Becoming Un-Executed - Harvard - Apri\'10 - v7 - final

Harvard Association for US-China Relations

Second annual symposium: ‘The art of representing China’

Trevor H. Simon Invitational lecture: ‘Becoming un-Executed’ 3rd April 2010 _____________________________________________________________________________________________________

ABSTRACT: Sociological interpretations of selected Chinese & American modern and contemporary art and their

spiritual utility for the self and society

Making use of selected Chinese and American modern and contemporary art imagery, Mr Simon will suggest a number of

comparative interpretations to draw a deeply personal narrative, and will correlate these images with economic, financial

and sociological data to posit spiritual linkages between art, finance and the self. Attention will be given to the real world

relevance of selected imagery as it relates to the healthiness of a society, the conduct of the individual and the implications

for the state of trust and fear within the self. It is hoped that this early stage work will enliven the wider debate as to the

relevance of art imagery, the risks inherent in any copycatting of American norms in a Chinese context, and the leadership

opportunities arising. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________

2 | Monday 18 January 2010

Trevor H. Simon

Mr Simon is an art investor and fund of hedge funds manager with an investment banking

background. Prior to hedge funds, Mr Simon was involved in private investment as arranger,

adviser &/or as joint or sole principal in a range of sectors including media, financial services,

leisure, alternatives, ports, and art & collectibles. Prior to private investment, to 2001 Mr Simon was

Director and Global Head of Strategy for the equities division of Deutsche Bank, and previously

was Head of Client Strategy at Société Générale responsible for the equities platform. Prior to

strategy roles Mr Simon worked for SG-Crosby in Asian institutional sales and as a researcher at

the World Markets Research Centre focusing on the Gulf region.

In addition to his commercial activities, since the mid 1990’s, Mr Simon has assembled and

advised on a dual collection of Chinese and American modern and contemporary art around a

range of principal themes looking primarily at the spiritual relationship between art and finance. The

Simon and BTC collections of acquired and reserved works include: (Chinese) Zhang Xiaogang,

Cai Quo Jiang, Yue Minjun, Wang Guanyi, Li Chen, Chen Yu, Zhang Lin Hai, Fang Lijun, Tang Zhi

Gang, Fang Zheng, Guo Jin, Liu Ye, Feng Zhen Jie and Li Shan; (American) Chuck Close, James

Rosenquist, Marylyn Dintenfass, Wolf Kahn, Andy Warhol, Richard Tuttle, Paul Wonner, Marsden

Hartley, Stuart Davis, Charles Sheeler, John Marin, Alfred Maurer, Georgia O’Keefe and Arthur

Dove. A number of works are indicated for gifting to European and US museums, and a separate

sale program has set multiple world records for various artists.

Mr Simon has an undergraduate degree in Management and Systems Science from City University

and has been invited as a Guest Lecturer to LBS, NYU-Stern, Shanghai, Wharton and Harvard

universities on art investment and strategy.

Speaker bio

Execution and execution

Paradigm of trauma and recovery

Societal trauma

Wrong God? - America

Wrong God? – China

Broken people

Realisation, coping, consequences

Attempts at recovery

Integration

The future

The American experiment with turbo-individualism

has fractured its’ finances and its’ families.

Must China do the same.....?

Killed by culture

Yue Min Jun, Execution, 1995

Commonality: a platform for collectivism or individualism? Who am I really? How can I be heard? Does fitting in alienate?

Sui Jianguo, Mao Jacket, 2008 Rene Magritte, The Son of Man, 1964

Numbing out: Western & Asian (Japanese) approaches

Pills / anime... West and East... both deaden the senses, both subvert shame, both stall maturity

MR., untitled, 2008

Societal trauma

Broken people

Integration

The future

- Neglect

- Abandonment

- Enmeshment

- Abuse

- Shame

- Maladaption

- Dysfunction

- Immaturity

- Surrender

- New identity

- Spiritual opening

- Growth in maturity

TRAUMA PAIN BARRIER ...RECOVERY

Stages in developmental maturity

Source: Facing Co-dependence, Pia Mellody,1991

Trauma (and recovery) can be considered at the

level of the State, not just the individual…

Victim no more: happiness over success – be yourself

• Trauma

• Shame

• Maladaption

• Control

• Denial

• Low self esteem

• Dysfunctional coping

• Betrayal bond

• Addictive behaviour

• False G-d’s

• Reaching bottom

• Recovery

• Search for identity

• Spiritual opening

Is China codependent

Is America in denial

Are both recovering

from trauma ?

Societal trauma

Broken people

Integration

The future

Shaky foundations

Source: Bureau of Economic Analysis

Savings collapse U.S. personal savings rates, %

Mental illness ‘grows’ DSM codes, #

Source: Bureau of Economic Analysis Source: US Drug and Alcohol Service Information

Addiction treatment leaps U.S. treatment centres, #

Save me!

Nobody to catch me... Psychiatric resources

Source: World Health Organisation, Mental Health Atlas, 2005 Source: World Health Organisation

...and will they be able to hold me? Comparative obesity rate, BMI >30%

Live and let live – execution no more

Suicide – an esteem issue Rate per 100,00 population

Source: WHO Source: United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation

- comfort-eating shows poor esteem US v China ratio of daily sugar consumer per person

Pity the children Income vs child well being for developed countries, 2009

Source: The Children’s Society ‘Good Childhood’ report, 2009

UNICEF index

of child

well-being

National income per person ($)

Higher

Keep dreaming Yes you can! - but its difficult

Source: The Children’s Society ‘Good Childhood’ report, 2009

Higher

Intergenerational

income

persistence - How far parents

income predicts their

children’s

Child poverty rate

Tempers fray: TV and comity don’t go together Behaviours per degree of agreement that: “...TV is my primary form of entertainment”

Gave the finger

to another

driver

Worked on a

community project

Average nos

of occurences

Source: Bowling Alone, Prof Robert Putnam, Simon & Schuster, 2000

Dreaming difficulties: intense denial Those aged 12+ needing but not receiving treatment for illicit drug or alcohol use: 2006

Source: IPRS Substance Abuse and Mental Health Data Archive National Survey 2006

Shaky foundations U.S. private debt

Source: U.S. Federal Reserve

Shaky foundations

Who runs this place? US financial-industry debt as a % of GDP

Identity tsunami % of US labour force unemployed for more than 6months

Source: The Atlantic magazine Source: U.S. Federal Reserve

In God We (don’t) Trust

Source: Towers Perrin, Tort industry study, 2010

Failure of trust Cumulative U.S. Tort costs and GDP growth,1950 - 2009

Are we having fun yet?

Societal trauma

Broken people

Integration

The future

Bigger buildings, smaller selves.....

External deification seeds internal malaise....

Thus the buildings (& the selves) inevitably will fall...

A bridge to a new God

Joseph Stella, Study for Brooklyn Bridge, 1922 Chartes Cathedral, France, various images

New temples Height development of the worlds tallest buildings historically

Too much choice, not enough leadership x

Andreas Gursky, 99 cent, 1999

False God as comfort

Barbara Kruger, Untitled (I shop therefore I am),1987

The diefication of consumption

Temptation masters man

Jenny Holzer, Survival Series, 1985

Societal trauma

Broken people

Integration

The future

Trust in God, not (a) man...

Man portrayed as God…. i.e. Mao is greater

“Forging ahead courageously while following the greatest leader Chairman Mao”

Official poster, Chinese Communist Party poster, 1969

Mao is everywhere, all walks of life and leisure

Zhang Hongtu, Ping Pong Mao, 1995

Mao as God – ubiquitous, in all pursuits

Mao as God – he is all seeing, he is behind all doors

Zhang Hongtu, Front Door, 1985

Mao as God… ie Mao can kill and replace Jesus

Guo Brothers, Execution of Christ, 2009

Societal trauma

Broken people

Integration

The future

Embedded rage Avoided shame maladapts into resentment expressed as rage (or repressed leads to addiction)

Guangyi, Second set, 1985

Evidence of decay

Zeng Fanzhi, Meat series, 1992 Liu Wei, Who Am I, 2000

Implosion of personality – dissolution of self

Yang Shaobin, Fighting no20, 1999 Francis Bacon, Self Portrait, 1973

Infant leaders: traumatised and broken, thus immature

Tang Zhi Gang, Children In a Meeting, 2002

Nancy Pelosi, Speaker

U.S. House of Representatives

Glascine, flat-line, barely living…

Zhang Xiaogang, Bloodline: The Big Family no 3, 1999

Dissociation complete

Zeng Fanzhi, Mask Series no 9, 2001

Societal trauma

Broken people

Integration

The future

Coping……… (dysfunctionally)…….

Loss of identity: Western sources of differentiation

Wang Guangyi, Political Pop, 1993 Ai Wei Wei, dynastic vase, 2005

Search for new identity: a classic trauma response Comfortable as un-comfortable… putting on a good show

Weng Fen, Health / Fashion / White Collar, 2000

Consumerism: desolation, a spiritual desert

Elmgreen and Dragset,

Prada Marfa, 2005

Personality fragmentation Re-integration vital.. mutual trauma in American and Chinese society

Zeng Fanzhi, We n:2, 2002 Chuck Close, Self Portrait, 1986

Walled in (emotionally), repressed, adult-children Defence as prison

Zhang Lin Hai, untitled, 2001

Dissidence - a vent for anger and frustration “I have to speak for people who are afraid!”

Ai Weiwei, Tiananmen, 2000

Ai Weiwei, White House, 1999

False pride and super size (insecurity)

Marsden Hartley, Finnish-Yankee Wrestler, 1916 Zhang Huan, My New York, 2005

Consequences...... dysfunctional ones....

Alienation of the individual: controlled, powerless

Yang Jing, Lucky Fortune, 2004 Coca Cola Inc, Love It Light campaign, 2010

Relationship failures, numbing-out on work

Xu Yong, Solution Scheme D1 and D2, 2007

Family breakdown

Source: PRC National Bureau of Statistics

Note: Marriage rate in the period stayed roughly constant with

a 14.4% peak-trough and 6.4% maximum mean variance

Feng Zheng Jie, Untitled, 2003

Three times more? PRC divorce, %*

Divorce as a % of marriages

in 2005 in the US was 46%

increase

Broken homes

Realisation………

Trauma break, questioning, out of denial

Luo Zhongli, Father, 1980

Out of denial, denial of false identity

Luo Zhongli, Father, 1980

(detail)

Reflation post-trauma: coming back to life

Michelangelo, Creation of Adam, 1511 Chen Yu, no 17, 2002 Chen Yu, no 13, 2002

Societal trauma

Broken people

Integration

The future

Coping……… (healthily)…….

Dilution of false God’s: Mao as man, brands as specious Flawed lofty ideals, ignoble realities

Artus, Bitch, 2007

ZEVS, Visual Attack, 2008

Shame accepted, the betrayal bond finally breaks

Guo Brothers, Mao’s Guilt, 2008

Questioning values

Ai Weiwei, Dropping a Han dynasty vase, 2006

Integration of old with new

Shao Fan, King, chair, 1996 Xu Bing, Art For The People

Then and now… back to wholeness From glascine to glowing

Codependent no more: what a difference Recovery can make…

Societal trauma

Broken people

Integration

The future

Trauma and recovery Never forget national humiliation, rejuvenate China!

HONOUR

Gaining glory

Processing humilliation

SHAME External Internal

Civilisation

Barbarism

Integration in art and self

HIGH LOW

SERENE

Marylyn Dintenfass

GOOD & FRUITY

Amount

of risk

taking

Degree of

FEARFUL

BROKEN RECKLESS

World’s collide:

Source: ‘Breakout’, Melissa Chiu, Asia Society, 2006

Symbolised by Buddha on a lotus

Rule by man

Centralised imperial power

Intuition / meditation

Self restraint

Nothingness

Conform to nature

Acupuncture

Passive

Symbolised by Jesus on a cross

Rule by law

Democracy / civil rights

Intellect / analysis

Venting

Success / riches

Analyse nature

Surgical operation

Active

Ah Xian value summary

Restoration (never enough…)

Identity

Security

Olympic Opening Ceremony, Beijing, 2008

Remedies (1) …leadership of, by, self

Art screams for leadership of self

Chinese identity must deliver what America has not

Responsibility rather than indulgence

Take proper place on world stage

Shame is to be digested not avoided

Harmony of self (not society) cures society

Remedies (2) …nurturance, acceptance

Respect art, dwell on it, let it work on you

Have a disconnection day

Let go of shame: past as platform, not prison

De-programme from mass culture

Enjoy your century

Rise in harmony with society and self

Remedies (3) …responsibility

Target emotional poverty, not just financial

Target message pollution, not just environmental

Create community credits, not just carbon ones

Send top 3 fears to Google for emotion mapping

Stand up, take your place

“There is more to life than increasing its speed” (Gandhi)

Societal trauma

Broken people

Integration

The future

Now what…?

Buyout of US artistic heritage

Hegemonic shift

Novel structure

Trauma

Recovery

Finance

Nothing to fear

Empowered

America

The future of Chinese identity

Know thyself

Harvard Association for US-China Relations

Second annual symposium: ‘The art of representing China’ Invitational lecture: ‘Becoming un-Executed’ Trevor H. Simon 3rd April 2010

______________________________________________

THANK YOU ______________________________________________

Becoming Un-Executed - Harvard - Apri\'10 - v7 - final

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