow i Korea as baekja , or ‘white

ware’, was the secod most importat group

of ceramics of the Joseon period. Although

RECTANGULAR PILLOW WITH INLAID DESIGN OF PEONIES AND CRANES, GORYEO PERIOD, 1200s,

CELADON, THE MUSEUM OF ORIENTAL CERAMICS, OSAKA (GIFT OF THE SUMITOMO GROUP)

BOTTLE WITH OVERALL SLIP COATING AND PAINTED IRON-BROWN

DESIGN OF FLOWERING PLANTS, JOSEON PERIOD, SECOND HALF

OF 1500s, BUNCHEONG WARE, THE MUSEUM OF ORIENTAL

CERAMICS, OSAKA (GIFT OF THE SUMITOMO GROUP)

7/23/2019 Review_22_1_2013_March


soft-paste white porcelai had ee produced

in small quantities during the Goryeo

dyasty, it was oly i the 15th cetury that

Korean potters mastered the manufacture of

hard-paste white porcelai made of kaolin (a

type of white clay). These are covered with

a clear glaze containing a high-level of silica

ad low levels of iro oxide ad red at

high temperatures of approximately 1300°C.Followig the model of Mig-dyasty

China, baekja was adopted as imperial ware

i the 15th cetury, ad y the 1460s, ofcial

kils were estalished ad maaged y the

royal court. by the 16th cetury, however,

white ware was o loger the sole domai

of the elite. numerous regioal kils were

estalished to satisfy the growig demad of

the middle ad lower classes for porcelai.

The white ware preferred y the Korea

royal court and high-ranking military

ad civil ofcials (the yangban class)

comprised undecorated and uncomplicatedporcelain forms. This taste for an austere,

miimalist eauty reects the ideology of

neo-Cofuciaism, which discouraged

ostentatious display: a square bottle included

i the show emodies the severe, restraied

sophisticatio of Joseo-period plai white

porcelain. The purity of the luminous glaze,

which possesses a luish tit that is uique to

Korea white ware, ehaces the simple, yet

elegant, linearity of the vessel. This imbues

it with a astract, moder sesiility that

continues to fascinate audiences even today.

Despite the preferece for plai ‘white ware’,

colour was ot etirely aadoed i Joseo

porcelai. Chiese lue-ad-white porcelai

of the late Yua ad Mig dyasties was

imported to Korea by the elite, and they

inspired the production of early Joseon blue-

ad-white wares. Korea porcelai productio

reached its zenith from the mid-17th to mid-

18th ceturies, whe sigicat improvemets

occurred i rig techiques, clay quality

and the pigments for underglaze decoration.

These urtured a growig codece i

Korea potters, who ecame icreasigly lessdependent on Chinese models. They invented

ew forms ad desigs that expressed the

distinctive aesthetics of the mid-Joseon period.

Early Korea lue-ad-white porcelais at their

best are characterised by a painterly quality

ad possessed a lyrical sesiility, which was

achieved through areviated rushwork ad

the delicate hues of the coalt oxide.

I the years followig Hideyoshi’s military

campaigns on the Korean peninsula in the

late 16th cetury, coalt pigmet was difcult

to otai due to the extremely high cost of

importing it (in the case of Chinese products)

or to use because of its uneven quality (in

the case of local products). This resulted in

the more widespread use of pigmets with

a high iro cotet to create reddish-row

underglaze designs. In the 18th century, the

challenging technique of underglaze copper-

red paitig was revived for the decoratio of

white ware. This techique had evolved i the16th century for use on celadon, but thereafter

fell ito disuse for almost two hudred years.

Porcelain continued to be produced in large

numbers through the late 18th and 19th

ceturies. However, their quality decreased

as the desigs grew icreasigly elaorate

though mannered and uninspired.

In contrast to its neighbours China and Japan,

who also oast a log ad rich traditio of

ceramics, Korean Goryeo and early Joseon

ceramics stand out for their emphasis on clarity

of form, understated elegance of decoration and

sutlety of colour, reectig a uiquely Koreaaesthetic sensitivity. The 38 objects included in

the show ot oly provide a comprehesive

overview of the seve most sigicat ceturies

in the history of Korean ceramics, but also serve

as a visual remider of Korea’s importace i

the development of Japanese pre-modern and

modern ceramics, most notably Edo period

ceramics and the Mingei (folk craft) movement

of the 20th century.

Khanh Trinh is Curator of Japanese and Korean Art at

the Art Gallery of NSW.

REFERENCESIto Ikutaro and Mino Yutaka (eds), 1991. The radiance of jade and

the clarity of water: Korean ceramics from the Ataka collection.

Chicago, IL: Art Institute of Chicago ; New York : Hudson Hills Press.

Kang Kyung-sook, 2008. Korean ceramics. Korean culture series

12. Seoul: Korea Foundation..

Kim Kumja Paik (ed), 2003. Goryeo dynasty : Korea’s age of

enlightenment, 918-1392. San Francisco : Asian Art Museum.

Lee Soyoung (ed), 2009. Art of the Korean renaissance, 1400-

1600. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art ; New Haven ;

London: Yale University Press.

Pak Youngsook and Roderick Whitfield, 2003. Earthenware and

celadon. Handbooks of Korean art. London : Laurence King.

Roberts, Claire and Michael Brand (eds ). 2000. Earth , spirit , fire:

Korean masterpieces of the Choson dynasty (1392-1910). Sydney:Powerhouse Publishing; Brisbane: Queensland Art Galle ry.

FLASK WITH DESIGN OF AUTUMN FLOWERS AND DRAGONFLY, JOSEON PERIOD, 1700s, BLUE-AND-WHITE PORCELAIN,

THE MUSEUM OF ORIENTAL CERAMICS, OSAKA (GIFT OF THE SUMITOMO GROUP)

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7/23/2019 Review_22_1_2013_March


A P T: M O R E T H A N A S P E C TA C L E

Anne Kirker

umerous commentators, including

the preview y Russell Storer i the

December 2012 issue of TAASA Review , have

writte o APT 7. They have poited to the

readth of the exhiitio: the way it occupies

the entire Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA),

as well as much of the older uildig of

Queensland Art Gallery (QAG); they describe

the visual impact of the exhiits, their cultural

origis ad the ways i which Australia ow

relates to the roader Asia Pacic regio.

Representing some 75 artists and artist

groups from 27 countries, this is an enormouseterprise. Joh McDoald, writig for The

Sydney Morning Herald (22 December 2012)

oserved the ascedecy of the Pacic i

APT 7 through the Papua new Guiea items

featured in the central atrium of GOMA,

ad the way geographical oudaries have

been stretched to accommodate West Asian

practitioners.

While all of this is true, what commetators

have often taken for granted are the long-term

eets to the Australia commuity ad its

eighours - ad to art history as a whole -

resultig from the APT’s iterface with a

permanent collection. Principle to this is, of

course, the role of Queensland Art Gallery as

a collecting institution.

While it was recogized from the outset that

the APT could be used to foster collection

developmet, it was ot util the prospect

of expadig ito a ew uildig dedicated

to contemporary art (GOMA) that a greater

imperative to collect art from the region

emerged. I the past 20 years, Queeslad’s

permanent international art holdings have

decisively chaged directio away from theirformer focus on European material (mainly

british, with some Frech ad Italia) ad

historical Asia (chiey Japaese) to a focus

on the modern and especially contemporary

realms of the Asia Pacic. While ot eglectig

the acquisition of international art from

elsewhere (there are a few good examples

from North America and a unique and

idiosycratic groupig of Fluxus imagery, for

instance), there is no doubt that the emphasis

has changed. Furthermore, QAGOMA (as it

is ow kow) has ofte ee “rst off the

rak” i securig outstadig istaces of

major Asia ad Pacic artists’ work.

Such an important shift in collection emphasis

can be traced not only to the advent of GOMA

(a uildig ad philosophy which demaded

increased attention to the art of recent times,

and congruently APT) but also to policy

alterations in collection and curatorial

briefs. For instance, the traditional curatorial

framework that was oce structured accordig

to media specialty (such as works o paper,painting and sculpture) has been displaced to

ackowledge the cross-discipliary ature of

art today ad to accommodate ew program

iitiatives, ot least that of “scree culture”.

With a comparatively small State collection

in Australian terms, it made sense to

formulate ew curatorial positios ased o

School, followig geographical parameters,

accompanied by timeframes according to

the “historical” ad “cotemporary”. This

logically suited the two-veue situatio of

QAG and its younger sibling GOMA.

new program iitiatives meat that i-house

expertise was icreased i areas pertiet to

APT with curators dedicated to Pacic Art

and Contemporary Asian Art. Before APT 4

i 2002, o such specialized positios existed;

they were further reed ad cosolidated y

the time APT 5 occurred.

Iitially however, to serve the paoramic

nature of the event, an overseeing National

Committee was estalished, with a Special

Project team set up at the Gallery led by

Carolie Turer, which elisted staff draw

from Education as much as Curatorial. In factthe team’s catchmet exteded to practically

all departments at the institution. Collectively,

the staff embarked on a steep learning

curve i associatio with art professioals

elsewhere i Australia, ad ecessarily

ad rewardigly, with APT “co-curators”

i the Asia Pacic regio. A cursory glace

at the ackowledgmets of the early APT

catalogues demostrates just how colossal the

iteratioal (specied coutry y coutry)support for the project was; from artists ad

their representatives to government bodies,

grat agecies, etc. now, with APT 7, the

project is curated predominantly in-house

as comprehesive liks with artists ad art

infrastructures, underpinned by the ease of

electroic commuicatio, is rmly i place.

Some examples of the collectio iitiatives

that resulted from APT ecomig a xture

in Queensland include the acquisition of art

istallatios, which are otoriously difcult

to store. Yet, in acquiring them, the Galleryproved that it was a istitutio wishig at all

costs to reect curret artistic practice. From

APT 1, ad susequetly exhiited may

times, came Dadag Christato’s For those:

Who are poor, Who have suffer(ing), Who are

oppressed, Who are voiceless, Who are powerless,

Who are burdened, Who are victims of violence,

Who are victims of dupe, Who are victims of

injustice 1993 (from Indonesia) and Montien

booma’s Lotus sound 1992 (from Thailand).

I etwee the rst two Trieials, Xu big’s

A book from the sky 1987-91 (from China/USA)

was acquired, while Yasumasa Morimura’s

large scale photographBlinded by the light 1991expaded the scope of the Japaese holdigs

whe it etered the collectio ad ecame a

exhiit i APT 2.

SOUL UNDER THE MOON 2002, YAYOI KUSAMA, JAPAN. MIRRORS, ULTRA VIOLET LIGHTS, WATER,

PLASTIC, NYLON THREAD, TIMBER, SYNTHETIC POLYMER PAINT. 340 X 712.1 X 600CM (INSTALLED).

THE KENNETH MYER & YASUKO MYER COLLECTION OF CONTEMPORARY ASIAN ART. QUEENSLAND ART GALLERY

N

24 T A A S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 2 2 N O . 1

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The pattern has continued of coupling an

acquisitio program with a exhiitio

project. From Idia, nalii Malai’s amitious

video installation Remembering Toba Tek Singh

1998-99 was purchased i 2000 alog with

Korea nam Jue Paik’s TV cello 2000 and ecame part of those works represetig

these artists in APT 4. From Japan, Yayoi

Kusama’s pereially popular `Mirror/

Iity’ room Soul under the moon 2002 was

specically coceived for APT. Susequetly,

the multi-part sculpture Painted vases 2006

and earlier performance based photograph

series Dropping a Han dynasty urn 1995 by

cotroversial Chiese artist Ai Weiwei were

acquired and included in APT 5. For the

2009 event, Iranian artist Monir Shahroudy

Farmafarmaia’s recetly produced glass

“paitig” Lightning for Neda 2009 wascollected y the Gallery as was Tieta Pop

collagist Gokar Gyatso’s Angel 2007. With

instant appeal to a broad audience, Zhu

Weiig ad Ji Weyu’s istallatio People

holding owers 2007 was also purchased.

The decisio of what to acquire from APT

7 has largely been made in advance of

the exhiitio ad they iclude works y

Asian artists Atul Dodiya, LN Tallur, Neha

Choksi, Huang Yong Ping, Sara Rahbar, the

childre’s favourite Haha (as part of APT 7,

the Gallery has published an activity book by

this Indonesian artist), Wedhar Riyadi, TiffanyChung, Gimhongsok, Phuan Thai Meng,

Nguyen Thai Tuan, Erbossyn Meldibekov and

Yuan Goang-Ming, among others. Personally,

I would arrack for the work displayed y two

artists of Idia origi, Ria baerjee, with her

curious and resonant bricolage assemblages,

ad Raqi Shaw with his Paradise Lost 2001-

11 series of highly imaginative Mughal

miniature inspired paintings. Together they

reect old ideas ad creative extravagace

and sophistication emanating from artists

livig “etwee cultures” who evertheless

draw ispiratio from their homelad.

Thus, while it is temptig to thik of APT i

terms of spectacle, a broader vision reveals

more lasting implications – those focusing on

collectio uildig. While ot at the expese

of the Gallery’s comprehesive holdigs

of Australia works (icludig Idigeous

Australia Art) the Asia Pacic focus for

collectig has provided the istitutio with a

uique positio i the art world.

Two major exhiitios at GOMA that would

ot have occurred without the APT project

and associated collecting policy, underscorethis iteratioal positioig. The rst, The

China Project , held i the rst half of 2009,

icorporated a exhiitio titled Three Decades:

The Contemporary Chinese Collection , based

o the Gallery’s holdigs datig from the

early 1980s to the present time. The second,

followig soo afterwards i mid 2010,

addressed cotemporary new Zealad art

ad lm with a thematic uderpiig. Called

Unnerved: The New Zealand Project , it picked

up o the dark ad disturig “gothic” strai

of work ad favoured photography ad lm,

making good use of the Cinémathèque facility.

I short, while spectacle ad specic APTactivities (ot least eig the childre’s

program) draw audieces to the Gallery, it is

the vigorous and judicious implementation of

the collection policy that has real and lasting

impact. At a guess, a focused exhiitio

on India and one on Indonesia are likely

exhiitios i the future ased aroud

acquisitios owig from the APT project.

Dr Anne Kirker worked as a curator at Queensland

Art Gallery for 18 years. During that time she was part

of the project team associated with the first four APTs.

WITH OR WITHOUT NAME SHE WAS BLUE AND WHO KNEW WHEN SHE WOULD SLIP INTO ANOTHER MOOD FOR HER UNDERSTANDABLE

UNWILLINGNESS TO DO, TO SPEAK TO, TO FEEL AND DETERMINE HER NEXT MOVE RESTS IN HER NEST AS WOULD A REFUGEE (DETAIL) 2009,

RINA BANERJEE, INDIA/USA B.1963, METAL STRUCTURE, FEATHERS, FABRIC, SHELLS, BELLS, SKULL,176 X 94 X 73CM.

IMAGE: COURTESY THE ARTIST AND GALERIE NATHALIE OBADIA, PARIS

7/23/2019 Review_22_1_2013_March


s an incorrigible collector, I am often asked

“what is your favourite…? ” ad for me,

that is a impossile questio to aswer. but

I do have a passio for Asia textiles ad for

ceramics. If pressed I might eve arrow this

to 18th cetury Eglish delftware pottery ad

Vietnamese ceramics.

Chinese ceramics have an unchallenged place

i the ceramic world ut the market value has

rise so steeply i recet times that few ca

afford to aspire to owership of eve modest

examples of the est. Vietamese ceramics othe other had, have ee created with the same

traditioal iueces ut achieve a distictive

stylistic difference – something more earthy and

without all the zeros i the price!

Argualy my preferece would e for

Vietamese moochromes with their

satisfyig form ad sesual glazes whe held

i the had. but I have chose two lue ad

white deep dishes with uder glaze coalt

decoratio, each with that mysterious row

wash to the uderside of the ase.

Dishes like these were commoly exported toSoutheast Asia and used for communal food,

especially the larger ‘charger’ size dishes of

about 35-37 cm diameter. I have bought them

in the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand and

Adelaide. They are not rare.

Vietamese lue ad white decoratio

favours oral desigs ofte of peoies ad

chrysanthemums; these decorative types tend

to e draw i a rather stiff stylised had with

a larger cetral ower surrouded y scattered

owers, tedrils ad leaves. Also commo are

sea creatures like sh ad shrimps ad irds

such as ducks ad sparrows. Less frequet are

animals such as deer and mythical creatures

like the kylin. Sparsely draw ladscapes i

the Chinese tradition are less common, and

desirable.

The illustrated example with a dramatic sh

amog water weeds is 22.7 cm i diameter,

height 5.8 cm and foot rim diameter 15 cm.

It has two row wash rigs paited o its

base. The sides are undecorated and there are

occasioal row iro spots i the glaze. A

chip on the foot rim reveals a dense greyish

white stoeware ody. The foot rim is high at

1.7 cm for a dish of this size: reminiscent of

some owls of this period, it creates a pleasig

prole. A very similar dish, from the Joh

Meke Collectio, is illustrated as gure 275

i Joh Steveso ad Joh Guy’s ook which

dates it 15th-16th cetury. This collectio wasrecetly sold y Zetterquist Gallery i new

York. Bui Minh Tri and Kerry Nguyen Long

i gure 243, descrie a similar sh as a ‘Ca

ngao’ sh. The desig is ucommo ad is a

woderful example of fresh free drawig full

of life ad movemet. It was purchased i

Oriental Place, Bangkok 5 years ago.

The secod charger with a shrimp is much

less frequently found. The dish dimensions

are diameter 23.5 cm, height 5.6 cm and foot

rim base 16.8 cm. It has a rolled lip and a

row wash applied to the etire ase. The

shrimp is surrouded y water plats ad

is very well draw with cosiderale detail.

The exterior is decorated with a lotus petal

band, commonly found in dishes such as this.

Dated about 15th-16th century, similar shrimppatterned dishes are seen in Figure 68 in Bui

Mih Tri ad Kerry nguye Log’s ook ad

Figure 282 i Joh Steveso ad Joh Guy’s

ook. This dish was purchased i River City,

Bangkok about 10 years ago.

John Yu has collected ceramics for over 30 years.

He was formerly President of the Ceramic Collector

Society and Deputy President of the AGNSW Trust. He

was a member of the first TAASA Committee and is

Chair of the VisAsia Board.

REFERENCESBui Minh Tri and Kerry Nguyen-Long, 2001. Vietnamese Blue and

White Ceramics-Social Science Publishing House, Ha Noi.

John Stevenson and John Guy, 1997. Vietnamese Ceramics, a

separate tradition. Avery Press, Chicago.

CO LLECTO R ’S CH O ICE : TWO BLUE & WHITE V I E TNAMESE CHARGERS

John Yu

A

PLATE WITH FISH AMONG WATER, VIETNAMESE C.15TH/16TH CENTURY, STONEWARE WITH UNDERGLAZE

COBALT BLUE DESIGN AND CLEAR GLAZE. 22.7CM (D). COLLECTION: JOHN YU

PLATE WITH SHRIMP, VIETNAMESE C.15TH/16TH CENTURY, STONEWARE WITH UNDERGLAZE

COBALT BLUE DESIGN AND CLEAR GLAZE. 23.5CM (D). COLLECTION: JOHN YU

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Balinese Art: Paintings and

Drawings of Bali 1800-2010

Adrian Vickers

Tuttle Publishing, 2012RRP USD$49.95, hardcover, 256 pp

Since the early 1970s Adrian Vickers, Professor

of Southeast Asian Studies and Director

of Asian Studies Program and Australian

Centre for Asian Art and Archaeology at the

University of Sydney, has devoted much of

his career to the study of Indonesian history,

narratives, art and languages. Scholars,

ethusiasts ad travellers of Idoesia will e

familiar with his previous work, i particular

A History of Modern Indonesia (2005) and Bali:

A Paradise Created (1989). Vickers’ latest ook

Balinese Art: Paintings and Drawings of Bali1800-2010 is the culmination of over 30 years

of research ad provides readers with the rst

comprehensive account of Balinese painting

from its earliest manifestations and roots in

Indian and Javanese culture, to the present.

Balinese Art is a scholarly resource that will

also appeal to audieces with a geeral

interest in Bali and Asian art. In it Vickers

considers a diversity of topics including

Balinese aesthetics; Classical iconography and

Balinese narratives and their continuation in

the 20th and 21st centuries; early modern art;post-WWII painting and images associated

with various revolutioary periods, ad

contemporary practice in globalised Indonesia.

Also preseted is a thorough accout of bali’s

rich religious, political and social history

withi the roader cotext of the archipelago.

Some readers, particularly those ew to

baliese studies, may woder at the amout

of attention given to Kamasan, a village

reowed for its productio of Classical

paitigs that depict, i extraordiary detail,

great Hindu epics and other narratives in the

shadow puppet or wayang style. This becomesapparet, if ot always explicitly stated y

the author, as the text progresses. Artists of

Kamasa are kow to have paited for the

Gelgel and Klungkung courts from the 14th

century and their paintings are still considered

the epitome of the Classical style.

In the chapter Traditions: Classical Art of Bali ,

Vickers demostrates that while Classical

painting in other regions metamorphosed

into different styles, died out or survived

through individual efforts, the patronage of

bali’s highest rulig kig led to the logevity

of Kamasa traditios. I additio, while

fewer examples of early Classical paitig

from other regions survive or have beendocumented, numerous Kamasan paintings

from the early 19th cetury owards are held

in international collections. Important among

these is the Australia Museum’s reowed

Forge Collection, acquired by Professor

Anthony Forge during the early 1970s as part

of his ow research ito baliese art.

Maintaining that tradition is not solely

associated with the past. Vickers itroduces

readers to the art of Kamasan through the

work of two livig artists, Kamasa paiter

I Nyoman Mandra (b. 1946) and Balinese-

born-Javanese-based contemporary artist INyoman Masriadi (b. 1973). Vickers argues

that the iconographic and narrative traditions

established in early Balinese Classical

paitig have cotiued to evolve ad exist

withi styles emergig throughout the 20th

and 21st centuries.

Also requirig metio are the author’s

efforts to dispel myths regarding the creation

of modern Balinese art by Western artists –

including Walter Spies (1895-1942) and Rudolf

Bonnet (1895-1978) – during the 1930s. As

Vickers points out in his chapter Transitions: Pre-War modernists , previous accounts credited these

artists with leadig baliese paiters to adopt

naturalistic painting styles and the depiction of

the everyday i their work. Istead, he argues

that every day life already existed i baliese

art, as did the depictio of the atural world

accordig to baliese viewpoits.

Indeed, an in depth visual analysis of pre- and

post WWII paitigs coupled with extesive

reference to the commentaries of European

artists, their Balinese contemporaries, and

athropologists workig i bali at the

time, reveals a more complex story. We see,for example, through the work of artists

such as Uud’s I Gusti nyoma Lempad

(1862/75-1978) ad batua’s I nyoma

ngedo (1914-47/48) how moder liear

ad atteed compositios remai rooted i

Classical traditios which refereced oth the

mundane and spiritual. While credit is given

to expatriate artists ad other etrepreeurs

for their role i creatig ew markets ad

forums for Balinese painters, the impact of

Western materials and media is emphasised

over imported teaching styles and imagery.

Balinese Art: Paintings and Drawings of Bali

1800-2010 illumiates the complex history of

baliese paitig with its clarity of expressio,rich visual analysis and documentation.

Vickers presents a balanced and critical

selectio of paitigs ad drawigs from

Balinese, international and private collections.

For those involved in the study of Balinese art,

this publication provides a valuable tool for

the ideticatio of baliese art as well as a

springboard for further study. Other readers

will likely e ispired y Vickers to delve

deeper ito the world of baliese paitig.

Niki van den Heuvel is Assistant Curator of Asian Art,

National Gallery of Australia.

BOOK REVIEW: BA L I N E S E A R T

Niki van den Heuvel

27

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R E C E N T T A A S A A C T I V I T I E S

LENORE BLACKWOOD, THE FABRIC OF

HER LIFE - IN CONVERSATION WITH

CAROLINE BAUM

TEXTILE STUDY GROUP - DEDICATION

TO DEE COURT

Helen Perry

Dee had always urged Leore to write aout

her amazig life experieces ad so we

decided to full Dee’s wish i the form of a

coversatio etwee Leore ad Carolie.

That this event on 24 October 2012 at the TargetTheatre, Powerhouse Museum was a “sell-out”

was testamet to the high esteem held for Dee

Court, the legedry story tellig prowess of

Leore blackwood ad the highly regarded

iterviewig skills of Carolie baum.

Early i the coversatio we discovered the

catalyst for Leore’s osessio with travel.

In 1956, en route to London to pursue an

acting career, her boat stopped in Colombo

ad it was there that her fasciatio for exotic

destiatios was or. The deig momet

came i Lodo whe faced with a decisio

etwee takig a actig role ad 8 moths ackpackig through Idia. The choice was

India and a lifetime of intrepid, mostly solo,

travel was the outcome.

After a overview of destiatios ad a

discussio o how Leore maaged her

workig life to support her travels, the

conversation focussed on her time in Ethiopia,

Somalia, niger ad Mexico. Leore’s

theatrical background soon became evident

as we were regaled with stories of trips to the

mountains of Ethiopia, the deserts of Niger

and the indigenous groups of her beloved

Mexico. The coversatio ecame particularly

aimated with her descriptio of a Huichol

Indian festival.

Leore’s stories were eve more colourful

tha the display of textiles from her collectio

ad it was far too soo whe time ra out.

The eveig eded with a video triute to

Lenore prepared by Carole Douglas and Mike

Sloae. Woderful images from Leore’sarchives drifted in and out accompanied by

an atmospheric soundtrack. Simultaneously,

scrollig across the scree, was a list of the

countries that Lenore has travelled to. I

elieve the cout was 84 i all - oe for every

year of a remarkable life.

TAASA’S TRIPLE TREAT IN CANBERRA

Sandra Forbes

On a brisk November Saturday morning,

25 TAASA members met in the foyer of the

National Portrait Gallery (NPG) in Canberra.

Some of us were ACT locals, ut most hadmade the journey from Sydney, and one

member had even driven from Melbourne.

TAASA was offerig a lovely program: a

morig at the Portrait Gallery with a guided

tour of the exhiitio Go F!gure: contemporary

Chinese portraiture, followed y luch

(included) at the NPG cafe; then a move to

the National Gallery of Australia (NGA) for

a tour of the exhiitio Divine Worlds: Indian

painting.

Canberra-based TAASA Committee member

Charlotte Galloway itroduced Dr Christie

Clarke, nPG Exhiitios Maager ad our

expert guide for Go F!gure. She explaied that

portraits we were viewig today were all from

the collectio of Dr Ulli Sigg, who had recetly

(June 2012) donated half his collection to the

ew M+ cetre i Hog Kog, scheduled to

ope i 2017. The M+Sigg collectio had ee

brought to Australia by the NPG in partnership

with the Sherma Cotemporary Art

Foundation. Dr Clarke recommended a visit to

SCAF i Sydey to view the extraordiary admoving installation Old People’s Home by Sun

Yuan and Peng Yu.

After Dr Clarke explaied the four themes of

the exhiitio, we moved o to the artworks.

The rst sectio, ‘Aout Face’, cosisted of

works o the theme of the face revealed ad

cocealed, ad of explorig the space etwee

the private ad pulic sphere. The theme was

epitomised y Fag Liju’s large, lumious

oil painting Untitled , painted in 1995 during

the years of despair followig Tiaame

Square: the bald-headed artist turns his back,

providing in effect an anti-portrait.

‘body Politic’, the ext sectio, showed the

work of artists who, from the 1980s, were ale

to experimet with oth artistic practice ad

political satire. Oe iterestig work here was the

recent (2011) Dedicated to her: Loudspeaker, where

the actual speech given at the founding of the

Republic of China in 1949 emanates repeatedly

from a corner microphone of that period.

Performace art, as recorded i witty videos

and startling photographs, featured in the

sectio ‘Ski Deep’. The massive shifts iChinese society over the past three decades

were mirrored i all the artworks i the

exhiitio, ut most particularly i the video

works i its last sectio, ‘Self Reex’. Wag

Jiawei’s From the masses, to the masses (2000),

a video istallatio also o show at SFAC i

Sydney, documents fragments of everyday

traditional life in fascinating detail in Part A,

while Part B focuses on regimented lines of

school children – the future.

Dr Clarke’s geerous provisio of her time

ad expertise was fully appreciated y all

preset. Apart from providig a overviewof Chinese artistic practice post-Cultural

Revolutio, the exhiitio had also assisted

us i gaiig isight ito the complexities ofCAROLINE BAUM. PHOTO: SANDY WATSON, 2012 LENORE BLACKWOOD. PHOTO: SANDY WATSON, 2012

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life and motivations in contemporary Chinese

society itself.

After a excellet luch i the reezy sprig

sushie, we walked across to the natioal

Gallery, to e met y Melaie Eastur, nGA’s

Curator of Asia Art ad specically of the

curret exhiitio Divine Worlds (and a veryactive and appreciated member of TAASA).

Melaie gave us a rief overview of the

exhiitio, which cosisted etirely of Idia

paintings - Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, Muslim -

from the Gallery’s ow collectio. Movig

ito the display itself, we were istatly i a

differet world of glowig pictures o rich-

coloured walls, a real cotrast with the origial

nGA uildig’s grey, somewhat stoily

overpowerig halls. The paitigs raged

from exquisite itimate miiatures to vast

hunting scenes, from enormous pilgrimage

maps to vividly-coloured devotional shrinepaintings ( pichivai). Even delicate early

miniatures (dating 16th - 20th century) could

be appreciated in this hanging.

Perhaps the most dramatic room was the oe

full of pichivais. These large works o cloth

have only relatively recently been recognised

as collectable by major art museums, and

the NGA has a particularly good holding.

Pichivais , Melaie explaied, were usuallycreated especially for temples to hang before

the principal image of the god. A number in

the Gallery’s collectio depict Krisha, the

lue-skied ute player who captivated the

milkmaids. A delightful Priests worshipping

Krishna as Shrinathji (c.1840), dressed in a silver

gow ad aked y two priests, origiates

from nathdwara, still a importat cetre

for Krisha-worship ad pichivai production

in Rajasthan.

I a glass case o the oor of the pichivai room

lay a fascinating large Jain painting, Map of Jain sacred site Shatrunjaya (1897–98). Melanie

explaied that this piece was curretly show

horizontally because in its current condition

it could not be hung vertically. Such large

paited textiles are ofte i poor physical

coditio whe acquired, due to prologed

use in ceremonies and devotions, thereby

creatig particularly difcult coservatio

challeges. (However, we rather guiltily

agreed that this did provide a unique

opportuity to examie its itricate detail.)

Canberra-based TAASA member Claudia

Hyles had generously offered to host drinksat her home followig our nGA visit.

Surrouded y Claudia’s persoal collectio,

maily from Idia, we thus appropriately

cocluded a most rewardig, iformative ad

friendly TAASA day. Thanks to all organisers.

TAASA WALKTHROUGH OF THE NEW

NGV ASIAN GALLERIES

Ian Strachan

On 27October 2012, TAASA members took up

the opportuity of a guided walkthrough of

the ewly istalled Asia galleries at the nGV,

where curators Mae Aa Pag, Carol Cais

ad Waye Crothers shared their expertise

and their stories about the treasures they love.

The rst impressio is of space ad light.

These are o crowded galleries where ojects

are so jostled together that everything merges

i the viewig. There’s time to reect, ad

space, for example, to walk roud a 15thcentury Japanese ceramic jar to see the

differece etwee its frot ad ack glazig.

Cabinets tend to have a single display shelf so

the eye is not distracted.

The ew galleries are divided ito Chia,

South & Southeast Asia and Japan. They are

themed and clearly articulated. China has

four sections: In Search of Immortality (burial

objects 2BCE - 17th century); Spiritual Retreat in

nature (showig the restrait of scholar-ofcial

objects); Imperial Art of China (featuring the

dragon motif) and Buddhist Art of China.

The design of the galleries provides seamless

cross-cultural trasitios. Two Chiese

Avalokitesvaras (gilt roze ad wood)

DR CHRISTINE CLARK (CENTRE FRONT) WITH TAASA COMMITTEE

MEMBERS CHARLOTTE GALLOWAY (L) AND ANN PROCTOR (R) IN

FRONT OF EATING BY LIU XIADONG (2000, M+SIGG COLLECTION)

AT THE NPG, CANBERRA, NOVEMBER 2012

CHRISTINA SUMNER, OAM

Sandra Forbes

TAASA is delighted to report that our Vice-

Presidet, Christia Sumer, was awarded

a Medal of the Order of Australia (General

Division) in the recent Australia Day

honours, for services to the visual arts.

Christina has been Principal Curator, Design

ad Society, at the Powerhouse Museum,

Sydney, for 28 years. She retired from her

position on 31 January this year, so the timing

of this honour is particularly appropriate,

crowig her log career i the arts.

For TAASA, Christina Sumner has literally

ee life-givig – she was oe of the four

original founders of the Society, legendarily

‘hatched i a yurt’ at the Powerhouse i

1991 (ref. TR Dec 2001 and Dec 2011). Since

the formal foundation of TAASA in October1991, she has continued to be deeply

ivolved with all its activities. Oe of her

most important roles has been the essential

liaiso etwee TAASA’s Textile Group

(fouded 1994) ad the Powerhouse, where

that group meets. TAASA is a afliated

society of the Powerhouse, a coectio

ealed y Christia, which has allowed us

to hold may symposia i the Powerhouse’s

conference facilities.

Christia’s cotriutio to TAASA Review

over the years has also been remarkable.

A quick cosultatio of the Idex to the

Review (ref. www.taasa.org.au) reveals more

than 25 articles under her name.

Amog the may exhiitios Christia has

curated for the Powerhouse are a umer

which are of particular iterest to Asia art

lovers. They include Faith, fashion, fusion:

Muslim women’s style in Australia (2012);

Bright owers: textiles and ceramics of Central

Asia (2004); Arts of Southeast Asia: from thePowerhouse Museum collection (2001); and

Beyond the Silk Road: arts of Central Asia from

the Powerhouse Museum collection (1999). The

otale catalogues of those exhiitios, co-

authored y Christia, are collectors’ items.

Christia will cotiue to e associated with

the Powerhouse Museum as a volutary

consultant, and also intends to continue herclose associatio with TAASA, of which she

has been Vice-President since 2010.

CHRISTINA SUMNER HOLDING A 1990 AUSTRALIAN QUILT

BY JOCELYN CAMPBELL, GOODNIGHT, SLEEP TIGHT.

COURTESY: POWERHOUSE MUSEUM, SYDNEY

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30

T A A S A M E M B E R S ’ D I A R Y

MARCH 2013 – MAY 2013

TAASA Symposium:

From Beginner to ExpertSaturday 9 March 2013, 10.15am – 3.45pmSydney Mechanics School of Arts,280 Pitt Street Sydney

For Asian art enthusiasts, including thosestartig to collect Asia art or with aestalished collectio. Topics iclude: howdo I go aout uildig my collectio, howdo I d out more? Plus the issues of fakes,pricing, conservation and display. A Q&Asession rounds off the day and pieces frompreseters’ collectios will e o display.

Cormed speakers are:

• Michael Abbott, QC, o his experieces as

a collector of Southeast Asian and Indian art.• Paul Sumner , Managing Director,

Mossgreen Auctions, on the changingcommercial market in Australia forartefacts ad works of art.

• Brigitte Benziger & David Hulme, eart appraisers, on the opportunities andpitfalls of collecting.

• Todd Sunderman, collector of antiqueTieta furiture, o ecomig a experti a specialised eld.

• Raimy Che-Ross, collector of Malaysilverware.

• Donna Hinton, Head of Objects

Conservation at the Art Gallery of NSW.

For more information and booking form,contact Ann Guild on (02) 9460 4579 [email protected].

TAASA AGM & Presentation‘Passages to India’ by Claudia HylesWednesday 17 April 2013, 6-8pmSydney Mechanics School of Arts,280 Pitt Street Sydney

Writer, literary reviewer & idepedetresearcher, Claudia looks back at her manytrips to India since 1968.

Refreshments available. $20 TAASAmembers; bookings essential: RSVP10 April to Ann Guild on (02) 9460 4579or [email protected]. TAASA Textile Study groupAll meetings held at the Curatorial Café,Powerhouse Museum, Sydney 6-8pm

Wednesday 13 March: Textiles of East Timor ,show & tell led y Chris Reid. brig alogyour ow textiles for discussio.Wednesday 10 April: Revival & Innovation –the tradition and evolution of Aari embroidery.Presented by master embroiderer and fashiondesigner Asif Shaikh, Ahmedabad, Gujarat.Wednesday 8 May: Sarong Kebaya; Plain Women’sWork? Mariae Hulsosch will examie thesarog ad keaya i wome’s lives.

Refreshments provided. $10 members;$15 non members

ow ito a altar display of various Tieta

devotional objects, through to a case of Javanese,

Thai, Singhalese and Burmese Buddhas in

the South and Southeast Asian section. This is

the most diverse section, but Khmer pictures,

Vietnamese ceramics, Gandharan statues andIndian representations of Shiva also give a sense

of the richness of the art of this part of Asia.

A surprise feature is the touch screes which

solve the problem of displaying illustrated

ooks: as well as the ook itself, ope securely

at one page in a case, you can turn all the

pages on the screen beside it. Flipped quickly,

a Javanese 19th century manuscript in the

wayang style turs ito a shadow puppet

performance (bravo!).

Past a black Samurai helmet resembling adinosaur, you enter the Japanese gallery. This

is a rave mixture of aciet ad moder,

artistic ad domestic. Ad it works. Ceramics

by Takahiro from 2008 are set against 19th

cetury Hokusai whimsical drawigs (the

original manga); negoro lacquer objects, one

per case, cotrast with ridal trousseau sets.

The afteroo cocluded o a high ote with

high tea and the opportunity to discuss the

experiece with fellow memers ad the

curators.

TAASA’S END OF YEAR PARTY –

29 NOVEMBER 2012

This regular evet was held this year at 4A,

Centre for Contemporary Asian Art in Hay St.,

Sydney, attended by a large number of members.

Pedro de Almeida, Program Manager for theGallery, provided some cotext ad iformatio

aout its history ad program, as well as some

ackgroud to 4A’s curret Sydey Pavilio at

the Shaghai bieale, which was put together

by Aaron Seeto, Director, and Toby Chapman,

Assistant Curator of 4A.

Our delicious food was provided y caterers

Misschu ad this year, we offered a cocktail

special, Aperol Spritz, to celebrate the

festive seaso. Thak you to memers who

supported us y purchasig rafe tickets - we

had a large range of prizes kindly donated byvarious Committee members.

JACKIE MENZIES

TAASA regrets to report that Jackie Menzies

has stepped dow as Head of Asia Art at the

Art Gallery of NSW as of the end of 2012, after

37 years at the Gallery. She remains involved

with the AGnSW however as Emeritus

Curator, workig o a project y project asis.

We look forward to Jackie cotiuig her log

term ivolvemet with TAASA: she served as

TAASA President from 1992 to 2000 and has

been a valued contributor to the TAASA Review

sice its very rst issue i Jauary 1992.

Congratulations to Margot Yeomans from Victoria, winner of our lucky draw for

members who responded to our questionnaire before 31 December 2012. Margot willget her membership fee for 2013 reimbursed. Further responses to our questionnaire

are very welcome.

LAUNCH OF TAASA CERAMICS STUDY GROUP

TAASA is pleased to aouce the lauch of a ew Ceramics Study Group aimed at

offering its members the opportunity for in depth study of ceramics from all parts of

Asia. We are curretly puttig together a program of evets for 2013, which we hope

will promote iterest i the study ad kowledge of ceramics ad provide a focus ad

meeting point for collectors, curators and others interested in Asian ceramics.

Special Pieces

Thursday 4 April 6 – 8pm

This rst meetig ivites people to rig a favourite or special ceramic item from

their collectio to discuss with the group.

Venue: to be advised.

Refreshments served. $10 members; $15 guests.

RSVP: Margaret White at: [email protected].

Your feedback about what you’d like the CSG to cover would be welcome and can be emailed

to Margaret.

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W H AT ’ S O N I N A U S T R A L I A : M A R C H 2 0 1 3 – M A Y 2 0 1 3

A S E L E C T I V E R O U N D U P O F E X H I B I T I O N S A N D E V E N T S

Compiled by Tina Burge

NSW

Alexander the Great:

2000 years of Treasures

Australian Museum, Sydney

24 November 2012 - 28 April 2013

The largest collection of treasures to come

to Australia from the State Hermitage in St

Petersburg, Russia includes over 400 objects

from classical antiquity through to the

modern age, spanning almost 2500 years.

For further information go to:www.alexandersydney.com.au

Anish Kapoor

Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney

20 December 2012 - 1 April 2013

This rst major presetatio of Aish

Kapoor’s work i Australia icludes

works from the etire gamut of his career

ad illumiates the artist’s costat

experimetatio with materials ragig

from clay, plastic, steel, pigmets ad wax.

For further information go to:

www.mca.com.au

Soul of Simplicity – Seven centuries

of Korean ceramics

Art Gallery of New South Wales

8 February 2013 – 21 April 2014

Focuses on 38 Goryeo and Joseon ceramics

from the 12th to the 19th ceturies, which

reveal the unique aesthetic sensibility and

outstadig techical prowess of Korea

potters. The pieces come from the Museum

of Oriental Ceramics in Osaka.

Jim Masselos’ South Asia Archive

Research Library, Art Gallery of

New South Wales, Sydney

5 February 2013 - 4 May 2013 (Tuesday to

Saturday only, restricted hours)

In 2011 Dr Jim Masselos donated a collection

of images on paper related to India to the

Art Gallery of NSW Archive. It ranges from

early Europea woodcuts to later egravigs

and etchings, Indian prints, lithographs and

chromolithographs as well as photographs,

posters, paitigs ad drawigs. A selectio

of the works will e o display.

Coffee talks: Auspicious Asia - a series of

talks to inaugurate the Year of the Snake

Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney

19 February 2013 - 19 March 2013

This ve week talk series showcases a

different area or religion in the Asian region

by a curator in the Asian department,

followed y a walkthrough of the relevat

section of the gallery.

For more information go to:

www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au

QUEENSLAND

The 7th Asia Pacific Triennial of

Contemporary Art

Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane

8 December 2012 - 14 April 2013

APT7 marks the 20th anniversary of the APT

series. A central theme is our relationship to

place at a time of rapid uraisatio ad ux of

people, trade ad iuece. APT7 will feature

ew ad recet work y 75 artists ad artist

groups from 27 countries across the region,

including painting, installation, sculpture andphotography by Indigenous Australian artists;

ew works y artists from Papua new Guiea,

Indonesia and Vietnam; and a special focus on

West Asia, with works ad major commissios

by artists from Turkey through the Middle East

to Iran and Central Asia.

For further information go to:

www.qagoma.qld.gov.au

VICTORIA

Contemporary Asian and Pacific Art Gallery

National Gallery of Victoria (International),

Melbourne

Ongoing

The nGVI’s ewly opeed Cotemporary

Asia ad Pacic Art Gallery displays a

umer of ew acquisitios icludig the

video work ‘Farmer’ y Thai artist Sudsiri

Pui-Ock, which represets the life of a farmer

i a rice eld from a plaar perspective.The gallery is also providing a space for

coceptual artists such as Rirkrit Tiravaija’s

Untitled (lunchbox) , which ivite visitors

to share a Thai takeaway meal ad as a

consequence, take part in making art.

Rally: Contemporary Indonesian Art , on

util 1 April 2013, presets the work of

contemporary Indonesian artists Eko

nugroho ad Jompet Kuswidaato

in a series of installations in the NGVI

Contemporary Project Space and Federation

court. Jompet is a istallatio artist while

nugroho works across diverse media;creating paintings, murals and handmade

comic books, contemporary updates of the

traditio of shadow puppet theatre, ad

collaoratios with local craftspeople to

produce embroideries.

The nGVI is havig a series of oor talks i

cojuctio with Cultural Diversity Week

including:

• 2pm 22 March, Southeast Asian

Observations by Mikala Tai, former

Director of Melbourne international Fine

Art gallery (MiFA), about cutting edgework from Southeast Asia.

• 3pm 22 March, artist Titi Wulia will

provide isights ito the art work of

her Indonesian compatriots in Rally:

Contemporary Indonesian Art.

Other events include:

12.30pm 18 April: oor talk y Carol

Cais, Curator, Asia art, discussig ew

works from South ad Southeast Asia

12.30pm 27 April: Shoji Hamada:

A demonstration by Shoji Hamada part

of the Slow Art Day Film program.

For more information go to:

www.ngv.vic.gov.au A BOOK FROM THE SKY 1987-91, XU BING, CHINA/USA,

WOODBLOCK PRINT, WOOD, LEATHER, IVORY. THE KENNETH MYER

& YASUKO MYER COLLECTION OF CONTEMPORARY ASIAN ART.

QUEENSLAND ART GALLERY

7/23/2019 Review_22_1_2013_March


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