VO LU M E 2 1 N O.

4 D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 2

the journal of
the asian arts society
of australia

TAASA Review

c o n t en t s
Volume 21 No. 4 December 2012

Editorial

TAAS A RE VI E W

Josefa Green, Editor

BINGZHOU: G ATE WAY TO T H E S P L E NDID TA N G

THE ASIAN ARTS SOCIETY OF AUSTRALIA INC.

Abn 64093697537 Vol. 21 No. 4, December 2012
ISSN 1037.6674

Yin Cao

MONUMEN TAL S TON E S C UL P TUR E S O F T H E C E NTRAL- EA S T E R N S TE P P E S

Lyndon Arden-Wong

11

ALEXANDER THE G R E AT: 2 0 0 0 Y E A R S O F T R E A S U R E S AT T H E AU STRALIAN M U S E U M

Elizabeth Cowell

13

BENCHARONG THAILAND'S FIVE-COLOUR CERAMICS

Philip Courtenay

16

COLOUR WOODCUT INTERNATIONAL : MODERN PRINTMAKING IN JAPAN AND THE WEST

Chiaki Ajioka

19

IN T HE PUBLIC DOM AIN: YO M U T T U R K M E N R U G S A N D T R A P P I N G S AT T H E P O W E R H O U S E

Christina Sumner

20

THE 7T H AS IA PAC IF IC TRIE N NIAL OF C ON TE M PORARY ART

Russell Storer

23

TRAVELL E RS CH OI C E : R E C OV E R I N G T U R K M E N I S TA N S B U R I E D PA S T

Margaret White

24

B OO K REVIEW: C H I N E S E S I L K S

Judith Rutherford

25

TAAS A P ROFILES

25

TAAS A Membe rs D i a ry: D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 2 - F E B R UA RY 2 01 3

26

R ECEN T TAAS A AC TIVITIE S

27

WH ATS ON IN AU S TRALIA : D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 2 - F E B R UA RY 2 0 1 3

Compiled by Tina Burge

Registered by Australia Post. Publication No. NBQ 4134

e d i to rIAL email: editorial@taasa.org.au

General editor, Josefa Green

publ i c at i ons c omm i t t ee

Josefa Green (convenor) Tina Burge

Melanie Eastburn Sandra Forbes Charlotte Galloway
William Gourlay Marianne Hulsbosch
Jim Masselos Ann Proctor Sabrina Snow
Christina Sumner
des i gn / l ayou t

Ingo Voss, VossDesign

pr i n t i ng

John Fisher Printing

Published by The Asian Arts Society of Australia Inc.

PO Box 996 Potts Point NSW 2011
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of The Asian Arts Society of Australia Inc. TAASA Review welcomes
submissions of articles, notes and reviews on Asian visual and
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Central panel of sarcophagus. Yu Hongs tomb (dated 592), Jiyuan, Taiyuan,
Shanxi Province. Carved marble painted in pigments. 101.7 x 96 x 12.7 cm.
Collection of the Shanxi Museum. Image courtesy Shanxi Museum.

A fu ll Ind ex of arti c les publ ished in TA A S A R ev ie w s i nce i t s begi nn i ngs

i n 1991 is available on the TAAS A web s i te , www. ta asa . o rg. au

The d eadline f or all articles

FOR OUR NE XT ISSUE IS 1 J anuary 2013
The deadline for all aDve rtis ing
FOR OUR NE X T ISSUE IS 1 F ebruary 2013

TAA S A c o mm i t t ee

E DITORIAL

Gill Gr een President

Josefa Green, Editor

Art historian specialising in Cambodian culture

CHRI STIN A SUMNE R V ice President

Principal Curator, Design and Society,

Powerhouse Museum, Sydney
A NN GU ILD TREASURER

Former Director of the Embroiders Guild (UK)

Dy An dr easen SECRETARY

Has a special interest in Japanese haiku and tanka poetry

Hwe i-fe n cheah

Visiting Fellow, School of Cultural Inquiry, Australian

National University.
JO CE LYN CHEY

Visiting Professor, Department of Chinese Studies,

University of Sydney; former diplomat
Matt Cox

Study Room Co-ordinator, Art Gallery of New South

Wales, with a particular interest in Islamic Art of
Southeast Asia
Charlott e Gallo way

Lecturer Asian Art History and Curatorial Studies,

Australian National University, with a special interest
in the Buddhist Art of Myanmar
Jo sefa Gr een

General editor of TAASA Review. Collector of Chinese

ceramics, with long-standing interest in East Asian
art as student and traveller
MIN-JUNG KIM

Curator of Asian Arts & Design at the Powerhouse Museum

ANN PROC TOR

Art historian with a particular interest in Vietnam

Yuk i e Sato

Former Vice President of the Oriental Ceramic Society of

the Philippines with wide-ranging interest in Asian art
and culture
SA B RIN A SN OW

Has a long association with the Art Gallery of New South

Wales and a particular interest in the arts of China
Todd Sund er man

Former Asian antique dealer, with a particular interest

in Tibetan furniture
Mar g ar et White

Former President and Advisor of the Friends of Museums,

Singapore, with special interest in Southeast Asian art,
ceramics and textiles
Ho n. Au ditor

Rosenfeld Kant and Co

s t a t e r ep r esen t a t i ves
Australian Capital Territory
M elan ie Ea stbur n

Curator of Asian Art, National Gallery of Australia

Queensland
Russe ll Stor er

Curatorial Manager, Asian and Pacific Art,

Queensland Art Gallery
South Australia
James Benne tt

Curator of Asian Art, Art Gallery of South Australia

Victoria
Carol Cains

Curator Asian Art, National Gallery of Victoria International

This is the last TAASA Review for 2012, and

it is again a general issue offering a range of
articles which will hopefully be of interest to
our members and which demonstrates the
richness of our Asian cultural resources here
in Australia.
Two major exhibitions have just or are
about to open. In Brisbane, the 7th Asia
Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art
(APT7) celebrates the 20th anniversary of
this influential, trail blazing event which
takes over the entire Gallery of Modern Art
and much of the Queensland Art Gallery
until April 2013. In this issue, Russell Storer
provides an insight into the key ideas driving
APT7 and takes us through some of the main
works which will be on show.
On show only in Sydney at the Australian
Museum is Alexander the Great: 2000 years
of treasures, a major exhibition from the
State Hermitage, St Petersburg. Some 400
objects of both Asian and European origins
illustrate aspects of Alexanders life and
legacy. Elizabeth Cowell from the Australian
Museum provides an overview of the themes
explored by this exhibition. It is worth noting
that a large program of events, including a
series of most interesting talks, will be held
in conjunction with this exhibition (see Whats
On for website address).
In our recent TAASA questionnaire, which
many members have helpfully completed, a
strong and abiding interest in Central Asia
and topics related to the silk road(s) was
evident. This issue has quite a strong inner
Asian focus.
In Bingzhou: Gateway to the Splendid Tang, Yin
Caos theme is the vibrant interchange of
culture between China and the large regions
to its west in the period leading up to the
great Tang empire. Many people believe
that Changan (modern day Xian) was the
eastern terminus of the silk road(s) from the
Han to the Tang periods. Rather, Yin Cao
demonstrates that in the many hundreds
of years between these two great Chinese
empires, it was Pingcheng in Bingzhou
(modern day Datong in Shanxi province),
which served as the eastern end of the major
highways connecting China and the west.
Lyndon Arden-Wong takes us further west in
his scholarly article Monumental Stone Sculptures
of the Central-Eastern Steppes. Based on his PhD
research and current archaeological work on
the Mongolian plateau, Lyndon describes the
style, iconography and usage of these large
anthropomorphic Trkic monuments dating

from the 6th to mid 8th centuries. The theme

of cross cultural influence in this vast complex
region is taken up again in this article, which
describes the impact of Sogdian and Tang
influences on these sculptures, which were in
turn significantly modified by the Uighurs in
the post Trkic era.
We explore the inner Asian region with two
further articles. Our regular In the Public
Domain features a spectacular collection of
rugs and trappings woven by the women of
the Yomut Turkmen nomadic group, recently
donated to the Powerhouse Museum.
Christina Sumner manages in a relatively
short space to provide a highly informative
account of the history of the Turkmen and
their remarkable weavings.
A personal account of the region is offered by
Margaret White, a new member of TAASAs
Management Committee (see p25 for her
profile). In Travellers Choice, she describes
her experiences while on a study tour of
Turkmenistan with Friends of the Museums,
Singapore in 2011, highlighting their visit
to the late Bronze age archaeological site of
Gonur Depe.
To vary the diet, this issue offers a number of
articles on completely different topics. Chiaki
Ajiokas article, Colour Woodcut International
on modern printmaking in Japan and the
west, is a thoughtful follow up of the lecture
she gave at the joint AGNSW/TAASA Made
in Japan symposium on 4 August, held in
association with the AGNSWs exhibition
Kamisaka Sekka: dawn of modern Japanese design.
To cater for our many ceramics enthusiasts,
Philip Courtenay has written a piece on Thai
bencharong wares, which, as he points out,
are perhaps less well known than the historic
ceramics of central and northern Thailand.
These colourful and elaborately decorated
ceramics, somewhat akin to Chinese export
ware, were produced primarily for utilitarian
purposes. They are most likely to have been
introduced in the late 16th or early 17th
centuries, manufactured at the Jingdezhen
kilns in China according to Thai requirements.
Finally, Judith Rutherford lends her deep
expertise to a review of a very handsome
new publication Chinese Silks, issue by Yale
University Press.
By the time this December issue is distributed,
many TAASA members will have enjoyed our
end of year Party held this year at Sydneys
Gallery 4A. Best wishes for the festive season
from TAASA!
3

B I N G Z H O U : G AT E W A Y TO T H E S P L E N DID TA N G
Yin Cao
Persian silver coins, 2nd half of 5th century. 19.5 23.2 mm (D). Discovered in Datong, Shanxi Province.
Collection of the County Bureau of Relics. Image courtesy Shanxi Museum.

rchaeological evidence of contacts

between people who lived in China and
the vast regions to its west can be traced as
far back as 2000BCE. Scholars have reached
consensus that bronze knives and swords,
turquoise and glass products found at sites
dating back to the ancient Shang (c.1500
1050BCE) and Zhou (c.1050 475BCE)
dynasties were influenced from the west,
either from central or west Asia.

In return, it is believed that by the 2nd century

BCE, Chinese silk had already reached the
Mediterranean, and the Romans mention the
Seres or silk people in remote east Asia in
their historical records.
These early exchanges of goods between
east and west may have happened as
simple commodity exchanges. However, by
138BCE, the year when Emperor Wudi of the
Western Han dynasty (206 BCE 8CE) sent
envoy Zhang Qian, we start to have official
recognition of the importance of exploring the
western region (Xiyu). From this period, we
see the rapid development of the Silk Road.
For the two millennia since, the Silk Road
- or rather roads - was the major highway
connecting China and the west, helping the
movement of commodities, technologies,
religions and cultures among communities
settling along it. Changan, near present day
Xian, was the site of the capitals of both the
Han and Tang dynasties. As a result, it has
generally been considered to be the eastern
terminus of the great route.
In reality, during the many hundreds of years
stretching between the two unified empires
of the Han and Tang, the Silk Road had its
eastern end further to the northeast. That
terminus was in fact in Bingzhou, the ancient
name of modern-day Shanxi province.
Located along the middle reaches of the
Yellow River in northern China, Bingzhou
became a thriving hub for merchants from
central and western Asia to settle and enjoy
its opportunities.
Inside Bingzhou, Pingcheng (present-day
Datong), the first capital city of the Northern
Wei dynasty (386-534), was once the most
famous city at the eastern end of the Silk Road.
Jinyang (present day Taiyuan) was also a very
important political and military centre for the
Eastern Wei (534-550), Northern Qi (550-577)

and Northern Zhou (557-581), all dynasties

that encouraged foreign contacts to the west.
While the Silk Road reached its zenith during
the Tang dynasty (618-906), its significance
did not emerge overnight. Instead, its rise was
the result of intensive interactions between the
east and the west regions of Eurasia during
the prior Northern dynasties. Archaeological
discoveries in Shanxi Province, particularly
in Datong and Taiyuan, indicate that there
were many people from central and western
Asia travelling to Bingzhou and residing
there during the Northern dynasties period
between the 4th and 6th centuries. Indeed,
it is not farfetched to claim that Pingcheng
was the east terminus of the Silk Road during
the Northern Wei dynasty until 494 before
Emperor Xiao Wendi moved his capital to
Luoyang, Henan Province.
Almost 15 centuries later, in 1988, a farmer
accidently unearthed a silk pocket filled with
49 silver coins on the Great Wall near Datong.
On one side of each coin is the profile portrait
of a Persian Emperor wearing a crown of the
Sun and Moon; on the other side is a fire altar
and two priests. The smooth edges of the silver
coins suggest that they had been frequently
used before being buried. Detailed research
into the motifs and inscriptions on the coins
suggest that they were made between 457-484,
during the reign of Peroz in Persia, but were
first buried between 489-499, when Emperor
Xiao Wendi of the Northern Wei dynasty
moved his capital from Pingcheng to Luoyang.

Studies of the Northern Wei dynasty established by the nomadic Tuoba tribe of
the Xianbei - indicate that the ruling class
encouraged commerce from central Asia.
Their favourable trade policies may have been
due to shared cultures and customs. During
the era when Pingcheng served as the capital
of the Northern Wei dynasty, merchants from
as far as Rome, Persia and Sogdia gathered
there, making it one of the most cosmopolitan
cities. The Northern Wei government also
established a direct diplomatic relationship
with Persia in order to promote trade between
the two countries. According to Wei Shu
(the historical record of the Wei dynasty),
during the Peroz period between 457 494,
four envoys were sent to Pingcheng, and
the Northern Wei sent envoys to Persia to
exchange goods and develop ties.
Research also shows that the Northern Wei
dynasty did not produce its own currency.
Rather it relied on merchandise, such as silk
textiles, and currency from either previous
dynasties or foreign ones. Persian Sasanian
silver coins were also popular among
merchants in the Central Asian communities,
such as the Sogdians and the Turks, who
might have been responsible for bringing
them to Pingcheng. Similar coins of the
Peroz period have been found along the Silk
Road in the modern-day regions of Shaanxi,
Hebei and Inner Mongolia. Discovered by the
builders of the Ming Great Wall, they were
reburied for reasons that have been lost to
time, resurfacing only in 1988.

TA A S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 2 1 N O. 4

A silver plate bearing the design of a man

holding a sword while hunting wild boar
among tall reeds was found in the tomb
of Feng Hetu in 1981. It is believed to be
evidence of a princely Sasanian presence in
the East. Similar hunters wearing headdresses
have been found on other silver plates and in
stone carvings dating between the end of the
3rd and early 4th centuries. The person who
commissioned this piece might have been an
early Sasanian prince-governor of a region on
the eastern borders of Iran (Harper 1990).
The iconographic representation of some
particular epic or heroic feat, such as the
scene depicted here, is believed to have
come from Greece. It may have been brought
east by Greek artisans taken to Bactria by
the conquests of Alexander the Great in the
4th century BCE. One theory has placed its
manufacturing site in present day northern
Afghanistan or southern Turkmenistan, after
another silver plate with similar designs
appeared in a Kabul market in the 1980s.
Feng Hetu, the final ancient owner of this
plate was a commandant of a Northern Wei
garrison cavalry, who had many opportunities
for contacting western central Asia during

his mission to seek the most-prized horses for

the Emperor.
In addition to trade, historical records
mention that many performers and musicians
from central Asia travelled to Pingcheng
to provide entertainment for the populace.
Illustrated is a group of nine figurines
performing acrobatics. Seven male adults all
wear round caps, black boots and red long
robes with floral patterns and appear to have
deep-set eyes and prominent noses, typical of
non-Chinese. They seem intensely engaged
in group activity, one clapping, one playing
flute, one singing, one balancing a pole on his
forehead on which are two smaller figurines
doing acrobatic poses. Mural paintings
depicting similar performances have also been
found in Northern Wei tombs, suggesting the
popularity of this activity at the time.
In 1999 an extraordinary white marble
sarcophagus, unlike any previous discovery,
was excavated in Taiyuan, now the capital
of Shanxi province. As noted, the city was
known as Jinyang during the Northern
dynasties, and especially during the Northern
Qi dynasty, it became a centre where many

central Asians resided, since the Northern Qi

rulers spent most of their time here rather in
the capital of Yecheng in Hebei Province.
Although the name Yu Hong and the origin of
people known by this name are something of a
mystery, Yus epitaph leads scholars to believe
he came from a community of Turkic-speakers
in central Asia. Yu began his diplomatic career
as early as his teen years in central and west
Asia, and was dispatched to Chinas Northern
Qi dynasty in the mid-6th century.
From afar, the sarcophagus looks like the
model of a typical Chinese building with a
large roof. Closer inspection of the crisply
detailed scenes of banquets, entertainment,
and hunting, reveal the figures, carved or
painted both on the interior and the exterior
of all four sides of the stone structure, to
have deep-set eyes and prominent noses. In
other words, they are not so Han Chineselike. In fact, the origins of the iconography
and themes on the sarcophagus are Sogdian
from central Asia, and Persian from western
Asia. Reinforcing this finding is an absence
of dragons but an abundance of camels, lions
and elephants. And, in a very rare appearance

Sogdian Acrobats, Late 5th century, Northern Wei dynasty. Painted terra cotta. H (max.):26cm. Unearthed from Datong, Shanxi Province.
Collection of the Datong Museum. Image courtesy Shanxi Museum.

TA A S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 2 1 N O. 4

Plate with hunting scene, Late 3rd or early 4th centry. Gilt silver. 18cm (D), 5.5cm (H), Tomb of Feng Hetu (dated 504), Datong, Shanxi Province.
Collection of the Datong Museum on permanent loan to the Shanxi Museum. Image courtesy Shanxi Museum.

for 6th century Chinese art, one finds heavenly

Zoroastrian priests half-men and half-birds
flanking a fire altar, as seen in the centre of
a base panel.
On two registers of the central panel of the
sarcophagus [see front cover of this issue] is
depicted the Hu Teng dance, while two humans
are in breathtaking combat with two lions. The
Hu Teng dance is a famous dance introduced
to China from central Asia, probably by
Sogdians. It became very popular during the
Tang dynasty, and inspired many famous
poems, including Liu Yanshis Wang Zhong
Cheng Zhai Ye Guan Wu Hu Teng (Watching the
Hu Teng dance at night in Wang Zhongchengs
house), and Li Duans Hu Teng Er (The Hu Teng
dancer). In these poems, the Hu Teng dancer is
described as a male from the west who dances
with music played with Pi Pa and flute on
a small piece of rug. The name of this kind
of dance vividly describes its movement as
jumping and rising (Teng), while the word Hu
generally means foreign in ancient China.

At the demise of the short lived Sui dynasty

in 618, it was in Jinyang that the founder of
the splendid Tang dynasty, the father and
son of the Li family - Emperor Gaozu Li Yuan
and Emperor Taizong Li Shimin - launched
their army. They defeated the Sui and set
up an empire that ruled China for nearly
three centuries. The sole female empress in
Chinese history, Empress Wu Zetian, who
wielded imperial power for 21 years was
also a native of Shanxi. One cannot deny
that the great prosperity of the Tang dynasty
benefited tremendously from the open
atmosphere created by the exchange between
east and west during the Northern dynasties.
And Bingzhou served as the gateway to this
cosmopolitan era in medieval China.

REFERENCES
Harper, Prudence O. 1990. An Iranian Silver Vessel from the Tomb
of Feng Hetu, Bulletin of the Asia Institute, no.4:51-59
Su Bai, 2012. Kaogu Faxian yu Zhongxi Wenhua Jiaoliu
(Archaeological discoveries and the cultural exchanges between
China and the west), Wenwu Press, Beijing
Watt, James C. Y. 2004. China: Dawn of a Golden Age, 200-750,
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Yale University Press, New Haven
and London
Wood, Frances. 2002. The Silk Road: two thousand years in the
heart of Asia, University of California Press, Berkeley and Los
Angeles, California
Zhang Qingjie. 2010. Beiwei Pingcheng Bosi Yinpi yu Sichouzhilu
de jige wenti, pp.228-241, Minzu Huiju yu Wenming Hudong
Beichao Shehui de kaoguxue Guancha, Shangwu Publishing House,
Beijing
Hushang, Hutengwu yu Ruhua Zhongyaren Jiedu Yuhong Mu
(Hu businessman, Huteng dance and the Central Asians in Chinainterpreting Yuhongs tomb), 2010, Beiyue Wenyi Publishing House,
Taiyuan, Shanxi Province

Yin Cao is Curator of Chinese Art at the Art Gallery

of New South Wales. Objects from 6th century
burial sites in Shanxi Province will be presented
in an exhibition The Silk Road Saga the Yu Hong
Sarcophagus, curated by Yin Cao, which will open at
the AGNSW on 22 August 2013.

TA A S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 2 1 N O. 4

M O N U M E N TAL S TO N E S C U L P T U R E S O F T H E C E N TRAL - E A S T E R N S T E P P E S
Lyndon A. Arden-Wong

THE AUTHOR WITH A BRONZE AGE DEER STONE IN THE ORKHON

VALLEY, KHOTONT SOUM, ARKHANGAI AIMAG, MONGOLIA, 2009.

f the numerous Trkic monuments of the

central-eastern Eurasian steppes dating
from the mid 6th to mid 8th centuries CE,
none are as poignant or as wide-spread as its
stone sculptures.
Earlier stone monuments on the Mongolian
plateau can be dated from the late Bronze
Age to Early Iron Age (c.1000-500 BCE). These
deer stones, covered with stylised images
of recumbent deer with bird like heads and
exaggeratedly large antlers (Jacobson 1993),
evoke strong cultic imagery and impart
important historical data concerning the early
nomads. They demonstrate the technical gifts
of Bronze Age sculptors whilst also revealing
some recognizably canonical forms of the
deer cult throughout the region.
It has been generally accepted that these
Bronze Age Mongolian and Trans Baikal
deer stones are anthropomorphic: they
represent stylised warriors, based on detailed
depictions of belts, weapons and tools. They
were also intended to represent specific
individuals (Fitzhugh 2009). Studies have
suggested that the deer-birds represent
magical tattoos of warriors, comparable to
those which have been preserved on the skin
of contemporaneous mummies from the Altai
region (Jettmar 1994). Deer stones are often
associated with khirigsuurs stone mounds
that usually contain human remains within

shallow pits or stone slab chambers and thus

carry meanings related to funerary cults
(Fitzhugh 2009: 189).
Monumental stone sculptures disappear
from the archaeological record in the Altai
Mountains and Mongolian plateau until the
Trkic period. In the 550s the Trks rapidly
expanded through this region as far west as
the Black Sea, where they established formal
ties with the Byzantine and Sassanid Empires.
In the east they became involved in SuiGoguryeo affairs.
After 581, the Khaganate formally split into
Eastern and Western independent polities. The
Western Trks based themselves in Ak Beshim/
Suyab in the Chu Valley of modern Kyrgyzstan
and the Eastern Turks centred themselves in the
sacred tken region, focussed on the Orkhon
Valley of Mongolia. The Tang Dynasty of China
(618-907) became overlords of the Eastern Trks
in 630 and the Western Trks in 657. These new
political and cultural spheres allowed new
influences particularly Sogdian and Chinese.
The resurgence of the Second Trkic Khaganate
(680-742) - also centred in the Orkhon Valley and the sustained cultural and political power
of the splintered Trkic polities in Central Asia
allowed them to leave their cultural fingerprint
in these wide ranging regions. The most
widespread and recognisable monuments of the
ancient Trks are their anthropomorphic stones.

Due to the stone figures striking and

enigmatic prominence in the landscape, early
Russian Central Asian scholars were quick
to study them and in the past 50-60 years
a number of regional studies of the stone
sculptures have yielded important results.
Despite documenting several hundred stone
sculptures, scholars consistently note that
there are still many more to be studied.
Whilst scholarship has since advanced, many
still refer to Ya.A. Shers 1966 Trkic stone
statue typology. Sher devised six main types
of Trkic stone statues (Sher 1966: 26):
1. Male with vessel in right hand, with
weapons (the statistically largest group).
2. Male and indeterminate gender sculptures
with vessel in right hand, but without
weapons.
3. Sculptures depicting only the face or head,
usually male.
4. Sculptures with a bird, sometimes
replacing the vessel in the right hand.
5. Male statues holding vessel in both hands
in front of the abdomen, usually without
weapons. Clothing not usually shown.
6. Female figures holding vessel in both
hands, similar to 5. The majority located in
the Semirechye region.
Sher noted that types 1-4 can be grouped into
an earlier chronological sequence than types
5-6, forming two basic groups: holding the
vessel and/or bird in one hand or with two.
Even further breakdown of these types can

a) SHERS SIX CATEGORY TYPOLOGY AND b) SHERS CHRONOLOGICAL DISTINCTION OF THE TWO GROUPS
AFTER: SHER, YA.A. 1966 P. 27, FIG. 14 AND P. 45, FIG. 15

TA A S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 2 1 N O. 4

THE XIAO HONGNAHAI ANTHROPOMORPHIC STONE SCULPTURE. 183CM (H) (ABOVE GROUND), 50CM (W), C. EARLY 7TH CENTURY. AFTER: STARK 2008, P. 469, FIG. 3 C)-E)

be made in terms of facial characteristics,

attire, shape and size of the figure, hair styles
(if depicted), facial characteristics, items
carried on the belt, the type of vessel held,
and so on. Some also carry inscriptions. Many
Trkic stone sculptures only appear to show
schematic clothing with little detail, however
scholars have argued that at least some were
painted and may have had other details
added to them such as real hair and clothing
(Ermolenko 2004: 238 and 2008: 126-8).
Like the deer stones, Trkic anthropomorphic
stones were associated with funerary or
commemoration cults probably relating to the
upper strata of Trkic society. The figures were
almost always eastward facing and associated
with funerary structures and/or were contained
within stone square fences of their own (usually
four slabs of stone forming a rectangle around
the base of the sculpture). In addition, some
of these monuments have a line of stones
(sometimes kilometres long) placed to the east of
the main cult stone with the stone fence, referred
to as Balbals, although the main cultic stone
is often referred to as a Balbal as well. Some
contain no inscription, nor anthropomorphic

detailing. Styles may also differ even if they

are located within the same funerary complex.
In rare cases, deer stones were recycled by the
Trks and carved into their anthropomorphic
types (Ozheredov 2009).
It has been argued that the vessel-holding
postures carry ritualistic symbolism. Whilst
varying interpretations of this gesture
exist, Yu. Ozheradov contends that this
represents the figure presenting or receiving
a commemoration drink, and likens it to the
modern Mongolian hosting custom (2009:
261). Therefore the main cultic stone and the
associated balbals possibly represent a ritual
of sacral libation.
The earliest dated anthropomorphic sculpture
derives from the Xiao Hongnahai region in
Zhaosu county, Xinjiang. Although the granite
figure was not carved with absolute realism,
the features are clear enough to give the object
schematic boldness and authority (Stark 2009).
The face, although partially damaged, shows
remains of a moustache. On its rear is belowwaist-long braided hair. The head carries an
ornamented headband and around the waist is

a belt. The figure holds a goblet in front of its

right breast. Its left hand is posed as if clutching
the hilt of a dagger or sword. It is possible
that the pommel is showing, but the blade
is missing if there was a weapon depicted.
Therefore this figure is allocated to Shers type
two, but could possibly belong to type one.

The Xiao Hongnahai figure has attracted
much scholarly attention. Buddhist pilgrim
Xuanzang encountered long haired Trkic
elites (Li Rongxi 1995:42) and artistic
depictions of Trks such as on a mural from
the hall of the ambassadors in Samarkand and
on the Sogdian Miho couch provide evidence
to support descriptions of early Trks as
wearing long braided hair and possibly
headbands (Stark 2009).
The sculpture has also attracted attention
because of the Sogdian inscription below it.
Line 15 of the inscription mentions the death
of Western Trk leader Niri Khagan (r. 587601/4), which tentatively dates it to 600-604
CE (Lin Meicun 2005). These findings support
Shers analysis that types 1 and 2 should be
attributed to the early Trkic period.

TA A S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 2 1 N O. 4

Sogdian and Central Asian influence are also

evident in other types 1 and 2 Trkic statues.
The finger positioning of the statues show a
marked resemblance to cup holding gestures
in Sogdian art (Hayashi 2006) and the wide
triangular lapels also show similarities to
other Central Asian clothing, particularly
with Kucha and Khotan (Yatsenko 2009).
Other datable stone statues are from the
walled Ksh Tsaidam complexes from the
Second Trkic Khaganate. These memorial
complexes of brothers Kl Tegin (d. 731) and

Bilge Khagan (d. 734) offer an opportunity for

the study of stone statues from the aristocracy
of the later Trkic period. They show a
different artistic flavour altogether. Although
slightly shorter than life-size, the figures
are carved to accurate proportions and the
sculptor(s) clearly aimed at providing realistic
imagery and form rather than the schematic
stone figures previously described.
According to the historical record Jiu Tang
Shu (Old Book of Tang), at the death of Kl
Tegin, the Tang emperor sent artisans to

ISAN: THAILANDS ANCIENT

KHMER CONNECTION
07 February 25 February 2013
Isan is the least visited part of Thailand. But this
north-eastern region has a distinctive identity and,
in many ways, is the Kingdoms heartland. Here
older Thai customs remain more intact and sites of
historical and archaeological significance abound. Gill
Green, President of TAASA, art historian and author;
and Darryl Collins, prominent Australian expatriate
university lecturer, museum curator, and author who
has lived and worked in Cambodia for over twenty
years, have designed and co-host this new journey
which includes spectacular Khmer temples such as
Prasat Phimai, Phanom Rung (reputed to be the
blueprint for Angkor Wat) and Prasat Meung Tam.
We cross the mighty Mekong into southern Laos to
explore Wat Phu Champasak before concluding in
Vientiane and magical Luang Prabang.
Land Only cost Bangkok - Luang Prabang
per person twinshare $4900

INSIDE BURMA: THE ESSENTIAL

EXPERIENCE
15 February 06 March 2013 and
25 October - 13 November 2013
Burma is undergoing unprecedented change and
publicity. Few people have immersed themselves as
deeply here as TAASA contributor Dr Bob Hudson.
His longstanding Burma program features extended
stays in medieval Mrauk U, capital of the lost
ancient kingdom of Arakan (now Rakhine State) and
Bagan, rivalling Angkor Wat as Southeast Asias
richest archaeological precinct. Exciting experiences
in Yangon, Inle Lake, Mandalay and a private cruise
down the mighty Ayeyarwady are also included. To
ensure quality, group size is limited to 15 travellers;
a few places are still available on both programs.
Land Only cost per person
twinshare ex Yangon $5200

MADAGASCAR: ISLE OF
BIODIVERSITY
22 May 14 June 2013
Archaeologists believe that people first arrived in
Madagascar from Indonesia and Malaya about
2000 years ago. Before this, Madagascar evolved
over millions of years in isolation. The result is a
country like no other, an incongruous mixture of
wildlife and culture with an unparalleled array of
plants and animals found nowhere else. Dr Steven
Goodman, resident since 1989, recognised expert
in Malagasy biodiversity and perhaps the countrys
finest field biologist, is our program leader.
Land Only cost per person twinshare
ex Antananarivo $6800
To register your interest, reserve a place or for
further information contact Ray Boniface

H E R I TA G E D E S T I N AT I O N S
N AT U R E B U I L D I N G S P E O P L E T R AV E L L E R S

PO Box U237
University of Wollongong NSW 2500 Australia
p: +61 2 4228 3887 m: 0409 927 129
e: heritagedest@bigpond.com
ABN 21 071 079 859 Lic No TAG1747
THE SO-CALLED HEAD OF KL TEGIN FROM KSH TSAIDAM. C. 8TH CENTURY. STONE. PHOTOGRAPH BY THE AUTHOR, 2009

TA A S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 2 1 N O. 4

ILLUSTRATION OF A POST-TRKIC (POSSIBLY UIGHUR, 8TH - 9TH CENTURY) ANTHROPOMORPHIC STONE SCULPTURE
LOCATED ON THE KHEMCHIK RIVER, TUVA . AFTER: KYZLASOV 1969, P. 80, FIG. 26.

balbals and stone fences. In addition, the Uighur

aristocracy did not employ anthropomorphic
stones in their funerary complexes. The authors
forthcoming study of the anthropomorphic
stones associated architectures will aim to throw
further light on the meaning and influences of
post Trkic sculptures.
Lyndon Arden-Wong is currently completing his PhD
with the Department of Ancient History at Macquarie
University on architectural developments of early
medieval Inner Asia and their relation to the region's
sociopolitical dynamics. One of his most significant
recent archaeological projects has been with the
German-Mongolian excavations at Karabalgasun,
Mongolia. He is President of the Macquarie Asian
Historical Research Society (MAHRS).

REFERENCES
create the memorial complexes/ancestral
temple for him. A stele was erected (the Kl
Tegin inscription of Ksh Tsaidam) and
Kl Tegins likeness was cut from stone (Jiu
Tang Shu 194a.5177).
Thus, these stone statues were commissioned
by the Tang Empire and they are almost
directly analogous with stone sculptures of
foreigners on the spirit paths (Ch. shendao)
of Tang imperial funerary complexes. The
Tang figures possibly represent foreign
ambassadors from various polities: the variety
of ethnic costumes, grooming and physical
appearance reflects the diversity and wide
political reach of the Tang.
The figures are always male and commonly
depicted standing front-on with both hands
crossed before their chest (left over right),
whilst some have their hands tucked into the
opposite sleeve in front of their chest. A few
south and/or southeast Asian figures gesture
with their palms of their hands together. The
costumes are depicted with a great deal of care
and although some carry sheathed knives or
daggers, none carry swords nor wear armour.
The Ksh Tsaidam figures show the same
attention to detail and proportion but there
are some significant differences between them
and the Tang type. The former depict varying
postures, some figures are kneeling and
perhaps there are female figures represented
(Stark 2008: 129). Despite the employment
of Tang artisans, there are signs of continued
use of the old Trkic forms. Although the
shoulders and most of the arms are missing,
the cross-legged figures from Bilge Khagans
complex seem to be holding the posture of
right arm to the chest (possibly holding a
vessel) and left arm into the lap as with Shers
group 1. Although it is apparent that the Tang
influence in the memorial complexes is strong,

10

it has been suggested that perhaps it was the

early Trkic stone sculptures that influenced
the use of stone figures in Tang funerary sites
(Zhang Jianlin 2008: 81-2).

Ermolenko L.N. 2004. Srednevekovyye kamennyye izvayaniya

kazakhstanskikh stepey (tipologiya , semantika v aspekte voyennoy
ideologii i traditsionnogo mirovozzreniya), Novosibirsk : izd- vo
IAET SO RAN.
Fitzhugh W.W. 2009. The Mongolian Deer Stone-Khirigsuur
Complex: Dating and Organization of a Late Bronze Age

The Second Trkic Khaganate was displaced

by the Uighurs, who formed their own
Khaganate (744-840). Though they initially
continued many Trkic traditions of the
steppe, the propagation of Manichaeism
from 762/763 and the changing political and
cultural orientation of the Uighurs resulted in
changes to the funerary tradition of the elite.

Menagerie in Bemmann, J., Parzinger, H., Pohl, E. and

Monumental
anthropomorphic
stone
figures continued to be produced; their most
prominent iconographical difference from
Trkic period statues is that they grasp their
vessel with both hands at their abdomen.
These later statues also face east, however
they are not associated with the use of balbals
and stone fences (Kyzlasov 1969: 80-2). It
may be that the Uighur stone statues were
not associated with funerary cults, which
indicates the transition of ritual culture
during the period (Hayashi 1996). Certainly,
no anthropomorphic stones have been found
at elite Uighur memorial sites.

Hayashi Toshio. 1996. Mongoria no ishi hito Kokuritsu Minzoku-

This article has aimed to provide a brief overview

of the monumental anthropomorphic stones
found on the central-eastern steppes, and how
their style, iconography and usage changed over
time. The Bronze Age yielded the first examples
in the Mongolian region. It was not until the
6th century that the Trkic stone figure culture
revived the use of such sculptures, which spread
into the heart of Central Asia with the Trks
rapid rise to power. Sogdian influence is evident
on the sculptures of the early Trks while those
of the Second Trkic Khagante in elite memorial
complexes show signs of political and cultural
exchange with the Tang Empire. The Uighurs
modified the ritual by abandoning the use of

Tseveendorzh, D. (eds.) Current Archaeological Research in

Mongolia, Bonn: Vor- und Frhgeschichtliche Archologie
Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universitt Bonn.
Hayashi Toshio. 2006. Sogdian Influences Seen on Turkic Stone
Statues Focusing on the Fingers Representations Eran ud Aneran,
Studies presented to Boris Ilich Marshak on the Occasion of His
70th Birthday, Transoxiania Compareti, M., Raffetta, P., Scarcia and
G., Venezia (eds.) (online edition cited on 20/9/12) http://www.
transoxiana.org/Eran/Articles/hayashi.html

gaku Hakubutsukan Kenkyu Hokoku, 21-1.

Jacobson, E. 1993. The Deer Goddess of Ancient Siberia, A Study
in the Ecology of Belief, Leiden, New York and Kln: Brill.
Jettmar, K. 1994. Body-Painting and the Roots of the ScythoSiberian Animal Style in Genito, B. (ed.), The Archaeology of the
Steppes: Methods and Strategies. Papers from the international
symposium held in Naples, 9-12 November 1992. Napoli: Istituto
Universitario Orientale, Series minor 44.
Kyzlasov, L.R. 1969. Istoriya Tuvy v sredniye veka , Moskva :
Moskovskiy Gosudarstvennyy Universitet.
Li Rongxi (trans.) [Hui Li] 1995. A Biography of the Tripitaka Master
of the Great Cien Monastery of the Great Tang Dynasty, Berkeley:
Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research.
[Liu Xu (ed.)] 1975 Jiu Tang Shu, Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju.
Ozheredov Yu.I. 2009. Drevnetyurkskiye Izvayaniya v Zavkhane
( k svodu arkheologicheskikh pamyatnikov Zapadnoy Mongolii
), Tsybiktarov, A.D., Danilov, S.V., Konovalov, P.B., Tumen, D.,
Erdenebaatar, D. (eds.) Drevniye Kultury Mongolii i Baykalskoy
Sibiri, Ulan- Ude : Izdatelstvo Buryatskogo Gosuniversiteta.
Sher, Ya. A. 1966. Kamennyye izvayaniya Semirechya, Moskva i
Lenningrad : Nauka .
Stark, S. 2009. Some Remarks on the Headgear of the Royal
Trks Journal of Inner Asian Art and Archaeology, Vol. 4.
Stark, S. 2008. Die Alttrkenzeit in Mittel- und Zentralasien,
archologische und historische Studien, Wiesbaden: Reichert Verlag.
Yatsenko, S.A. 2009. Early Turks: Male Costume in the Chinese Art,
Second half of the 6th first half of the 8th c. (Images of Others)
Transoxiana Vol. 14 (online edition cited on 20/9/12) http://www.
transoxiana.org/14/yatsenko_turk_costume_chinese_art.html
Zhang Jianlin 2008. Yaodao yu fa bian - tang ling lingyuan shike
fan qiu xiang zhong di tu jue ren xingxiang Wang Shuanghuai, Fan
Yingfeng (eds.) Qianling wenhua yanjiu Vol. 4, Xian: Sanzou chuban.

TA A S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 2 1 N O. 4

A L E X A N D E R T H E G R E A T: 2 0 0 0 Y E A R S O F T R E A S U R E S AT T H E A U S TRALIA N M U S E U M
Elizabeth Cowell
PLAQUE DEPICTING A VULTURE ATTACKING A GOAT, SCYTHIA (SIBERIA, RUSSIA), 4TH 3RD CENTURY BCE, GOLD,
THE STATE HERMITAGE, ST PETERSBURG 2012

fter three and a half years of planning and

negotiations, the Australian Museum in
Sydney is presenting Alexander the Great: 2000
years of treasures from late November 2012
until the end of April 2013. This exhibition
features the largest collection of treasures ever
to come to Australia from the world famous
State Hermitage in St Petersburg Russia.
It was first shown in St Petersburg in 2007.

In 2010, I was privileged to travel overseas

to see this exhibition at the Hermitage,
Amsterdam, where it was again on show.
Here the Dutch, together with the Russians,
had produced a beautiful fine art exhibition,
exquisitely displayed over 2000 square
metres on two floors large by anyones
calculations! It was called The Immortal
Alexander the Great: The Myth, The Reality,
His Journey, His Legacy and the majority of
the works fell into the last section
Alexanders legacy.
Very fortunately we are bringing out the
majority of this exhibition to Australia over
400 objects. Some objects, such as the black
basalt statue of Cleopatra VII (dated 5130BCE) and the 3rd century BCE Gonzaga
cameo portrait of Ptolemy II Philadelphus
and Arsinoe II Alexandria, are signature
pieces of the State Hermitage which people
from all over the world travel to see.
The exhibition in Amsterdam was displayed
with minimalist interpretation using short
text and an interactive map - while the objects
were presented in a series of fine art displays.
We, however, wanted to find out more about
the man himself what made him a great
leader and tactician, and a ruthless, singleminded and, at times, compassionate man.
The Australian Museum, then, is providing
more information, using a strong narrative
supported by interactive components.
The exhibition itself is divided loosely into
seven areas, each introduced with the words
of an ancient or modern historian.
The first two areas look at Alexander as a
man and how he achieved such mythic status.
Visitors will see finely detailed 17th century
engravings illustrating Alexanders heroic
deeds, based on famous paintings by Charles
Le Brun, now in the Louvre, that encapsulate
the epic stories of Alexander as told and retold in later centuries.

TA A S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 2 1 N O. 4

Alexanders world, his family, his teachers, his

heroes (such as Achilles and Heracles), are then
further explored. Highlights of the exhibition
include the marble figure of Heracles fighting
a lion from 2nd century 3rd century CE and
an impressive Roman statue of Dionysus, 2nd
century CE. Visitors can also examine some very
fine gold jewellery and armour from this early
period. To bring the era to life we introduce
more stories of Alexander, as researched by
scholars, on a touch screen nearby.
The central part of the exhibition features
Alexanders Eastern Campaign an
unparalleled journey of conquest lasting over
ten years with an army that was almost 50,000
strong. Objects from Egypt and Persia, from
the nomads and the Babylonians attest to the
rich cultures that he encountered on his travels.
We have endeavoured to give a more detailed
account of the many battles, hardships and
conquests of this extraordinary campaign.

Alexander was an outstanding leader and
military genius who inspired affection and

worship from his men and from many whom

he conquered. However, as the campaign
continued, stress and exhaustion took their
toll. Scholars once again bring the logistics
of war in this period to life with remarkable
stories that relate to battle tactics, still taught
in military schools today.
Alexanders conquests and city building
laid the foundation for the spread of Greek
culture and ideas an era later known as the
Hellenistic period which ended when Egypt
fell to the Romans in 30 BCE. This Greek
influence can be seen in art and architecture,
language, religion, government and economics
and in the spread of luxury items and trade.
Many of the objects on display portray this
great legacy from the appealing terracotta
figurines depicting men and women, gods
and satyrs, musicians and Eros, to the stone
fragments of architecture that all testify to its
artistic wealth. An interactive touch table will
demonstrate the influence of Greek culture on
35 cities in the region through imagery, text
and video.

11

ISKANDER AND THE DYING DARIUS, MINIATURE FROM THE KHAMSE BY PERSIAN POET NIZAMI GANJAVI (1141-1209). COPIED BY

DECORATED CUP, KUSTANAY DISTRICT, KAZAKHSTAN, 4TH CENTURY

HASAN AL-HUSSEINI AL-KHATIB ASH-SHIRAZI IN 1541. PAPER, GOUACHE, GOLD. THE STATE HERMITAGE, ST PETERSBURG 2012

CE, SILVER, THE STATE HERMITAGE, ST PETERSBURG 2012

became familiar with during Medieval and

Renaissance times when his exploits were
mythologised. Many scenes of Alexanders
compassion were reproduced again and
again on plates, tapestries, engravings and
paintings. His heroic deeds were captured
as was his engagement with philosophers
and friends. These stories are portrayed in
the great range of objects loaned by the State
Hermitage.
Alexander first appeared in Russian art
and literature around the 11th century and
continued to penetrate Russian culture in
later periods. Catherine the Great, 18th
Empress of Russia and founder of the State
Hermitage, was fascinated by Alexander
and, like many other rulers of the time, wore
images of him. She also regarded him as an
important role model for her two grandsons,
Alexander and Constantine, and certainly one
of the highlights near the conclusion of this
exhibition is the magnificent portrait of Grand
Dukes Alexander and Constantine painted by
Richard Brompton in 1781.

The final section of the exhibition brings
Alexander into the 21st century. Although
not as well known today as in the past, he is
part of our modern culture and can be seen
on YouTube, in epic movies and is referred to
by numerous writers, artists and musicians.
Exclusive to Sydney, this exhibition is being
presented at the Australian Museum with
a full program of lectures, workshops and
evening, weekend and holiday programs
before returning to Russia in May 2013.
Alexanders legacy was extended by the
Romans who held him in high regard. His
image and myths were reworked and, by the
end of the Roman period, Byzantine or Eastern
Roman emperors regarded themselves as
successors of Alexander, appropriating
his iconography to suit their needs. In
this exhibition, Greco-Roman influence is
demonstrated by imposing funerary reliefs
from Palmyra and silver and bronze ware

12

from the Byzantine period. It is also seen in

the delicate textiles from Coptic Egypt where
Alexanders legend was preserved and
reinterpreted in Early Christian art.
Alexanders fame spread in later times,
advanced by the popular fictional work,
the Alexander Romance, the earliest version
of which was written in Greek in the 3rd
century. This was the Alexander that people

The exhibition has been curated by Dr Anna

Trofimova, Head of the Department of Classical
Antiquities at the State Hermitage in St Petersburg.
She was assisted by a large team of collection
specialists from nine of their departments.
Elizabeth Cowell is Exhibition Project Manager, Public
Engagement at the Australian Museum.

TA A S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 2 1 N O. 4

B E N C H A R O N G T H AILA N D ' S F I V E - C OLO U R C E RA M I C S

Philip Courtenay
PORCELAIN COVERED BOWL WITH METAL RIM, MADE IN CHINA (KILN UNKNOWN) FOR THE THAI MARKET, EARLY 19TH CENTURY,
MOST LIKELY RAMA II PERIOD (1809-1824), 18CMS (D) X 12CMS (H). COLLECTION OF PAUL BROMBERG

ompared with historic Thai ceramics,

such as those from central and northern
Thailand, or with the even better known
Chinese export wares, Thailands historic
bencharong wares are practically unknown
outside the country itself and are rarely on
public view.

Although substantial collections, mainly in

storage, in two museums in Oslo, Norway,
have been brought recently to the attention
of a wider audience (Bromberg & Hbu
2011) and small numbers of items are held
in museums in Sydney, London and Los
Angeles as well as in the National Museum
and some private collections in Thailand
(Robinson 1982), the only comprehensive
publicly accessible collection is held in Jim
Thompsons House on the Klong in Bangkok
(Warren and Blake 1968; Rooney 2003).
This limited exposure is surprising given
the growing domestic popularity of these
distinctive ceramics and their increasing
employment as gift-wares especially during
the Thai new year. However, there is a recent
surge of publications and increasing interest
among collectors and researchers of Asian
ceramics and a public exhibition of the Oslo
collections is planned for 2013.
The term bencharong refers to a class of
colourful porcelain, or occasionally stoneware,
ceramics that occur in a variety of shapes
similar to those of Chinese export wares.
They were produced primarily for utilitarian
purposes and their forms are consequently
simple with gentle contours. The most
common items are covered and uncovered
bowls, jars of different sizes, plates, stem or
pedestal plates, spittoons, spoons, teapots and
tea sets. Their exterior surfaces are completely
covered with design motifs; the interiors are
painted and decorated less elaborately. The
colour combinations, especially of red, yellow,
black, white and green in the earlier wares,
gave rise to their descriptive name from the
Sanskrit panch and rong five colours
though other colours, including pink, purple
and blue, were added in later pieces.
Evidence for dating the origins of bencharong
wares is scarce. There are virtually no written
records recording their first introduction and
the large majority have no marks to help
identify their age. However, evidence from
marks on some pieces and discoveries of
bencharong fragments in the ruins of the old

TA A S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 2 1 N O. 4

Thai capital of Ayutthaya where sherds were

used as mosaic pieces on temple decoration,
together with comparisons made with datable
Chinese porcelains, have led to the belief that
the wares were probably first introduced in the
late 16th or early 17th centuries and became
popular in the royal court of Ayutthaya.
Most extant pieces are from the late 18th and,
particularly, the 19th century when they came
to be widely used by the Bangkok elite. One
fairly certain date is 1730 when famille rose was
perfected in China, so bencharong with pink
colour cannot be earlier. The late 18th to the
early 20th century is generally recognised as
a reasonable range of dates for the production
of classical bencharong ceramics.
There are some differences of opinion over
the location of the production of classical
bencharong wares, notably of the enamelling
which has been a subject of century-long
debate. As with their dating, no written record
has been found. It is generally agreed, with
slight differences of opinion, that the wares
were made in China at the Jingdezhen kilns
according to Thai requirements as to colours,
motifs and arrangements of the pattern and
were produced in several stages. Under the
supervision of Thai craftsmen, they were
made by Chinese potters who followed local
production and firing techniques.

Between the late 18th and early 19th centuries,

the Thai court was the exclusive patron of
bencharong. However, by the mid-19th century
the clientele had expanded and the wares
became a luxury commodity for those in the
service of the court and wealthy merchants
who ordered them for their personal use.
Later, inferior wares were produced and,
although neither as well made nor as finely
executed as those made for royalty, they
continued to follow traditional taste in design.
Ceramics known as Lai Nam Thong wares,
which were imported from China, usually as
customised special orders for the Thai court,
are closely related to the bencharong wares, both
in the type of porcelain used as well as in their
shapes, decorative patterns and uses. Lai Nam
Thong ceramics became particularly popular
during the reign of Rama II (1809-1824) and
most pieces date from the 19th century. The
wares are distinguished, however, by the use
of gold either in the background of the design
or as part of the decorative pattern itself. The
gold was employed in conjunction with the
enamels and added to the piece before, after
or at the same time as the enamels.
The classical design motifs were based on
flora, mythical animals and deities drawn
from Buddhism, the Ramakien Thailands

13

PORCELAIN STEM TRAY, MADE IN CHINA (KILN UNKNOWN) FOR THE THAI MARKET, EARLY 19TH CENTURY, MOST LIKELY RAMA II PERIOD (1809-1824), 21.5 CMS (D) X 10 CMS (H). COLLECTION OF PAUL BROMBERG

national epic derived from the Indian Ramayana

and various folk tales and legends.

with the wings of a bird and a leaf-like tail;

a Thepanom, a celestial being usually depicted
in a worshipping posture, and a Thewada,
a celestial being typically depicted in a
seated position with outstretched arms. The
Thepanom and Norasingh motifs are the most
common designs on bencharong.

bencharong pieces survived attrition by war,

looting, weather and treasure hunters.

Floral designs utilise a range of tropical

Southeast Asian leaves and flowers and,
although some items are decorated almost
exclusively with flora, stylised plant forms are
more commonly employed as background or
frames for deities, animals or birds. A flamelike leaf pattern symbolic of the unbound
flame of Buddhism appears frequently as do
scrolls of tropical leaves, the lotus flower, and
patterns of twisted stems.

The style and designs of classical bencharong

wares - as distinct from their modern marketoriented replicas - vary approximately with the
reigns of successive monarchs with substantial
overlaps but slightly different datings.

Following Ayutthyas destruction, the royal

capital was moved for a short period (176782) to the then important garrison town of
Thon Buri on the right bank of the Chao
Phraya river. However its site was limited
and threatened by erosion. On the decision
of Rama I, the first monarch of the Chakri
Dynasty (r. 1782 to 1809), the capital was
moved to Bangkok in the first year of his
sovereignty.

Mythical creatures who inhabit the legendary

Himmapan forest, said to be in the Himalayas
on the slopes of the fabled Mt Meru, mingle
with deities and combined animal or part
animal and part human creatures in the
designs. The most common beings include:
Hanuman, chief of the monkey army; a
Garuda, a mythical creature with a human
body and birdlike wings, legs and a thick
curved beak; a Norasingh, a semi-deity with
a human head, torso and arms combined
with the hind-quarters of a lion and the tail
and hoofs of a deer; a Singh, a mythical lion

During the later part of the Ayutthaya

kingdom (1665-1767) when the seat of Thai
power was still based on the historic capital
before its destruction by the Burmese army,
bowls and covered jars, tiered jars and stem
plates were the most fashionable forms. The
most popular ornamentation incorporated
Thepanom with Norasingh and Thepanom with
Garuda separated by a fire pattern on a black
background pre-coated with green. Interiors
usually were an opaque green with a floral
border design and overlapping lotus on the
bottom. However few genuine late Ayutthaya

During the reign of Rama I, the patterns of

the Ayutthya eras bencharong wares were
preserved by sending surviving pieces to
China for copying. Such wares included
covered jars, tiered jars and a particular
type of covered bowl. Interior white glazes
on the copies replaced the greens of the
earlier pieces. Although earlier designs,
such as the Norasingh, Garuda and Thepanom
were retained, many new designs appeared
including Hanuman, Kinnari (a half-bird, halfwoman denizen of the Himmapan forest) and
Singhakala (lion face).

14

TA A S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 2 1 N O. 4

PORCELAIN LIME POT, MADE IN CHINA (KILN UNKNOWN) FOR THE THAI MARKET, MID 19TH CENTURY,
MOST LIKELY RAMA III PERIOD (1824-1851), 5.5 CMS (D) X 6 CMS (H). COLLECTION OF PAUL BROMBERG

Some expert opinion suggests that the most

beautiful designs made by Chinese potters
appeared during the reign of Rama II (180924). They comprised a range of forms including
ewers, plates, bowls, covered jars, spittoons,
covered bowls and cosmetic or medicine jars.
The vessels were popularly embellished with
lotus-petal space designs both on lids and
their bodies. In the reign of Rama III (1824-51),
vessels initially became faceted in shape, with
decoration painted on each panel. Designs
were of flowers and plants with groups of
birds on a white background.
Many designs of Lai Nam Thong wares, which
were especially popular in the reign of Rama
II, have been described as the most attractive
of the Sino-Thai production. A large range were
used in this period and varied from traditional
to innovations composed of birds, butterflies
searching for nectar, and a Chinese flower
design of a peony with small birds and squirrels.
The classical period of both bencharong and
Lai Nam Thong wares ended in the mid-19th
century.
During the 1851-1868 reign of Rama IV, the 1855
Bowring Treaty, signed between Thailand and
the United Kingdom, opened up trade between
the two countries to be followed by other
similar bilateral treaties with foreign powers.
One consequence of this trade liberalisation
was the import of European, blue-and-white
Chinese and Japanese pottery into Thailand
that resulted in a decline in the popularity of
bencharong and Lai Nam Thong wares.
In the last half of the 19th century some small
scale efforts were made to overglaze blank
or blue-and-white Chinese wares in the
bencharong style and a few coarse pieces were
even made entirely in Thailand. However
locally produced items could not compete in
price, quality or taste with imported ceramics
(Shaw, 1987) and the production of bencharong
had effectively ended by the first years of the
20th century.
In recent years there has been a substantial
expansion in the market for bencharong wares.
Items, including faithful reproductions of
traditional styles, are now being made to
order for gifts and souvenirs, with specialist
and online shops (eg Boonyarat, 2010) offering
a wide range of pieces. Customised pieces
can be ordered with personalised messages
on individual wares. Occasional traditional
pieces may be offered for sale, though aged
pieces are increasingly difficult to source.

stamps in Thailand, one of which, showing a

pair of covered bowls, won the second prize
in the stamp contest at the World Philatelic
Exhibition in Vienna, Austria, in 1981.

REFERENCES

The contemporary interest in bencharong

wares has been further promoted by the
organisation of venues for tourists to
experience their manufacture and decoration
at first hand. In August 2010 the Tourism
Authority of Thailand launched an event
which included an exhibition of bencharong
porcelain, a demonstration of its production
and a sale of various bencharong pieces.

Bencharong in Arts of Asia, vol 41, no.2, pp 131-139

Boonyarat Benjarong shop, http://www.benjarong.net/index.php

Bromberg, Paul.2010. A Passion for Bencharong, in Arts of Asia,
vol 40, no.3, pp 149-157
Bromberg, Paul and Anne Hbu. 2011. The Ring Collection of

Rooney, Dawn. 2003. Bencharong in the Jim Thompson Museum

Collection, http://rooneyarchive.net/ceramics/intro-bencharong.
html
Shaw, John C. 1987. Introducing Thai Ceramics also Burmese and
Khmer, Craftsman Press.
Warren, Wiliam and Brian Blake. 1968. The House on the Klong,
Tokyo, privately printed, pp 12, 53 & 68-9
Robinson, Natalie. 1982. Sino-Thai Ceramics in the National
Museum, Bangkok, Thailand and in private collections, Bangkok,
Dept of Fine Arts.

Philip Courtenay is a retired academic and occasional

Bencharong wares received national publicity

in 1980 through a special issue of postage

TA A S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 2 1 N O. 4

freelance writer, with a special interest in Southeast

Asian ceramics.

15

COLOUR WOODCUT INTERNATIONAL: MODERN PRINTMAKING IN JAPAN AND THE WEST

Chiaki Ajioka
Fisherman, 1904, colour woodcut, 16.3 x 11.0cm (image),
Yamamoto Kanae (1882-1946), Chiba City Museum of Art

There are two common ways of

studying old and foreign arts the way
of the connoisseur and the way of the
craftsman The collector may value
such arts for their strangeness and
scarcity, while the artist finds in them
stimulus in his own work and hints for
new developments.
(W.R. Lethaby, Preface to Fletcher 1916)

ethabys comment, referring to the British

artists adoption of techniques and design
principles of Japanese colour woodblock
prints, also applies to the Japanese adoption
of Western practices, whether or not it was his
intention. This article briefly investigates the
cross-cultural and parallel developments in
modern printmaking in Japan and the West:
how artists on both sides from around 1890 up
to the 1930s found stimulus and hints for new
developments in their art.
In the 1890s, some decades after the first
impact of the Japanese colour woodblock print
(ukiyo-e) in the West, details of its techniques
became available from reliable sources, and
British artists John Dickson Batten (18601932) and Frank Morley Fletcher (1866-1949)
began experimenting with the method. The
Japanese method of colour woodcut meant
to print from wood blocks in water-colours
(The Studio vol.3, 1894, 144) with the colour
applied with brush instead of roller. This
method forced artists to consider colour as

a main component of flat composition, not

subordinate to representational forms. Their
concerted effort crystalised in the production
of their first colour woodcut Eve and the
serpent in 1895: Batten provided the design
and Fletcher blockcut and printed it.
Simultaneously,
in
Boston,
American
artist Arthur Wesley Dow (1857-1922) was
producing colour woodcuts of his own. Dow
had been dissatisfied by his studies of academic
painting in France and was led to Japanese
prints in 1891 when he visited the Museum
of Fine Arts, Boston and met Ernest Fenollosa.
Fenollosa was working as the curator of
Japanese art after years of experience in Japan
as a high level art administrator and collector.
Dows study of Japanese and other Eastern
art eventually resulted in the publication of
his seminal work Composition (1899), a new
method of teaching art, built on the concept of
three elements of composition - line, mass and
colour - and richly illustrated with examples
from around the world.
In Japan, at the start of the 20th century,
the colour woodcut was produced in two
main forms: one was the dwindling but still
continuing traditional ukiyo-e, and the other
was a highly developed medium of colour
reproduction of artworks. Neither of the forms
was considered art, as a creative, original
work executed by an artist - a concept newly
introduced to Japan during the second half
of the 19th century. Yamamoto Kanae (1882-

1946), a professional wood engraver who was

studying oil painting at the Tokyo School
of Fine Arts, is generally credited to be the
first artist to turn the print into art. In 1904
Yamamoto produced a small print Fisherman.
Yamamotos friend Ishii Hakutei (1882-1958),
published it in a literary magazine Myj
for which he was the editor, describing that
Yamamoto carved the image with his knife
like drawing with a brush.
Fisherman did not appear in a vacuum. The
literary group which began publishing Myj
in 1900 was particularly keen to introduce
contemporary Western art. It was also the
time when some Western print artists began
travelling to Japan to see the production of
Japanese woodcut for themselves. The Czech
artist Emil Orlik (1870-1932) arrived in 1900
and while in Japan exhibited his woodcut,
etchings and lithographs with the White Horse
Society, a major group of Western-style artists.
The appearance of artistic prints in their
immediate environment did not go unnoticed
by Japans art circles (Kno 1998: 263-66),
and Western magazines such as The Studio,
Jugend, Simplicissimus and Cocorico, would
have reinforced the idea. In 1907 Yamamoto,
Ishii and Oda Kazuma (1882-1956), a
commercial lithographer, started a literature
and print magazine Hsun (Square inch),
thus embarking on what is now known as the
Creative Print (ssaku hanga) movement. In the
years that followed, a flurry of activity took

SMALL BAY IN BRITTANY, 1913, YAMAMOTO KANAE, COLOUR WOODCUT; 14.9 X 21.5CM (IMAGE), THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART, WAKAYAMA

16

TA A S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 2 1 N O. 4

Lumber Mills on Bellingham Bay, Elizabeth Colborne (1885-1948) 1933, colour woodcut, 11.75 x 10.5in,
Courtesy of the Whatcom County Museum, Bellingham WA

place in printmaking, which was related less

to Yamamoto and his group and more to the
information provided through publications,
exhibitions and by artists returned from the
West, such as Tomimoto Kenkichi (1884-1963).
Tomimoto had been inspired by the French
Japonisme graphic artist Henri Rivire (18641951) and the British designer/craftsman/
writer William Morris (1834-1896). In his
pursuit of the unique character of woodcut,
Tomimoto the modernist rejected the technical
refinement of ukiyo-e and executed in a nave
style of blockcutting (Nishiyama 2000: 15-21).
Apart from a small number of Western artists in
Japan, including Bernard Leach, the Creative
Prints were virtually unknown outside Japan.
On the other hand, as mentioned above,
Japanese print artists were well-informed of
Western art. In fact, like Tomimoto, the early
Creative Print artists largely took inspiration
from Western Japonisme: Yamamotos
model was the British graphic artist William
Nicholson (1872-1949), and his description of
Nicholsons woodcut is in precise agreement
with Dows insistence on the importance of
good composition:
Mr Nicholsons print format consists
purely of the masses of black and white, with
the compositionally considered decorative
lines creating their ultimate beauty. His
technique simply follows his composition as
he employs his carving skills to draw with
knife, naturally eliminating any reproductive
elements [in the process]. (Mizue 1907, in
Ono 1971: 142)
Indeed, Yamamotos Small bay in Brittany
(1913) has much in common with Dows
work such as Rain in May (1907) in their
composition and atmospheric sensitivity,
although Yamamoto shows clear advantage
in carving skills.
Dow travelled and taught his methods to
teachers and students around the US. Fletcher
also began teaching colour woodcut at the
Central School of Arts and Crafts in London
and later in Santa Barbara. The Czech artist
Emil Orlik, one of the founders of the Vienna
Workshop, taught colour woodcut in Berlin
after returning from Japan. Fletcher visited
Orlik and reported that they shared much in
common in their views of the merits of colour
woodcut (Fletcher 1916: 7-8).
Batten, Fletcher, Orlik and Dow shared the
ethos of the Arts and Crafts movement the
belief that to create a true work of art, one
should take responsibility for all the processes.
Fletcher claimed this in his Wood-block printing
(Fletcher, 5-6). Dow was equally dedicated to

TA A S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 2 1 N O. 4

the principle. Indeed, on his visit to Japan in

1903 he spoke to his Japanese audience of the
importance of the artists control (Okazaki
2003: 84-93), but this was well before Japanese
artists became concerned with the issue.
Meanwhile in 1909, British print artists
formed the Society of Graver-Printers in
Colour. Written into the Societys rules was
the principle that all works submitted to the
society must be designed, blockcut/engraved
and printed by the artist. The formation of the
Society and its rules were reported in The Studio
in 1910 by Malcolm Salaman. Salaman and
other British writers were at pains to establish,
quite rightly, that the British colour print was
not derivative of Japanese art, and stressed
the artists responsibility as the defining point:
[The] Japanese artist was never the actual
engraver or printer of his design, whereas the
English artist is the sole producer of his colourprints (Salaman 1913: 283).
These reports in The Studio could not have
been missed by Japanese print artists
emerging at the time, but no reference to
them by contemporary print artists has been
sighted to date. This was possibly because

the artists control over the whole production

was not their main concern at the time, and
in the early years some of them did not
hesitate to work with blockcutters, while
coining the word hanga to represent their
artistic prints. In contrast, in the Englishspeaking world, while artistic prints had
long been established, the word print is also
applied to wider reproductive impressions.
So there the emphasis was on colour, and
against reproductive stipple and mezzotint
engravings which reproduces designs by
others (Salaman 1912: 181).
What changed the position of the Creative
Print artists on the issue was the emergence
of the New Print (shin hanga), initiated in
1915 by Watanabe Shzabur, a publisher
of reproduction ukiyo-e prints. Working
with Western artists who came to Japan,
particularly Fritz (Friedrich) Capelari (18841950), Watanabe conceived the idea of
creating neo-ukiyo-e prints (Sawatari 1996:
242). The New Prints aimed primarily at
foreign markets, using traditional ukiyo-e
subjects beautiful women, famous places,
birds-and-flowers and kabuki actors and
engaged mostly the neo-traditional Japanese-

17

RED SUN, 1934, COLOUR WOODCUT AND HAND COLOURING AND COLLAGE, FUJIMAKI YOSHIO (1909-1935),
41.7 x 27.9CM (IMAGE), THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF MODERN ART, TOKYO

After World War II, the two colour woodcut

parallels met in a new, global environment.
Creative Prints were discovered by the
West, and as they entered the international
biennales, Western artists again studied newly
developed colour woodblock techniques from
individual artists, and information began to
flow both ways.
Please note that Japanese names in the text follow
the Japanese system: surname first.
Dr Chiaki Ajioka is an independent researcher
who is currently exploring Japan-West dialogue in
printmaking and craft. She is a recipient of a Japan
Fellowship 2013 to write on Mingei in the West.

REFERENCES
Ajioka Chiaki. HANGA. Japanese creative prints, Art Gallery of
New South Wales, Sydney
Fletcher F. Morley. 1916. Wood-block printing, John Hogg, London
Kono Minoru. 1998. Han no e kara kaiga eno hoga (From plate
pictures to painting) in Kindai Nihon hanga no shoso (Aspects of
modern Japanese prints): Chuokoron Bijutsu Shuppan, Tokyo
Nishiyama Junko. 2000. One aspect of Creative Prints: Tomimoto
Kenkichi and his influence in
Malcolm Salaman, Wood-engraving for colour in Great Britain in
The Studio vol.58, 1913
Martin, David. 2011. Evergreen muse: the art of Elizabeth
Colborne, Whatcom Museum, Bellinghan, Washington
Okazaki Akio. 2003. Arthur Wasley Dows address in Kyoto, Japan
(1903), in The Journal of Aesthetic Education vol. 37 no.4: 84-93.
Ono Tadashige. Kindai Nihon no hanga: 1971. Sansaisha, Tokyo
Salaman Malcolm. A new school of colour-printing for artists in
The Studio vol.55, 1912
Sawatari Kiyoko. 1996. Eyes toward Asia: Ukiyoe artists from
abroad. Yokohama Museum of Art, Yokohama

style painters to design them. In contrast,

a majority of Creative Print artists were
Western-style modernist artists.

were painfully aware that the Western notion

of the Japanese print was either the premodern ukiyo-e or the New Prints.

The crucial difference between the two major

groups of printmakers was the existence of
the publisher as producer who would have
the final say in design, blockcutting and
printing, and not the fact that the print was
blockcut or printed by someone other than
the artist. But the Creative Print artists used
this argument to define their work against the
New Prints and to question the latters artistic
integrity. Underlying their hostility towards
the New Prints was the latters success in the
foreign market and the question of identity
this entailed: although they professed to
represent contemporary Japanese print, they

But it is among the Creative Prints that some

uniquely modern expressions are found: two
prints from the 1930s, one by American artist
Elizabeth Colborne (1885-1948) and the other
by Fujimaki Yoshio (1909-1935), demonstrate
very personal responses to their environment
in the medium of woodcut. Colborne, under
the impact of the Great Depression, spent
the summer of 1933 in a cabin, hungry and
producing art (Martin 2011: 26). In 1934
Fujimaki, suffering from tuberculosis and
poverty, was capturing aspects of Tokyo with
his unique perspective, before vanishing the
following year.

18

TA A S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 2 1 N O. 4

I N T H E P U B LI C DO M AI N : Y O M U T T U R K M E N R U G S A N D T R A P P I N G S AT T H E P O W E R H O U S E
Christina Sumner

YOMUT TURKMEN ENGSI OR DOOR CURTAIN, BOVREK MOTIF IN TOP QUADRANTS,

EARLY 1800S. POWERHOUSE MUSEUM COLLECTION. PHOTO: RUSSELL COCKAYNE.
REPRODUCED COURTESY OF NOMADIC RUG TRADERS.

he Powerhouse Museum has recently

received the very generous gift of a
spectacular collection of rugs and trappings
woven by women of the Yomut Turkmen
nomadic
group.
Brilliantly
colourful,
culturally expressive and technically skilled
in their execution, this large and very
special collection captures the essence of an
independent people and their way of life.

The ancestors of the Turkmen are said to have

moved westwards into Central Asia from
Mongolia around the 10th century. Mostly
tent-dwelling pastoral nomads who moved
themselves, their flocks of sheep and goats,
their camels and cherished horses with the
changing seasons, the Turkmen were strongly
independent and warlike, always regarding
themselves as separate tribes rather than as
a single nation. They kept mainly to their
respective tribal lands which principally
consisted of the present-day Central Asian
state of Turkmenistan, extending south along
the eastern shores of the Caspian Sea into
north-east Iran and northern Afghanistan.
Seasonal extremes are the norm, with hot
summers and freezing cold winters.
The Yomut are the second largest Turkmen
group after the Ersari, divided into two main
groups, one of which inhabited the area
around the Balkan Mountains south-east of
the Caspian Sea and (more recently) northern
Iran. The other group lived further to the
north, east of the Aral Sea. Little is known
of the history of the Yomut, who were first
mentioned around 1660 in Abul Ghazis
Genealogy of the Turkmen; as this was largely
based on oral Turkmen tradition, it is not
necessarily reliable.
The circumstances of Yomut life required
housing adapted to nomadism. The Turkmen
oy or yurt was ideally suited and Turkmen
women furnished these circular demountable
timber-lattice tents with a wide range of
admirably functional and transportable
carpets, cushions and storage bags as well as
decorative tent bands and animal trappings.
Fine wool from their flocks was always
available for weaving domestic and personal
items, while the broad spectrum of rich reds
that characterises Turkmen weavings was
easily obtainable from local dye sources.
The Powerhouse Museums Yomut Turkmen
collection presents a comprehensive picture of

TA A S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 2 1 N O. 4

the womens output. These

include moderately sized
main carpets (khali) that fitted
the yurts dimensions; carpets
thought to be curtain or door
hangings (engsi), whose fields
are characteristically divided
into
four
compartments;
storage bags of different
sizes, from the largest (juval)
for bedding and clothing, to
smaller bags for household
and personal effects (torba,
mafrash and kap); saddlebags
(khorgin); pairs of five-sided
trappings (asmalyk) to hang
on either side of the wedding
camel; long pouches (ok bash)
for covering tent poles during
travelling, and beautiful tent
bands (jolam) that surrounded
the lattice tent and faced
inwards to decorate its interior.
Most Yomut weavings are of cut pile
construction, with a foundation of undyed
goat hair or wool warps and two shots of
coloured wool wefts (usually grey, brown or
pink) or light brown camel hair between each
row of knots. While symmetrical knots are
more commonly found in Yomut weavings,
asymmetrical knots are also used. As well as
these structural characteristics, colour and
design help to distinguish Yomut weaving from
those of other Turkmen. While Yomut designs
are largely symmetrical around both the vertical
and horizontal axis, as with most Turkmen rugs,
they also show a strong relationship with some
of the Caucasian groups west of the Caspian
Sea, in particular their hook designs and some
brighter reds and blues.
The principal motif on Yomut and most
Turkmen weavings is the gul, an octagonal
geometric motif that may be a tribal emblem
and so attributable to a particular tribe.
Major guls are usually arranged diagonally,
and decorate the fields of both carpets and
smaller items, with minor guls filling the
spaces between. This arrangement forms a
potentially infinite repeat that is framed by at
least three borders, a wide central one flanked
by narrow guard stripes. Only very rarely do
the borders cut a major gul, except in some
torbas. A great deal has been written about
guls and many different forms have been
identified; some guls, such as the chuval gul,

are unique to particular items. The main Yomut

gul is generally more flattened and horizontal
than those of other Turkmen groups, while
their juval gul is usually a quartered octagon
containing a quartered hexagon.
Two particular design elements are found
almost exclusively on Yomut rugs and carpets,
enabling relatively reliable identification:
these are the erre gul and the bovrek motif.
The erre gul is a roughly diamond-shaped
saw-tooth sided motif that is most often
found as the main design element in mafrash,
sometimes as a secondary device in juvals
and almost never in main carpets. The bovrek
motif is roughly kidney-shaped with a small
finial on top and two splayed feet, although
earlier forms are more octagonal.
Writing anything about the Turkmen,
given their complex history and the wealth
of conflicting information about their
remarkable weavings is a challenge. For this
short article, the author is greatly indebted to
an unpublished scholarly paper on the Yomut
which was generously given to her by the
donor along with this exceptional collection.
Christina Sumner is Principal Curator Design &
Society at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney.

19

T H E 7 T H A S IA P A C I F I C TRI E N N IAL O F C O N T E M P ORAR Y ART

Russell Storer
HILL COUNTRY HINDU SHRINE AT DAMBETENNE, 2007 DOMINIC SANSONI, SRI LANKA B.1956,
GICLE PRINTS ON PHOTO RAG MATTE PAPER, 85.6 X 136.4CM (EACH), COURTESY: THE ARTIST

he past two decades have seen

remarkable shifts in the contemporary
art of the Asia Pacific region, not only in
terms of its internal development, but also
in its international recognition. These shifts
have been propelled by significant and rapid
social and economic change, and the global
reach of contemporary Asian art in particular
reflects the regions increasing cultural and
economic confidence. Its a trajectory that
can be traced through the history of the
Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art
(APT), the exhibition series established by
the Queensland Art Gallery (QAG), Brisbane
in 1993. The first APT actively drew Australia
into cultural debates emerging across the
region and introduced local audiences to the
extraordinarily diverse realms of Asian and
Pacific contemporary art. This engagement
has continued to grow, and APT7, which
opens on December 8 and marks the 20th
anniversary of the project, is arguably the
most wide-ranging to date.

APT7 will occupy the entire Gallery of Modern

Art (GOMA) as well as key spaces at the QAG,
including the Watermall, a site that has always
formed the centre of the exhibition. It features
the work of 75 artists and artist groups from
27 countries that reach from Tonga to Turkey.
As with previous Triennials, it is not organised
around a specific theme, but embraces the
great diversity of forms, approaches and ideas
explored by contemporary artists. However,
a number of thematic threads weave through
the exhibition, picking up on shared artistic
concerns about place and history, and what it
means to live in the present moment, as well
as locating affinities and making connections
between works.
A central idea in the exhibition is that of
temporary structures, which emphasises
concepts of change and adaptability. This
is evident in the responses by artists from
Papua New Guinea to mens spirit houses,
customarily built with ephemeral materials; in
Shirley Macnamaras spinifex and turpentine
shrub installation, referencing traditional
Aboriginal shelters; in Richard Maloys
gigantic yellow cardboard construction, and
in the depictions of ever-expanding Southeast
Asian cities in the work of Phuan Thai Meng
and Nguyen Manh Hung.
Other works, such as Erbossyn Meldibekovs
photo album of family portraits taken

20

in front of interchangeable monuments

in Soviet and post-Soviet eras, and Hrair
Sarkissians stark images of Armenian
landscapes, suggest shifting power structures
and the search to recuperate national identity
after years of occupation. Likewise, Dominic
Sansonis quiet photographs document
makeshift Hindu and Catholic shrines across
Sri Lanka to evoke the question of where the
country is headed following years of civil
war. Transformation is also reflected in the
APT7 cinema program, which traces 20 years
of cinema in Asia, the Pacific and Australia
through the lens of change, both in terms
of content and narrative, and in the technical
aspects of filmmaking itself.
As always, the exhibition has been developed
through intensive research, involving
curatorial travel and working with a number
of advisors across the region. Advisors and
co-curators have been essential to the APTs
success from the outset; in the early 1990s,
they were crucial in gaining access to artists
and art communities, in environments where
there was often a lack of information and
art infrastructure, and at a time without the
internet. This situation has of course changed
enormously, yet regular dialogue enables
deeper understanding of the complex and
fast-moving art scenes in different locations.
APT7 will, for example, present the work
of six young Indonesian artists and artist
groups, coming out of research undertaken
in Yogyakarta, Jakarta and Bandung. In each
case the artists will be presenting new work,
and they reflect a generation that drives

one of the most dynamic contemporary art

movements in Asia today.
While the APT since 2002 has been primarily
curated in-house reflecting the growing
knowledge base within the institution as
well as the growing accessibility of regional
art sectors co-curated projects have been
a significant part of recent Triennials. APT5
in 2006 featured the work of a number of
artists involved with the Long March Project,
Beijing, working closely with curators Lu Jie
and Qiu Zhijie, while APT6 in 2009 featured
three projects: Pacific Reggae, co-curated by
broadcaster Brent Clough; a display of works
from the Mansudae Art Studio, Pyongyang,
co-curated by filmmaker and collector Nick
Bonner, and The Mekong, co-curated by
artist Rich Streitmatter-Tran, which featured
works by artists from Cambodia, Thailand,
Myanmar and Vietnam.
APT7 will include two co-curated projects
that offer a close look at specific areas. A major
display of contemporary works from Papua
New Guinea, co-curated by architect Martin
Fowler, will dominate the entry and central
atrium of GOMA. It features a spectacular
group of performance masks from New
Britain and the Sepik River region, as well
as two large-scale installations by artists
from the East Sepik, based on Abelam and
Kwoma mens spirit houses. As previously
noted, these structures are usually made with
perishable materials that last no longer than a
couple of decades. For APT7, ten artists were
commissioned to create permanent works for

TA A S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 2 1 N O. 4

BAKO EXISTS. IMAGINE (DETAIL), ATUL DODIYA, INDIA B.1959 2011, EXHIBITION AT
CHEMOULD PRESCOTT ROAD, MUMBAI, IMAGE COURTESY THE ARTIST

museum display. Ten artists spent two months

in Brisbane making the dozens of painted
panels and intricately carved poles that depict
spirit figures. The works retain the significance
of kastom (traditional culture), powerfully
bridging local cultural practices and the
international sphere of contemporary art.
0 Now: Traversing West Asia brings together
works by seven artists and collectives from the
Middle East and Central Asia. Co-curated by
Istanbul-based curator November Paynter, the
project considers the shifting borders, cultural
interactions and transforming landscapes
across this volatile region. Building on the
presence of Iranian and Turkish artists in
APT6, 0 Now will be the first significant
focus on West Asian contemporary art in
the APT. The region is a growing centre for
contemporary art, with platforms such as the
Sharjah Biennial, Art Dubai art fair and major
museums in Abu Dhabi and Qatar. Istanbul,
with its influential biennial and its new
institution for contemporary art, SALT, is also
a significant centre, and many Turkish artists
have a significant profile in Europe. Besides
a few key figures such as Shirin Neshat,
however, there have been few opportunities
to view the work of West and Central Asian
artists in this country; the participation of
leading artists such as Slavs and Tatars, Wael
Shawky and Cevdet Erek in APT7 will be their
first showing in Australia.
Major commissions have been another
significant feature of the APT, enabling
ambitious works to be developed that in many
cases become part of the Gallerys collection.
The museum and collecting context of the APT
makes it relatively unique among biennials and
triennials around the world, and provides a
sense of historical continuity to the project. This
year APT7 will feature a significant commission
by Huang Yong Ping, one of the most
influential artists of the Chinese avant-garde.
Taking the form of a gigantic snake skeleton,
Ressort 2012 will spiral from the ceiling to the
pool of the QAGs Watermall, metaphorically
linking sky and water and tapping into the
diverse symbolism of the serpent around the
world. Huang has long been influenced by
the I Ching (Book of Changes), the classical
Chinese philosophical and divination text, and
is fascinated by chance, transformation, and
the relationships between cultures.

context, linking India and Australia through

the narrative of gold. Taking the form of
a wooden temple car lined with gold, it is
carved with imagery from Australias gold
rush, which brought the first wave of Asian
immigrants to Australia and provided one of
the first sources of trade with India. Indian
contemporary art has received exceptional

international attention over the past five

years, and in APT7 it is represented through
painting, video, sculpture, installation and
photography by artists of several generations,
including senior photographer Dayanita
Singh, mid-career artists Sheila Makhijani
and Rina Banerjee, and younger artists Neha
Choksi and Raqib Shaw.

Other major commissions are by the Indian

artists Atul Dodiya and LN Tallur. Dodiyas
installation of nine wooden cabinets filled
with sculptures, paintings, photographs and
objects, condense a personal take on regional
art history, inspired by the 20 years of the
APT. Tallurs sculpture also responds to its
KULAMA, 2012 TIMOTHY COOK, TIWI PEOPLE, NT AUSTRALIA B. 1958, OCHRE, ACRYLIC BINDER ON LINEN, 150 X 220CM,
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND JILAMARA ARTS AND CRAFTS, WINELLIE

TA A S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 2 1 N O. 4

21

ATLAS OF ASIA ART ARCHIVE (DETAIL), 2012, MAP OFFICE,

EST. 1996, HONG KONG, PROJECT CONCEIVED AND DEVELOPED
LIVING TOGETHER IN PARADISE (DETAIL), 2009, NGUYEN MANH HUNG, VIETNAM B.1976,

DURING MAP, OFFICE RESIDENCY AT ASIA ART ARCHIVE (HONG

MIXED MEDIA INSTALLATION, PHOTOGRAPH: NGUYEN THE SON, COURTESY: THE ARTIST

KONG) IN 2012, IMAGES COURTESY: THE ARTISTS

and images in Asia and the Pacific, often in

lieu of official institutions.
To register two decades of the APT, the Gallery
approached four artists and artist groups to
interpret different archives around the region,
brought together in the project The 20-Year
Archive.
Singaporean artist Heman Chong drew
upon hundreds of texts relating to the APT
from the Gallerys Australian Centre of Asia
Pacific Art archive to create a multi-channel
sound installation. The Hong Kong-based
collaborative duo MAP Office have created
an atlas of that citys Asia Art Archive, based
on 111 artists with works linked to specific
locations. Raqs Media Collective will present a
display from the Sarai archive, a research centre
they co-founded in New Delhi in 2000, while
artist Torika Bolatagici, poet Teresia Teaiwa
and illustrator Mat Hunkin have generated
a new archive, titled {disarmed} imagining
a Pacific archive, which addresses aspects
of militarisation in the Pacific, particularly
in Fiji. The three artists, of different Pacific
heritages and living in Australia and New
Zealand, suggest the continual flows of
peoples and cultures across the region, and the
intimately intertwined histories we share.
Diversity also characterises the works of
the five Aboriginal Australian artists in the
exhibition, from the sublime paintings and
carved poles of Tiwi artist Timothy Cook, to
the enormous scrap-metal narbongs (string
bags) of Lorraine Connelly-Northey, to
Daniel Boyds mysterious paintings and
video installation, which feature screens of
dots that obscure images which reference
primitivism and colonialism. These works
reflect a key concern of Boyds: the erasure
of Indigenous knowledge, and the gaps in
understanding between non-Indigenous and
Indigenous cultures. It is a concern shared by
photographer Michael Cook, whose portraits
of Aboriginal models dressed as figures from
four European colonial powers English,
French, Spanish and Dutch imagines a past

22

in which knowledge and understanding was

shared between people, suggesting a possible
way forward for the future.
The recuperation and questioning of historical
material has been an increasingly important
approach for contemporary artists. The
archive provides a productive model to work
through the vast amounts of information that
is now accessible at the click of a button, and to
make connections between disparate objects,
people, and sites. As theorist Hal Foster has
written, archival art carries a will to relate to
probe a misplaced past, to collate its different
signs to ascertain what might remain for
the present (Foster 2004). Artist-generated
and independent archives have also been
important repositories of documents, texts

By acknowledging these complex connections,

as well as providing a platform for new
cultural links, the APT has been a significant
participant in the rapidly changing artistic
landscape of our region. It has encouraged
a detailed and nuanced appreciation of
Asian and Pacific contemporary art in local
audiences, and charted its movements over
two decades. APT7 offers a wide-ranging
view of the present and fresh perspectives
on the past, while keeping an eye on possible
future directions, wherever they may lead us.
Russell Storer is Curatorial Manager, Asian and
Pacific Art at the Queensland Art Gallery / Gallery
of Modern Art.

REFERENCE
Hal Foster An Archival Impulse, October, no.110, Fall 2004, pp.3-22.

TA A S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 2 1 N O. 4

B OO K R E V I E W: C H I N E S E S I L K S
Judith Rutherford

dynasty (916CE) tantalisingly sets up an

expectation of excellence from this publication
and the reader is not disappointed.

Chinese Silks
Edited by Dieter Kuhn, Yale University Press, August 2012
Distributed in Australia by Inbooks
RRP AUS$110.00, hardcover, 572pp

Silk has been an essential component of

Chinas material culture for thousands of
years. During the Shang and Zhou Dynasties
(c.1500 475 BCE) silk was considered to be
one of the two most treasured gifts exchanged
between the aristocracy the other being jade.
In 1995 the first international textile conference
organised by Diana Collins and the Hong Kong
Textile Society took place in Hong Kong with
Western scholars and some of Chinas leading
academics, including Professor Bao Mingxin
from Shanghai and Professor Zhao Feng from
the National Silk Museum in Hangzhou. The
Conference findings identified certain areas for
further study including the location of early
textile workshops, the type and construction of
early looms and the quantity of silk produced
during specific periods.
This new publication deals with all of those
areas and more. It represents a collaboration
between Chinese and Western textile scholars
which has produced a major reference work
in English on the history of Chinas silk
industry. Contributing scholars include Chen
Juanjuan, Huang Nengfu, Dieter Kuhn, Li
Wenying, Peng Hao and Zhao Feng, with an
introduction by James C. Y. Watt.
Here is a unique opportunity for textile
scholars to tap into all the latest information
from archaeological finds in China and also
re-discover significant textiles from collections
around the world. Translating Chinese technical
terms relating to weaving, embroidery and
sericulture always presents a challenge and in
many instances this is the first time that some of
these terms have been translated.
The Frontispiece with an image of the
Diamond Sutra from the Liaoning Provincial
Museum, Shenyang, dating to the Later Liang

TA A S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 2 1 N O. 4

The dated tomb excavations from Xinjiang,

the Dunhuang Caves, the Han Tomb at
Mawangdui in Changsha, Hunan and
clothing excavated from a crypt which was
sealed in 874CE, part of the Famen Monastry
in Shaanxi, brought a new dimension to
the study of early textiles. Prior to these
excavations most of the information relating
to early textiles came from oracle bones,
impressions on bronzes and carvings on
tortoise shells and earthenware inscriptions.

There is a detailed synopsis of sericulture and
silk weaving from the earliest period to the
Zhou Dynasty (c.1050 475BCE). Silk fabrics
were produced in four main categories:
domestic households of farmers, workshops
operated by the State, private professional
weaving households and loom workshops
which were under the control of nobles and
elite members of society.

(1279-1368) textiles. There was a preference for

monochromes and the most popular shades
were red, brown and green. Ming dynasty
1368-1644) silks reflected the prosperity of
this era. The satins, twills, gauzes and velvets
were often embellished with gold.
Although in the past some scholars have been
less than complementary about Qing Dynasty
(1644-1911) textiles, an illustrated example
(Plate 9.45 page 469) of a ceremonial robe
embroidered with tiny pearls, coral beads
and peacock feathers shows that significant
textiles were still being produced, albeit in the
Imperial Workshops, during that period.
This publication makes a signification
contribution not only to the study of
Chinese silk, weaving and embroidery, but
the references and translations from early
Chinese texts add a wonderful insight into the
social history of China.
Judith Rutherford AM was President of TAASA from
2001 to 2010 and was the Founder of TAASAs Textile
Study Group.

During the Qin (221-207BCE), Han (206BCE

220CE), Wei (220-265) and Jin (265-420)
periods, state and regional administration
processes were established to supervise silk
workshops. Weaving workshops produced
the elaborate clothes for use at Imperial
ceremonies. The demand for Chinese silk
during this period was such that the Roman
Emperors spent the equivalent of 100,000
ounces of gold each year on Chinese silks.
The silks of the Sui (581-618), Tang (618-906)
and Five Dynasties (906-960) can be classified
into three groups. The first being the Tang
Dynasty discoveries at Dunhuang by Stein
and Pelliot now held at the British Museum
and the Musee Guimet, Paris. Secondly, the
late Tang textiles which had been Imperial
gifts, excavated at the Underground Palace
of the Famen Monastery Pagoda. The third
group were mainly Buddhist sutra wrappers
from the Five Dynasty Period, excavated
from the Cloud-Cliff Pagoda on Tiger Hill in
Suzhou. The dynamic interaction between
the Liao (907-1125), Song (960-1279), and Jin
(1115-1234) cultures came together and the
economic and social impact of silk continued:
it was an emblem of the highest social status.
The influences of the Mongol regime can be
seen in the colour palette of Yuan Dynasty

23

TRA V E LL E R S C H OI C E : R E C O V E R I N G T U R K M E N I S TA N S B U R I E D PA S T
Margaret White
GONUR DEPE ANCIENT KILN AND POTTERY SITE, TURKMENISTAN.
PHOTO: MARGARET WHITE, 2011

urreal could describe our groups early

morning arrival in Ashgabat, the capital
city of Turkmenistan. Amazingly, in this
remodelled hub fuelled by oil and gas wealth,
the majority of government and residential
buildings are faced in white marble.
Fountains danced in multi-coloured light
shows along wide boulevards. Sculptures of
President-for-Life or Turkmenbashy, selfdubbed Father of the Turkmen are omnipresent,
hailing the ambitious architect of much of
Turkmenistans comprehensive Golden Age
of cultural identity and heritage.

Turkmenistan was one of the stans to emerge

as a nation after the collapse of the Soviet
Union in 1991, and as its name suggests,
its population is dominated by the tribal
Turkmen. Though their origins are clouded,
Turkmen possibly migrated from Mongolia
around the 10th century. It is perhaps the
contemporary use of the characteristic gul or
medallion design, depicted on their red rugs,
white buildings and the green, national flag
that is a clear and ever present reminder of
their past.
Historical and cultural influences became
more evident as we toured some incredible
archaeological sites. It seems as if these
extraordinary places have remained out
of sight for much of the modern world.
Beliefs such as Shamanism, Zoroastrianism,
Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism and Islam
accompanied successive generations of
Persian Achaemenids and Sasanians, Greek
Parthians and Seljuk Turks. Turkmenistan,
once an important centre along the Silk
Road, now boasts several UNESCO World
Heritage Sites. We visited Old Nisa, the oasis
city of Ancient Merv and Konye-Urgench
at Dashoguz. Miraculously, despite ancient
looting and the ravages of time and shifting
sands upon these sun baked, mud brick
structures, 95% of the archaeological sites
remain to be excavated.
An undoubted highlight for me was the late
Bronze Age site of Gonur Depe (Grey Hill).
Gonur Depe (2250-2300BCE) was founded by
tribes looking for new lands and is thought to
be the central settlement of ancient Margiana.
It is located in the north of the Merv Oasis and
is well preserved beneath the sands.
Gonur was contemporaneous with the
Mesopotamian and the Indus Valley

24

civilizations along the former

Murghab Delta, although much
smaller in size. The sprawling
complex covers roughly 55
hectares which is still challenging
to reach for the modern traveller.
After a two hour ride on paved
road from Mary to the edge of
the famed, desolate Kara Kum or
Black Sand Desert, we exchanged
our minivan for two Russian four
wheel drives for an extra hours
bone shattering ride across the
flat, brown, takyr or clay desert.
Overhead, eagles wheeled as
camels roamed among the grey,
green camel thorn bushes and
gnarled saxaul trees.
Since the early 1970s, pioneer
archaeologist in Central Asia,
Professor Viktor Sarianidi, has
headed
the
Bactria-Margiana
Archaeological
Expedition,
gradually uncovering the site. He
has hypothesised what life may
have been like in the extensive,
high, mud walled, maze-like palace
with its sophisticated water supply
and sewage system, its temple
and necropolis complex showing
evidence of animal sacrifice, as
well as a craftsmens quarter
surrounding a central fortified complex with
corner watch towers (Zadneprovsky 1995:
155). Sarianidi has also postulated some
controversial theories concerning Gonurs
religion and customs, speculating that it may
even be the birthplace of Zoroastrianism.
In order to protect the site from further
crumbling, conservation of the site began
in 2003. Many of the artefacts found in the
graves at the necropolis such as bronze
rimmed wooden chariot wheels, stamp seals,
lapis lazuli beaded jewellery and terracotta
figurines, possibly of fertility gods and priests,
had earlier been removed to institutions such
as the National Museum of Turkmenistan
and the Museum of Fine Arts in Ashgabat.
However, surprisingly, piles of earthenware
sherds, including jars and storage vessels,
some inscribed with geometric patterns, still
littered the site. Remains of kilns were also
visible, their green clay interiors fossilised
onto the stone. High temperature kilns were
used for melting bronze to craft weapons and

tools but also gold and silver vessels with

animal images often depicted in relief.
More recently, it has been recognised that
to reconstruct a more credible picture of
oasis culture in the region, a more scientific
documentation plan is needed. A less frenetic
excavation rhythm would permit more
methodological collecting of finds, together
with laboratory study of a sufficiently large
sample of artefacts in order to orientate
research in the field.
Margaret White travelled with the Friends of
the Museums, Singapore, on this Study Tour to
Turkmenistan in November, 2011.

REFERENCES
Brummell, Paul. 2005. Turkmenistan Bradt Travel Guide Ltd, UK
Historical and Cultural Sites of Turkmenistan, Discoveries,
Researches and Restoration for 20 years of independence, 2011.
Turkmen State Publishing Service
Zadneprovsky Y A. 1995. Early Developments in Central Asia,
British Institute of Persian Studies, Source Iran. Vol 33, pp155-159

TA A S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 2 1 N O. 4

TAA S A P RO F IL E S

TAA S A M E M B E R S DIAR Y
DECEMBER 2012 FEBRUARY 2013

At TAASAs 2012 Annual General Meeting held on 15 May, we welcomed a number

of new members of the TAASA Committee of Management (see TAASA Review,
September 2012). Two of these new Committee members introduce themselves below.
CHARLOTTE GALLOWAY

MARGARET WHITE

My decision to study
Asian art when I went
back to university
in my early 30s and
enrolled in Art History
seemed rather random
at the time, but on
reflection, I had been
attracted to Asian
art and objects since
childhood. Projects on
Chinese ceramics, my
love of blue and white textiles whether the
indigos from Southeast Asia or the Japanese
patterned cloth, the form of a scholars rock
and interest in the natural world, all were
aspects of Asian culture I had long been drawn
to purely through pictures in books (I was an
avid library visitor when at school).

I returned to Australia
in 2011 after residing in
Singapore for almost 20
years. During that time
I was heavily involved
in the rapidly evolving National Heritage
Board Museums via the
Friends of Museums,
Singapore (FOM). My
passion for Asian art
and culture grew in
proportion to knowledge gained, and this
spurred me to complete an MA in Southeast
Asian arts from the National University of
Singapore in 2006. I have held numerous
positions in FOM, including head of Study
Tours, secretary of the Committee of the
Textile Enthusiasts and Docent Coordinator
as well as President, and later Advisor.
Guiding and lecturing has enabled me to use
my teaching background gained in Australia
and the US.

When the opportunity arose to take Asian

art history courses at the Australian National
University (ANU) it just seemed obvious to
enrol. I was fortunate that this coincided with
Robyn Maxwells first year at ANU and she
has supported my academic and professional
interests for many years. Southeast Asian
Buddhist art became my focus and I completed
my Honours thesis on the Buddha images of
Myanmar. I think I joined TAASA back in 1999
though it was difficult to participate in many
activities while juggling a young family, work
and study.
I went on to my PhD studies, while also
working as Assistant Curator Asian Art at
the National Gallery of Australia. I later took
on the job as Loans and Exhibitions registrar,
and finally finished my PhD on the early
Buddhist imagery of Bagan, Myanmar, in
2007. I started lecturing in Curatorial Studies
at ANU in 2007, and now also teach Asian art.
I am a board member of AusHeritage, and am
on the management committee for the newly
established Southeast Asia Institute at ANU,
flying the flag for art and culture. I am enjoying
being able to contribute to TAASA, as a
member of the Publications Committee as well
as the Management Committee. My research
interests seem to be diverse from museums
and cultural heritage in Asia, through to my
own specialist research work in Myanmar
but they do take me to interesting places!

TA A S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 2 1 N O. 4

Representing Singapore as a speaker on

volunteerism
at
several
international
conferences and through the media, I have been
recognised by the Ministry of Information,
Communications and the Arts (MICA) for my
significant services to the community. Being
a member of the Southeast Asian Ceramic
Society (SEACS) fuelled another long time
interest and led to a stint guiding the SEACS
40th anniversary ceramic exhibition at the
National University Museum in Singapore.
Extensive travelling through Asia gives me an
excuse to indulge in my other loves: writing,
sketching and painting. Happily, I had heard
of TAASA long before my return to Australia,
having been introduced by a good friend
to the textile group as a guest on several
occasions. I was also aware of TAASA through
the Textile Enthusiasts in Singapore. This
year I reconnected with several of my former
guiding colleagues who encouraged my
participation, and so I am currently serving
on the Management Committee of The Asian
Arts Society of Australia (TAASA).

TAASA symposium
From Beginner to Expert
Saturday 9 March 2013
Sydney Mechanics School of Arts,
Pitt Street, Sydney
This full day symposium will appeal to any
lover of Asian art and interest those who
may be starting to collect Asian art or already
have an established collection. Participants
will find out how to source objects, build
knowledge in their specific area of interest,
learn about fakes and establishing values,
and identify sources of information.
Illustrated presentations will be followed by
an open forum where audience and speakers
can interact.
Confirmed speakers are:
Michael Abbott, QC, on his journey of
exploration and inspiration resulting in his
collection of Indian textiles and ceramics.
Paul Sumner, on the role of the auction
house in the art market.
David Hulme & Brigitte Benziger from
Benziger/Hulme, who run a fine arts
consultancy.
Todd Sunderman, collector of antique
Tibetan furniture, on becoming an expert
in a specialised field.
Raimy Che Ross, collector of Malay silver.
Donna Hinton, Head of Objects
Conservation at the Art Gallery of NSW.
Full details and booking form will be
available early in 2013. Please contact
Ann Guild on (02) 9460 4579 or
macguild@optusnet.com.au.

TAASA MEET THE

COLLECTOR SERIES
TAASA is planning to run a series of
events where members can view a
range of private Asian art collections.
If you would be willing to share
your collection with other Asian arts
enthusiasts, please contact
Gill Green on (02) 89646430 or
gillians@ozemail.com.au.

25

R E C E N T TAA S A A C TI V ITI E S

THIENNY LEE (L) WITH TAASA MEMBER JILL SUTANTO.

PHOTO: ROSALIE PAINO

TAASA WALKTHROUGH OF THE

AGNSW BIENNALE ASIAN EXHIBITS
6 SEPTEMBER
Barb Leigh and Lyn Shoemark
Billed as Up Close and Personal with Contemporary
Asian Art a Walkthrough at the 18th Biennale
of Sydney, we gathered on Thursday morning
at the caf of the AGNSW ready to be taken
on tour.
Instead of a regular tour, we were provided
with a close multi-layered exploration of four
leading artists of the exhibition by Dr Lim
Chye Hong, Co-ordinator of Asian programs
at the AGNSW. We were allowed to be slow.
We were allowed to take in the layers of
meanings. We were allowed to give value to
the hands employed in making these aesthetic
creations with such fine skill.
Our first stop was a room sized installation,
measuring approximately 9x7 metres. A
large board was completely covered with an
interlocking series of snow-white stencilled
maps showing roads, rivers, and housing lots.
The Thai artist, Nipan Oranniwesna, called
it City of Ghost: a global city sprinkled with
talcum powder and lit with a series of light
bulbs placed around the perimeter. Fragile.
Painstaking. Ephemeral.
Yun-Fei Jis work consisted of a long handpainted scroll which told the story of the massive
human dislocation caused by the construction of
the Three Gorges Dam. It was Chye who asked
us to think of the greatest good for the greatest
number versus the suffering of the villagers of
Wen as alternate readings. We felt for the lost
souls and were able to recognise simultaneously
an environmental and human disaster and a farsighted political vision.
The third artist whose work we viewed was
Yuken Teruya from Japan. His constellations

shone in black paper bags. His trees were

cut out from and then placed in commercial
paper bags from around the world. Intricate
and beautiful, it conveyed the cyclical nature
of tree to paper and back again to tree.
The last artist was Gao Rong, a young woman
from Inner Mongolia who embroidered
her Grandmothers house, naming the
installation static eternity. The embroidery
was so realistically and finely done, that when
we walked into the house we thought that the
bricks on the floor were baked clay, that the
walls of the room really did have peeling paint
and that the gaudy thermoses were actually
sourced from a Chinese store. Chye talked
about family, security, happy gatherings: the
affirmation of family values.
Our thanks go to Lim Chye Hong for a most
sensitive presentation and to Hweifen Cheah
and Ann Guild for their organisation of the
morning on behalf of TAASA.
TEXTILE STUDY GROUP TALK ON
BATIK DESIGN - 12 SEPTEMBER
Rosalie Paino
Thienny Lee, currently pursuing a PhD
degree at the University of Sydney, presented
an illustrated talk titled Batik design, from
traditional to contemporary, from craft to art at
TAASAs Textile Study Group meeting on 12
September 2012. Forty people gathered in
Sydneys Powerhouse Museums curatorial
cafe to listen to Thiennys talk and discuss
some of the issues she is researching. Folks
were treated to a selection of her beautiful
and varied batik textile collection including a
family heirloom owned by her grandmother,
as well as an array of resource books.
In her talk, Thienny pointed out that batik,
the decorated textile made with wax resist
methods, is well known as a major form of

artistic expression in the Malay world. It was

to a certain extent and still is the pre-eminent
vehicle for demarcating social status and for
embedding religious belief for the peoples of
Indonesia and Malaysia.
She asked: How did this technically
challenging but basically home-spun,
domestic art form take on such importance in
the society of the wider Malay World? How
and why did it become the badge of rank and
the apparel of the court in Central Java?
Thiennys talk to the Textile Study Group
attempted to answer these questions, and
to trace the evolution of batik design from
its traditional decoration in Java to artistic
practices today, particularly in Peninsular
Malaysia. Her talk covered the history of a
specific forbidden batik design from central
Java. She also touched on Sir Stamford Raffles
collection of batiks, considered to contain the
oldest surviving examples of batik, held by
the British Museum.
Thiennys current research focuses on the
visual identity and dress construction of the
Straits Chinese in British Malay of the 19th
and 20th century. She has lectured on the
history of Indonesian and Malaysian batik
art and the history of contemporary art in
Southeast Asia at SOAS, London University.
As a practicing artist she expresses her art by
using batik as one of her painting mediums.

OTHER RECENT TAASA EVENTS
More detailed reports will be provided in
the March 2013 issue of three recent TAASA
functions: a walkthrough of National Gallery
of Victorias newly designed Asian rooms
on 27 October; the Canberra viewing on 3
November of two exhibitions - NGAs Divine
Worlds Indian Painting and the National
Portrait Gallerys Go Figure! Contemporary
Chinese Portraiture, and our End of Year party
at Gallery 4A, Sydney on 29 November.

DR LIM CHYE HONG (3RD FROM LEFT) WITH TAASA MEMBERS. PHOTO:HWEIFEN CHEAH

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TA A S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 2 1 N O. 4

W H AT S O N I N A U S TRALIA : D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 2 F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 3
A SELECTIVE ROUNDUP OF EXHIBITIONS AND EVENTS
Compiled by Tina Burge
Alexander the Great:2000 years of treasures

ACT

Australian Museum, Sydney

Go Figure! Contemporary Chinese Portraiture

24 November 2012 - 28 April 2013

National Portrait Gallery, Canberra

13 September 2012 - 17 February 2013

Initially in conjunction with Sherman

Contemporary Art Foundation in Sydney,
Go Figure! Contemporary Chinese Portraiture
exhibits works drawn from the Sigg
Collection from Switzerland and the M+Sigg
Collection from Hong Kong, jointly one of
the world's most important collections of
experimental Chinese art. The exhibition
includes works by many of China's leading
artists such as Fang Lijun, Liu Wei, Yang Na,
Yu Hong, Rong Rong and Zhang Xiaogang.
For further information go to:
www.portrait.gov.au
NSW
Anish Kapoor
Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
20 December 2012 - 1 April 2013

In the first major presentation of Anish

Kapoors work in Australia, the exhibition
will include works from the entire gamut of
his career, illuminating the artists constant
experimentation with materials ranging from
clay, plastic, steel, pigments and wax. The
large scale sculptural work Memory (2008)
will completely fill the MCAs Level 3 Gallery
and 1000 Names (1979-80) consisting of
primary coloured geometric forms in brightly
coloured pigments are just two of the works
on display.
For further information go to:
www.mca.com.au

This exhibition features the largest collection

of treasures ever to come to Australia from
the world famous State Hermitage in
St Petersburg, Russia and is exclusive to
Sydney. It includes over 400 objects from
classical antiquity through to the modern age
from both Western and Non-Western origins,
spanning a period of almost 2500 years.
For further information go to:
www.alexandersydney.com.au
Soul of Simplicity Seven centuries
of Korean ceramics
Art Gallery of New South Wales
8 February 2013 21 April 2014

Characterised by clarity of forms, understated

decorations and subtle yet luminous colour
glazes, ceramics have long been appreciated as
one of the most significant artistic contributions
of the Korean peninsula. This exhibition focuses
on Goryeo and Joseon ceramics, the two major
periods in the development of Korean ceramics.
The 38 objects reveal the unique aesthetic
sensibility and outstanding technical prowess
of Korean potters from the 12th to the 19th
centuries. The pieces come from the Museum of
Oriental Ceramics in Osaka which houses the
internationally renowned Ataka Collection and
the Rhee Byung-Chang Collection.

and Burma. The Perfect Finish features

treasures ranging from extravagant Japanese
mother-of-pearl inlaid furniture to golddecorated vessels made for Buddhist rituals
in Southeast Asia.
For further information go to:
www.artgallery.sa.gov.au
QUEENSLAND
The 7th Asia Pacific Triennial of
Contemporary Art
Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane
8 December 2012 - 14 April 2013

The 7th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary

Art (APT7) marks the 20th anniversary
of the APT series. A central theme will be
our relationship to place at a time of rapid
urbanisation and flux of people, trade and
influence. APT7 will feature new and recent work
by 75 artists and artist groups from 27 countries
across the region, including painting, installation,
sculpture and photography by Indigenous
Australian artists; new works by artists from
Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and Vietnam;
and a special focus on West Asia, with works
and major commissions by artists from Turkey
through the Middle East to Iran and Central Asia.
A major commission of architectural structures
by artists from the East Sepik province of
Papua New Guinea (PNG) will be a highlight
of the project and in recognition of its 20th
anniversary, the Gallerys extensive APT
archives will be profiled throughout the
exhibition, online and in the extensive "
public program.
For further information go to:
www.qagoma.qld.gov.au
VICTORIA

FLASK WITH SGRAFFITO DESIGN OF FLOWERING PLANTS, JOSEON

DYNASTY, SECOND HALF OF 15TH CENTURY, BUNCHEONG WARE.
THE MUSEUM OF ORIENTAL CERAMICS, OSAKA (GIFT OF

Floor talks redesigned Asian Art Galleries

National Gallery of Victoria
December 2012

THE SUMITOMO GROUP)

SOUTH AUSTRALIA
The Perfect Finish: Three hundred
years of lacquer art
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
1000 NAMES 1979-80, ANISH KAPOOR, WOOD, GESSO, PIGMENT,
IMAGE COURTESY AND THE ARTIST

TA A S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 2 1 N O. 4

Now showing until10 February2013

Drawing from the Gallerys own and private

Australian collections, the exhibition includes
works of art from Japan, China, Thailand

In conjunction with NGVs newly

refurbished Asian Art galleries, a number
of floor talks will be held:
2pm 2 December: The South and Southeast
Collection People, place & narrative with
Carol Cains, Curator, Asian Art.
12.30pm 12 December & 2pm 16 December:
Art of Japan with Julietta Park, Assistant
Curator, Asian Art.

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