The group decided to focus on the aspects of gender and space in relation to the bigger topic that is Chinoiserie. We also decided to use the medium of interactive media to create a something close to a virtual reality instead of a 3D model. The space itself resembles both a museum and the bedroom – both private and public spheres. I think it’s interesting to use interactive media as it allows us to adjust the positioning and lighting of objects within the room itself. It is easy to include various descriptions to accompany the objects. It is also easy to access online for viewers from various parts of the world to see – hence, the exhibition has something of a universal and modern quality to it. The group met up on numerous accounts to discuss and update each other for all of our individual objects and also the group’s main focus that is the two primary objects – the interactive media and the physical brochure itself that will be accompanying the former during the main exhibition. The brochure resembles one easily found at museums – the main details of the exhibition and its theme, the various objects’ descriptions, the floor plan of the space, and the various other invented details such as the timing of the exhibition and contact number for further enquiries. We had hope that the brochure serves to emphasize the museum-liked quality of the virtual space we’ve created. Special thanks to Pengcheng who has contributed in creating the room itself by using her skills and knowledge from her interactive media background. So thanks a lot PC! Coming from the humanities background, I’ll admit that I do not possess the needed technical skills and knowledge for using and creating interactive media. Hence, I took the task of editing and writing the brochure information and also the mini-wall text in the interactive media. Overall, I’m pleased with the end result of our team’s project and exhibition. I think our choice of using the laptop and the medium of interactive media is unique and modern. Sure I still enjoyed all the other exhibitions such as the 3D models, pop-up book and all (everyone produced great results and took various different ways to exhibit theirs!) but I’m glad we made a choice to exhibit it in our own different take too. If we have the means and could improve our project further, I think it’s great to invest in a projector or the oculus headset to further enhance the experience of the virtual reality that we are trying to offer to the audience.
All in all, thank you for the great semester! I enjoyed the lectures on art in relation to colonialism. I have learnt a lot. I also enjoyed the group games, presentations, and also the museum trips. Thank you to Prof Sujatha and all the others in class for a wonderful semester! x
Pair of side curtains for a bed with chinoiserie and bizarre designs
French
Early 18th century
Linen, embroidered with wool and silk
Panel .1a-c: 134 × 34 in. (340.4 × 86.4 cm); panel .2a-c: 137 × 34 in. (348 × 86.4 cm)
Irwin Untermyer (until 1953; to The Metropolitan Museum of Art)
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, 1945. The Human Story in Needlework, no. 56.
A. Standen, Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, December 1954.
Chinoiserie (French for Chinese-esque) is a decorative style in European art, design, and architecture influenced by Chinese motifs and techniques. It began in the 17th century and gained its popularity in the 18th century. It assimilates into rococo by the works of Francois Boucher thus the two shares various similar qualities and characteristics such as the asymmetrical designs, curves, light colours, ornate, and playful both in theme and style.
This pair of side curtains, embroidered with chinoiserie designs, would have decorated the sides of a European state bed of about 1700, usually reserved for important guests. The decorative style reflects a romantic view of China derived from illustrations in books by Western travellers. The floral motifs, figures dressed in vaguely Chinese garments characterized by the wide-sleeve and the over and under skirt, fantastic creatures such as phoenixes and dragons highlight the interest in the theme of fantasy and the exotic. Bizarre silks are a style popular in Europe during the late 17th to early 18th century yet its precise origin is still undetermined. The style “bizarre silk” is characterized by the bold colours, large-scale, and asymmetrical patterns of silk fabrics featuring stylized leaves and flowers. Asymmetry, a characteristic prevalent in Chinese design and architecture is distinct from Europe’s artistic style focused on balance and order. These early chinoiserie embroideries display an attempt to capture the aesthetic of disorder that Europeans were intrigued by.
Consider the figures and the clothing styles on the embroidery. Some of them look European and are florid faced, a characteristic of the rococo style. Some figures are wearing loose gown with wide-sleeves called banyan, a garment worn by men in the 18th century influenced by Asian clothing. This choice of inexpensive yet durable garment also reflects a sense of informality and practicality. Men of intellectual and philosophical bent were usually painted in portraitures wearing banyans. It could then be interpreted that the figures holding various kinds of instruments are learning the art of their occupations while being stimulated by the natural environment outdoors surrounded with flowers and fantastic mythical beasts. It is interesting to note that there are both men and women figures practising studious habits outdoor. This could reveal the desire, and perhaps reality, of equality between men and women as women are not merely contained to the domestic space. They too belong in the intellectual domain and exterior environment hence the sense of equality. Though the floral motifs reflect the theme of feminity, the mythical beasts suggests the theme of power. It seems like women are able to gain a sense of agency even within the bedroom space and through imagination. However, only the Chinese-looking man with drooping moustache and full robe in panel .1a-c is depicted as most powerful as he is able to control two dragons with either a robe or a chain.
The curtains are made of linen embroidered with wool and silk. These materials emphasize the significance of textiles in Chinoiserie during the 18th century. It was not Chinese textile design but the designs of Chinese porcelains and lacquers that influenced the European textile chinoiserie. The two main decorative textiles produced in China for the European market during the 18th century were embroideries and painted silks. Embroidery is a form of compound cloth construction where a fabric is ornamented with designs from a threaded needle. The bed curtains reflect the form of embroidery called the needle-point. It is a hand-embroidery form where rounded stitches fill the base scrim or needlepoint cloth completely. The resulting piece is heavy and stiff. Needlepoint is used for upholstery, pillow tops, hand-made rugs/carpeting, and framed wall art. Very small stitches are termed petit point and very large stitches are called gros point (Nielson 83). All the designs are depicted in an extraordinary range of colours on a brilliant yellow silk ground that seems to mimic gold threads which was incorporated greatly during the 16th-18th century in embroidery.
Complete bed furnishings from the 17th and 18th centuries are rare thus making this well-preserved curtain pieces gifted from Judge Irwin Untermyer a significant and precious material to be studied and appreciated by all at the museum. Furthermore, it is interesting to realize that such style, seen frequently in early 18th century, French canvas work, represents the early ungainly struggle before the elegant French rococo style.
Works Cited
Brett, Katharine B.. Bouquets in Textiles: An Introduction to the Textile Arts. Toronto: Royal Ontario Museum of Archaeology, 1955. Web. 2nd November 2015.
A. Standen. “Embroideries in the French and Chinese Taste”. Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin. December 1954. 144-146. Antiques, LXVII, 1955. P 420, fig. 6 (detail); Untermyer Needlework, 1960. Pp. lxiii-lxiv, 59. fl. 144, colour pl. 145, figs 187, 188. Web. 2nd November 2015.
Highlights of the Untermyer Collection of European and Continental Decorative Arts. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1977. GoogleBooks. Web. 2nd November 2015.
Pair of side curtains for a bed. 18th century. Linen, embroidered with wool and silk. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Web. 2nd November 2015.
Nielson, Karla J.. “Yarns and Fabric Construction. Interior Textiles: Fabric, Application, and Histories. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2007. 63-88. GoogleBooks. Web. 2nd November 2015.
Gathering from the past advice by the professor, I am advised to change the object that I have previously chosen (“At-home dress, 18th century”). As my group is focused on Chinoiserie in the bedroom space, I have tried researching for other objects to choose from. Instead of dresses, I decided to look at other textiles such as curtains, carpets, upholstery, etc. I have decided to choose the following as my new Chinoiserie object:
Pair of side curtains of a bed
Early 18th century, probably French
Linen, embroidered with wool and silk
Gift of Irwin Untermyer, 1953
The Museum of Metropolitan Art
This pair of side curtains, embroidered with chinoiserie designs, would have decorated the sides of a European state bed usually reserved for important guests. The decorative style reflects a romantic view of China derived from illustrations in books by Western travellers. The floral motifs, figures dressed in vaguely Chinese garments characterized by the wide-sleeve and the over and under skirt, fantastic creatures such as phoenixes and dragons highlight the interest in the theme of fantasy and the exotic. Bizarre silks are a style popular in Europe during the late 17th to early 18th century yet its precise origin is still undetermined. The style “bizarre silk” is characterized by the bold colours, large-scale, and asymmetrical patterns of silk fabrics featuring stylized leaves and flowers. Asymmetry, a characteristic prevalent in Chinese design and architecture is distinct from Europe’s artistic style focused on balance and order. These early chinoiserie embroideries display an attempt to capture the aesthetic of disorder that Europeans were intrigued by.
References:
Pair of side curtains for a bed. 18th century. Linen, embroidered with wool and silk. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Web. 2nd November 2015.
http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/227617
What was your favorite object from today’s visit to the Asian Civilizations Museum?
This sculpture is my favourite object from the visit to the Asian Civilizations Museum (ACM). It’s interesting to witness an unconventional depiction of Buddha or a bodhisattva. Sure it has recognizably Asian features such as the arched eyebrows, slanted eyes, and mouth. The figure looks like a fierce ancient Chinese warrior. Yet the mustache, beard and stylized Mediterranean curly hair portray Hellenistic influences. The elaborate crown on the figure’s head allows for interpretation of the Buddha as a Greek king. This could be one of the many representations of Siddhartha as a princely jeweled figure prior to his renunciation of the palace life.
Early Buddhism and Buddhist art represent Buddha through symbolism (remember: aniconism). Buddha is usually represented through symbols such as the stupa, empty throne, footprints, parasols, wheel, Bodhi tree, etc. Some scholars suggest that the first anthropomorphic representation of Buddha is a result of Greco-Buddhist interaction, probably in Gandhara. Look at this… Familiar isn’t it? The wavy hair tied into the typical Buddha top-knot, the Greek himation (toga covering both shoulders), the halo, and contrapposto stance of the upright figure, and also the realism of the sculpture.
Greco-Buddhist statue of standing Buddha, Gandhara (1st–2nd century), Tokyo National Museum.
Another interesting historical and artistic aspect is the suggestion that the Greco-Bactrian king Demetrius I may have been the prototype for the image of Buddha. The earliest Hellenistic statues of Buddha portray him in a style reminiscent of a king. A characteristic associated to both Buddha and Demetrius is that they share the same protector deity. Vajrapani is the protector and guide of Gautama Buddha. In Gandharan art, we can see the Buddha being protected by the Greek god Heracles (similar to the back of Demetrius’ coins that portray the king protected by Heracles). The Greek hero Heracles is adopted to represent Vajrapani.
Edit / 20th October 2015: Something interesting! Just read a news update on ACM tonight.
This 11th-century bronze sculpture depicting Hindu goddess Uma Parameshvari will be returned at the request of the Indian government. The ACM said it had bought the sculpture from disgraced New York art dealer Subhash Kapoor’s now-defunct gallery Art of the Past for US$650,000 (S$900,000) in 2007.PHOTO: ASIAN CIVILISATIONS MUSEUM
Citation:
Dehejia, Vidya. “Buddhism and Buddhist Art”. In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–.
Sanujit. “Cultural links between India and the Greco-Roman World”. Ancient History Encyclopedia. 2011. Web. http://www.ancient.eu/article/208/
If you could have a room of your own, how would you set about decorating it? Chinoiserie? Japonaiserie?
I’d choose Chinoiserie if given the choice between the two to design and decorate a room/apartment of my own. Chinoiserie gives a soft, sweet and feminine touch to the interior. The wallpaper and pillow fabric covers depict the typical Chinoiserie imagery of pretty florals, green leaves, and little birds gracefully perched on gentle branches of the trees. The clean design and opened windows allow the sunlight to enter the living space thus creating a wonderful area to read or indulge in afternoon tea sessions comfortably be it on your own or with your friends.
I believe this could be the small corner of either a dining room or a bedroom. I love the reflection that gives a sneak peak of the blue and white porcelain vase placed on top of a wooden wardrobe. The wallpaper design is faint yet soft and pretty still. Black lacquer furniture with golden details gives the room an elevated sense of beauty and sophistication. It reflects the owner’s high taste, eye for details, and status. I absolutely love the white-blue design and texture of the seat’s fabric cover!
I’d keep the palette to white, cream, brown or mostly blue and white. I love the blue and white design of this sink and water tap that has both Chinese and Turkish influences.
Azmeera: Focus on textiles / fabrics / clothes / fashion
At-home dress, ca. 1850. English. Chinese aubergine silk damask and velvet Purchase, gifts in memory of Paul M. Ettesvold, and Judith and Gerson Leiber Fund, 1994.
An at-home dress, made of Chinese patterned silk, uses an export textile in a Western garment. Arguably, Asian textiles were associated in the Western mind as much with private leisure as with ceremony. Many Eastern textiles entered Western dress first as intimate boudoir and other at-home garments such as robes and banyans, suggesting the qualities of exoticism and erotic mystery associated with far-off lands. The selvage at the back waist reveals Chinese characters indicating the textile’s manufacturer, and the flaring sleeves are what the West calls the pagoda style.
In the field of textiles there have been two great periods of Chinese influence. The first, in the 14th century, has already been described in the section on Italian silks. The other great period began in the 17th century with the further opening up of trade with the East via the Cape of Good Hope.
On the collapse of the Ming Dynasty in the seventeenth century, when trade resumed and artifacts flowed West again, the prized commodities that had to travel so far to the Italian port cities and to Portugal, England, and Holland were the most portable, and most telling of the East’s customs and culture. Easiest of all such products to import because of their relatively light weight, import textiles from China prompted fascination with the technical skills involved in weaving, hand-painting, and needle-work of Chinese silk. Textiles were accompanied by other luxury objects. The porcelains carried to the West in the same period provided depictions that showed the West how costume was worn in China.
It is important that it was not Chinese textile design but the designs on Chinese porcelain and lacquer that inspired the European textile chinoiserie referred to above. This inspiration lasted right through the 18th century and can be found in every branch of the textile arts. Exotic flowers, foliage imitating bamboo, pagodas, fantastic architecture, and quaint figures are there in great variety.
The two most important kinds of decorative textiles produced in China for the European market during the 18th century were embroideries and painted silks.
Almost without exception, the precious cloth was readily made into Western tailored garments. Thus, a French eighteenth-century cloth-of-silver dress is identifiably of the period, recognizable by its silhouette – with extended centre-back pleats from neckline to hem and panniered lateral extension – and by its floral pattern. Amidst rococo roses, however, reside pagodas and palm trees. These are fashionably present as they are in Georgian design, “Chinese Chippendale” mid-eighteenth-century furniture, Jean-Baptiste Pillement’s fantasies, and the colourful wallpapers with Chinese themes that adorned Enlightenment boudoirs.
The faraway dream of Cathay and of forbidden cities suggested to the European imagination a set of ceremonies and court life to rival those of Europe. Little was known of the Chinese court, and its ritual was therefore concocted in fable and reified images purporting to depict the most magnificent and densely peopled festivals and rites. Thus, images of full-dress ceremony would appear stately in the manner of the eighteenth century of the first half of the nineteenth century. After the Prince of Wales (later George IV) had the Brighton Pavilion built in the 1780s, the extravagance of exotic fabrication seemed capricious and profligate, discordant with the intense economic matters of empire. Likewise, textiles assumed a new sobriety. By the 1850s, however, exoticism was tempered increasingly by an ethnographic respect and accuracy, as the bourgeoisie that was looking for an East beyond formal gardens and enigmatic ceremonial pomp sought and delighted in a bona-fide Chinoiserie […] An at-home dress of the 1850s is characterisetic of this nineteenth-century change in attitude. The ebullient and inventive Chinoiserie of earlier times now became a deliberate and self-conscious use of Chinese materials and symbols. Floral medallions might not be taken in the West to be direct symbols of China, but they were surely locatable to the constraint and gravity characteristic of China. To wear a Chinese dress at home was not a frivolous and fanciful gesture; it was an imperial act, signifying worldly knowledge.
Other possible objects:
Dress (Robe à la française), 1740s England; textile Dutch or German Silk, linen, pigment; L. at center back 58 in. (147.3 cm) Purchase, Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1995.
This painted silk gown is The Costume Institute’s earliest example of the eighteenth- century fashion for exoticism and chinoiserie. The gown’s bold, somewhat fantastical floral pattern, with its use of dense areas of saturated color, is not, however, typical of the more commonly seen Chinese export silks, with their delicate and naturalistic designs.
Technical analyses of The Costume Institute’s examples of Chinese export textiles by the Museum’s Objects Conservation Laboratories revealed pigments bound in animal glue with underpainted designs in lead white outlined in silver and black paint. In contrast, the analysis of this gown disclosed the presence of a plant gum binder but no underpaint or silver and black painted outlines. Four pigments were used to create the palette—Prussian blue, gamboge, and red and brown lake—suggesting that the gown is most likely of European manufacture.
As early as the late eighteenth century, factories had been established in England, France, Holland, and Germany to replicate Chinese painted silks. Huguenots had begun to produce silks in Germany with the support of the Prussian governor, and it is likely that this textile is of Dutch or German origin. In addition, evidence suggests that the gown itself was constructed in England and thus is an exceedingly vivid surviving example of the intersecting transits of culture and commerce that permeated the period.
References:
“At-home dress [English]” (1994.302.1) In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History . New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/1994.302.1. (October 2006)
“Dress (Robe à la française) [England; textile Dutch or German]” (1995.235a,b) In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History . New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/1995.235a,b. (September 2008)
Richard Harrison Martin, Harold Koda. Orientalism: Visions of the East in Western Dress. Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.). GoogleBooks. Web.
What is a family portrait? What are some famous family portraits? How would you take a family portrait now?
Family portrait captures the moment and relationship between family members. It may be both formal and informal. The smiling faces and warmth of hugs between members depict a close bond whereas rigid poses, serious faces and relatively wide spaces between the members may portray a distant and cold relationship, or an aristocratic family that operates on propriety and authoritative stance.
Angelina Jolie walks down the aisle in a custom Atelier Versace gown featuring her children’s colourful artwork in first photos from her wedding to Brad Pitt.
This photo presents the parent sharing their wedding day with their children is so different from conventional and conservation practice of marrying first and having children later. I love family portraits of the Jolie-Pitt family. Children from diverse backgrounds, and love love love. Family that transcends blood ties and boundaries. I think the idea of including personal touches of artworks by her children to her wedding veil is beautiful.
Nowadays, there are a lot of photography dedicated to recreating childhood photos (with family members! be it parents, siblings, or cousins). There is also a trend of parents-to-be capturing moments of pregnancy through the use of photography and time-lapse. Modern technology such as the smartphone or digital camera allows us to take photos easily anywhere and anytime we want. We can even take it ourselves by using the front camera and also by using the selfie-stick so that no one would be excluded from the family photo. My family and I usually take a family photo during celebration days such as Hari Raya or when we go for an outing or dinner at somewhere nicer than usual. I’d love to have a family portrait taken in the studio after graduation day! The conventional and professional way of documenting our family has yet found its way to our wall in our home.
I was kind of excited when I heard that there would be an Islamic Art conference in ADM/National Design Centre. I’m intrigued by Islamic Art, especially art in the Islamic Golden Age. In schools and on the national level, we are mostly taught on Western and Asian Art hence I think it’s great that there’s an opportunity to gain greater insight and exposure on other arts and cultures around the world that would help in widening our perspective and knowledge.
I attended the lecture “Transcultural Suits” by Bosnian Austrian artist and architectural historian Azra Akšamija on the 8th of October. Her works explore the role of cultural and religious identity in conflicts, especially in the recent history of the Yugoslavian war and its aftermath. Her main medium is the use of fabric/textile. By designing wearable art, she aims to “link ideas and people across physical and psychological borders, thereby creating shared forms of future heritage to promote cross-cultural empathy”.
The Nomadic Mosque: To explore the various ways of negotiating spatial relationships between Islamic traditions and modernity in the US and Western Europe. Clothes that can be transformed into prayer rugs.It aims to redefine the traditional forms and function of mosques, thus the exploration of the formal limits of mosque architecture. The wearable mosque transcends time and space, allowing users to perform their prayers in other spaces in public or so instead of a mosque.
Dirndlmoschee [Dirndl Dress Mosque] is inspired by the dirndl which is a traditional Austrian dress. This depicts an assimilation of cultures. This prayer piece can accommodate three people. When the water-resistant apron is unfolded into three connected prayer rugs, it resembles a triptych which is a popular format of altar paintings from early Christian art hence once again emphasizing the idea of cross-cultural and religious identities; to highlight the similarities between Islam and Christianity and to suggest the possibility of peace between the two.
One of her recent works is Yarn-dez-vous (2014/15-). It features textiles from the Middle East and US. The jacket unzips into a geometrical elements that form the larger quilt. The term “yarn” refers to threading and on the symbolic level, storytelling (In Homer’s The Odyssey, Penelope performs the traditional feminine role as a weaver, weaving to keep the suitors away until Odysseus returns). The term “rendezvous” refers to a meeting. Together, the art piece combines the stories of individuals from various cultural, historical, and religious backgrounds.
Overall, I find Azra Akšamija’s ideas on wearable art and architecture interesting. It reflects a progressive ideal, to overcome the violent past and suggest a possibility of reunion and people despite differences. It is enlightening and interesting that the lectures include a perspective on Islamic art and Islam in Bosnia, a slight diversion from conventional focus on the Middle East.
13th century illustration depicting a public library in Baghdad, from the Maqamat Hariri. Bibliotheque Nationale de France.
I’ve always been interested in the Islamic Art especially during the Islamic Golden Age (around the 8th-13th century). I even grabbed the opportunity to join GEM Discoverer program to Turkey to witness the majestic beauty of Hagia Sophia, The Blue Mosque, Chora Church, and every other little things 🙂 The idea of interconnection between cultures is not new and modern. It has always existed when people are more concerned with the progress of humanity and its civilization instead of destroying each other due to differences. At the heart of the golden age is the House of Wisdom in Baghdad where scholars from various parts of the world and from different cultural and religious backgrounds come together to learn, exchange ideas and information, and also translate classic works of antiquity (Greek, Roman, Indian, Chinese, Egyptian) that might otherwise be lost into Arabic or Persian (later into Turkish, Hebrew, and Latin). With a new and easier writing system and the introduction of paper (supposedly the art of papermaking was obtained from Chinese prisoners of wars after the Battle of Talas), information could be disseminated all over the empire more effectively. Scholars could translate works, write their own works, and sell books. The Quran and hadith inculcate the importance of education and the pursuit of knowledge hence influencing the intellectuals’ thinking and practice. This thus led to the great success and peak of scientific and engineering discoveries and inventions during that period.
I’ll end this post with a short video clip from 1001 Inventions and the Library of Secrets (2010). Starring Sir Ben Kingsley, it features the history of science and technology in Muslim civilization during the Islamic Golden Age. A group of schoolchildren is assigned to research on the impact of the Middle Ages/Dark Ages on the modern world. Was it really dark? Was Europe really, totally dark and doomed? In Spain, Cordoba is the centre of art and architecture. Aqueducts brought drinkable water into the city and also the improvement of agriculture that yielded crops for the society. As the librarian/Al-Jazari character said, it’s all a matter of PERSPECTIVE. Watch this clip and let it illuminate and enlighten your mind…
This social experiment aims to create greater awareness about our culture of consumerism in this capitalistic world that is built on inequalities and exploitation. Sometimes we forget, or take things for granted – where the goods that we demand and buy come from, who worked on it, and how the working conditions and environment are in other parts of the (unfortunate third) world. Corporate companies possess the power and resources to deny and mask their involvement in labour exploitation thus leading many consumers to blindly (or naively) engage in this unfair economic and political system that benefits the wealthy and the elite. Some ignorant or heartless souls would argue that it is their right to benefit from the bargain or that the poor are to blamed for not educating themselves so as to assume a better position in the workforce. Such responses are alarming and disappointing. How could we progress towards the betterment of all when we are trapped in the system that exists due to power, privilege, greed, and violence? The experiment is not about boycotting brands or companies. Instead, it seeks to send a message about awareness and hope that combined support and voice from the people would push companies to ensure a safe environment and fair wages for the abused and exploited.
Allan Sekula mainly employs the medium photography, infusing it into exhibition, film, and books. He claims that the sea is the “forgotten space – out of sight, out of mind”.
Allan Sekula, “Fish Story”.
People living in cities are too busy occupied with routines and focused on their daily attempts to climb higher the social ladder. Some may take it for granted that products and materials we have today actually travel far and wide by sea from different ports all around the world. The raw resources experienced being cut, hit, heated, sewed, molded, assembled by various skilled laborers all around the world. They are exported, imported, re-exported, and so on. The exchange of goods and services (Oh, the exploitation of cheap labor and neo-colonialism). The economy – capitalist economy, to be precise.
Sekula argues that international trade, globalization, and everything else that contributes to capitalism throw the world out of balance. In the pursuit of striving greater efficiency and economy success to support our culture of materialism and consumerism, we are usually blinded by the exploitation and increasing inequality between the different worlds in our social reality. Are we forever trapped and enslaved by a system we’ve constructed and followed after all these years? Can we ever escape? Can we create or adopt an alternative that is entirely free of corruption and exploitation? Will the system, or life in general, be completely balanced and just to all? Or are we all slaves, serving both the bigger powers and our own self-interests?
The 16th century – the Age of Discovery… for the Europeans. They traveled in search for new trading routes to the East Indies so as to provide for the growing capitalism in Europe. They wanted to gain wealth by possessing gold, silver, salt, and spices (Oh! and slaves). From the 8th to the 15th century, the Republic of Venice monopolized the spice trade between Europe and the Middle-east. The spices were imported from Africa and Asia.
The Portuguese challenged and dominated Venice by exploring Africa and Asia by sea. Henry the Navigator commissioned sailors to search the path to the Indian Ocean to gain control over spice trade and also to find Prestor John, a legendary king and patriarch that rules over a “Nestorian” (Church of the East), so that he would attain help in the Crusade. The mission was both gold and God (Christianity). Vasco da Gama made it around Africa and across the Indian Ocean to Calicut, on the Malabar Coast. The wealth of the Indies was opened for Europeans to explore and exploit – thus allowing the growth of Portugal’s economy. However, there was tension between the Arab merchants and Portuguese traders in Calicut. The latter were later expelled after the Calicut Massacre. They sought refuge in Cochin. This led to the war between Calicut and Cochin, war between Calicut and the Portuguese, and later alliance between the two against Kunjali Marakkar who defied the Zamorin. In the pursuit of wealth and power, many lives were lost. That seems to be fundamental throughout all these years.
A steel engraving from the 1850s, with modern hand coloring – It shows meeting between Vasco da Gama and Zamorin of Calicut.
Spanish and Dutch merchants and missionaries began to enter the picture as Portuguese’s power dwindles during 16th century trade by sea routes. Furthermore, Christopher Columbus was ordered to compete with Portugal for the spice trade with Asia. He accidentally landed in the Americas instead of East Indies. That, on the other hand, begins another narrative on the New World in which the evangelical effort went hand-in-hand with colonial conquests.
