EDMUND CAPON, 2003. SHEN JIAWEI, CHINA/AUSTRALIA, B. SHANGHAI 1948, OIL ON CANVAS, 198 x 187 CM. COURTESY OF THE ARTIST – TAASA Review September 2019

comment or the occasional issue of a reproving or laudatory memo to relevant staff. To achieve a specific goal, he rarely argued or confronted, choosing to follow the path advocated by the great Daoist philosopher Zhuang Zu in his parable of the butcher who never had to sharpen his knife.

Just as the butcher did not force his knife through the bones of an ox carcass, but through the spaces between the bones, so Edmund would negotiate around obstacles rather than confront them directly.

Being a consummate charmer, he inevitably achieved his goal...