Becoming Un-Executed - Harvard - April 2010

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

Introduction
Story of Execution and execution
Paradigm of trauma and recovery
Societal trauma
Wrong God? - America
Wrong God? – China
Broken People
Realisation and coping
Recovery attempts
Integration
The future


Bigger is not better: over-messaging pollutes the soul

Source: National Grid, The Big Poster Company


Introduction
Societal trauma
Broken People
Recovery attempts
Integration
The future


Red capitalism: better service? better society? how?
Comparative equity-execution service paradigms symbolise the seeming difference in comparative
approaches to financial & societal organisation

One size fits all Differentiated offering

HIGH

Revenue MED
per trade

LOW

LOW MED HIGH

Volume of trades

Commonality: a platform for collectivism or individualism?
Who am I really? How can I be heard? Or noticed?

Sui Jianguo, Mao Jacket, 2008 Rene Magritte, The Son of Man, 1964

Introduction
Societal trauma
Broken People
Recovery attempts
Integration
The future


Victim no more: happiness over success – be yourself
Trauma and recovery exists at the level of the State not just the individual

• 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

Introduction
Societal trauma
Broken People
Recovery attempts
Integration
The future


Shaky foundations
Savings collapse Addiction treatment leaps Mental illness ‘grows’
U.S. personal savings rates, % U.S. treatment centres, # DSM codes, #

11Source: 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%

12Source: World Health Organisation, Mental Health Atlas, 2005
| Monday 18 January 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

13Source: WHO
| Monday 18 January 2010 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 ($)
14Source: The January 2010
| Monday 18 Children’s 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
15 | Source: The Children’s Society ‘Good Childhood’ report, 2009
Monday 18 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

16Source: 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

Source: Towers Perrin, Tort industry study, 2010

Are we having fun yet?


Introduction
Societal trauma
Broken People
Recovery attempts
Integration
The future


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


Introduction
Societal trauma
Broken People
Recovery attempts
Integration
The future


In Mao we trust.. (he knows better)
“Advance victoriously while following Chairman Mao’s revolutionary line in arts and literature”

Official poster, Chinese Communist Party poster, 1968


In Mao we trust... (he lives longer)
“Respectfully wish Chairman Mao eternal life!”


In Mao we trust... (he is greater)
“Forging ahead courageously while following the great leader Chairman Mao”


Mao as replacement deity

Guo Brothers, Execution of Christ, 2009

Everywhere

Zhang Hongtu, Front Door, 1985

Everywhere

Zhang Hongtu, Ping Pong Mao, 1995


…but ruling is not a game

Nancy Pelosi
Speaker
U.S. House of
Representatives

Tang Zhi Gang, Children In a Meeting, 2002 Zhang Hongtu, Chairman Mao ‘3, 1989

Introduction
Societal trauma
Broken People
Recovery attempts
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

Francis Bacon, Self Portrait, 1973 Yang Shaobin, Fighting no20, 1999

Dissociation complete

Zeng Fanzhi, Mask Series no 9, 2001

Introduction
Societal trauma
Broken People
Recovery attempts
Integration
The future


The shot that kept on going

Xiao Lu and Tang Song, Dialogue, 1985


Trauma break, questioning, out of denial

Luo Zhongli, Father, 1980

Out of denial, denial of false identity

Luo Zhongli, Father (detail),1980

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


Made in China: external identification

Zhang Hongtu, Mao_291, 2003

Western sources of differentiation

Wang Guangyi, Political Pop, 1993 Ai Wei Wei, dynastic vase, 2005


Consumerism: desolation, a spiritual desert

Elmgreen and Dragset,
Prada Marfa, 2005


False pride and super size (insecurity)

Marsden Hartley, Finnish-Yankee Wrestler, 1916 Zhang Huan, My New York, 2005

China takes in consumerism

Sothebys, file photography, 1986

Un-trustworthy God
The U.S. needing verbiage to stamp on its Civil War coins, chose nothing less ethereal than "God.“
China, the whole of China, grudgingly gave Mao the key to its freedom, its spirit, and its life force.

Xiu Mei, In Mao We Trusted, 2006


Of little substance

ZEVS
Visual Attack
(various)
2006 - 2009

Consumerism kills

Cao Fei, xxx, xxx

Jenny Holzer, Rib Cage, 2002

Glascine, flat-line, barely living…

Zhang Xiaogang, Bloodline: The Big Family no 3, 1999

Comfortable as un-comfortable…
Searching for a new identity – classic trauma response

Weng Fen, Health / Fashion / White Collar, 2000


Not as intended…
Produce but love, still

Xu Yong, Solution Scheme D1 and D2, 2007


Chose house, not office

U.S. women work because they must
Women as % of all women, 1975-1999

Work full-time for
financial reasons

Work full-time for
personal satisfaction

57Source: Bowling Alone, Prof Robert Putnam, Simon & Schuster, 2000

In sickness (but not in success…)
Three times more?
PRC divorce, %*
280%
Divorce as a % of marriages increase
in 2005 in the US was 46%

Feng Zheng Jie, Untitled, 2003

Note: Marriage rate in the period stayed roughly
constant with a 14.4% peak-trough and 6.4%
maximum mean variance
58 | Monday 18 January 2010 Bureau of Statistics
Source: PRC National

Alienation of the individual: controlled, powerless

Yang Jing, Lucky Fortune, 2004 Coca Cola Inc, Love It Light campaign, 2010


Personality fragmentation
Re-integration vital.. mutual trauma in American and Chinese society

Zeng Fanzhi, We n:2, 2002 Chuck Close, Self Portrait, 1986

Not really long life…
Butterfly effect


Lofty ideals, ignoble realities
Only human…

Artus, Dude, 2007 Artus, Bitch, 2007

Use the past in the present (still broken…)

Yang Jing, Gong Fu, 2006 Yang Jing, Fu Lu Shou, 2006

Walled in
Defence as prison

Zhang Lin Hai, untitled, 2001

Alienation of the individual: developed to death

Cao Fei, Diversionist, 2004 Cao Fei, City-watcher, 2004


Dissidence - guerrilla power
“I have to speak for people who are afraid!”

Ai Weiwei, White House, 1999

Ai Weiwei, Tiananmen, 2000


Nuclear (bomb) family
Who lives where?


Nuclear (bomb) family


The good life?

Tempers are beginning to fray
Number of court determined economic disputes in China, million
29x
increase

69 Source: PRC National Bureau of Statistics

Introduction
Societal trauma
Broken People
Recovery attempts
Integration
The future


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…


Introduction
Societal trauma
Broken People
Recovery attempts
Integration
The future


History of humiliation…


Integration of 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


Trauma and recovery
Never forget national humiliation, rejuvenate China!

Gaining glory
Civilisation
Barbarism
HONOUR

SHAME External Internal

Processing humilliation


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)

Introduction
Societal trauma
Broken People
Recovery attempts
Integration
The future


Shark infested waters
Global sales of Chinese art at auction

Source: artnet

The next art wave

China’s ownership of iconic America

Symbolic hegemony

Fund being structured on 30 years work

Change in ownership, not culture

Institutional product

Iconic warfare – harmonious but decisive rising


Now what…?

Kuhnian / BTC
Trauma Sail America to China Art
Recovery Finance
Own the top slice
$350m 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 - April 2010

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