This exhibition was a collaborative exhibition between FAAM, Fukuoka Art Museum and Fukuoka City Museum marking the upcoming Rugby World Cup 2019. From muscular, strong physiques to soft ample ones, the body types depicted were many and varied.
As intern at the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, I researched artworks and wrote about them for their social media. This article is an amalgamation of some of the pieces which I wrote to promote the exhibition “Muscle Games – Bodies in Asian Art” (27 June – 24 September 2019). The writing was published on FAAM’s Facebook stream concurrent with the exhibition. All images belong to the museum, please do not redistribute.
Jian Yuzhi (China) “Exercise in the Great Rivers and Oceans” 1976
After the foundation of the People’s Republic of China, various propaganda posters were produced by the government. Some were co-produced in the art universities and some were made by general factory workers. In this poster, made in 1976, we see an idealised family on their holiday. The father is pointing out the river where Mao allegedly used to swim in the 1960s. The morale is that one should be strong like Mao. Ironically, the family are already very physically fit – examples of the “correct” body type that the Communist party was promoting.
This piece was featured alongside other Chinese propaganda posters in the first section of the exhibition which focused on strong body types.
The final section of the exhibition featured images of “soft” bodies that deviate from the typical idealisation of a muscular or toned body type. Lots of the artworks were from South Asian countries, such as India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, and they ranged from sculpter to tuk-tuk paintings.
Ravinder Reddy (India) “Woman Holding Her Breasts” 1998 [featured image]
This larger than life (175 x 100.4 x 99.8 cm) is polyester resin fiberglass and wood, covered in bright paint and luxurious gold-leaf. The radiant statue gleams at the viewer and attracts attention with the wide eyes, which are characteristic of Reddy’s sculptures. In recent years Reddy’s sculpture have gotten even larger, and this oversized quality, evident in “Woman Holding Her Breasts,” enhances the fascination around the work. Reddy studied sculpture in Vadodara (Baroda) and then, like many Indian artists, perfected his techniques in Britain. During the 1980s, upon return to India, Reddy started to create sculptures that all challenged the notions of refined elegance. Such as intimate images of loving couples of striking depictions of women alone. His defiant sculptures are provocative, even though elements of his work can be seen as conventionally Indian, such as the use of both sacred and profane. In this piece, the gilded skin recalls traditional images of deities and contrasts to the statue’s relaxed posture and bright-red lips and nails, which easily attract the viewer’s attention. The sculpture makes us reconsider the nature of what is commonly thought of as “beauty” by presenting a less-than-toned female body that is soft and natural.
Udaya Charan Shrestha’s (Nepal) “Mahalakshmi” 2005
One might compare this version of the female body with that depicted in the small painting in the right corner of this gallery by Udaya Charan Shrestha of Mahalakshmi, one of the eight mother goddesses in Nepalese Hindusim. She is represented holding weapons while standing in a blazing flame. Like with Reddy’s work Shrestha’s work combines both traditional and provocative elements. Shrestha trained as a Paubha painter, a traditional Nepalese style of painting using rock pigments. Shrestha’s technique has been influenced by Western realism and uses oil points to depict these divine images as precisely as possible. This painting, which looks like a CGI image, shows the goddess with a toned and sensual body and contrasts strongly to Reddy’s “Woman Holding Her Breasts.”
Mian Ijaz-ul-Hassan (Pakistan) “Thah!” 1973
Abstract tendencies were the mainstream of Pakistani art in the 1960s. Yet with the age of upheaval brought about by the Independence War of Bangladesh, the former East Pakistan, new cultural influences came into being. Artist Mian Ijaz-ul-Hassan was a central figure among these cultural influences. This painting, Thah! (1973), depicts two cultural icons whose contrast provokes contemplation on the role of women in society. At the forefront is the popular movie actress, Firdous, in the style of a film poster. The luxurious and voluptuous body of Firdous is clad in baby pink flowing fabrics, golden jewellery and sumptuous make-up. Yet her crouched posture and bare feet create connections with the woman in the background, who is simultaneously armed with a gun and a book. The woman in the background is a depiction of a mother fighting in the Vietnam war. Researchers at FAAM worked hard to trace the origins of this well-known image. The symbolic image was originally from a chinese woodblock by artist Lin Jun. It was featured in the novel called “Letters from the South,” documenting the war in Vietnam. Subsequently the image became a symbol for the role of women in the war and is found far and wide, for example on the 1970 March cover of the Los Angeles Magazine “Gidra”. The pairing of these two iconic women, against a dark green background, creates many contrasts – visually and ideologically. Whilst influenced by the anti-war Vietnam movement this work also ties into contemporary discussions of gender roles in society.
Lee Ming-Sheng
Lee Ming-Sheng is a visual artist born in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. His roots in the rural countryside and move to the modernised capital Taipei is an important background for his work. The first photographs in the series in our exhibition, which is arranged chronologically, show an image of his hometown and his mother. Since the 1980s Martial Law period, he has received an attention because he is considered by some to be Taiwan’s first performance artist. Lee Ming-Sheng graduated from the Department of Navigation Science, National Taiwan Maritime College in 1977 but decided to pursue an artistic career. In order to question and criticise Taiwanese institution he uses his own body to stage poignant performances, which often resulted in his arrest by the police. The installation in our “Muscle Game – Bodies in Asian Art” exhibition consists of a display of photographs from a set of over 100. These photos document Lee Ming-Sheng’s performances against the conventional art world and the governmental controls. This display reconstitutes a part of the original work. and the upper line of the photographs are set in 150cm from the floor, which is equal to the artist’s height. Among the photographs displayed you can get a sense the subtlety and poignancy of Lee’s work and the way his art constantly challenges societal norms and restrictions. For example: Lee carrying a 3kg bag for 119 days, the emergency service number in Taiwan; Lee crawling on his hands and feet around a marathon course in order to perform near to Taipei’s political institutions (which was normally restricted); Lee defecating at the Dadaism exhibition of the Taipei Fine Arts Museum; Lee walking around as if a politician, but naked; Lee writing his profile on the street and then urinating to wash it away; Lee using the Taiwanese constitution as toilet paper. Despite the controversial nature of some of his art, in 1993 he was selected to be the first Taiwanese artist at the 45th Venice Biennale, where he showed his action artwork “Fireball or Circle,” which is featured in the photographs on the left-hand side of the gallery space.
Isla May Phillips 