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.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

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

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

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

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
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

Societal trauma
Broken people
Integration
The future

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

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

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

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

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

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

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? 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


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

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
The diefication of consumption

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


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 as God – ubiquitous, in all pursuits

Mao is everywhere, all walks of life and leisure

Zhang Hongtu, Ping Pong Mao, 1995


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

Nancy Pelosi, Speaker
U.S. House of Representatives

Tang Zhi Gang, Children In a Meeting, 2002

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, White House, 1999

Ai Weiwei, Tiananmen, 2000


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
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

Broken homes


Realisation………


Trauma break, questioning, out of denial

Luo Zhongli, Father, 1980

Out of denial, denial of false identity

(detail)

Luo Zhongli, Father, 1980

Reflation post-trauma: coming back to life

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


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

ZEVS, Visual Attack, 2008

Artus, Bitch, 2007

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
1999


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!

Gaining glory
Civilisation
Barbarism
HONOUR

SHAME External Internal

Processing humilliation


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


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

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
Trauma Art
Recovery
Hegemonic shift Finance

Novel structure

Nothing to fear

China
America

Empowered


The future of Chinese identity
Know thyself

You

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

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

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