Transformative Jars: Asian Ceramic Vessels as Transcultural Enclosures (Material Culture of Art and Design)

The term 'jar' refers to any man-made shape with the capacity to enclose something. Few objects are as universal and multi-functional as a jar - regardless of whether they contain food or drink, matter or a void, life-giving medicine or the ashes of the deceased. As ubiquitous as they may seem, such containers, storage vessels and urns are, as this book demonstrates, highly significant cultural and historical artefacts that mediate between content and environment, exterior worlds and interior enclosures, local and global, this-worldly and otherworldly realms. The contributors to this volume understand jars not only as household utensils or evidence of human civilizations, but also as artefacts in their own right. Asian jars are culturally and aesthetically defined crafted goods and as objects charged with spiritual meanings and ritual significance. Transformative Jars situates Asian jars in a global context and focuses on relationships between the filling, emptying and re-filling of jars with a variety of contents and meanings through time and throughout space. Transformative Jars brings together an interdisciplinary team of scholars with backgrounds in curating, art history and anthropology to offer perspectives that go beyond archaeological approaches with detailed analyses of a broad range of objects. By looking at jars as things in the hands of makers, users and collectors, this book presents these objects as agents of change in cultures of craftsmanship and consumption.. List of Contributors List of Illustrations Transformative Jars: An Introduction Anna Grasskamp, University of St Andrews, UK Anne Gerritsen, University of Warwick, UK, and Leiden University, Netherlands Part I. Transformative Matters: Ceramic Vessels, Chemistry and Socio-Economic Change Chapter 1. Dreams of Transformation: A 14th-century Flask from Cizhou Anne Gerritsen, University of Warwick and Leiden University Chapter 2. Jars that Cheered: Alcohol and Stoneware Containers in Java before 1500 Jiri Jakl, University of Heidelberg Part II. Transformative Spaces: Ceramic Vessels and Asian Locations Chapter 3. Siamese Jars and their Significance in Southeast-Asian Trade from the 14th to the 18th Century Atthasit Sukkham, Bangkok University Chapter 4. Weaving Networks: Production and Exchange of Ceramic Jars in South China and Vietnam from the 14th to the 16th Century Wong Wai-yee Sharon, Chinese University of Hong Kong Part III. Transcultural Enclosures: Containers and their Contents in Global Context Chapter 5. For Oil, Date Syrup and the Tomb of a Chinese Queen: The Reciprocal Trade in Chinese and West Asian Jars in the Late Tang/Early Abbasid Periods Eva Strober, Curator Emerita, National Museum of Ceramics Princessehof Leeuwarden Chapter 6. Translocation and Transformation: The Lives of Chinese Fishbowls in the Early Modern Period Wen-ting Wu, National Taiwan University Part IV. Transformative Containers: Individual Jars and Modes of Agency Chapter 7. The Jars Have Ears: Circulation and Proliferation of Chinese Prototype Container Jars and their Offspring in Asia Louise Cort, Curator Emerita for Ceramics, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution Chapter 8. Dragons in Flux: A Changing Relationship between People and Jars in the Kelabit Highlands, Borneo, from the 19th to the 21st century Borbala Nyiri, independent scholar Chapter 9. Jar Interventions: Ceramic Containers as Disobedient Objects in Contemporary Asian Art Sooyoung Leam, The Courtauld Institute of Art, UK Anna Grasskamp, University of St Andrews, UK Chapter 10. Concluding Thoughts on Transformative Jars: Asian Ceramic Vessels as Transcultural Enclosures Anna Grasskamp, University of St Andrews, UK Anne Gerritsen, University of Warwick, UK, and Leiden University, Netherlands Index. Cover Contents List of Illustrations Contributors Acknowledgments Transformative Jars: An Introduction Anna Grasskamp and Anne Gerritsen Part 1 Transformative Matters: Ceramic Vessels, Chemistry, and Socio-Economic Change 1 Dreams of Transformation: A Fourteenth-Century Flask from Cizhou Anne Gerritsen 2 Jars that Cheered: Alcohol and Stoneware Containers in Java before 1500 CE Jiří Jákl Part 2 Transformative Spaces: Ceramic Vessels and Asian Locations 3 Siamese Jars and their Significance in Southeast Asian Trade from the Fourteenth to the Eighteenth Century Atthasit Sukkham 4 Weaving Networks: Production and Exchange of Ceramic Jars in South China and Vietnam from the Fourteenth to the Sixteenth Century Sharon Wai-yee Wong Part 3 Transcultural Enclosures: Containers and their Contents in Global Context 5 For Oil, Date Syrup, and the Tomb of a Chinese Queen: The Reciprocal Trade in Chinese and West Asian Jars in the Late Tang/Early Abbasid Period Eva Ströber 6 Translocation and Transformation: The Lives of Chinese Fishbowls in the Early Modern Period Wen-Ting Wu Part 4 Transformative Containers: Individual Jars and Modes of Agency 7 The Jars Have Ears: Circulation and Proliferation of Chinese PrototypeContainer Jars and their Offspring in Asia Louise Allison Cort 8 Dragons in Flux: A Changing Relationship between People and Jarsin the Kelabit Highlands, Borneo, from the Nineteenth to the Twenty-First Century Borbala Nyiri 9 Jar Interventions: Ceramic Containers as Disobedient Objects inContemporary Asian Art Sooyoung Leam and Anna Grasskamp Concluding Thoughts on Transformative Jars: Asian Ceramic Vessels asTranscultural Enclosures Anne Gerritsen and Anna Grasskamp Index "The term 'jar' refers to any man-made shape with the capacity to enclose something. Few objects are as universal and multi-functional as a jar -- and this book shows that jars are part of human experience throughout time and space, regardless of whether they contain food or drink, matter or a void, life-giving medicine or the ashes of the deceased. As ubiquitous as such containers, storage vessels and urns might be, Transformative Jars addresses a scholarly absence by bringing together an interdisciplinary team of scholars to offer non-archaeological perspectives. The contributors to this volume understand jars not only as household utensils or evidence of human civilizations, but also as artefacts in their own right. Asian jars are culturally and aesthetically defined crafted goods and as objects charged with spiritual meanings and ritual significance. Transformative Jars situates Asian jars in a global context and focus on relationships between the filling, emptying and re-filling of jars with a variety of contents through time and throughout space in relation to the charging and re-charging of these objects with different sets of meanings. Detailed analysis of a broad range of objects shows jars to be transcultural containers that mediate between content and environment, exterior worlds and interior enclosures, local and global, this-worldly and other-worldly realms. By looking at jars as things in the hands of makers, users and collectors, this book presents these objects as agents of change in cultures of craftsmanship and consumption."-- Provided by publisher ## Material Culture of Art and Design Material Culture of Art and Design is devoted to scholarship that brings art history into dialogue with interdisciplinary material culture studies. The material components of an object-its medium and physicality-are key to understanding its cultural significance. Material culture has stretched the boundaries of art history and emphasized new points of contact with other disciplines, including anthropology, archaeology, consumer and mass culture studies, the literary movement called "Thing Theory, " and materialist philosophy. Material Culture of Art and Design seeks to publish studies that explore the relationship between art and material culture in all of its complexity. The series is a venue for scholars to explore specific object histories (or object biographies, as the term has developed), studies of medium and the procedures for making works of art, and investigations of art's relationship to the broader material world that comprises society. It seeks to be the premiere venue for publishing scholarship about works of art as exemplifications of material culture. The series encompasses material culture in its broadest dimensions, including the decorative arts (furniture, ceramics, metalwork, textiles), everyday objects of all kinds (toys, machines, musical instruments), and studies of the familiar high arts of painting and sculpture. The series welcomes proposals for monographs, thematic studies, and edited collections.