Looking at Art

Note: This video does not include audio.
The exhibition, “Emperors’ Treasures: Chinese Art from the National Palace Museum, Taipei” at the Asian Art Museum (from 6/17-9/18/16) focuses on Chinese imperial taste over more than 1,000 years, during which Chinese political borders changed dramatically. This video highlights some of those changes.

Jeffrey Durham, Assistant Curator of Himalayan Art at the Asian Art Museum discusses the secrets of the Svayambhu Stupa in the Asian Art Museum’s collection.

Asian Art Museum Storyteller, Jeff Byers, tells a story about a monk and a samurai in the Asian Art Museum’s Japan galleries.

Hear the origin story of the Hindu deity Ganesha and learn how to identify depictions of Ganesha with the use of artworks in the Asian Art Museum’s collection.

Monica Desai tells a story about Narasimha, an incarnation of the Hindu deity Vishnu.

Asian Art Museum Storyteller Leta Bushyhead tells a scene from from the Rama epic (Ramayana) with the use of artworks in the museum’s collection.

A batik lower garment can be wrapped in many ways. People of varying ages, diverse regional backgrounds, or different marital statuses might wrap their long cloths (kain panjang) in different manners. These textiles often are pleated more intricately for ceremonial occasions. The sarong or tube skirt is a less formal mode of dress, which can be worn by both men and women. In this video Alice Adeboi, with the assistance of Peggy Adeboi, demonstrates a formal and less formal way of wearing a kain panjang, methods taught to her by her Javanese mother. Michael Ogi shows how a kain panjang would be worn by a man on a formal occasion and how a sarong is worn informally.

Japanese artist Tanabe Chikuunsai IV pushes the boundaries of bamboo art. He dramatically breaks the scale that we expect of the medium with soaring, twisting forms that stretch from floor to ceiling. His dramatic, immersive environments evoke the bamboo forests where these works began their lives.

Discover how an ancient bronze vessel in the shape of a rhinoceros from Shang-dynasty China may have been created via a piece-mold technique.