Becoming Un-Executed - Harvard - Apri\'10 - v7 - final
1. 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
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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.
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2. Speaker bio
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.
2 | Monday 18 January 2010
3. 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
3 | Monday 18 January 2010
4. The American experiment with turbo-individualism
has fractured its’ finances and its’ families.
Must China do the same.....?
4 | Monday 18 January 2010
5. Killed by culture
Yue Min Jun, Execution, 1995
5 | Monday 18 January 2010
6. 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
6 | Monday 18 January 2010
7. Numbing out: Western & Asian (Japanese) approaches
Pills / anime... West and East... both deaden the senses, both subvert shame, both stall maturity
MR., untitled, 2008
7 | Monday 18 January 2010
8. 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
8 | Monday 18 January 2010
9. Stages in developmental maturity
TRAUMA PAIN BARRIER ...RECOVERY
- Neglect - Shame - Surrender
- Abandonment - Maladaption - New identity
- Enmeshment - Dysfunction - Spiritual opening
- Abuse - Immaturity - Growth in maturity
Source: Facing Co-dependence, Pia Mellody,1991
9 | Monday 18 January 2010
10. Trauma (and recovery) can be considered at the
level of the State, not just the individual…
10 | Monday 18 January 2010
11. Victim no more: happiness over success – be yourself
• Trauma
Is China • Shame
codependent • Maladaption
? • Control
• Denial
Is America in • Low self esteem
denial • Dysfunctional coping
? • Betrayal bond
• Addictive behaviour
• False G-d’s
Are both
• Reaching bottom
recovering
• Recovery
from trauma
• Search for identity
?
• Spiritual opening
11 | Monday 18 January 2010
12. 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
12 | Monday 18 January 2010
13. Shaky foundations
Savings collapse Addiction treatment leaps Mental illness ‘grows’
U.S. personal savings rates, % U.S. treatment centres, # DSM codes, #
13Source: Bureau of Economic Analysis
| Monday 18 January 2010 Source: Bureau of Economic Analysis Source: US Drug and Alcohol Service Information
14. Save me!
Nobody to catch me... ...and will they be able to hold me?
Psychiatric resources Comparative obesity rate, BMI >30%
14Source: WorldJanuaryOrganisation, Mental Health Atlas, 2005
| Monday 18 Health 2010 Source: World Health Organisation
15. Live and let live – execution no more
Suicide – an esteem issue - comfort-eating shows poor esteem
Rate per 100,00 population US v China ratio of daily sugar consumer per person
15Source: WHO January 2010
| Monday 18 Source: United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation
16. Pity the children
Income vs child well being for developed countries, 2009
Higher
UNICEF index
of child
well-being
Lower
National income per person ($)
16Source: The Children’s2010
| Monday 18 January Society ‘Good Childhood’ report, 2009
17. Keep dreaming
Yes you can! - but its difficult
Higher
Intergenerational
income
persistence
-
How far parents
income predicts their
children’s
Lower
Child poverty rate
17 | Monday 18 Children’s Society ‘Good Childhood’ report, 2009
Source: The January 2010
18. Tempers fray: TV and comity don’t go together
Behaviours per degree of agreement that: “...TV is my primary form of entertainment”
Worked on a
community project
Gave the finger
to another
driver
Average nos
of occurences
18Source: Bowling Alone, Prof Robert Putnam, Simon & Schuster, 2000
| Monday 18 January 2010
19. 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
19 | Monday 18 January 2010
21. Shaky foundations
Who runs this place? Identity tsunami
US financial-industry debt as a % of GDP % of US labour force unemployed for more than 6months
Source: U.S. Federal Reserve Source: The Atlantic magazine
21 | Monday 18 January 2010
22. In God We (don’t) Trust
Failure of trust
Cumulative U.S. Tort costs and GDP growth,1950 - 2009
Percentage change
22 | Monday 18 January Source: Towers Perrin, Tort industry study, 2010
2010
24. 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
24 | Monday 18 January 2010
25. Bigger buildings, smaller selves.....
External deification seeds internal malaise....
Thus the buildings (& the selves) inevitably will fall...
25 | Monday 18 January 2010
26. A bridge to a new God
Joseph Stella, Study for Brooklyn Bridge, 1922 Chartes Cathedral, France, various images
26 | Monday 18 January 2010
31. 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
31 | Monday 18 January 2010
32. Trust in God, not (a) man...
32 | Monday 18 January 2010
33. 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
33 | Monday 18 January 2010
34. Mao as God – ubiquitous, in all pursuits
Mao is everywhere, all walks of life and leisure
Zhang Hongtu, Ping Pong Mao, 1995
34 | Monday 18 January 2010
35. Mao as God – he is all seeing, he is behind all doors
Zhang Hongtu, Front Door, 1985
35 | Monday 18 January 2010
36. Mao as God… ie Mao can kill and replace Jesus
Guo Brothers, Execution of Christ, 2009
36 | Monday 18 January 2010
37. 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
37 | Monday 18 January 2010
38. Embedded rage
Avoided shame maladapts into resentment expressed as rage (or repressed leads to addiction)
Guangyi, Second set, 1985
38 | Monday 18 January 2010
39. Evidence of decay
Zeng Fanzhi, Meat series, 1992 Liu Wei, Who Am I, 2000
39 | Monday 18 January 2010
40. Implosion of personality – dissolution of self
Yang Shaobin, Fighting no20, 1999 Francis Bacon, Self Portrait, 1973
40 | Monday 18 January 2010
41. Infant leaders: traumatised and broken, thus immature
Nancy Pelosi, Speaker
U.S. House of Representatives
Tang Zhi Gang, Children In a Meeting, 2002
41 | Monday 18 January 2010
42. Glascine, flat-line, barely living…
Zhang Xiaogang, Bloodline: The Big Family no 3, 1999
42 | Monday 18 January 2010
43. Dissociation complete
Zeng Fanzhi, Mask Series no 9, 2001
43 | Monday 18 January 2010
44. 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
44 | Monday 18 January 2010
46. Loss of identity: Western sources of differentiation
Wang Guangyi, Political Pop, 1993 Ai Wei Wei, dynastic vase, 2005
46 | Monday 18 January 2010
47. Search for new identity: a classic trauma response
Comfortable as un-comfortable… putting on a good show
Weng Fen, Health / Fashion / White Collar, 2000
47 | Monday 18 January 2010
48. Consumerism: desolation, a spiritual desert
Elmgreen and Dragset,
Prada Marfa, 2005
48 | Monday 18 January 2010
50. Walled in (emotionally), repressed, adult-children
Defence as prison
Zhang Lin Hai, untitled, 2001
50 | Monday 18 January 2010
51. Dissidence - a vent for anger and frustration
“I have to speak for people who are afraid!”
Ai Weiwei, White House, 1999
Ai Weiwei, Tiananmen, 2000
51 | Monday 18 January 2010
52. False pride and super size (insecurity)
Marsden Hartley, Finnish-Yankee Wrestler, 1916 Zhang Huan, My New York, 2005
52 | Monday 18 January 2010
54. Alienation of the individual: controlled, powerless
Yang Jing, Lucky Fortune, 2004 Coca Cola Inc, Love It Light campaign, 2010
54 | Monday 18 January 2010
56. Family breakdown
Three times more?
PRC divorce, %*
280%
Divorce as a % of marriages increase
in 2005 in the US was 46%
Feng Zheng Jie, Untitled, 2003
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
56 | Monday 18 January 2010
60. Out of denial, denial of false identity
(detail)
Luo Zhongli, Father, 1980
60 | Monday 18 January 2010
61. Reflation post-trauma: coming back to life
Chen Yu, no 13, 2002 Chen Yu, no 17, 2002 Michelangelo, Creation of Adam, 1511
61 | Monday 18 January 2010
62. 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
62 | Monday 18 January 2010
64. Dilution of false God’s: Mao as man, brands as specious
Flawed lofty ideals, ignoble realities
ZEVS, Visual Attack, 2008
Artus, Bitch, 2007
64 | Monday 18 January 2010
65. Shame accepted, the betrayal bond finally breaks
Guo Brothers, Mao’s Guilt, 2008
65 | Monday 18 January 2010
66. Questioning values
Ai Weiwei, Dropping a Han dynasty vase, 2006
66 | Monday 18 January 2010
67. Integration of old with new
Shao Fan, King, chair, 1996 Xu Bing, Art For The People
1999
67 | Monday 18 January 2010
68. Then and now… back to wholeness
From glascine to glowing
Codependent no more: what a difference Recovery can make…
68 | Monday 18 January 2010
69. 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
69 | Monday 18 January 2010
70. Trauma and recovery
Never forget national humiliation, rejuvenate China!
Gaining glory
Civilisation
Barbarism
HONOUR
SHAME External Internal
Processing humilliation
70 | Monday 18 January 2010
71. Integration in art and self
HIGH
BROKEN RECKLESS
Amount
of risk
taking
FEARFUL SERENE
LOW
Marylyn Dintenfass LOW HIGH
GOOD & FRUITY
Degree of
2009 trust
Risk
Trust
71 | Monday 18 January 2010
72. World’s collide:
Ah Xian value summary
East West
Symbolised by Buddha on a lotus Symbolised by Jesus on a cross
Rule by man Rule by law
Centralised imperial power Democracy / civil rights
Intuition / meditation Intellect / analysis
Self restraint Venting
Nothingness Success / riches
Conform to nature Analyse nature
Acupuncture Surgical operation
Passive Active
Source: ‘Breakout’, Melissa Chiu, Asia Society, 2006
72 | Monday 18 January 2010
74. 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
74 | Monday 18 January 2010
75. 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
75 | Monday 18 January 2010
76. 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)
76 | Monday 18 January 2010
77. 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
77 | Monday 18 January 2010
78. Now what…?
Buyout of US artistic heritage
Trauma Art
Recovery
Hegemonic shift Finance
Novel structure
78 | Monday 18 January 2010
79. Nothing to fear
China
America
Empowered
79 | Monday 18 January 2010
80. The future of Chinese identity
Know thyself
You
80 | Monday 18 January 2010
81. Harvard Association for
US-China Relations
______________________________________________
THANK YOU
______________________________________________
Second annual symposium: ‘The art of representing China’
Invitational lecture: ‘Becoming un-Executed’
Trevor H. Simon
3rd April 2010
