The Politics of Ornament: Ideology, Transnationalism, and Modern Design

Session Submission Type: Organized Panel Proposal Application

Abstract

The systematization of ornament, decoration, and motif in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century reveals a pervasive interest in design as a tool for the nation-state. Though transnational circulation and local hybridity have consistently characterized histories of ornament, producers of modern design recast ornament as a potent signifier of cultural authenticity and national expression. This panel explores the modes of ideological transmission that were effected by re-readings, re-translations, and re-compilations of ornament and motif in the modern period. How did proponents and researchers of modern design engage cosmopolitan ideas of ornament in order to reify their own cultural identity? How did these designs become part of emergent ideological systems? How did the adoption, selection, and juxtaposition of motif and ornament engage notions of cultural authenticity, heritage, and global exchange in the modern period?

The following case studies explore design as an interface for transnational encounters and examine the modern production and theorization of ornament across Asia and Europe. Emily Brink explores the role of transnationalism in late nineteenth-century design manuals by investigating how the French designer Émile Reiber interpolated local politics into theories of Asian ornament. Ren Wei also examines this modern tension between the global and local through her investigation of Lu Xun and Tao Yuanqing’s collaborative book design. Kida Takuya’s paper explores the production of modern chinoiserie through work by Japanese ceramicists in Manchuria, while Christine I. Ho examines how studies of national and ethnic ornament became the locus of heightened cultural nationalism during the Sino-Japanese War.

Area of Study

• Interarea-Border Crossing-Diaspora

Session Organizer

• Emily Eastgate Brink, University of Western Australia

Chair

• Toshio Watanabe, University of the Arts London

Individual Presentations

• Art for Everyone: Japan, French Politics, and Émile Reiber’s Taxonomy of Design - Emily Eastgate Brink, University of Western Australia

• From Ancient Bronze to Modern Design: The Book Design Project of Lu Xun and Tao Yuanqing - Wei Ren, Dickinson College

• Modern Chinoiserie in Manchuria: Reviving Ancient Chinese Ceramics in the 1920s - Takuya Kida, National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo

• Pang Xunqin’s Patterns: Archaeological Nationalism and National Ornament - Christine Ho, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Discussant

• Toshio Watanabe, University of the Arts London