Winter Art Market Returns to Rome Civic Center Dec. 2,3
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Royal Bison organizer moves into printer-hacking practice
Having mentored a replacement market to sustain the legacy of the 16-year-old Royal Bison Art & Craft Fair, longtime lead organizer Vikki Wiercinski is transporting its community-building “DNA” into something called a risograph.
The Pulse: Nov. 22, 2023
In this edition: Royal Bison organizer moves into printer-hacking practice; council begins debate on 2024 budget adjustment; a moment in history: Nov. 22, 1979
British art market yet to reap ‘Brexit dividends’, new report suggests
“I don’t think I’ve experienced a more difficult time for our art market than now,” said Anthony Browne, the chairman of the British Art Market Federation (BAMF), at a conference yesterday in London. Held for the launch of the British Art Market in 2023 report, authored by cultural economist Clare McAndrew and her research firm, Arts Economics, it aimed to assess how the UK trade has fared since the last comparable survey was conducted six years ago.
The outlook is not as gloomy as one might have feared. Although Brexit—along with Covid-19 and geopolitical tensions—has taken a great toll, the report paints a picture of relative resilience: the UK has managed to cling onto its position as holder of the second largest share of the global art market, accounting for 18%, which represents $11.9bn in aggregate sales in 2022. This is partly due to a sluggish economy in China, which narrowly comes in third—representing 17%.
Greater reasons for concern from a UK perspective are found in comparisons with the world’s dominant market, the US. According to the report, the US bounced back from the pandemic markedly better than the UK: in 2022, the US reached a record peak, and now accounts for 45% of global art market share, while the UK has yet to recover to pre-pandemic levels. This gap appears even starker when looking further back: between 2009 and 2022, UK art sales increased by 33%, compared to a 149% rise in the US and a 54% in China (both mainland and Hong Kong).
All about imports
A key issue behind this widening gulf is that of imports and exports; McAndrew argues that there is a “strong correlation” between the import and sale of art and antiques. This is because the UK is an “entrepôt” market, meaning that it relies heavily on cross-border trade. As Browne attested: “Long gone are the days when the UK art market relied on the emptying of ducal houses.”
Since Brexit officially came into place in 2020, art and antiques (along with most other cultural goods) entering the UK from the EU are subject to a 5% import VAT and significant red tape. This has hugely impacted cross-border trade: imports to the UK in 2022 were $2.8bn, less than half their level in 2015, the year before the Brexit vote.
“Brexit dividends”
Browne has long advocated for scrapping the UK’s 5% import VAT for art and antiques, to increase competitiveness. But he says that, for now, this issue is unlikely to be taken seriously. Rather, lobbying should be focused on easing the logistics of cross-border trade between the UK and the EU, as well making the UK a more favourable place to do business than the EU.
Progress on this front is being made: legislation around temporary admission—which waives import VAT and duty fees for goods that will be re-exported from the UK within two years—is being adapted to “smooth out rough edges” and “increase the qualifying time period”, Browne says. The UK treasury will soon consult a group of art market professionals, with changes likely to come into place next year, he adds. Similarly, the process of gaining export licences to send works to the EU could soon be streamlined and digitised, with the help of Arts Council England, although Browne says this has been a “long process”.
And notably, there are ways in which Brexit might even provide the UK with an edge. In 2025, an EU ruling initially designed to prevent the trade of looted antiquities, which now extends to all art and antiques, will require dealers in member states to provide import licences and statements on cultural goods coming from overseas. Upon the UK’s departure from the EU, members of BAMF successfully lobbied ministers to stop this rule—which Browne describes as a “complication” that will make importing art into the EU more cumbersome—from applying to the UK. “Here was an opportunity to bin a ruling that was highly unpopular,“ he says. “I think of it as Brexit dividends.”
Treasure Island’s ‘Sanding Ovations’ sand sculpture exhibition extended through 2023
Perfect for your post-Thanksgiving walk on the beach.
Photobook Review: Collaboration: A Potential History of Photography
How do you reconcile the conflicting powers that go into making a photograph? How do you balance power and control manifested by the person photographed, the photographer, the viewer of the image, the gallery, newspaper or archive it shows in?
The authors of this book describe it as a ‘messy book’, made in a ‘disorderly way’ through workshops, exhibitions and seminars in which the five authors had different ways of thinking about what collaboration is and how it can be organised.
The result is a multi-layered book where those five different voices exist layered on top of each other. Divided into ‘clusters’ with titles like ‘The photographed person was always there’, ‘Reshaping the Authorial Position,’ and ‘Iconization is preceded by collaboration,’ it’s a book that is directed to the reader with some prior knowledge of photographic history and practice.
Anthony Luvera (who is not featured in this book) described his collaborative process as one where, ‘Ultimately, I am interested in how involving participants as contributors to the processes of representation can inscribe a different, more nuanced view, or otherwise complicate commonly held perceptions of their lives.’ There is a lovely transparency to that idea, a transparency and accessibility that is at the heart of so many collaborative projects.
An example of this transparency, and the idea of adding nuance and humanity is evident in the project, Photo Requests from Solitary, a beautiful project where prisoners in solitary (subject to human and sensory deprivation) make requests for images from the outside world. It’s a project where the process is to the fore, a process that is transparent in the provision of some form of human and visual contact to the prisoners, but also one where the story of that process served as part of a broader campaign to end such a brutal form of incarceration.
More well-known projects involving participation with the people photographed come from Bieke Depoorter, Wendy Ewald (one of the authors), Jim Goldberg, and Carolyn Drake.
Transforming the archive is at the heart of the Feminist Memory Project in Nepal. ‘The feminist movement of Nepal has a deep history but there has been no sustained effort to document the progresses and the struggles of the movement…,’ writes co-founder NayanTara Gurung Kakshapati. The digitisation of photographs is part of making this progress and struggle visible. ‘To become public is to be seen and accounted for in history,’ she says. It’s a very simple idea, one that everybody can understand; if you change the archive you change the representation.
A related idea is apparent in Femen’s use of the politicised female body ‘to break out of the prison’ (of the male gaze). For Femen, the body internalises injustice, is frozen by injustice. To regain the joy of the body, to rediscover its freedom, ‘…you turn your body against this injustice, mobilizing every body’s cell to struggle against the patirarchy and humiliation. You tell the world: Our God is a Woman! Our Mission is Protest! Our Weapon(s) are bare breasts!’
The way images change in time are evident in iconic photographs such as Nick Ut’s picture of Phan Thị Kim Phúc screaming as her skin burns from napalm, or Steve McCurry’s portraits of Sharbat Gula, the fates of the people photographed changing something (though this, like much in the book, is up for debate) of the rhetoric of the image.
At the start of the book, there is a series of (Notes) towards a manifesto that explains the importance applying ‘the lens of collaboration to see how people who involved willingly or not in… violent photographic situations.’
Some examples of these violent photographic situations are Marc Garanger’s. identity pictures from Algeria (under the title, Forced to Collaborate), or Li Zhensheng’s pictures from the Cultural Revolution, and the identity pictures from the Tuol Sleng archive (an archive which formed a central part of the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum) in Cambodia.
This archive is one where (with the exception of the handful of prisoners who survived when the prison was liberated), the identity photograph was an initial step before torture and an inevitable and terrible death. Here photography is described as collaborating in the ‘bureaucracy of death.’
It’s something the prison’s main photographer, Nhem En participated in fully. In this 2008 interview he said, “They knew they’d die… The work was necessary,” he says. “We needed to know who our enemies were.”
The world should thank me for my work. If I hadn’t taken those photos, if it weren’t for me, no one would know or care about Cambodia.”
Sited in the Sovereign and civil power of the apparatus cluster, It’s an example of how the book stretches ideas of collaboration into those ethical areas that are beyond the pale, as a counter-example of how photography serves as a tool in larger, more significant histories.
Martha Rosler famously wrote that, ‘Documentary, as we know it, carries information about a group of powerless people to another group addressed as socially powerful,’ and even in the most collaborative of projects, there is the question of how class, caste, education, wealth, gender, religion, nationality, political power, and many more factors play out in collaborative projects.
Does collaboration always add nuance to a project or can it be used as a kind of participation-washing that will blind the viewer to the otherwise all too apparent power imbalances between the photographer and the people or communities photographed.
This book raises questions about who a photographer is, where they come from, who they work for, and what it means for them to photograph in a particular place at a particular time. Not all the questions are answered, possibly because they are questions that are too numerous and complex to answer in the confines in a book that, in the messiness of its multi-authored construction, will take multiple readings to even begin to try to answer. It might be that there are no answers. Only questions.
Cover image © Thames & Hudson
Wendy Ewald Reza, 2003–5, (Asylum Seekers)
Yoan Valat/EPA/Shutterstock Yoan Valet, Ukrainian FEMEN Movement Protest, Trocadero Square, Paris, 2012
Courtesy the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York. ©Carrie Mae Weems Hampton Yearbook, 2000
Collaboration: A Potential History of Photography
By Ariella Azoulay, Wendy Ewald, Susan Meiselas, Leigh Raiford, Laura Wexler
Published by Thames & Hudson: 2 November 2023
£60.00 hardback
Colin Pantall is a photographer, writer and lecturer based in Bath, England. His latest online courses begin in January 2024. Follow him on Instagram
“Charming Guangdong” Photography Exhibition amazes Egyptian audience in Cairo
GUANGZHOU, China, Nov. 22, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — The “Charming Guangdong” Photography Exhibition took place in Cairo, Egypt, on November 19th (local time), alongside a promotion conference showcasing the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area World-Class Tourist Destination. Nearly 200 guests from various fields, including politics, business, tourism, media and universities from both China and Egypt, experienced the unique charm of Guangdong at the event.
The event forms part of the “2023 Charming China—Cultural Exhibition from Guangdong” event, and is hosted by the Information Office of the People’s Government of Guangdong Province, the Department of Culture and Tourism of Guangdong Province, and the China Cultural Center in Cairo. It is organized by Nanfang Media Group, and supported by GDToday, Egypt China Trade Center, and Guangdong Photographers Association.
Hisham Zaazou, former Minister of Tourism of Egypt, said at the event that Egypt and China have carried out a lot of cooperation, and both countries should continue to have more cooperation, especially in tourism.
Dr. Mohamed Elsherbeiny, a tourism consultant for the Egyptian tourist authority, stated that China and Egypt are both countries with ancient civilizations, and the exchanges between the two countries can be traced back to the ancient Silk Road. He pointed out there are now 16 routes from the country’s capital, Cairo, to China, including a direct flight from Guangzhou to Cairo once a day. “Egypt welcomes the Chinese and is eager to maintain a good friendship with China,” said Elsherbeiny.
Guangdong, located in the southernmost part of the Chinese mainland, is adjacent to Hong Kong and Macao to the south, while the Nanling Mountains stretch across its northern region. Facing the vast South China Sea, this region enjoys a mild climate resembling perpetual spring. Serving as a pivotal crossroads connecting the eastern and western regions of China, Guangdong is constantly evolving and experiencing new developments.
Over a millennium ago, the Maritime Silk Road originated from this very region. Treasures such as the Cantonese language, Cantonese Opera, Cantonese cuisine, lion dances, dragon-boat racing, Lingnan arts, Yingge Dance, Wing Chun Kuen, congou tea, and other iconic elements have been the hallmarks of this ancient land, increasingly reaching out to the world.
The “Charming Guangdong” Photography Exhibition was divided into three parts: “Rivers and Seas Converge in Guangdong, Where Everything Coexists Harmoniously,” “Global Economic and Trade Connections Drive Innovation and Entrepreneurship,” and “Lingnan Customs Mingle in Stunning, Affluent, and Fortunate Locales.” With over 50 outstanding photographic works, the exhibition spotlighted Guangdong’s economic and trade development, customs, cultural heritage, natural scenery, and ecological environment to guests and audiences.
During the exhibition, a special guided tour was held for dozens of Egyptian teachers and students from the Confucius Institute at Ain Shams University. They were amazed by the beautiful scenery and expressed their wishes to visit Guangdong soon.
Samar Salah, a Chinese teacher from the university, said that she learned a lot about Guangdong through the event, and she thought the exhibition with Chinese and Arabic illustrations made it very easy for the audience to learn more about Guangdong.
Noura Gamal, an Egyptian student from the Institute and a marine animal lover, was super excited when she saw the photo of a Chinese White Dolphin at the exhibition. She said she couldn’t wait to go to Guangdong to see the Chinese White Dolphin with her own eyes.
Confucius Institute students Kerolos Emad and Ahmed Ayman also told GDToday that they are very interested in Guangdong’s beautiful landscape, rich culture and colorful folk customs and really want to visit Guangdong one day.
At the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area World-Class Tourist Destination Promotion Conference, participants were able to experience the abundant cultural and tourism resources, authentic customs, and vibrant urban ambiance of Guangdong and the GBA through the presentation of the intangible cultural heritage of Lingnan, a promotional video featuring Guangdong, an introduction by outstanding guides, and on-site interactive exchanges.
During the conference, Deng Hong, Deputy Director of the Information Office of the People’s Government of Guangdong Province, presented Hanfu to the China Cultural Center in Cairo, showcasing the charm of traditional Chinese culture and enhancing communication and exchanges between the people of China and Egypt.
Furthermore, similar activities have been held in Italy and will also be held in Malaysia in late November, in a bid to promote cultural exchanges and mutual learning between China and countries in Europe, Africa, and Asia, showcasing the profound cultural heritage of Chinese civilization and the charm of Lingnan culture to the world.
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Eastman Machine CEO takes to national TV to boost his company
The Traveler is a hyperrealistic sculpture of a jetlagged felow at the Orlando airport
The Traveler is a hyperrealistic sculpture of a jetlagged fellow at the Orlando airport. If this sculpture weren’t protected behind glass, I’d absolutely think it was a real person. It was created …
Time and Again: Vashon carved totem poles
Editor’s note: This week’s edition of Time & Again explores the history of Indigenous art in the region, and how the region’s Coast Salish artistic identity is being reclaimed.
Otis and Mary Baxter lived on Vashon Island in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Mary was Makah, and Otis claimed to be a nephew of a Makah leader and identified his grandmother as Seminole.
Mary was a well-known and highly respected weaver, and Otis carved totem poles and art works in the Northern style for Tillicum Village and other commissions around the Puget Sound.
Otis, trained as a carver at the Makah Reservation, carved the pole that was located at the top of Vashon Heights at Top O’ the Isle Realty along Vashon Highway from the 1950s to 1970s.
That pole was one of the first things visitors saw when they came to the Island, but it helped misrepresent the Indigenous people of Vashon.
Later, in the early 1960s, Otis was commissioned to carve two Northern style 16-foot poles and a 22-foot crosspiece for the newly constructed Ye Olde Curiosity Shop building on Pier 51 in downtown Seattle.
The poles and crosspiece were delivered in early 1963 and formed the entrance to the shop until they were taken down as part of the Coleman Dock remodel in 2020. The poles and cross-piece were stored outdoors in Seattle, until they were going to be demolished and taken to a land fill in 2022.
Alex Kostelnix contacted the Vashon Heritage Museum to see if the Museum would preserve the poles until an appropriate location for them could be found. The Museum agreed, and last year took possession of the poles.
These Olde Curiosity Shop poles, and Otis Baxter’s other carvings, are part of a much larger, complex, and nuanced story about how Seattle, Tacoma, and the Puget Sound Basin, traditional lands of Coast Salish Indigenous people, became identified with Northern style totem poles from British Columbia and Southeast Alaska, while Coast Salish art and carvings were dismissed and ignored for over a century.
Theft and appropriation
Northern-style totem poles were used by commercial interests to “sell” Seattle and Tacoma as the gateway to Alaska during the Klondike Gold Rush of the 1890s. In 1899, the Seattle Chamber of Commerce removed a 60-foot pole from the Tlingit village of Tongass in Southeast Alaska, without the knowledge or consent of the owner, the Kinninook family.
The pole was erected in Pioneer Square in downtown Seattle in 1899, and thereafter became a symbol of the City of Seattle, whose businessmen were promoting the city as a gateway to Alaska. The 1909 Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition held in Seattle used the Seattle totem pole as part of its promotional efforts, making it a symbol of the fair as well as the city. Models of this totem pole were sold in large numbers as souvenirs to tourists.
Not to be outdone by Seattle, a group of Tacoma businessmen commissioned a taller pole (76 feet) to be carved in secret on Vashon Island and erected in front of the Tacoma Hotel, in advance of a 1903 visit by President Theodore Roosevelt. Said to have been carved by “two Alaska or British Columbia Indians” or “Tlingit Kagwantan carvers from Sitka,” there remains a question as to who actually carved the pole.
The price paid for the commission ($3,000) is much higher than the fees Indigenous carvers were paid at the time, and the style of the carving differs in many ways from traditional Northern Style poles. Given that the carvers’ identities were kept secret, it is most likely that non-Indigenous carvers created this pole working from photographs of Northern style poles.
The pole was later moved to Fireman’s Park and was restored several times, In August 2021 this pole was removed, following protests by the Puyallup Tribe of Indians that the pole did not represent the Coast Salish Indigenous people of the area, and replaced by a Coast Salish welcome figure carved by Puyallup artist Sean Peterson.
When the Seattle Seahawks professional football team was formed in 1976, the team’s logo was derived from a picture of a Kwakwaka’wakw transformation mask. After the Seahawks created their rendition of the mask, Native American Seattle artist Marvin Oliver created a refined version of the logo, which better adhered to Northern style Northwest Coast design principles.
Because of these “totem poles” in Seattle and Tacoma, and because of the efforts by these cities to use Northern style art to represent the region, capped off by the 1970s Seattle Seahawks logo, the Puget Sound region became identified by Northern style art instead of by the Indigenous Coast Salish style art of the original inhabitants of the region.
This cultural appropriation of Northern style Indigenous art for commercial reasons led to more than a century of suppressing and ignoring the Coast Salish style art of the region.
Identity and art
Despite this use of Northern style formline art to represent the Salish Sea region, Coast Salish art, while overshadowed, did not disappear. Indigenous Coast Salish artists continued to work in their traditional style.
Beginning in the 1980s, a resurgence of Coast Salish art began as Coast Salish artists including Susan Point (Musqueam), Gerald Bruce Miller (subiyay) (Skokomish), Ron Hilbert (Vadesqidab) (Tulalip/Upper Skagit), Shaun Peterson (Qwalsius) (Puyallup), and many others have fought against decades of underrepresentation and sought to revive and share their unique style of art.
Vashon Center for the Arts presented an exhibit last year titled “Indigenous Art of the Salish Sea” which highlighted how the mainstream art world has long prioritized northern Indigenous art from British Columbia and southeast Alaska over the less well-known Coast Salish art traditions and styles from the Salish Sea.
While this is a complex story about the cultural appropriation of Northern style Indigenous art to represent the Salish Sea for commercial reasons, Coast Salish style art is emerging as the true representative Indigenous art of this region. Preserving the Ye Olde Curiosity poles as a display until an appropriate location for them is found provides a way for the Vashon Heritage Museum to help tell this story.
By telling this story, the museum can help to develop the understanding of how Northern style art came to identify this region and how the struggle of Coast Salish artists to reclaim this region’s true Indigenous identity is beginning to succeed.
Bruce Haulman is an island historian. Terry Donnelly is an island photographer. An expanded version of this article appears online.
