Visionsof HappinessShimizu Toshia

This exhibition is an attempt to elucidate the kinds of happiness sought by Asiansby showing the art now being made by Asians. In my view, modernist art is losing
strength with the decline of modernist values . It is no longer capable of functioning
as a source of human happiness . However, people cannot live without dreams.
Inevitably, artists will appear among those creating new art who seek new visionsof happiness. This thought has been building up in me as I have experienced anumber of different cultures, but it was on a trip to India that it first occurred to
me to look for this new vision in the art of Asia .
While staying at a hotel in the large city of Bombay on the Indian Ocean, I nevergrew tired of looking down on the thoroughfare below my window. Huge crowdsof people passed up and down the street, all wearing the beautiful clothing of India .
There were no young people wearing T-shirts and blue jeans. There were almost nocars, and the wide street was packed with pedestrians . The only music I could hear
was Indian music. I began to think about the nature of human happiness. This massof people in a scene so different from that presented by the cities of Ja pan and theWest made me consider how their model of living differed from ours. Their model
consisted of the search for happiness .
The countries of Asia are developing industrial economies at a furious pace , andIndia is no exception. The waves of the market system are lapping against its
shores. A ½;,ankerI met in Bombay spoke confidently of his expectations of Indian
progress under a free economy. However, when I saw the huge crowds in the street,
I could not imagine them being led astray by the illusions of modernism. Will there
be a day when all the people in those crowds overflowing the streets of Bombay findsatisfaction in owning a car or electrical appliances? Unless the people's values are
entirely transformed,

it will not be possible to set about satisfying the material

desires of this enormous population .
It bothers me to think that Japan has become a society where material satis faction means happiness . Here, modern industry, science, and technology, basedon a modern nation state, are being used to achieve material satisfaction. But one
senses a kind of emptiness in this. A department store poster that appeared a few
years back made the statement, "What I was searching for was happiness." Why
would someone complain to themselves in this way in a department store where
they were surrounded by material goods . It may be that the modern system which
promises material satisfaction has lost its appeal. People who once thought thathappiness could be achieved by owning things fail to find it after they actually getwhat they wanted .
Modernist Happiness

Modernism is a purpose unto itself as well as being a system for guaranteeing
material fulfillment. The ideology of modern Europe derives from a humancentered philosophy. In this way of thinking, human reason observes, orders, andgives meaning to a chaotic world. Religion gives way to reason; science, a methodof reading the universe, guarantees the future. Science produces technology andimproves human life indefinitely . Nation states are formed of equal citizens on thebasis of law and governed by democratic governments. An abundance of goods is

15

produced by the economic activities of modern agriculture and industry regulatedby the government. Material goods are the ultimate symbol of modern life, theabundant life. If this end product is obtained, it is possible to go back through theentire process that produced it and reach the philosophy of respect for humanbeings. Or at least partake of part of it. Through material goods, one can obtainspiritual satisfaction, enjoying a modern life full of freedom, equality, and love.
This is what people have always sought. It is happiness itself. This is the dreamof happiness which everyone chases.
Unfortunately, however , there is no place where a happy society has been builtwith European modernism. In Iran, the king who tried to modernize too rapidly
was deposed. In the Islamic countries, the people who are completely opposed
to European modernism are gaining in strength . In Europe itself thert are terrible
problems . The civil war in the former Yugoslavia has taken Europe back to pre nineteenth century conditions . The fantasy of a modern nation state which transcends ethnic and religious loyalties is being called into question . Also, as everyone
knows, the two modern nation states of the twentieth century which developed
from nineteenth-century

European modernism, the Soviet Union and the UnitedStates, are either disintegrating or have lost their luster. The Japanese will neverfind a vision of happiness through shopping. These are some of the reasons for theflourishing of discussions in Japan over the direction we should be taking.
Still, Asia keeps on working. Like the banker in Bombay, it has hopes for abright future. China is forging ahead with economic development.

So are thecountries of Southeast Asia. They are trying to achieve material fulfillment withthe system of production created by modernism. There are two problems withthis. One is how to reconcile modernism with unrelated Asian values. Just as T shirts are not seen in the streets of India, there are cultures in Asia which have notsought their model of happiness in European modernism. Many Asians, to whom
European -style happiness has been nothing but the nightmare of colonialism,
cannot accept modernism without a sense of irony. And they have handed down
their diverse cultures. No people have been able to throw away these cultures . So
what is to be done? Another question is what vision of happiness can be obtainedby Asians after they develop their economies and seek material fulfillment. As
suggested above, the modern system is not just a method; it is a model of happinessas such . Now, however, that the modern model of happiness is breaking down,
it is impossible for Asia to share this dream. It is impossible to close one's eyes tothe extinction of the ideal of the nation state, to environmental pollution, and tohuman alienation while chasing the ideals of modernity.
Traveling in Asia

With these concerns in mind, I went to see the people making contemporary art
in Asia in order to learn about Asian visions of happiness. I met young artists
in China, Indonesia, Korea, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, andTaiwan. Of course, I included Japan. 1
When I speak of Asia here, I limit my discussion to the regions which are underthe mixed influence of India and China, two of the four great cultural areas of Asia.

16

( The other great Asian cultures are the nomadic culture of northern Asia and· theoasis culture of western Asia.) Asia was not named by the people who lived there;
it is not a concept which developed naturally. It is a name given by the European
Other, looking at the continent from a vantage point out on the ocean. A wide
variety of different cultures are found between Turkey and Japan. The task of
examining their content and defining concepts related to them is not the same asdetermining the geography of Asia.
India is connected to West Asia through Islam and also has a close relationshipwith the East African coast. Here, however, I am concerned with an India thatlooks to the East, based on the fact that it gave Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam tothe eastern world. Indian culture has had a great influence on the ideas of life anddeath of the people of this region - on their visions of happiness. Then there is
China. China is also a major presence in culture and art; religions like Confu cianism and Taoism and Buddhism passing through China have had a tremendous
effect on Asian peoples' standards of happiness. The regions I have visited haveexperienced diverse and chaotic histories under the effects of these two cultures .
Many cultures have emerged out of these historical fluctuations. 2 Economic
development in this region has led to intense inter-regional activity, and it has taken
a different course than other parts of Asia . Economics is more than dealings inmaterial goods; it involves an interchange of people. It would not be surprising
if this led to a sharing of the same visions of happiness. I traveled the world on
this premise.
In speaking of Asian art, I like to think of the interaction between two different
movements. As I have stated, these are two kinds of relationships with values which
already exist in today's Asia. One is the relationship with existing Asian values, andthe other is the relationship with modernism . Even after being invaded by mod ernism, Asia is maintaining the values which existed previously. Still, there is no
denying that in the twentieth century modernism is dominant. Even though it has
declined, its power cannot be belittled. One cannot discuss the happiness of Asia
without taking the relationship with modernism into account.
Living as an Individual

During the Meiji Restoration in Japan, the slogan wakon yosai [Japanese spirit,
Western technique] was touted. This meant nothing more or less than modernizing
the country with the use of Western scholarship and knowledge, that is, science andtechnology, while maintaining the Japanese tradition in spiritual matters, that is,
our visions of happiness. 3 Thus, in Japan there was an attempt to work out some
sort of reconciliation between the culture that came before modernization and thatwhich came after, but looking at the present condition of Japan, it is obvious thatmodern values had overwhelming power. The Meiji government, in addition to
drawing up laws, organizing a national legislature, and creating the structures ofmodern state, also advocated a completely Western-oriented education in music
and art. The latter part of the nineteenth century was the starting period of European modernism, and the visions it poured out had tremendous effect. There was
no way Japan could avoid being engulfed in this giant wave. A century later, some-17thing different is happening in China.
Since the Gang of Four were arrested in 1976, the industries which had been
devastated by the Cultural Revolution revived and the modern culture of Europe
began to be accepted . According to the Beijing art critic, Li Xianting, the 1980s
were a period of learning about modernism. Modern philosophy, literature, andart were studied and introduced.

The people of China undoubtedly looked toEuropean modernism to accomplish the dream of building a new China. In art, theintroduction of Impressionism was quickly followed by a simultaneous deluge of all
the movements of twentieth century art, including Dada . Universal themes likethe human race and the universe, which are common to modernism, had a broad
appeal. This development culminated in the "China/ Avant-Garde" exhibition at
the China Art Gallery in Beijing in February, 1989, which displayed the results ofthe study of modernism which had been carried out over the previous decade.
This desire for modernism was cut off at one stroke in Tiananmen Square on
June 4 of the same year. Those who wanted to build a new country according to theidea ls of modernism realized that it was impossible in China . Political scientists
recognized that the country could not be saved with the political theory of the West,and artists felt the powerlessness of Western modern art. Politics in China operates
within a framework different from Western -style democracy, but at the same time
economic activity is progressing without letup . In the reality which is emerging,science and technology are not necessarily accompanied by the modernist philosophy which led to their development. Since this is something taking place in thepresent, it may be foolhardy to historicize it, but it comes as a surprise, considering
the example of Japan a century ago, to see that the ideals of modernism are neither
universal nor necessary and that it is possible to choose to do without them.
Looking at the present condition of modernism in the world today, however, one
should find nothing strange about this. Modernism does not have the appeal it once
did. It is no longer something worth shedding blood to defend.
So what ways of life are possible? The ways of life chosen by young artists offersome suggestions . The young artists in their early thirties whom I met in Beijing
have a sense of space unrelated to the framework of the nation of China. They are
free as long as they do not break the taboos set by the government. They act as
if their studios and apartments were linked to Hong Kong and Europe by networks
of invisible thread. Naturally enough, their works are based on this sensibility .
Fang Lijun and Feng Mengbo, are good examples.
In his recent paintings, Fang Lijun depicts nothing but swimmers , nude men
moving about freely in the water. These men have shaved heads and lack individuality, but they represent the artist himself. In the men floating in the water in
the nude, one sees the existence of human beings freed from ideology . This ideology
is modernism, its purified form, socialism, and the Cultural Revolution. What is
swimming in this universe where various ideologies appear and disappear is thehuman being. Nothing is absolute . In its original condition, a human being simply
exists. This is the way Chinese who think this world a pleasant place 4 move about
in it. Fang is connected to his friends in the rest of the world by an invisible net-13

work. He lives in a remodeled farm house on the outskirts of Beijing where he does
not feel unfree and in fact enjoys a spiritual freedom.
Feng Mengbo is also free . He uses an Apple personal computer to join anelectronic world network . His apartment in Beijing is comfortable. His computer
contains the Cultural Revolution, the brutality of the Japanese army, and thelegend of Mao Zedong . All of recent history is converted to electronic signals andbecomes a game . History is described as a game of ideologies. Historical chronicles
are built upon relativization of the self. Here we see the tradition of the recordingof history which has lasted in China for thousands of years. This is a way in which
a person can free himself from time and space.
This way of being free is very different from that of modernism. Under Euro pean modernism, freedom is guaranteed by a system based on mutual respect forthe dignity of the individual. Here, however, it is obtained in one's own studio orapartment, in the manner of a Zen priest. These artists do not order and classify
things like modernists . The titles of Fang's works are mere numbers and resist
ordering and classifying . This is also true of the artist's attitude toward the world.
The world touches the person in the same way water clings to the body, fluid anduncertain. Historical documents are lists of facts and can be called up with a simple
change of floppy disk. There is no place for artificial ordering and classifying.
Wong Hoy Cheong, who comes to this exhibition from Malaysia is ethnic
Chinese . The works (cat.nos .13-16) he is showing depict the history of his ancestors who were immigrants from China. They were descendants of immigrants in
Malaysia, who faced the world with nothing but their own bodies. They were nothelped by the system or ideals of modernism, but pioneered in a new land with afreedom generated from inside themselves and a network of kinship. The happinessobtained by this means has a strength which cannot be denied by a change in dynasty
or ideology . Even if present happiness lasts only for a moment , new people, like
Fang, Feng, and Wong, will continue to appear and create their visions of happiness.
The Energy of Pre-Modern Community
It is not only the Chinese who have lost their fondness for the visions of happiness

offered by modernism. Many artists have abandoned the vision of modernism andmoved to make their own dreams of happiness but with a different approach thanthat of the Chinese. For example, in the Philippines, I met a group of artists who
get energy from a pre -modern community but survive in a modern society. The
Philippines is a land with a history of repeated invasion by outside forces. There
were battles between the various tribe's before that. The people who live in themountains of northern Luzon were the earliest inhabitants of the Philippines. They
avoided the rule of the Spanish and maintained their own culture. They practiceslash and burn agriculture, have a tightly organized community and worship theirgods. They live a life closely related to spiritual, supernatural beings.
A group of artists not satisfied with the modernism brought in with colonialism
empathized with these people and moved into the city of Baguio in the northern
mountains where they live, forming a community called the Baguio Arts Guild(BAG). Roberto G. Villanueva, the central figure in this group, personally corn-19munes with nature in the same way as the mountain people and makes works of art
with a strong spiritual presence. Many different ethnic groups have moved into or
invaded the islands of the Philippines throughout its history, and it is not entirely aEuropean -style nation state. That means that it is not a state transcending ethnicity
and religion composed of equal individuals . Each group makes up a communityand lives within it. Faced with this situation, the artists of Baguio are attempting to
make the power of the mountain people their own. In their community, they areattempting to find the happiness which has not been achieved by the nation of thePhilippines. 5 They operate a natural food restaurant, and they live a life in har mony with nature and respect for the gods in nature . If there is anything they canbe criticized for, it is their inability to face modern life in the city.
A younger generation of Philippine artists sees this as a problem, and they are
actively taking on the challenge of the city, in other words, modernism . Reamillo
and Juliet (Alwin Reamillo and Juliet Lea), who are included in this exhibition, areartists of thi s kind . This Filipino -Australian couple's work ( cat . no .17) exposes thethree things which symbolize modernism, the Christian religion, the nation state,
and modern capitalism. These three items are symbolized by Jesus Christ, President
Fidel Ramos, and MacDonald 's hamburgers . They paint these three faces directlyon the walls surrounding a space filled with ashes from Mt . Pinatubo with all sortsof objects like electrical appliances and bottles scattered among the ashes .
Reamillo and Juliet also live in Baguio but do not attempt to commune withnature. Their works show the condition of Asians living in the modern age, living
in a space surrounded by modernism, like the three walls. The self is positioned
at the fourth wall. It is not possible to close oneself off and live only by one's own
values like the mountain people. Living as an Asian does not mean to search out
uniquely Asian, non -European values and show the exotic wrapping of Asia, but tostea l whatever is profitable from modernism and use and develop it. This is like theEuropeans taking the distant Greek philosophers and Roman statesmen as theirown ancestors. Asia has the vitality necessary for this undertaking . Upon consideration, members of the Baguio Arts Guild must be seen as sophisticated city
people . They do not do farm work along with the mountain people. They lookstylish whether in a nice restaurant in Manila or in the mountains of Baguio. They
move back and forth between the city (modernism) and nature (the community
where they imitate the mountain people). This is a new way of achieving happiness.
Communing with Spirits

The artists I met in Indonesia are more directly expressing a state of mind peculiar
to themselves. They live in a complicated situation . The framework of a modern
nation state exists together with an Islamic state . It is a necessary condition of amodern nation that it be composed of free individua ls who are not bound to theirreligion or ethnic origin, but the state established here includes a rigidly exclusive
element of religion. There are a number of different ethnic groups in the inner
regions. These groups have, to a greater or lesser extent, maintained the ability tocommune with spirits . Artists also have strong ties to their own ethnic groups
rather than to the outside . Therefore, their works often have a magical character,20

an apparent capacity to call up spirits. Modernist art puts on a scientific appearance and maintains an aloof attitude, but art has its origins in magic. Under
modernism, this fact is easily forgotten. One is reminded of this magic throughJapanese ukiyo -e and African sculpture. In recent years, an exhibition called"Magiciens de la Terre" [magicians of the earth] was held in Paris, the headquartersof modernism.
To magicians, for a work of art to be made of durable materials, to have formal
originality, or to have self-contained content unrelated to anything outside itself
are not of importance. It is one temporary entity among the chaotic phenomena of
the universe. It is a place where all phenomena have their origin. I have been moved
to tears by the work of the Filipino artist Norberto Roldan. It was made of cheap
cloth and found objects, bullets and bamboo, but had great spiritual intensity andexpressed the pain of the heart. I was also impressed by the spiritual depth of someabstract paintings from the fifties I saw in India. They were made by an artist
who had studied in England. Viewed art historically, it was imitative work, but
its spiritual depth and the personal strength of the artist transcended the form. Thisis the power of the magician.
Magical art is frequently combined with music in ritual performances.

The

work of art does not have a particular status as an independent object since its
purpose is to work together with other phenomena to attract spirits .6 During mytravels through Asia, I frequently encountered this sort of thing. In Singapore, thePhilippines, and in Thailand, it is common for performances of sound, words,
dance, and gesture to be carried out around the work of art. This sort of artist is
especially common in Indonesia, both in Bandung and Yogyakarta. One of them is
Heri Dono, who is participating in this exhibition.
Heri Dono makes use of the wayang kulit shadow plays of Indonesia, a tradi tional art form he studied after leaving art school. Wayang kulit is a comprehensive
art form combining visual art, music, and literature . Its performances are used tocall up the spirits of great heroes of the past. The artist uses the gestures and soundsof wayang kulit to grasp and present a view of the universe and human life, facts
beyond human understanding or control. According to Heri Dono, the people ofJava believe that spirits reside in everything, even in electricity.7 In the work heshowed at the "4th Asian Art Show" at the Fukuoka Art Museum in 1994, he called
the spirits of electricity into the space using an inexpensive device which madea bell-like sound reminiscent of the sounds of the game/an in wayang kulit.
The actions performed by Heri Dono are a passionate protest against modernism, a system by which human beings attempt to control everything in nature andhuman life. He believes that it is always necessary for someone to criticize therepressive regime of modernism which attempts to sell a commercialized model ofhappiness. In the work he shows in this exhibition (cat.no.9),

he makes the pointthat modernism starts with the idea of human dignity but it results in alienation.
Modernism destroys community and leaves people wandering on the streets. Mod ernism is not alone in this; the problem has deep roots in the universal problem
of authority in human life. In this case, art, like wayang kulit, calls spirits from21

a chaotic universe and encourages people to take their own lives back from theauthorities. Heri Dono believes that this better life can only be realized in a futureworld where art and society are in harmony.
The Sorrow of Mothers

The Singaporean artist Suzann Victor also communes with spirits. The spirits shecalls up are mothers . Singapore is praised for its economic prosperity. The city isclean, safe, and comfortable, the result of patriarchal, Chinese leadership. Singapore is a phallocentric, authoritarian society. Singaporean artist Tang Da Wu has
criticized it from the inside. He has encouraged people to take a gentler approachto other people and nature and pointed out the foolishness of the repeated mistakesof modernism. Suzann Victor criticize s the role which women take in promoting
patriarchal rule. In this society, in her view, women are recognized only for theirreproductive function . Women are seen as tools for giving birth to more and more
people as if they were a mutant form of human being. Victor's work in the present
exhibition ( cat. no .18) is like a negative of her works shown in Singapore in thesummer of 1994 (the works in Singapore were all black, and this one is all white ).
Tools symbolizing women 's work are laid on a table and words related to thefemale gender are formed on the floor with women 's hair . This installation is a
device for calling up the spirit s of sorrowful mothers. Singapore is a model state
for the near future . Perfectly controlled individuals live orderly lives under thenational flag and work hard at producing things and more human beings. It is an
example of how well a nation state with a small territory can succeed . It is justas if the utopian city, Civitas solis, envisioned by the seventeenth -century Italian
writer, Tommaso Campanella, had been realized. It is a utopia where everything isperfectly controlled and life is carried out in an ideal fashion. 8 Victor points out,
however, that it is dangerous to take the city envisioned in Civitas solis as a model
for a vision of happiness. Modernist ideology is supposedly based on the equality ofhuman beings, but sooner or later the weak are abandoned. The concept of humanequality is flawed . Human beings are diverse and cannot be forced to meet the same
standards. The modern nation state made up of equal individuals is a fiction. If
it is enforced, there will be people who cry out in pain . Victor says that they are
the mothers. Unless the freedom of life (and death ) is restored, the sorrow of themothers will not be assuaged.
The Thai woman artist Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook,in her "Chiang Mai Social
Installation" shown in Chiang Mai between 1993 and 1994, made grave markers
for women who had been killed without reason, victims of tragic events affecting
the weak which occurred in Thailand during modernization. Araya is an extremely
sensitive person . In her concern with the persecution of the weak, she even examines herself. In the work entitled Three Narcissuses (ref.no. 26 ), she is observing
herself. The work shown in this exhibition ( cat . no .19) tells of the relationshipbetween her and her mother, the artist herself seeking the shadow of the mother she
lost as a young girl. It is a search for her self in her mother. It seems that she isshowing how human beings repeatedly live and die . This process is carried out inthe family. Speaking to Ditas R. Samson, Director of the Coordinating Center for22

Visual Arts in the Cultural Center of the Philippines ( CCP), I asked what happinessmeant to her. She answered without hesitation that it is the family . Coming in
the middle of a discussion of contemporary art in the Philippines, this word fromthe realm of personal life came to me as a bit of a surprise . Still, it was a natural
response. The family is one of the things being destroyed in the uncertainty ofcontemporary society. As the site of life and death, it is the first thing that should berestored by those who are disillusioned with modernism . The family cannot bedismissed with the banal comment that it is a "woman's source of happiness" ;it is important to all contemporary people.
Making a New Start from a "Messy" Life

Two other artists who produce fierce and humorous criticisms of contemporary
people frozen by modernism are Chatchai Puipia of Thailand and Choi Jeong Hwa
of Korea . Chatchai has depicted how modernism destroys the environment andtradition with his series of fire paintings a~d water paintings . Recently, he has madea series of paintings of the mentally ill, people who represent something opposite to
the modern ideal of a happy society built by intelligent action . The basis of mod ernism is the conquest of nature by human intelligence, but modern life is destroying Thai society . In the past, Thailand maintained social peace through harmony
with nature. It is not suited to modernism . The only people who can see this societ ydispassionately are the mentally ill, outsiders who can see everything from a relative
point of view . This ability is passed on to us as we look at these paintings .
Choi Jeong Hwa criticizes a society where so many things are standardized formore efficient management. Agricultural and industrial standards are set to achieve
uniformity, and material goods are produced according to these standards . Standards are also applied to human beings. School education is designed to make them
conform to standards . Food is another example . Food is made uniform with theuse of preservatives and coloring, so that it is partly natural and partly unnatural.
The ultimate form of this phenomenon is plastic food . It does not rot, is stablein quality , and is easy to control. It is a triumph of science and technology , themost convenient food produced by modernism . Of course, you cannot eat plastic
food, but it is not much better or worse than food laced with preservatives . Choi
reveals a world where there is no gap between the real and the false in artificial andnatural objects.
These two artists do not deny modernism outright . They know that is impossible . The destruction of traditional society and the pollution of food are tragedies,but there is no point in simple protest. Their work has a positive feeling. Facing
a life which Choi calls "a mess," they are dealing with the difficult problem of creat ing new values. In this, they have an attitude similar to that of Reamillo and Juliet .
Sone Yutaka is another artist who faces this difficulty with cheerfulness. Sone
has traveled around Asia and seen the diversity of people living there. His firstwork , Her 19th foot (ref .nos.12, 13 ), was shown at the Contemporary Art Centerof Art Tower Mito in the summer of 1993 . It was a tool for measuring communication between people rather than a complete, self-contained work of art . Thissadistic tool looks dangerous and appears impossible to use from the start, but

23

a number of people were given the task of using it. In reality , it is not entirely impossible to use, and the nineteen people worked hard trying to learn how, believingthat they would develop the ability sooner or later.
The interesting thing about Sone is that his ultimate goal is to take this workaround the world. He plans to visit the sacred places of the earth with the United
Nation s in New York as his final destination, having people at each place he visits
use the tool. In New York, he plans to have Americans of different races use dietool. Sone makes impossible communication

possible through his manipulationof the media. His space-related works , whether the paintings of UFOs (ref.no .10 )or the project of attaching artificial turf to the back of the moon (ref. no. 9 ), arederived from manipulationsof media. The present work (cat .no .11 ) uses themedium of video to make the experience s of several people over several days into aseveral -minute drama. The power of nations to bind individuals together is waning
today , and individuals are becoming more and more isolated. Sone deals deftly withthis situation in an oblique way. In some cases he arranges new combinations ofindividual s and creates new form s of communication . His approach is quite different from that of Chinese artists who seek a free space of communication within
their own network.
Where ls Happiness to Be Found?

As I made this trip around Asia , I realized that the case of India is unusual. It has
been some time since the countries of Asia began accepting modernism. It wasa choice made after they achieved independence, some in the latter half of thenineteenth century and others in the wake of the Second World War. Because of thegreat size of India and China it took time for them to act, but China has finall y
begun to move . Will the day come when India begins to move substantially?
Unfortunately , my trip wa s too short to achieve my initial goal of completel yobserving the visions of happiness shared by the countries in this region . This
would require a much longer journey , but I did reach three tentative conclu sion s.
One is that the material blessings of modernism are not being rejected by thesecountries . The second is that, in spite of thi s fact , sensitive artists cannot see avision of happiness beyond modernism. And third , even so , the se artists are notcontent to stay within the confines of their own traditions, fondly looking backto the good old days. For to do so would be to overlook the arrogant destructionof nature carried out by modernism . The people of Asia know that human beings are a part of nature .
The artists of Asia are not the only ones who seek new visions of happines s.
Modernism has spre ad around the world, and an examination of art being madeinternationally reveals that there are many artists who are trying to move beyond
it. Although I believe that there is much that Asia can contribute as it faces thistask , it is not necessarily in a special or particularl y advantageous position. It isa task for everyone who is aware of its necessity .
Wher e should we look, then, for happiness?
Arti stic Director
Contemporar y Art Center , Art Tower Mita

24

N OT ES
1. Because o f physical limitations, th e survey ofIndi a was eliminated from thi s project .
2. For exa mple, while th e influence of India on
the Philippin es is small, many voca bulary
items with Sanskr it or igins have been foundin Tagalog, and an influence from the Vedas
has also been observed . Go da To, "Min zok u
to Gengo" [people and language] in M otto
Shiritai Firipin [I want to know more abou t
th e Philippine s] (Tokyo : Kobundo , 1983),
p.89 .
3 . Thi s was suggested by an earl ier phr ase
wakon kansai [Japa nese spirit , Chinese techniquesl.
4. Kaji No buyuki, Jukyo to wa Nan ika [whatis Confu cianism? ] (Tokyo : Chuo Koronsha, 1990 ), p .13.
5. Th e idea th at commun es will appear afterth e brea kdown of th e na tion sta te is explained in Jean-M arie Guehenno , M inshushugi no Owari (La/in de la democratie ) !theend of democracy], trans. Ma suzoe Yoichi(Tokyo : Kodan sha, 1994 ).
6 . N akamur a Hideki , "Th e Self-Awarene ssof Hum an Beings in Flux," Ne w A rt f rom
Southeast Asia 1992, exhibition cat alogue(Tokyo : Th e Japan Found ation , 1992 ), p .14.
Naka mura w rites, "Asian art is generally

pro duced like fragment s of an obscurepheno menon in an amorphous, infini tespace, w ithout bound aries or a fixed center."

7. The 4 th Asian Art Show, Fukuo ka , exhibition catalogue (Fukuo ka : Fukuoka Art Museum , 1994 ), p . 83.
8. Tommaso Campanella, Taiyo no M iyako(Civitas so/is) [city of th e sun ], tr ans. Kondo
Koichi (Tokyo : lwa nami Shoten , 1992 ).