Today we are featuring the work of renowned Thai artist, Vorakorn Metmanorom. Vorakorn is a Chiang Mai local and most days can be found working meditatively in his large open air studio alongside his lovely wife, who works with exotic handmade textiles.
Vorakorn graduated from the College of Fine Art in 1988 and the Faculty of Painting, Sculpture and Graphic Art, Silpakorn University, Bangkok in 1994. He has exhibited his work in Thailand, Japan, Norway, Taiwan, U.S.A, The Netherlands, Poland and Germany and has received numerous awards for his work locally and abroad. His etchings, which are influenced by Buddhism, Nature, and his Chinese ancestry, are especially popular in Japan.
In this last blog for 2016 we are featuring a small collection of artifacts from Southeast Asia in a home setting. We wish all of our customers a very happy New Year in 2017.
This photo features an antique Burmese bell, Nat Spirit wood carving, lacquerware hsun-ok and a bronze Buddha and wood carving of a monk from Thailand.
Burmese style standing Buddha statue carved from wood.
Silk wall hanging from Laos, lacquerware box, teppanom angels, and altar sculpture from Burma.
Featuring Hmong silver torque and necklace, bronze Burmese bell.
Featuring etching by Vorakorn, Burmese lacquerware box, silk wall hanging from Laos, and Indonesian wood carvings.
In our last post for the year we are featuring a selection of photographs of Asian antiques, artifacts and textiles from our gallery in an Asian home décor setting. We wish all of the visitors to our gallery a happy holiday season and offer our best wishes for 2016.
We recently acquired some wonderful Asian antiques now listed in the gallery including Buddha statues, lacquerware, bronze bells, ceramics and textiles, mostly from Burma. Sometimes it’s difficult to fully appreciate pieces offered in the gallery without the opportunity of seeing them in a home setting so we are displaying them here to provide a sense of context.
Asian Home Decor with Antique Buddha Statue, Monk & Lacquerware
Displayed here are an antique wood carving statue of the Buddha and a monk as well as an antique lacquerware vessel know in Burma as kun-it. Burmese artisans are well known for their expertise in wood carving. The tradition of lacquerware is centuries old in Burma and a great variety of vessels exist. They can be made from bamboo, rattan, or jackfruit wood which are then applied with several layers of natural and pigmented lacquer which is then decorated with an iron stylus using various motifs.
Asian Home Decor: Buddha Statue, Bronze Bell, Lacquerware Box
This entry incorporates both European and Asian influences without a conflict in aesthetics. With a little experimentation, Asian and European decor can complement and contrast one another beautifully.
Asian Decor: Dining Room Decorated with Burmese & Thai Antiques
This exotic dining room incorporates a cane dining setting decorated with a silk runner and 15thC Swanakhalok shipwreck jar. In the background are a decorated Burmese lacquered panel and sideboard upon which sits an antique bronze elephant bell, antique Burmese ox cart ornament and antique monk wood carving. And most precious of all, Lilly getting her beauty sleep.
Buddhist Art from Burma
Mirrors bring light and depth into rooms, reflecting colour and art work , and creating shifting visual effects. Featured in this photo is a rare Shan Buddha statue carved from wood, lacquered and then gilded. Beside the Buddha are a monk and lacquer-ware box. On the wall hangs a painting by a Laotian artist and reflected in the mirror is an antique Lisu hill tribe silver necklace.
This photo shows a wider view of the dining room with the addition of a pink orchid. Orchids are surely one of the most exquisite members of the botanical world and lend themselves to creating a relaxing Eastern ambiance.
This living room features a collection of Burmese antiques and an etching by Thai artist, Vorakorn Metmanorom. The timber, furnishings and lighting used help create a warm atmosphere.
Asian Interiors
Another shot of the dining room with the concertina doors opened. Decorative pieces include a Burmese Chin runner, Burmese lacquer-ware, Buddha statue with attendant monks and Chinese overhanging gilded frame.
The decor items featured in these photos are available at the time of posting and represent just a small selection of the Asian antiques, art, silk and tribal textiles, as well as collectibles available in the gallery.
Of all the works of art originating in Asia, bronze Buddha statues and devotional paintings are amongst the most beautiful and inspiring artifacts to be incorporated into home decor. Statues and paintings of the Buddha help to create a serene and aesthetically pleasing home environment, reminding us of one of the most profoundly important figures in the history of mankind. The story and teachings of the Buddha are deeply intriguing and offer for the earnest seeker, liberation from suffering and direct insight into Absolute Truth. Buddhism has survived nearly 2600 years and remains an extremely important source of practical wisdom today. The teachings of the Buddha, along with the works of subsequent enlightened teachers of the various schools of Buddhism, provide a guide to realizing one’s true nature beyond duality, psychological conditioning, and delusion. Unlike most world religions, Buddhism neither seeks nor requires exclusive allegiance.
The world of Buddhist art is rich and extensive and takes many forms, varying from the highly descriptive Japanese 14th century Taima Manadala to the profoundly spiritual such as the 14thC Thai Buddha statue in the ‘calling the earth to witness’ posture; the informative such as the 10thC Pala Indian stele with the ‘Eight Great Events of the Buddha’ to the meditative serenity of the Amitabha Buddha from central Java. There is still much debate over when and where the first images of the Buddha appeared, though most historians agree that the earliest works of Buddhist art in India date back to 1st century B.C.
While these few examples shown are major works of Buddhist art found in museums, more affordable representations of the Buddha made in the last century often retain the same beauty, and communicate the same profound message of freedom that remains the legacy of the Buddha. Below are examples of Buddha statues from the 20th century and devotional temple paintings on canvass listed in our gallery as well as photos of impressive Buddha images that we’ve encountered in our travels throughout SE Asia. They demonstrate the various mudras or hand positions of the Buddha, each with a distinct meaning. We will soon be adding more bronze Buddha statues to our gallery. For a brief description of the life of the Buddha, the essential teaching of the Buddha, and an explanation of the mudras and symbols of Buddhist art, read Buddhist Art and its Symbolism.
We recently added a few interesting Asian antiques to the gallery after a brief trip to Burma that I would like to feature in this blog including an early 20thC lacquer ware container, an antique Burmese sculpture in the form of a Royal Court dancer and three rare opium weights, one dating back to the 1500s. I’ve written about several of the artistic traditions of Burma including opium weights and bronze bells but thought I would provide some background on what is one of the most important crafts in Burma, that of lacquer ware.
Burmese Lacquerware
The lacquer containers featured below echo a tradition that dates back some 3,000 years. Though it appears that the Burmese originally learned the craft from neighbouring states, Burma (or Myanmar) quickly became the exemplar of this important craft. One of the oldest existing examples of a lacquer object has been dated to 1284AD and was exhibited in Rangoon in 1918. It is said that the art of lacquer making did not reach its zenith until the Kon-baung Dynasty (1752-1885) when a wide variety of lacquer vessels were in production in the city of Bagan, also spelled Pagan. To this day the best specimens of lacquer ware are said to come from Bagan.
Lacquer ware is known as yun in Burma and the process is remarkably demanding both in terms of the skill and the investment of time required to complete a single piece. Lacquerware begins with the construction of the basic object either in bamboo or soft wood; often jackfruit wood. Once the base is made the object is sealed with a layer of paste made from sawdust mixed with lacquer and left in an underground brick cellar to dry and harden for up to 10 days. The object is then polished on a primitive lathe using the dried leaf of the dahat tree, which has an emery-paper like surface. A second layer of sifted sawdust and lacquer is then applied and the object is returned to the cellar. This process is repeated several times with progressively finer coats of lacquer and sawdust, eventually replaced with ash to be mixed with the lacquer until a final coat of the highest quality lacquer is applied offering a deep black lustrous surface.
Lacquer, called thit-si in Burma is a sap from the Melanorrhoea Usitata, a tree that grows wild in Burma, mostly in the Shan States. Naturally black, other colours are achieved using additional pigments such as cinnabar (red) from China, orpiment (yellow) from the Shan states and green by combining the two. Blue comes from Indigo, usually obtained from India. The art of achieving just the right colour, particularly red/orange is a closely guarded secret by those with expert knowledge on the subject and it is said that the secret of the composition is passed down only from father to his most trusted son.
The surface embellishment of lacquer ware turns an everyday object into an artwork and the method used by the Burmese became renowned. The surface of the lacquer is engraved using a sharp iron stylus and the incisions filled with coloured pigment (first red/orange) to begin a design of which there are many.
The object is again left to dry in the cellar and any excess material is removed using paddy husks and water. The engraving is then sealed with resin and the second colour, usually green is added and so on. A complex piece will often have 3-4 colours as seen here and requires a great deal of time to complete, especially when traditional motifs cover the entire object.
Lacquerware takes an incredible variety of forms from simple everyday objects of utility to artworks of religious significance and provides a deep insight into Burmese social life and culture. One of the most ubiquitous items is known as kun-it, a cylindrical box consisting of several shallow trays for holding the ingredients to make a quid of betel to be chewed, which provides a mildly intoxicating effect. Two lovely examples of kun-it offered in the gallery are featured above.
A less common form of lacquer ware is the pyi-daung, a large vessel without trays that is used for carrying rice to the Buddhist temple where monks reside in their quest for enlightenment. This vessel would have taken several months to complete and features decoration referred to as let-taik-let-kya, which typically includes buildings alternating with human and animal figures, in this case dancers and forest dwelling deer.
The tradition of lacquerware making continues in Burma today and Bagan remains the most important centre for this craft. While quality pieces continue to be produced in Burma, there is a certain charisma that emanates from antique lacquerware that harks back to a different time and bears the marks of use in the context of Burmese society. We hope to add further antique lacquerware pieces to the gallery over the coming months of the year.
Antique Opium Weights from Burma
We would also like to the feature three fine opium weights still available from a handful that we recently returned with from Burma. There are noticeably fewer genuine opium weights being offered on each subsequent trip to Burma, especially the rarer styles. The oldest is a 10 tical beast weight also known as to-naya and is dated mid-late 16thC. It is in very good condition. I personally find this styling very charming. The second is another style of weight that is becoming exceedingly difficult to locate and is referred to as a ‘Mon Duck’ or ‘Sleeping Duck’ and is dated early 18thC. The third weight in the series is often referred to as a ‘Golden Hamsa’ and is dated late 17thC by Hartmut Mollat in his essay, ‘A Model Chronology of the Animal Weights of Burma’.
Antique Burmese Opium Weights
Antique Burmese Woodcarving – Royal Court Dancer
This sculpture of a dancer from Burma was a lovely find and exudes a jubilant mood. In Burma, sculptors using teak wood command a great deal of respect as artisans and this is a fine example of their work. It has been spared any damage – the fingers which are vulnerable have often been broken at the tips with older pieces. There are expected cracks in the paint in places but otherwise the image is in excellent condition and without repairs. It stands 23 inches tall and lends a joyous ambiance to a room.
Asian home decor has been recognized in the West as one of the most inspiring styles of interior design. Asian decor evokes a sense of serenity and at the same time stirs the soul . The Eastern aesthetic draws on thousands of years of history and is profoundly influenced by religious beliefs based on the ideal of absolute freedom. In Southeast Asia, Buddhism is a major source of inspiration for artistic expression and has produced wonderful works of art.
A few well chosen pieces of Asian art, artefacts or textiles can transform the ambiance of a room, rendering it a place of sanctuary and a respite from the cacophony of the world and its many demands. Unlike factory produced furnishings, Asian art, antiques and artefacts echo age old artistic traditions and have a certain indefinable ‘chi’ or energy that is tacitly felt.
Given that we spend much of our life in the home, it’s important to create an interior environment that is soothing and enlivens one’s imagination. A considered investment in Asian home decor can be one of the most rewarding in terms of home decorating. Conversely, it can lead to some of the gaudiest home decor when cheap and tacky decorations are chosen over the genuine article.
Featured below is a small collection of photos featuring art, antiques, tribal artefacts and textiles offered in our gallery.
Antique Burmese lacquer containers, opium weights dating from as early as the 15th century, celadon ceramics from 15-16th Sukhothai and antique bronze bells are among the items that we recently returned with from an overland trip to Sukhothai and Burma. Below are a few photos from the trip and of some of items that we recently listed in the gallery. Very soon we will be listing more antique bronze bells from Burma. If there are particular items from this region that visitors to the gallery are interested in that are not currently featured, please let us know and we will endeavor to find them.
