September 10 to October 16, 1994
Fukuoka Art Museum, Fukuoka, Japan 

4TH ASIAN ART SHOW: REALISM AS AN ATTITUDE 

I will start this article on the 4th Asian Art Show by quoting
its original 'Exhibition plan'. The main activities of the
Fukuoka Art Museum, which was opened in 1979, are centred on
international exchanges, especially on art exchanges with
other Asian countries, based on the historical exchanges with
various Asian countries in former times. In accordance with
this philosophy, since the opening of the museum, its policy
has been to organize an Asian Art Show which takes place every
five years. This Asian Art Show is the only exhibition which
introduces Asian contemporary art comprehensively to Japan.
And, so far, its reputation has grown with every exhibition. 

By Raiji Kuroda

The 4th Asian Art Show introduced the most current trend in
Asian art based on achievements in the past. In recent years,
the situation in the various Asian societies has undergone
remarkable changes because of the development of the high-tech
information-oriented society, economic and political changes,
exploitation, the deterioration of the environment and
urbanisation, and the end of the Cold War. Consequently the
trend in art has also shifted considerably. This year the
theme of the show was 'Realism as an Attitude' and it
introduced common tendencies in Asian art like the growing
social awareness of the artists and their involvement in the
reality of their environment which has permeated Asian art in
the 1990s. In the face of the rapid changes in society and
reality, Asian art is trying to reflect the problems which
exist in society and reality, and our aim was to capture the
sincere expression of Asian art. Yes, it sounds like a
fabulous exhibition!
But, what are the reasons the exhibition turned out to be more
successful than any of the previous shows held by the museum?
Maybe after fifteen years of experience with the organization
combined with the ignorance of the Tokyo-centred journalism
the show has never the less reached maturity? However, there
are other reasons. Firstly we do not have to deal with the
fundamental problems of the social structure which dominates
ordinary public museums in Japan. Secondly, we selected fewer
artists than before (48 artists). This is only half of the
number of artists in our third show (1989), and one tenth of
those in our first one in 1980. Thirdly, we abolished the
classification of artists nation by nation both in the
installation and in the catalogue. And last but not least, by
setting the theme 'Realism as an Attitude', we focused on
realistic, experimental, and provocative aspects of Asian Art
rather than its pastoral, ethereal, inertly-traditional,
purely aesthetic, or classic-modernistic (very often,
eclectic) aspects. 
We invited one artist from each country (except Brunei, which
was not so interested in the idea of artists-in-residence) and
invited them to make a painting, a print, and an installation
and/or give a lecture or give a performance during their
twenty days' stay in Fukuoka. I am not sure if West Europeans
and North Americans can understand why it has been so
difficult for us to achieve this aim. In the Western art
world, I suppose for a curator who is invited to select
artists it is enough to present a certain theme, and then
provide a budget and facilities for the artists to create
site-specific installations within that theme. However, this
was the first time that our own criteria and system for
selecting works and inviting artists independently of the
bureaucracy and the aesthetics of senior artists of each
country really began to work. But I should not neglect to
mention that we have still had serious problems in some Asian
countries with severe political restrictions or with areas
isolated from the rapid changes in the economy or technology
combined with the flood of information, as well as the
problems of our own politics determined by the Fukuoka City
government. 

NEW MEDIA FORMS
The most easily  recognizable characteristic of this fourth
show was the appearance of new media forms, such as objects,
installations, and performances, which was noted by a
nationwide newspaper. This tendency was first observed in the
New Art from Southeast Asia exhibition of 1992, which was
organized by the Japan Foundation. This means artists from
specific countries, with high economic growth rate, are
breaking the paradigm of 'classic' modern art of Asia in which
most works seemed to be no more than a mixture of pre-1950s
European modernism and decoration using indigenous motifs,
than turning to more 'avantgarde' expression. Some may say
they are yet again following the process of Euro-American art
from abstraction to Neo-Dada of Pop Art, but I would prefer to
see this tendency as a departure from tabula rasa of any kind
of established ideal of unity of Western method and Eastern
spirit. 
Among the 123 works by 48 artists from 18 countries:
Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, South Korea, Laos,
Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines,
Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam, and Japan, I will
quickly draw attention to some outstanding examples. Navin
Rawanchaikul, a Thai artist aged 23, showed very sophisticated
conceptual work, combining books and photographic images of
human figures to suggest we are the slaves of invisible social
systems. Indonesian Her Dono's mechanical gamelans played
random music that was both inhuman and nostalgic, exemplified
by his grand performance titled 'Chair'. His basic idea,
common to both works, is that this world is a theatre where
the player-the played, the ruler-the ruled, human
beings-Wayang puppets cannot be clearly divided. Tan Chinkuan,
a Chinese Malaysian, developed his ironical vision of
Malaysian society, revealing the darker side of the tourist
image of a tropical paradise. Choi Junghwa, a typical 'new
generation' artist from South Korea, established a kingdom of
Kitsch omnipresent in highly industrial society, mockingly
showing the Korean people's complex for the image of richness.
Lee Wen, 'Yellow Man', who performed by painting his whole
body yellow, with rice, a red chain, and a bird cage in his
hands, meditated to reconsider his racial and cultural origins
in a different environment. Lastly, Masato Nakanura and
Hiroshi Fuji, two artists from the most marginalized country
in Asia, suggested the possibility inherent in the theme of
the exhibition to a much greater extent than the curators
expected. By putting Korean barber's poles in line and in
tree-like structure, Nakamura pointed out how much our urban
environment is full of secret history and charm. Fuji, by
using objects of local pongee industry with frogs made of
rice, humorously expressed the unavoidable process of
deterioration of civilization and nature. 
The year 1994 will be remembered as the year of the awakening
of concern for Asian art on the Japanese art scene, as
represented in this exhibition and in 'Asian Art Now' in the
Hiroshima City Contemporary Art Museum, which invited Anish
Kapoor, Cai Guoqiang, Yook Keunbyung, Tan Dawu as well as
Tadashi Kuwamata and Yukinori Yanagi. As the Installation part
of the latter exhibition impressed Japanese journalists, I do
not deny the fact that installation works opened a new and
stimulating expression in Asian art. However, we should never
ignore other possibilities being practised in Asian society
and culture, especially, the immense field of traditional and
contemporary folk art, such as Balinese paintings, Bangladesh
Rickshaw paintings, which were exhibited as part of the Fourth
Asian Art Show, curated by Shireen Akbar, and hyper-pop
Chinese new year paintings and so forth. Then the most
dangerous seduction of Asian art for Japanese may be,
paradoxically, the rise of works with 'contemporary' outlook
like objects, installations, and conceptual etc. Because the
word 'attitude' in the theme of the Fourth Asian Art Show lay
the open possibility to reconsider what is 'real', what is
'contemporary', and what is 'art', rather than confining the
spontaneous experiments of young Asian artists within the
Western notion of 'contemporary art'.

RAIJI KURODA IS THE CURATOR FOR THE FUKUOKA ART MUSEUM