Reflection: Final Thoughts on DD3006

I don’t really have much to say regarding the process of making our exhibition miniature as I left that to the experts, namely Xia Yin, En Ge and Kerr Hui. I just supplied them with the barbie doll and some of the furniture, as well as the digital mock up of my window, before they turned them into the lovely diorama pieces that you see before you.

IMG_4462-1 IMG_4463-1 IMG_4465 IMG_4466 My job was mainly text-based, meaning that I worked on rewriting our wall text and vetting through everyone’s object labels, catalog entries and the final proposal. I’m not going to lie, it was quite an ordeal handling everyone’s work in this way, especially because the catalog entries would be individually graded, but my group and I believed that it had to be done for consistency’s sake in terms of content and format. I can’t even begin to tell you how excellent it was to get great feedback from Prof Sujatha about our writing, which really justified the splitting of the workload in hindsight.

From the project, I learned that it was important to play to everyone’s strengths. I also learned that working on a topic that several other groups were doing as well wasn’t always a bad or unoriginal idea. As seen in the final submission of everyone’s projects, there were very different aspects of Chinoiserie that each group explored and in different ways. This just speaks as to the resonance that this topic had with me and many of my other course mates.

As a whole, this course taught me more than just the art that was produced under colonisation. It gave me an overview of how colonial powers affected the societies that they colonised, for better or for worse. It gave me a concrete idea of the trade that was happening on a global scale, and how it was very similar to trade patterns now despite its slower pace. I learned that foreign trade was a diplomatic art in some cases, and in others, a knife at one’s throat when push came to shove. I gained some idea of organising exhibitions, from conceptualisation to the actual writing of content for it, and overall, had a good time assuming the role of curator.

Week 7 Journal

If you could have a room of your own, how would you set about decorating it? Chinoiserie? Japonaiserie?

Although my class presentation AND final project were on the topic of Chinoiserie, if I could have a room of my own, I’d probably decorate it in the Japonaiserie style. Why? Purely because Chinoiserie does not resonate with my personal aesthetic. Despite the elaborately feminine details that Chinoiserie possesses, I find that the line between beauty and tackiness is often blurred when it comes to this decorative style. The Georgians may have found it elegant and appealing to their eyes, coming off the Rococo trend, but I think that the lush design elements look too busy when arranged together. I would not be comfortable in such a room that constantly calls attention to itself, and it would be difficult to style the room so that it appears modern and classy, rather than outdated or gaudy.

In my mind, my perfect Japonaiserie room would have my favourite ukiyo-e images arranged artfully on taupe or pale brown walls. Hokusai’s Great Wave Off Kanagawa would sit next to Utagawa Kuniyoshi’s Haunted Old Palace at Soma and Cats Suggested as the Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido. A large Byōbu or decorative screen in the style of Rakuchu-Rakugai would be placed in a corner of the room as a private changing area, and my bed would be low, filled with white bedsheets and dark duvets and pillows. While sleeping on a tatami mat might be more authentic, I’d take advantage of the comfort that Europeans bring to Japonaiserie with the traditional mattress bed.

Furniture in my room would be sparse, on the comfortable side of spartan, mostly adhering to a rich chocolate brown colour palette. A tiny bonsai might accompany a little maneki neko (fortune cat) statue on a dresser, and the maneki neko might reappear on my noren, or traditional Japanese curtains. Can you sense an overall theme here? (Haha, I love cats.)

Object Label (draft 3)

I don’t know why I’m still getting like 11% plagiarism on this… Apparently my artwork and book titles are getting flagged despite being italicised on Turnitin?

A View of the Wilderness with the Alhambra, the Pagoda and the Mosque
Edward Rooker (British, 1724–74)
1763
Etching on paper
H. 1.24in. (3.15 cm); W. 1.86in. (4.73 cm)
Prints and Drawings, British Museum
1863,0509.281

This etching depicts the Great Pagoda at Kew Gardens, designed by Sir William Chambers (1722–96). It was featured in Chambers’ book Plans, Elevations, Sections and Perspective Views of the Gardens and Buildings at Kew in Surrey in 1763, following the completion of the gardens in 1762. The ten-storey octagonal pagoda was the tallest Chinese-style building in England at the time, towering over much of Kew Gardens at a height of 50m (164ft). It was also the most accurate of all Chinese-style buildings in Europe for its time, despite the minor error of it having an even number of storeys, where true Chinese pagodas had an odd number of storeys.

The design of the pagoda was based on Chambers’ travels to Canton, and the pagoda’s vibrancy was the talk of the town; its roofs were covered with varnished iron plates and each corner had a gilt golden dragon made of wood perched on it. A total of 80 dragons were made for the roofs but by the 1780s, were removed due to rot. This short lifespan was characteristic of many of Chambers’ work at Kew Gardens such as the House of Confucius, Alhambra and Exotic Garden, which have all subsequently been demolished. It was therefore a surprise for the public that it remained standing and even served as a site for bomb testing during the Second World War.

Wall Text (draft 3)

Edited the wall text for that 2% of plagiarism (haha).

Chinoiserie: The Borrowed Lifestyle explores how trade with China influenced lifestyles in eighteenth century Europe, with a focus on England. The term ‘Chinoiserie’ refers to a style of Western decorative arts that borrows imagery and techniques from Chinese culture. Inspired by the work of prominent Chinoiserie enthusiast Lady Elizabeth Anson (1725–1760) at Shughborough Hall in Staffordshire, England, this exhibition showcases four different English-produced, Chinese-inspired objects from that time period. It aims to recreate the typical lifestyle of an upper-class female Chinoiserie enthusiast during Chinoiserie’s heyday.

For centuries, China fascinated the West’s imagination with its whimsical motifs of mountainous landscapes, pagodas, fabulous birds, mandarins, dragons and phoenixes. Initially, only a handful of objects found their way from the East to Europe, and these were so highly prized that they seldom entered the open market. However, the eighteenth century marked a significant change in such economic conditions, as the rise of trade with China made acquiring these objects much easier. The influx of imported goods like porcelain, lacquer ware and Chinese silk opened the floodgates to an obsession with all things Chinese in Europe, particularly in England, and with these items came the import of the ideas and techniques used to produce them.

Demand for Chinese-style goods became so high that English artisans began attempting to reproduce these products for the domestic market, inspired by the visuals that they saw on the objects, as well as the materials that they were made of. The fusion of Chinese iconography with an English sensibility became known as ‘Chinoiserie’, and remained popular from 1750 to 1765.

The influence from Chinoiserie on the English lifestyle was apparent in various ways.

From the Chinese came a new style of dressmaking, with Chinese patterns, textiles and details like colour palettes or adornments incorporated into European silhouettes. A woman’s wardrobe was always fair game when it came to society gossip and Chinoiserie gowns were marks of wealth, status and sophistication. In other words, being en vogue (“fashionable”). Chinoiserie architecture also became popular, with playful Chinese structures like pagodas and wooden bridges appearing as attractions in the stylish gardens of private and royal estates. Their exoticism was a breath of fresh air to the Georgian public, and turned natural outdoor spaces into ones of cosmopolitan imagination. Interiors were not left unfurnished in the Chinoiserie style either; homes were filled with china, lacquer ware and all sorts of other accoutrements that marked them as being heavily influenced by the Chinoiserie fad. This cultural borrowing even spawned new social norms, as from the Chinese came tea drinking, a distinctly non-English social habit that quickly became the cornerstone of polite English society. The surge in popularity of this activity even stimulated demand for domestically produced Chinoiserie tea sets that catered to English tastes while remaining aesthetically Chinese.

In short, Chinoiserie seamlessly infiltrated English homes and society’s way of life, manifesting itself in fashion, interior design, architecture, and ceramics. Though borrowed, it was not an exact imitation of the Chinese lifestyle, with the English adapting ideas and aesthetics to suit their own cultural needs while remaining steadfastly fascinated by the fantasy of China.

(520 words)

Wall Text (draft 2)

Chinoiserie: The Borrowed Lifestyle explores how trade with China influenced lifestyles in eighteenth century Europe, with a focus on England. The term ‘Chinoiserie’ refers to a style of Western decorative arts that borrows imagery and techniques from Chinese culture. Inspired by the work of prominent Chinoiserie enthusiast Lady Elizabeth Anson (1725–1760) at Shughborough Hall in Staffordshire, England, this exhibition showcases four different English-produced, Chinese-inspired objects from that time period. It aims to recreate the typical lifestyle of an upper-class female Chinoiserie enthusiast during Chinoiserie’s heyday.

For centuries, China fascinated the West’s imagination with its whimsical motifs of mountainous landscapes, pagodas, fabulous birds, mandarins, dragons and phoenixes. Initially, only a handful of objects found their way from the East to Europe, and these were so highly prized that they seldom entered the open market. However, the eighteenth century marked a significant change in such economic conditions, as the rise of trade with China made acquiring these objects much easier. The influx of imported goods like porcelain, lacquer ware and Chinese silk opened the floodgates to an obsession with all things Chinese in Europe, particularly in England, and with these items came the import of the ideas and techniques used to produce them.

Demand for Chinese-style goods became so high that English artisans began attempting to reproduce these products for the domestic market, inspired by the visuals that they saw on the objects, as well as the materials that they were made of. The fusion of Chinese iconography with an English sensibility became known as ‘Chinoiserie’, and remained popular from 1750 to 1765.

The influence from Chinoiserie on the English lifestyle was apparent in various ways.

From the Chinese came a new style of dressmaking, with Chinese patterns, textiles and details like colour palettes or adornments incorporated into European silhouettes. A woman’s wardrobe was always fair game when it came to society gossip and Chinoiserie gowns were marks of wealth, status and sophistication. In other words, being en vogue (“fashionable”). Chinoiserie architecture also became popular, with playful Chinese structures like pagodas and wooden bridges appearing as features in the fashionable gardens of private and royal estates. Their exoticism was a breath of fresh air to the Georgian public, and turned natural outdoor spaces into ones of cosmopolitan imagination.

Interiors were not left unfurnished in the Chinoiserie style either; homes were filled with china, lacquer ware and all sorts of other accoutrements that marked them as being heavily influenced by the Chinoiserie fad. This cultural borrowing even spawned new social norms, as from the Chinese came tea drinking, a distinctly non-English social habit that quickly became the cornerstone of polite English society. The surge in popularity of this activity even stimulated demand for domestically produced Chinoiserie tea sets that catered to English tastes while remaining aesthetically Chinese.

In short, Chinoiserie seamlessly infiltrated English homes and society’s way of life, manifesting itself in fashion, interior design, architecture, and ceramics. Though borrowed, it was not an exact imitation of the Chinese lifestyle, with the English adapting ideas and aesthetics to suit its own cultural needs while remaining steadfastly fascinated by the fantasy of China.

(496 words)

Catalog Entry

image

A View of the Wilderness with the Alhambra, the Pagoda and the Mosque, 1763
Sir William Chambers (Scottish, born in Sweden, 1723–1796)
Etching on paper (315 x 473mm)
The National Trust Collection

This etching on paper showcases an artist’s impression of the Kew Gardens’ landscape, with particular interest on three follies within the garden. Namely, the Alhambra, the Great Pagoda and the Mosque. Created in 1763, it is the 43rd plate of Sir William Chambers’ ‘Plans, Elevations, Sections and Perspective Views of the Gardens and Buildings at Kew’, a book published in 1763 upon the completion of the Kew Gardens in 1762. Detailing his architectural work for Augusta, Dowager Princess of Wales and mother of George III at Kew Gardens, the book aimed to “promote the fashion for Chinese-style buildings in England’ (Knox, 1994, p. 22), and indeed helped to perpetuate the trend during that period.

Born in 1723, Swedish-born William Chambers was son to a Scottish merchant and at the age of 16, left his education in England to work in the employment of the Swedish East India Company. During his service there, Chambers made two trips to Canton; once in 1743 and another in 1748. Both trips lasted a year. In China, Chambers was fascinated by the culture and documented his experiences fastidiously, making notes and sketches of the strange architecture and scenery. This small act would later be seen as the origin of Chambers’ passion for Chinese architecture and landscaping.

By 1749, Chambers retired from the Swedish East India Company to pursue his interest in architecture. He attended the Ecole de Arts in Paris before enrolling under the tutelage of Charles Louis Clerisseau in Rome to study classical architecture. Upon his return in 1755, he was employed as drawing master to the Prince of Wales, who would later be known as King George III. Work within the royal household proved crucial to Chambers’ architectural career, as it was then the Dowager Princess engaged Chambers to help design the grounds at Kew, as well as beautify it with garden buildings. Chambers used this opportunity to apply his knowledge of Chinese architecture and gardens, and constructed a number of garden buildings for the princess in various fantastic architectural styles, not least of which were 9 classical temples, a mosque, an Alhambra (a type of Moorish palace-fortress) and several Chinese-style follies like the House of Confucius, an aviary and the Great Pagoda. The end result was a feast to the eyes of the Georgian public, and while he was not the first architect to try replicating Chinese architecture, the accuracy of his work on the Pagoda from his experiences in Canton solidified Chambers’ status as the foremost expert in England on Chinese-style architecture.

While some critics nowadays would write off Chambers’ work as tacky or gimmicky, he sparked a fad for buildings and gardens in the Chinese-style, known as chinoiserie. Without Chambers’ experiences in China, subsequent architectural horrors ensued by his imitators’, who based their designs solely on the hearsay of English travelers to Canton or the imagery depicted on the delicate china they brought back. By 1765, the obsession with all things Chinese, or appearing to be, became a lifestyle for the upper classes and reached its peak, with the image of the Cathay (a fantasy world of their imagined China) spawning not just buildings and gardens, but also fashion, decorative arts and tea-drinking. (533 words)

Bibliography

Knox, T. (1994). The great Pagoda at Kew. History Today, 44(7), 22.

The China Pagoda at Kew (1931, Feb 14). South China Morning Post (1903-1941). Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1549401535?accountid=12665

Lady at Kew

So in our discussions about the female figure that we want to depict in our exhibition, I discovered a possible candidate in the form of Lady Elizabeth Yorke, also known as Lady Anson (1725–1760).

Portrait of Lady Elizabeth Yorke, Lady Anson (1725–1760), by studio of Thomas Hudson (1701–1779). Inv. no. NT1271067. ©National Trust Collections, supplied by the Public Catalogue Foundation

According to Philip Wilkinson, author of several architectural books like The English Buildings Book, and Stephen Dowell’s Shughborough: Seat of the Earl of Lichfield, Lady Elizabeth Yorke was purportedly responsible for establishing the Chinoiserie style at Shughborough, Staffordshire. She was married to Admiral Lord George Anson, “the most famous naval officer of his day” who became extremely wealthy after capturing the Spanish galleon Nuestra Señora de Covadonga that was filled with American silver. Admiral Lord Anson had spent some time in Canton in 1743, though his opinion of the Chinese was coloured by a poor working relationship with them.

“They suggest the possibility that George’s wife, Elizabeth, was the family member most closely involved with the Chinese House. Chinoiserie, apparently, was an area of decorative design that found many female enthusiasts in the 18th century: perhaps Shugborough’s Chinese House is an example of this feminine influence.”(1)

Thus, using what we know of Lady Elizabeth’s background would add further historical accuracy to our project and communicate our idea that the Chinoiserie lifestyle was an imported idea that gained traction despite contact with those that had actually been to China and knew the Cathay was nothing but a European fantasy.

Sources: 1, 2, 3

Object Label

I’ve had a really busy week, sorry for the lack of updates. Guess this is what happens when you get overwhelmed with paid work on top of 1 submission and a major midterm…

Anyway, time to talk about my object label. In my research on Chinoiserie gardens, I found out that there were very few that remained intact or in its original state. This was because Chinoiserie was a fad followed by the upper classes and as with any other fad, soon went out of style; gardens were remodelled to keep up with the times. What did remain were usually the garden’s architectural structures, like pavilions or Chinese-style bridges, or architectural plans of the structure or proposed garden.

Initially, our team wanted to show the European Chinoiserie lifestyle in general, but it was pointed out to us that it would be too broad and not a good representative of a particular lifestyle, since there would be various factors to account for like time period, the socio-political environment and the state of Chinese imports at the time.

Thus, I had to narrow down my potential objects from three to one when we decided to centralise our findings around the English 18th-century Chinoiserie lifestyle. The three possibilities were originally Woburn Abbey’s Hornbeam Maze (a 19th-century pagoda based on Sir William Chambers’ design), Versailles’ Trianon de Porcelaine (a 17th-century French pavilion made in the Chinoiserie style, surrounded by lush gardens) and the Kew Gardens’ Great Pagoda.

After refining our scope of exploration, the Kew Gardens’ pagoda was the only possible contender.

Sir William Chambers
A View of the Wilderness with the Alhambra, the Pagoda and the Mosque
Plate 43 of William Chambers’ s ‘Plans, Elevations, Sections and Perspective Views of the Gardens and Buildings at Kew ….’ 1763
Etching on paper
1763
315 x 473mm

Object label
This etching depicts the Great Pagoda at Kew Gardens, designed by Sir William Chambers (1722–96). It was featured in Chambers’ book ‘Plans, Elevations, Sections and Perspective Views of the Gardens and Buildings at Kew in Surrey (London)’ in 1763, following the completion of the gardens in 1762. The ten-storey octagonal pagoda was the tallest Chinese-style building in England at the time, towering over much of Kew Gardens at a height of 50m (164ft). It was also the most accurate of all Chinese-style buildings in Europe for its time, despite the minor error of it having an even number of storeys, where true Chinese pagodas had an odd number of storeys. The design of the pagoda was based on Chambers’ travels to Canton, and the pagoda’s vibrancy was the talk of the town; its roofs were covered with varnished iron plates and each corner had a gilt golden dragon made of wood perched on it. A total of 80 dragons were made for the roofs but by the 1780s, were removed due to rot. This short lifespan was characteristic of many of Chambers’ work at Kew Gardens such as the House of Confucius, Alhambra and Exotic Garden, which have all subsequently been demolished. It was therefore a surprise for the public that it remained standing and even served as a site for bomb-testing during the Second World War.

Week 8: Journal

What was your favorite object from today’s visit to the Asian Civilizations Museum?

My favourite object from the museum was the Nias’ adu zatua shown here –

Screen Shot 2015-10-11 at 11.31.46 pm(photo courtesy of the Asian Civilisation Museum)

The adu zatua is a small free-standing wooden statuette, with adu meaning “carving” and zatua meaning “elder”. They were anthropomorphic and traditionally created so that the spirits of one’s ancestors could live in these carvings. They often had to be placated with offerings, usually eggshells or pig offal (specifically the liver or heart), during major events like births, weddings or deaths. It was believed that the goddess Silewe Nazarata (moon goddess and personification of all living things) introduced this tradition of making wooden idols to mark certain important events and since ancestral worship was at the heart of Nias beliefs, this tradition carried on till the 1920s, when the Dutch missionaries outlawed the carving of idols. The Nias people believed that it was crucial to establish a good relationship with one’s deceased relatives so that one could live a good life and prevent the experience of misfortune.

What struck me about this object was my family’s history with such carvings. I come from a Catholic household where idolatry is considered blasphemous and ethnic superstition (i.e Chinese beliefs, like no sweeping the house during all 15 days of Chinese New Year or ) is observed purely to ‘be better safe than sorry’. So we never really believed in the power of magical objects.

One year, my parents went to Bali and brought back a small wooden carving that I believe was an adu zatua as it resembled a small person with a tall headdress. To them, it was only a souvenir, evidence that they had fallen into a tourist trap and come away wallets lighter. Not understanding the spiritual origin and implications of it, my mother placed it in our house and not too long later, strange things started happening in our home. My brother and mother both reported hearing someone calling their names in the house even though no one was around, there was a change in the atmosphere of our home, and the statuette often fell down from its place in our staircase display enclave on its own.

My parents eventually put two and two together and quickly got rid of the carving (I think they threw it away outside the house, so the spirits didn’t remain in our home). This experience reminded me that in our admiring of objects that are so rich in cultural history like the adu zatua, we tend to forget that these are objects of power. It might be superstitious to say so, but these items should be handled with respect and an understanding of their history, as well as of the cultural or religious practices surrounding it. The last thing one would want would be to incur the wrath some otherworldly being, skeptic or not.

Chinoiserie Gardens

At the height of the Chinoiserie craze, great varieties of exotic plants and seeds were being imported from China and Japan. According to Alexandra Loske, Art Historian and Curator –

“In the very early 1800s, when the Pavilion interiors received their first oriental make-over, newly-arrived Chinese plants were being successfully propagated at Kew. By 1813 the Royal Gardener at Kew, William Townsend Aiton, recorded a total of 120 species that had recently been introduced from China. In the same year Aiton planted the garden at Carlton House for the Prince Regent. Two years later the Brighton gardener John Furner met with the architect John Nash and Aiton in London to discuss the new planting of the Pavilion gardens, which included many of the newly imported and propagated Chinese plants”

“In his beautifully illustrated and researched book Set for a King (2005) Mike Jones describes the challenges of importing live plants and seeds… Many of them could be found in the Pavilion gardens in the early nineteenth century, for example the Hydrangea, now common in British gardens, but first brought to Kew only in 1789. Others are autumn-flowering chrysanthemums (1795), the tree peony (Paeonia suffruticosa, 1787) and several types of camellia (mid to late 18th century), while the Chinese Lantern (Physalis alkekengi) had been known in Britain since the 16th century.”

Jones’ book also mentions that the Pavilion’s flora and fauna were included and identifiable in the Chinese wallpaper inside the palace, perhaps a deliberate decision so that guests could wonder at the floral wallpaper and visit the rooms that . It is easy to imagine Regency guests marvelling at the flowery wallpaper or walking through rooms that mimicked Chinese courtyards later trying to spot the same exotic flowers in the garden.