TAASA Review Issues

As the year draws to an end, the TAASA Review – both this December issue and the planned March 2026 issue – aims to cover some of the Asian art exhibitions that can be see over the holiday period and into the new year.

One such exhibition is currently at the State Library of Victoria – an innovative exploration of the different creative processes used by five Australian artists to produce their work, whether in the visual arts, dance or literature. Curator Nandini Sathyamurthy covers the two Asian background artists in this exhibition: Thai-Australian visual artist Bundit Puangthong and Bharatanātyam classical Indian dance specialist Dr Chandrabhanu.

Prevailing Gales is an exhibition opening next February in Hobart after showing in Japan in March this year. It is based on the intriguing story of the encounter between some samurai and Japanese fishermen with a group of convicts turned pirates who had seized control of the ship that was relocating them, arriving at Teba Jima island off Shikoku in 1829. Ann Proctor describes how Tasmanian born artist, Sue Pedley explores the theme of colliding cultural worlds in her exhibition, drawing on her family history, the sea and this link to Asia.

Should TAASA members find themselves in India in the new year, you may be able to experience the Theyyam Festival in Kerala, a ritualistic folk festival which combines oral tradition, music, embodiment and dance entangled with Hindu mythology. Diana Chester, a New York born sound artist based in Sydney and Dhanaraj Keezhara, a visual artist from Kerala, write of their collaborative work in relation to the Theyyam Festival as held in Keezhara, Kerala in February each year. They emphasise that they aim, as they put it, ‘not to explain Theyyam but to make works that echo its textures and invite audiences into a relationship with the practice’.

Two other exhibitions that are covered in this issue, while already over, are very much worth reviewing. Curator Josephine Rout walks us through the well-received Kimono exhibition recently held at the NGV, while Japanese expert Kathryn Hunyor describes the photography exhibition Paper Moon: images of Japan she curated at Kirribilli Neighbourhood Centre Gallery in Sydney, a selection of recent works by photographer Tony Maniaty. She describes these enigmatic images as capturing ‘beautifully composed in-between spaces, where the confluence of light, shade and texture conveyed to me that very Japanese sense of “mono-no-aware’’’.

Also accessible to interested members, though perhaps only by request, is the collection of historic Japanese shipping postcards held at the Australian National Maritime Museum. Linda Bretherton’s In the Public Domain article is a testimony to the value of ‘ephemera’ in fleshing out our understanding of a particular culture at a particular time – a point well made by Asia Bookroom proprietor Sally Burden in her recent TAASA talk.

Public art is of course accessible to all. Matt Cox covers the public work of Sydney based artist Louise Zhang, focusing particularly on the way her work straddles two domains: the contemporary museum or gallery where artistic works are framed by the gallery space and shaped by curatorial and collector interests and the public realm where work is constrained by the built environment and other practical concerns. He discusses what drives this artist’s creativity and how this manifests itself across these two domains.

We offer two book reviews in this issue. Jackie Menzies reviews Paul Bromberg’s latest scholarly work Later Chinese Bronzes for the Scholar’s Studio, based on objects drawn from his own collection. Russell Kelty introduces us to the work of Osaka based, less well known woodblock print artist Shunbaisai Hokuei through his review of John Fiorillo’s publication Hokuei: Master of Osaka Kabuki Prints. This is another example of how passionate collectors significantly contribute to scholarship through researching their own collections.

Another self-described ‘hands on collector’ is Shane Paget who presents one of the more unusual objects that the TAASA Review has covered – a Japanese made bronze bust of Napoleon from the late 19th century bought by chance at a garage sale in Sydney. As far as his extensive research has uncovered, this seems to be the only extant bust of Napoleon made in Japan.

This issue ends on a sad note – a heart felt tribute to Jim Masselos by his long time friend, Jackie Menzies. Jim was with TAASA from the start and was a most supportive member of the TAASA Review Publications Committee for decades.

The TAASA team would like to wish all members an enjoyable and healthy holiday season and looks forward to welcoming members to the many TAASA events being planned for 2026.