fluktor -|||- study - office - newsletter May 20, 2003

Carvers groan about copycats scratching at margins (wood-carving festival in Sanyi, Taiwan)

National treasure stolen from museum (Gongju National Museum, Korea)

Painting a Korean master with an elegant brush (Im Kwon Taek of Changsong, South Korea)

Diplomat portrait the peoples choice (Dalu Zhao wins the Peoples Choice for the Archibald prize)

*******************

Carvers groan about copycats scratching at margins

By Brian Hsu STAFF REPORTER, Monday, May 19, 2003,Page 4
The annual wood-carving festival in Sanyi township, Miaoli County, kicked off on Saturday and will run for nine days, but festival organizers said visitors were sparse over the weekend as a result of rains and the country-wide panic over the SARS epidemic.

This year's Sanyi wood-carving festival has gotten considerably less attention than in the past few years not just as a result of natural causes like SARS-induced agoraphobia, but also due to some criticism from local art workers that it has become a less-than-desirable event for them.

Why? They point blame at the wood sculpture competition held each year together with the festival. The national competition, has now become "a source of evils" because local wood sculptors complain that it has brought them more harm than good since its prize-winning works end up being copied by the Chinese.

What's worse is that the Chinese copycats can mass-produce these works and actually sell them back to Sanyi.

In fact, some estimate that over 80 percent of the works on sale at the arts shops in Sanyi are from China -- many of which bear a clear resemblance to Taiwanese prize winners.

Dumping from China has become increasingly serious in recent years, forcing many art workers in Sanyi to give up their beloved craft.

It may not come as a surprise that this form of intellectual property theft does not originate in southern China. It is much more local. Sanyi residents who have invested in the local wood sculpture business are now using the cheap labor costs in China to control the wood sculpture market in their hometown or other parts of Taiwan by dumping mass-produced works imitated from Sanyi artists.

Kuang Tang-ya (官當雅), a local sculptor, lamented the rampant piracy and dumping of figurines from China.

Kuang said he is not interested in participating in the annual wood sculpture competition for fears that his creativity will soon be stolen and become a money-making tool for others.

The 35-year-old sculptor survives in the business by cultivating his own customers and customizing his Zen-inspired works according to their liking.

Tseng Wu-lang (曾武郎), a local art worker who had won a first prize in last year's national wood sculpture competition, said now is the time for the Sanyi wood sculpture business to transform itself to adapt to the change of the environment.

"As traditional sculptures are easily imitated and mass-produced by the Chinese, Sanyi art workers should develop products [that use special composite materials] that are difficult to copy," Tseng said.
(http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2003/05/19/211171)

mehr zum festival: http://www.sanyi.gov.tw/2003/index.htm
(oder besser ohne flash intro: http://www.sanyi.gov.tw/2003/main.html)

vgl. artikel von 2001: http://taipeitimes.com/News/feat/archives/2001/05/28/87637

*********************************

the korea herald, 2003.05.17
National treasure stolen from museum

Thieves broke into the Gongju National Museum Thursday night walking off with four exhibits, including a national treasure that is more than 1,200 years old, museum officials said yesterday.

A seventh century gilt bronze Buddhist statue from the Baekje Kingdom (18 BC-AD 660) which is listed as a national treasure is missing, along with two celadon dishes from the Goryeo dynasty (913-1392) and a ceramic dish from the Joseon dynasty (1392-1910).

This is the first time that a national museum has been raided. The incident happened around 10:30 p.m. when two men in black caps stormed into the museum in South Chungcheong Province, threatening a worker on night duty with a knife and an electric shocker. The thieves tied the worker's hands and covered his mouth and eyes with duct tape, before breaking the display window and making off with the exhibits.

The infrared detector installed at the front gate of the museum was turned off and the shutter of the exhibition room was open at the time of the incident.

"The worker turned off the detectors for a routine patrol and the thieves seem to have waited for the moment," said Yi Kun-moo, director of the National Museum of Korea. "Because the museum was scheduled to move to a new building next year, investments to improve security equipment were relatively low."

The security equipment at the Gongju museum includes four CCTVs, 11 VCRs and six infrared detectors. Although details were not released, Yi said the security equipment at the Gongju museum is relatively inferior compared to other state museums.

"We deeply regret that such a shameful incident has happened. We will take proper steps to strengthen security in museums nationwide and do whatever it takes to keep the stolen treasures from slipping out overseas," said Yi. "I urge the thieves to safely return the exhibits back to authorities. There is no statute of limitations on this kind of crime and transactions of the items are banned."

By Kim Tong-hyung
(http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/html_dir/2003/05/17/200305170027.asp)

*************************

Painting a Korean master with an elegant brush
By Wesley Morris, Globe Staff, 5/16/2003

Last year, when a jury at the Cannes Film Festival split its directing award between Paul Thomas Anderson of the San Fernando Valley and Im Kwon Taek of Changsong, South Korea, it seemed like a truce between youth and experience. The number of Anderson films? Four. The number for Im? 95.

Their winning movies, though - ''Punch-Drunk Love'' and ''Chihwaseon '' - have more in common than meets the eye. Both are about besotted misfits and both are heartbreakingly scenic. Im's, however, is set in 19th-century Korea and has a hero who declares, ''Without a drink and a woman, I can't hold a brush.''

Yes, because no one else could, Im has taken it upon himself to regale us with the story of the painting legend Jang Seung Up. He was as big a cad as Rodin and as moody as Pollock. His work, meanwhile, was exquisite: epic scrolls of nature filtered through abstraction. Black ink on white paper has rarely been as vivid.

Im's approach to Jang's life is a lot like his subject's painting method: brisk, beautiful, and carefree. Jang bends over a long sheet of paper and moves his hand in short, elegant brush strokes and art appears. Even when Jang has misplaced his elegance, the movie never loses its own.

''Chihwaseon'' is the stuff of your standard artist biopic - Jang's a wild, crazy, womanizing revolutionary genius. Yet, his bind was unique. His lower-class upbringing and lack of formal education won him the disdain of the political establishment, which, despite this, frequently solicited his talent. For his part, Jang didn't care about remaining in the king's good graces. His notorious attitude aside, he was considered one of Korea's master painters.

Jang, though, is increasingly ill at ease working for the king. You can sympathize with Im's portrait and Choi Min Sik's gracefully enraged performance. How many scrolls of flowers and birds can one man paint? If someone had given the late Sister Wendy the same assignment, she might have become just as volcanically drunk.

Not surprisingly, the actual women in Jang's life are driven to fury. One partner is so fed up with the booze-and-belligerence act that she moves in with another man. As a parting gift, she demands a painting, and not some bird-and-flowers number, either - she wants something worth some cash. In a sequence astonishing both for its simplicity and for Jang's complicity, she gets her wish: a terrifically detailed abstract. Needless to say, it's unloaded for a pretty yen.

Im's 94th picture, ''Chunhyang,'' was more conventionally dramatic and entertaining than No. 95. But ''Chihwaseon'' presents us with a little-known corner of the art world and makes a case for Jang being its biggest star. The movie's attention to anthropological and historical detail means things are slow to come alive. But once they do, the nature of Jang's psychic torture is palpable and unmistakable. This is that rare art flick whose subject goes nuts because his work is not self-indulgent enough.

Where to look for inspiration? It might be too late, but I'd strongly recommend Jung Il Sung's breathtaking cinematography. If that can't soothe a roiling soul, you might not have one.

Wesley Morris can be reached at wmorris@globe.com.

Chihwaseon

Directed by: Im Kwon Taek
Written by: Im and Kim Yong Oak
Starring: Choi Min Sik, Yoo Ho Jung, Ahn Sung Ki
Running time: 117 minutes
Unrated (salty language and a scene of love-making among the thrushes)
In Korean, with English subtitles
This story ran on page C7 of the Boston Globe on 5/16/2003.

(http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/136/living/Painting_a_Korean_master_with_an_elegant_brush+.shtml)

*****************************

Diplomat portrait the peoples choice
[img] Dalu Zhao wins the Peoples Choice award.

THE artist was from the Peoples Republic of China, his subject was the Australian peoples representative there and yesterday they were the peoples choice.

Beijing-born Dalu Zhao yesterday won the Peoples Choice for the Archibald prize, Australias most prestigious art honour, for his portrait of diplomat Prof Stephen FitzGerald.

Yet again the 50,000 visitors who voted for the award disagreed with the judges over the most deserving painting only once, in 1988, have the two groups concurred.

Instead of Geoffrey Dyers heavy-stroked portrait of author Richard Flanagan, they chose Zhaos bold realist 1.5m by 1m painting of Prof FitzGerald peering over his glasses and generous nose with his mouth on the verge of a grin.

Zhao, who only arrived in Australia in October 2001, said he was elated by the win and would use his $2500 prize money to buy art supplies.

The 50-year-old said he came to Australia because “its paradise”.

He said he had decided to paint Prof FitzGerald, Australias first ambassador to China, after the diplomat was recommended by members of the Chinese community in Australia.

For Zhao, who spoke no English upon his arrival here, there was also the great convenience that his subject spoke fluent Mandarin.

“Stephen is a very interesting man and also speaks Mandarin so we could talk together very easily,” he said.

Prof FitzGerald said he was pleased with the portrait and, more importantly, “my family likes it”.

He was also happy another Beijing-born artist, Hui Hai Xie, made it into the final shortlist.

The chairman of the Asia-Australia Institute at the University of NSW, Prof FitzGerald said Chinese-born artists had made a great contribution in Australia.

Many of them were the product of the Hawke governments welcoming of asylum seekers after the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989.

But he noted that a far less welcoming atmosphere prevailed now.

“I dont think were as tolerant of immigration now as we were at that time,” he said.

(http://www.bordermail.com.au/newsflow/pageitem?page_id=590927)

____________________

Matthias Arnold M.A.
Digital Resources
Institute of Chinese Studies
University of Heidelberg
Akademiestr. 4-8
69117 Heidelberg
Germany

Phone: ++ 49 - (0) 62 21 - 54 76 75
Fax: ++ 49 - (0) 62 21 - 54 76 39

http://www.chinaresource.org
http://www.sino.uni-heidelberg.de

www.fluktor.de
www.zhaomo.de.vu


	May 20, 2003: [achtung kunst!] sanyi wood-carving - national treasure stolen - movie on Jang Seung Up - Archibald prize for Dalu Zhao

	Carvers groan about copycats scratching at margins (wood-carving festival in Sanyi, Taiwan) National treasure stolen from museum (Gongju National Museum, Korea) Painting a Korean master with an elegant brush (Im Kwon Taek of Changsong, South Korea) Diplomat portrait the peoples choice (Dalu Zhao wins the Peoples Choice for the Archibald prize) ***************** Carvers groan about copycats scratching at margins By Brian Hsu STAFF REPORTER, Monday, May 19, 2003,Page 4 The annual wood-carving festival in Sanyi township, Miaoli County, kicked off on Saturday and will run for nine days, but festival organizers said visitors were sparse over the weekend as a result of rains and the country-wide panic over the SARS epidemic. This year's Sanyi wood-carving festival has gotten considerably less attention than in the past few years not just as a result of natural causes like SARS-induced agoraphobia, but also due to some criticism from local art workers that it has become a less-than-desirable event for them. Why? They point blame at the wood sculpture competition held each year together with the festival. The national competition, has now become "a source of evils" because local wood sculptors complain that it has brought them more harm than good since its prize-winning works end up being copied by the Chinese. What's worse is that the Chinese copycats can mass-produce these works and actually sell them back to Sanyi. In fact, some estimate that over 80 percent of the works on sale at the arts shops in Sanyi are from China -- many of which bear a clear resemblance to Taiwanese prize winners. Dumping from China has become increasingly serious in recent years, forcing many art workers in Sanyi to give up their beloved craft. It may not come as a surprise that this form of intellectual property theft does not originate in southern China. It is much more local. Sanyi residents who have invested in the local wood sculpture business are now using the cheap labor costs in China to control the wood sculpture market in their hometown or other parts of Taiwan by dumping mass-produced works imitated from Sanyi artists. Kuang Tang-ya (官當雅), a local sculptor, lamented the rampant piracy and dumping of figurines from China. Kuang said he is not interested in participating in the annual wood sculpture competition for fears that his creativity will soon be stolen and become a money-making tool for others. The 35-year-old sculptor survives in the business by cultivating his own customers and customizing his Zen-inspired works according to their liking. Tseng Wu-lang (曾武郎), a local art worker who had won a first prize in last year's national wood sculpture competition, said now is the time for the Sanyi wood sculpture business to transform itself to adapt to the change of the environment. "As traditional sculptures are easily imitated and mass-produced by the Chinese, Sanyi art workers should develop products [that use special composite materials] that are difficult to copy," Tseng said. (http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2003/05/19/211171) mehr zum festival: http://www.sanyi.gov.tw/2003/index.htm (oder besser ohne flash intro: http://www.sanyi.gov.tw/2003/main.html) vgl. artikel von 2001: http://taipeitimes.com/News/feat/archives/2001/05/28/87637 ***************************** the korea herald, 2003.05.17 National treasure stolen from museum Thieves broke into the Gongju National Museum Thursday night walking off with four exhibits, including a national treasure that is more than 1,200 years old, museum officials said yesterday. A seventh century gilt bronze Buddhist statue from the Baekje Kingdom (18 BC-AD 660) which is listed as a national treasure is missing, along with two celadon dishes from the Goryeo dynasty (913-1392) and a ceramic dish from the Joseon dynasty (1392-1910). This is the first time that a national museum has been raided. The incident happened around 10:30 p.m. when two men in black caps stormed into the museum in South Chungcheong Province, threatening a worker on night duty with a knife and an electric shocker. The thieves tied the worker's hands and covered his mouth and eyes with duct tape, before breaking the display window and making off with the exhibits. The infrared detector installed at the front gate of the museum was turned off and the shutter of the exhibition room was open at the time of the incident. "The worker turned off the detectors for a routine patrol and the thieves seem to have waited for the moment," said Yi Kun-moo, director of the National Museum of Korea. "Because the museum was scheduled to move to a new building next year, investments to improve security equipment were relatively low." The security equipment at the Gongju museum includes four CCTVs, 11 VCRs and six infrared detectors. Although details were not released, Yi said the security equipment at the Gongju museum is relatively inferior compared to other state museums. "We deeply regret that such a shameful incident has happened. We will take proper steps to strengthen security in museums nationwide and do whatever it takes to keep the stolen treasures from slipping out overseas," said Yi. "I urge the thieves to safely return the exhibits back to authorities. There is no statute of limitations on this kind of crime and transactions of the items are banned." By Kim Tong-hyung (http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/html_dir/2003/05/17/200305170027.asp) ********************* Painting a Korean master with an elegant brush By Wesley Morris, Globe Staff, 5/16/2003 Last year, when a jury at the Cannes Film Festival split its directing award between Paul Thomas Anderson of the San Fernando Valley and Im Kwon Taek of Changsong, South Korea, it seemed like a truce between youth and experience. The number of Anderson films? Four. The number for Im? 95. Their winning movies, though - ''Punch-Drunk Love'' and ''Chihwaseon '' - have more in common than meets the eye. Both are about besotted misfits and both are heartbreakingly scenic. Im's, however, is set in 19th-century Korea and has a hero who declares, ''Without a drink and a woman, I can't hold a brush.'' Yes, because no one else could, Im has taken it upon himself to regale us with the story of the painting legend Jang Seung Up. He was as big a cad as Rodin and as moody as Pollock. His work, meanwhile, was exquisite: epic scrolls of nature filtered through abstraction. Black ink on white paper has rarely been as vivid. Im's approach to Jang's life is a lot like his subject's painting method: brisk, beautiful, and carefree. Jang bends over a long sheet of paper and moves his hand in short, elegant brush strokes and art appears. Even when Jang has misplaced his elegance, the movie never loses its own. ''Chihwaseon'' is the stuff of your standard artist biopic - Jang's a wild, crazy, womanizing revolutionary genius. Yet, his bind was unique. His lower-class upbringing and lack of formal education won him the disdain of the political establishment, which, despite this, frequently solicited his talent. For his part, Jang didn't care about remaining in the king's good graces. His notorious attitude aside, he was considered one of Korea's master painters. Jang, though, is increasingly ill at ease working for the king. You can sympathize with Im's portrait and Choi Min Sik's gracefully enraged performance. How many scrolls of flowers and birds can one man paint? If someone had given the late Sister Wendy the same assignment, she might have become just as volcanically drunk. Not surprisingly, the actual women in Jang's life are driven to fury. One partner is so fed up with the booze-and-belligerence act that she moves in with another man. As a parting gift, she demands a painting, and not some bird-and-flowers number, either - she wants something worth some cash. In a sequence astonishing both for its simplicity and for Jang's complicity, she gets her wish: a terrifically detailed abstract. Needless to say, it's unloaded for a pretty yen. Im's 94th picture, ''Chunhyang,'' was more conventionally dramatic and entertaining than No. 95. But ''Chihwaseon'' presents us with a little-known corner of the art world and makes a case for Jang being its biggest star. The movie's attention to anthropological and historical detail means things are slow to come alive. But once they do, the nature of Jang's psychic torture is palpable and unmistakable. This is that rare art flick whose subject goes nuts because his work is not self-indulgent enough. Where to look for inspiration? It might be too late, but I'd strongly recommend Jung Il Sung's breathtaking cinematography. If that can't soothe a roiling soul, you might not have one. Wesley Morris can be reached at wmorris@globe.com. Chihwaseon Directed by: Im Kwon Taek Written by: Im and Kim Yong Oak Starring: Choi Min Sik, Yoo Ho Jung, Ahn Sung Ki Running time: 117 minutes Unrated (salty language and a scene of love-making among the thrushes) In Korean, with English subtitles This story ran on page C7 of the Boston Globe on 5/16/2003. (http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/136/living/Painting_a_Korean_master_with_an_elegant_brush+.shtml) *************************** Diplomat portrait the peoples choice [img] Dalu Zhao wins the Peoples Choice award. THE artist was from the Peoples Republic of China, his subject was the Australian peoples representative there and yesterday they were the peoples choice. Beijing-born Dalu Zhao yesterday won the Peoples Choice for the Archibald prize, Australias most prestigious art honour, for his portrait of diplomat Prof Stephen FitzGerald. Yet again the 50,000 visitors who voted for the award disagreed with the judges over the most deserving painting only once, in 1988, have the two groups concurred. Instead of Geoffrey Dyers heavy-stroked portrait of author Richard Flanagan, they chose Zhaos bold realist 1.5m by 1m painting of Prof FitzGerald peering over his glasses and generous nose with his mouth on the verge of a grin. Zhao, who only arrived in Australia in October 2001, said he was elated by the win and would use his $2500 prize money to buy art supplies. The 50-year-old said he came to Australia because “its paradise”. He said he had decided to paint Prof FitzGerald, Australias first ambassador to China, after the diplomat was recommended by members of the Chinese community in Australia. For Zhao, who spoke no English upon his arrival here, there was also the great convenience that his subject spoke fluent Mandarin. “Stephen is a very interesting man and also speaks Mandarin so we could talk together very easily,” he said. Prof FitzGerald said he was pleased with the portrait and, more importantly, “my family likes it”. He was also happy another Beijing-born artist, Hui Hai Xie, made it into the final shortlist. The chairman of the Asia-Australia Institute at the University of NSW, Prof FitzGerald said Chinese-born artists had made a great contribution in Australia. Many of them were the product of the Hawke governments welcoming of asylum seekers after the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989. But he noted that a far less welcoming atmosphere prevailed now. “I dont think were as tolerant of immigration now as we were at that time,” he said. (http://www.bordermail.com.au/newsflow/pageitem?page_id=590927) ____________________ Matthias Arnold M.A. Digital Resources Institute of Chinese Studies University of Heidelberg Akademiestr. 4-8 69117 Heidelberg Germany Phone: ++ 49 - (0) 62 21 - 54 76 75 Fax: ++ 49 - (0) 62 21 - 54 76 39 http://www.chinaresource.org http://www.sino.uni-heidelberg.de www.fluktor.de www.zhaomo.de.vu