Alabaster sculpture of seated Buddha, Burma c1800. Once the property of King Thibaw of Burma. Photo: Isla Harvey
Sometimes it’s hard to capitalise on what we have until it’s threatened to be lost. This was the case at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London’s Russell Square.
Talk of selling a precious book from Persia made for the Moghul emperor Akber (1570), owned by SOAS, caused outcry. “One should not sell the house silver,” says Anna Contadini, curator at SOAS’ Brunei Gallery, “but rather display it and make use of it.” So in 2004 she set about organising an exhibition that would show off the wonderful artefacts the School has collected over the years.
Now showing at the gallery, Treasures of the School of Oriental and African Studies will run until December 15 2007, and it’s a great chance to see many items that have been locked away in cupboards and safe-holds, their beauty largely unseen and their academic potential unexploited.
“The whole concept is to actually show the SOAS collection,” says Anna. “Visitors to the exhibition will be able to see some very special pieces and learn more about European reactions to Asia and Africa, as well as finding out how the fascinating SOAS collections were amassed.”
Oil painting of explorer Sir Richard Burton, 1879. Photo: Isla Harvey
What a collection it is – it’s certainly a travesty that it’s been veiled for so long. In the show you’ll find everything from Ming dynasty ceramics to Khmer stone sculpture to a Sumatran ‘book of magic’. Paintings, metalwork and textiles also feature, representing a wealth of cultural and religious diversity.
Many pieces have been restored for the show like some 18th century Tibetan silk hangings donated by the 14th Dalai Lama in 1977. Funding for the restoration work and set-up of the show have come from The Foyle Foundation and The Arts Humanities Research Council. Further funding from The Foyle Foundation will allow the works to go on permanent display in the new Foyle Special Collections Gallery.
Illuminated Islamic manuscripts glittering with gold leaf and lapis lazuli dye are a highlight. Originating from Persia, Armenia, Crimea, Turkey and India they represent an artistic labour of love for religion that has hardly been seen since the printing press. The endangered Moghul book (which would have fetched an inordinate sum if it had been sold) was thankfully kept and can now be seen in all its illustrated glory alongside the other Islamic texts.
The show is divided into five geographical areas: East and South East Asia, South Asia, the Himalayas, the Middle East and Africa. There is also a section on ‘European views of Asia and Africa’ which shows the amusing ‘Orientalist’ perspectives of early explorers and traders like Robert Knox who sailed with the East India Company in the late 17th century.
Photo: Isla Harvey
Edward Said remarked on the distorted recordings of colonials in their documentation of that ambiguous landmass once called ‘The Orient’. Mr Said would definitely have something to say about this collection which shows a variety of ‘Occident’ viewpoints either displaying an exaggerated exoticism of the East or observations depicting the Orientals as primitive or even savage.
Said wrote in his seminal text, Orientalism (1978): "My whole point about this system is not that it is a misrepresentation of some Oriental essence - in which I do not for a moment believe - but that it operates as representations usually do, for a purpose, according to a tendency, in a specific historical, intellectual, and even economic setting."
Indeed the effects of colonialism are well displayed. An illustrated book from London in 1877 shows a sketch of incapacitated Chinese opium smokers describing ‘the ruin which our [country’s] opium trade with China is bringing upon that country’.
SOAS is the only institute in the country specifically devoted to the study of Asia and Africa. Because of this unique status it’s been the recipient of lots of gifts and loans of precious artefacts from many an exotic location. Kings, queens and dignitaries have donated items of unimaginable cultural significance and this exhibition is a fantastic chance to see them together for the first time.
