Fiona Tan: Rise and Fall

September 25, 2010 - January 16, 2011
Sublevel 1
In the first major exhibition of this acclaimed artist's work to be shown in the United States, Rise and Fall documents a new stage in Fiona Tan's longstanding interest in the documentary, featuring photographs, drawings, digital installations, and large-scale projections. Born in Indonesia and based in Amsterdam, Tan explores memory and identity in a world increasingly shaped by global culture. Her photographs and video installations deftly meld the past and the present in profoundly evocative works that explore the power of images in constructing memories and histories. While her recent projects often involve actors and location shootings, Tan continues to draw on historical objects -- Japanese photographs, 17th-century Dutch paintings, or 19th-century architectural follies -- conveying that past and present are always in flux.

Gods of Angkor: Bronzes from the National Museum of Cambodia

May 15, 2010 - January 23, 2011
Sublevel 1
The fascinating story of bronze sculpture and casting in Cambodia is revealed through 36 exceptional works. These magnificent examples dating from the prehistoric period to the post-Angkorian period (3rd century BCE to 16th century CE) presents the origins, uses, and techniques of bronze casting and the development of a distinctly Cambodian style. This exhibition is the result of an ongoing partnership between the Freer and Sackler Galleries and the National Museum of Cambodia, as the museums worked together to establish a metals conservation laboratory at the museum, the first in Cambodia. Seven of the works on view are among the first bronzes conserved in the lab by the staff of the National Museum of Cambodia.

Perspectives: Hai Bo

March 27, 2010 - February 27, 2011
Street Level, Pavilion
As part of the Perspectives series of contemporary Asian art, on view are five large-scale photographs from Hai Bo's Northern Series, which invite viewers to enter the vast panoramas of the artist's childhood memories, observe the subtle changes of nature across seasons, and encounter the gentle transience of life. Hai Bo (born 1962, Changchun, China) looks to the desolate plains of northeastern China for his images. Trained as a painter, Hai Bo took up photography in the 1980s as he became captivated by the camera's ability to stop time and evoke memories. For over two decades, he has been returning to his hometown in Jilin Province to capture the people and places of his youth, creating deeply moving portraits of resilience amidst the growing isolation of rural China.

See "Around the Mall: What's Up" in the May 2010 Smithsonian magazine: p. 26.

Taking Shape: Ceramics in Southeast Asia

April 1, 2007 - through 2011 (new closing date)
Sublevel 1, Galleries connecting Freer & Sackler Galleries
This exhibition of approximately 200 diverse and visually striking ceramic vessels from Southeast Asia explores the migration of pots from their makers to their users. This exhibition also illuminates the dimensions of international trade that brought southern Chinese ceramics into mainland Southeast Asia and from there reaching distant markets -- from Japan to Turkey. Spanning four millennia on invention and exchange, from the prehistoric period to the present, the vessels on view were crafted for rituals, burials, domestic use, and trade. These clay pots and jars, made permanent by firing in bonfires or kilns, form the most enduring record of human activities, interactions, and ideas about form and decoration in mainland Southeast Asia.

Free brochure and online catalogue.

See related article in Smithsonian magazine: December 2007, p. 37.

Sculpture of South Asia and the Himalayas (new title)

- Indefinitely
Sublevel 1, South Corridor Galleries
Sculptures from 3 major religions are presented: Hindu stone, bronze, brass, and terra-cotta temple sculptures from India; and Jain and Buddhist bronze, gilt bronze, and stone sculptures from India, Pakistan, Nepal, and Tibet.

The Arts of China

- Indefinitely
Sublevel 1
A variety of materials, techniques, and motifs, which span almost six thousand years, are explored in this exhibition of 228 objects highlighting the Sackler Gallery's permanent holdings of Chinese art. The exhibition features jades and bronzes, Buddhist sculpture and wall paintings, glass, lacquerware, furniture, and paintings from the Neolithic period to the 20th century.

Contemporary Japanese Porcelain

- Permanent
Sublevel 3
Twentieth-century Japanese artists give fresh interpretations to the time-honored art of porcelain in this selection of works from the Sackler Gallery's collection. The distinctive decorations, which range from natural motifs to more abstract designs, are created using iron and cobalt pigments and platinum, gold, and silver enamels.

Sculpture: Monkeys Grasping for the Moon

- Indefinitely
Sky-lit Atrium to Sublevel 3
It was originally created as a temporary display by expatriate Chinese artist Xu Bing (b. 1955) for the 2001 exhibition Word Play: Contemporary Art by Xu Bing. In order for it to remain on permanent view, it was re-created under Xu Bing's supervision and was given to the museum by the family of Madame Chiang Kai-shek in 2004 to coincide with the Year of the Monkey. This sculpture -- suspended from the sky-lit atrium down to the 3rd-level reflecting pool -- is composed of 21 laminated wood pieces, with each forming the word "monkey" in a dozen different languages. Based on a Chinese folktale, the monkeys linked arms and tails to form a chain to reach down to the pool below to capture the shimmering moon, only to discover it was a reflection. Moral: We often waste much time on futile goals.