Sovereign Asian Art Prize results

A photo of an industrial furnace overlapped by an image of fruit sellers

Fruits in Furnace by Jiangang Chen, China "Furnaces are used to make the raw materials for fertilizers. Then the fertilizers are used for crops to grow fruits. Why don't we just use the furnaces to make fruits? In my work I try to explore the other side of China - what we do not see in the big cities of Shanghai and Beijing with skyscrapers and new, grand buildings."

(Image credit: Jiangang Chen)

By Harriet Lloyd Smith

last updated 24 August 2022

in Features

In the dawn of 2010 we brought you news of the sixth Sovereign Asian Art Prize, profiling each of the 30 finalist's work. Last week, at a gala dinner held at the Four Seasons Hong Kong, Korean artist Debbie Han was voted the winner by the jury for her piece 'Seated Three Graces'.

Han's piece, which took two years to complete portrays three, nude women, seated as marble statues in a classical pose. Her method was to photograph real bodies of Asian women, add typically classical heads to their bodies and then create a digital rendering to achieve the marble, sculpture effect. Her purpose was to highlight the 'Eurocentric' standard of beauty in classical and contemporary art.

Han was awarded $25,000 as the winner by the jury, which included Chinese artist Xu Bing, Fumio Nanjo, Director of the Mori Art Museum and curator David Elliott. The remaining 29 artworks were auctioned off over the evening raising nearly HK$2 million, half of which goes to the artists, with the other half going back into the foundation.

A tiger morphing into a human and surrounded by black and white swirling lines

'Sha-Boy' by Miguel Payano, winner of the Schoeni public prize

In addition to the main prize, the public was also granted its say, casting votes through the Foundation's website. They chose Miguel Payano, an artist based in China as the recipient of the Schoeni public prize for his painting 'Sha-Boy'. Hong Kong artist Angela Su's work 'Homunculus - Exhibit H, I, J' received the highest bid at the auction of HK$273,000.

Three homunculi, hand-drawn and surrounded by hand-written labels

'Homunculus - Exhibit H, I, J' by Angela Su, the work that received the highest bid at auction

We grabbed a few minutes with judge David Elliott to talk about the prize - its significance and how the judging panned out. We also spoke to Debbie Han to find out why she thought she'd been singled out of the pack...

Dirty, hand-painted tablecloth hanging beside two small framed images — Hand-Painted Cloth Used as Tablecloth by Kit Lee, Hong Kong.
"I painted some cloth by hand and used them in different daily occasions. I washed them sometimes. This one, I used it as a tablecloth for a year in my studio where I live. The work is about an individual's presence in daily life."

Three white, nude women sitting cross-legged in a black space — Seated Three Graces by Debbie Han, Korea.
"I have been deeply drawn to the issue of how human experiences are defined in contemporary culture. The 'Graces' series challenges the Eurocentric standard of beauty by photographing bodies of actual, present-day Asian women and combining them with prototypical western classical heads."

A white background with the outlines of Mahatma Gandhi and Mohammed Ali Zinnah, repeated multiple times to appear blurred — No Country for Old Men by Raju G.C, Pakistan.
"The work contains the portraits of Mahatma Gandhi and Mohammed Ali Zinnah or Quid-a-Azam, the founder of Pakistan. The work was conceived from a historical portrait photograph, which showed the two icons posing after a talk in 1944."

Two Afghan men posed as a couple and surrounded by butterflies, ice creams and hairdryers — Get out of my Dreams 5 by Faiza Butt, Pakistan.
"I chanced upon this photograph of Afghan men and was taken by the romance and ethereality of the image. The 'hyper-masculinity' of my drawing is unsettled by portraying these men as a couple, engaged in domestic chores and exposed as wounded individuals."

A wedding setting where the people are replaced by simplistic models — The Wedding by Kok Hooi Chan, Malaysia.
"This painting of a photograph I have reinterpreted, pays homage to the traditions of marriage, ceremony and family constructs - it honours the fact that regardless of culture, space and time remain of immeasurable and constant value."

A view up into an attic-like space, with the tops of two model buildings just visible — Framing Device #1 by Francis Ng, Singapore.
"This selective composition I have produced seems to hide more than it reveals, covering more than it uncovers, and one is left wondering what is beyond that which can be seen, and beyond the given perspective."

A pregnant belly with cities drawn over it and push pins stuck into it — Sohni Dharti...(My Motherland...) by Farida Batool Syeda, Pakistan.
"This pregnant belly with maps of cities drawn over it, mirrors the military operation against the war on terrorism. This mapping on the body is an artistic reflection on the millions displaced and thousands killed."

A photo taken from outside a kitchen window, through the glass and to a woman sitting at the kitchen table with her back to the camera — Untitled (I have felt this coming for a long time) by Viet Le, Cambodia.
"This image is taken of my mother in the kitchen window during my father's long illness. She is represented as a ghostly figure. What happens when dominant narratives and personal myths prove to be bankrupt?"

A photo taken past a man towards a demolished, smoking landscape — Fire of the Year by Vandy Rattana, Cambodia.
"In Fire of the Year 2008, photographer Vandy Rattana tells a hopeless story, common in today's Cambodia. With few fire trucks to call on and bribes required for protection, Rattana distils moments of both chaos and desperation."

A Chinese migrant worker stands on precarious scaffolding high above the ground — No Fear by Ben McMillan, China.
When I came to Beijing I was constantly amazed by the army of migrant workers performing incredible feats to build a city they can hardly share in themselves. This shot shows how removed they are from mainstream city life - high up in the wind and winter cold, these people make Modern China."

Red and white graffiti on a pink background and with three black, painted cloud-like shapes with paint trails — Liangmahe #8 by Oak Taylor-Smith, China.
Over the past few years I have been recording unique abstract images - such as these illegal graffiti adverts - that decorate the urban texture of Beijing, a city in a state of flux."

A painting of four people with their years of birth and the year they were killed — Untitled by Riem Em, Cambodia.
"My paintings have the value of headstones, produced to commemorate the memory of the thousands of disappeared persons: those innocents tortured and executed by the Khmer Rouge."

Four barefoot children with matching blue dressing gowns — Temporary Actors - Fairy Tales for Children No.01 by Wei Zhang, China
"In a world changing at such high speed, anyone can be turned into a temporary figurehead, or an actor. For this photograph I disregarded the innocence of the children in order to capture a truth, or a fable to reality."

Artwork consisting of twine, string and rope in reds and purples, arranged in vertical lines — 25 Hours No.2 by Cristene Hoei Chang, Singapore.
"My materials are ordinary and common. String, rope and twines that arrive with postal parcels, envelopes, supermarket cartons and take-away food boxes. I like their ordinariness, as these materials act as evidence of our interactions with everyday life."

Left: Auction of Mao's portrait by Andy Warhol. Right: "A CAPITALIST HIT" in white text — A Capitalist Hit by Sajjad Ahmed, Pakistan.
"My reference to the auction of (communist) Mao's portrait by Andy Warhol - an iconic work of art sold for a huge price - pays testament to the latest custom of treating art like a utilitarian object, or a means of investment. Which, in turn, connects to my interest in the decline of images in a world contaminated with words."

Black and white image of a man reading a copy of The Business Times newspaper — Reading Art Critic on Newspaper by Ariadhitya Pramuhendra, Indonesia.
"Becoming an artist in a Third World country such as Indonesia, I keep questioning the relevance of the museum, and its credibility as a parameter of artistic growth. I believe that growth in art should happen not only in the western world, but also in Third World countries. I wonder where I stand within the art world. Who am I?"

A woman sitting at a dinner table with a panda, a cartoon girl, and a poseable wooden figure — Dinner by Yanuan Hou, China.
"The propagation of visual culture is beginning to affect the world deeply. Images have lost their power and relevance. As such, I am interested in creating a new visual experience - not through the denial of tradition, but rather through the retouching of it."

Image of a crowd of journalists taking pictures at the Beijing Olympics — What Are They Talking by Wai Hong Mok, Hong Kong.
"In this work I wanted to record photojournalistic attention on the Beijing Olympic Games, and in turn express the attention these photojournalists brought upon China from the rest of the world."

A cartoon depicting a sitting figure with a gun and a bag of money — The Adorable Gangsta by Nano Warsono, Indonesia.
"So many global corporations have come and sapped third world countries for their resources. These corporations have such nice, acceptable facades, but beneath the surface, they are merely gangsters with logos splashed all over their clothes."

A woman's arm morphing into small button-like disks — Tsuchitarashi by Noriko Yamaguchi, Japan
"Meaning 'the princess of soil', Tsuchitarashi is a character in commune with the dead."

Left: grenade. Right: cockroach — Untitled (Diptych) by Ayaz Jokhio, Pakistan.
"This piece, from a series of diptychs, is my idea of visual poetry. It borrows heavily from the poetic practice of creating metaphors. The act of placing these two images in a diptych is the act of creating a visual metaphor"

Cartoon image of a man being bathed, two sitting on a sofa and others with flowers — Be Honest even Worse by Popok, Indonesia.
In my paintings I try to reflect on the notion that being honest in life is difficult and that honesty is the virtue we should always strive for when we 'do' and 'act', in this sense I try to see my paintings as artistic fables."

Drops of yellow and red paint dropped into water — Aqueous by Mark Mawson, Australia.
"The concept and vision behind Aqueous was to create organic forms by dropping paint in water. It was to create forms which could be interpreted by the viewer as different forms of life from a far off world."

Painting which looks like a detail shot of a piece of wood — Paddock, Just on Dusk by Wendy Teakel, Australia.
"Wendy works across the disciplines of sculpture, drawing and painting to create artworks that explore the nature of place within the cultural landscape of farms."

Image of a man in a blue t-shirt and jeans fighting himself — Menacing Me by Vincent Fantauzzo, Australia.
"Whenever we create, we struggle. What is creation without struggle? We struggle against ourselves, against the past and against the limits of our cognitive horizons."

Image of a crowd of people facing away from the camera, and done in red — Crowdscape (2) by Khin Zaw Latt, Myanmar.
"I was very affected by the sight of crowds of local people, getting on the ferry to cross the river here in Yangon. I could feel the hardship and struggle of everyday life, but also how they just got on with it. I wanted to express in my paintings both emotions - the uncomfortable pressure of the crowd, but also the individual beauty that sparkles through the ordinary."

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