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Ta Tung
Author/s: Organik Research Group
Edition: Unique
Year: 2010
Size: 20" x 13" x 3/4"
Page #: 42 pages
Binding: C.K. Wilde
Media: acrylic paint, ink, wax crayon rubbings, leather
Paper: The text block paper is Inge text weight. The cover boards were collaged and varnished by Kurt with egg shells and rose petal from out front.
Ta Tung is compendium mundi of text, image, and material (dirt, water, metal). With samples gathered throughout the world over a period of 14 months as well as many matrix sources from Y in Alhambra, CA. and Booklyn in New York. Ta Tung effectively excavates a monumental narrative of global history both libratory and oppressive; while also constructing an oblique incantation of poetic resistance activated with the reading of the book.
Ta Tung come from Confucius:
When the Great Way prevailed, the world community was equally shared by all. The worthy and able were chosen as office-holders. Mutual confidence was fostered and good neighborliness cultivated. Therefore people did not regard as parents only their own parents, nor did they treat children only their own children. Provision was made for the aged till their death, the adult were given employment, and the young enabled to grow up. Old widows and widowers, the orphaned, the old and childless, as well as the sick and the disabled were all well taken care of. Men had their proper roles and women their homes. While they hated to see wealth lying about on the ground, they did not necessarily keep it for their own use. While they hated not to exert their effort, they did not necessarily devote it to their own ends. Thus evil schemings were repressed, and robbers, thieves and other lawless elements failed to arise, so that outer doors did not have to be shut. This was called the age of Great Harmony (Ta Tung).
A Chinese version of the text above can be found on the wall of Sun Yat Sen Hall, St. John's University, Jamaica, New York. This English translation is by Dr. Shih-shun Liu.
Locations of outdoor material and matrix samplings.
Germany: Hamburg, Various public works, Offenbach Am Main, Nazi transport memorial plaques, various public works. California: Route 49, the Forty-niner Highway in the Sierras, various plaques in various towns including: Murphys: various historical plaques, Angel's Camp, Walk of Fame, Jumping Frogs of Calaveras Country plaques, Columbia, Mark Twains Cabin plaques. Los Angeles, Chinatown, various plaques and surfaces, Alhambra, South Pasadena, various plaques, tombstones and surfaces. Hawaii: Oahu Island, Honolulu and Waikiki: Duke Kahanamoku Statue in Waikiki war memorials, street signs, manhole covers, and various plaques. New York: Architectural plaques, Park Avenue, 41st Street Confucius Plaza Memorial, Chinatown, Kim Lau Memorial Arch, Chinatown Library Walk, 41st, Fifth Avenue (featuring the poem "Forever Parted: Graveyard", by Gu Cheng, 1956-1993), Various public works.
Ta Tung is in the collection of the University of Central Florida
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