AH2 Ch' 27 Art of Pacific Cultures

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AH2 Ch. 27 Art of Pacific Cultures

• Please note that there are many approaches to
  thinking about art history sociology (society
  study), religion, artist, audience/viewer,humanity
  /environment relationship, politics, Feminism,
  and semiotics (symbol study).

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• Ch. 27
• Write 5 questions from this chapter that you
  predict will be on the test.

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Fig. 27-3 Mimis and Kangaroo, prehistoric rock
art, Oenpelli, Arnhem Land, Australia. Older
painting 16,000-7,000BCE. red and yellow ocher
and white pipe clay

• Aboriginal society and mythology endowed unique
  meaning on their artwork stick figures may be
  ancestors. X-ray renderings reveal internal
  organs and skeletons.

• The Aborigines (nomadic hunter-gatherers)
  consider mimis to be ancestral spirits.
• The earlier painting is of skinny, stick-like
  humans (mimis).
• palimpsest effect

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27-4 Mithinarri Gurruwiwi, The Conference of
Serpents, from the Wäwilak myth. from eastern
Arnhem Land, Australia. 1963. Natural Pigments
(ochers and clay) on eucalyptus bark.
approximately 54 x 23

• This represents the part of the sacred origin
  myth of Eastern arnhem Land as interpreted by the
  Gälpu clan.
• The Wäwilak sisters the first humans offended
  the Olive Serpent who swallowed them but was then
  called before a council of serpents representing
  the clans. The serpent had to admit wrongdoing
  and regurgitate the humans.
• The central dark rectangle represents the
  serpents watering hole and the clans ceremonial
  center.
• The Olive Serpent is represented twice more at
  the top and once more below in the serpent
  conference.
• The dots on the snakes and the dotted water
  lillies represent eggs, thus associating the
  serpents to fertility.
• The Rarrk cross-hatching on the background
  originated in the distinctive designs painted on
  mens chests as part of initiation ceremonies,
  therefore have profound meaning for the culture
  that produced this.
• These images have remained fairly constant, so we
  can get a good glimpse as to what the ancient
  imagery looked like by examining this late
  example.
• Aboriginal eucalyptus bark paintings may
  facilitate contact with the "dreamtime."
• Ritual cultural transmissions, "memory aids" for
  storytellers.
• The world and its inhabitants were created during
  dreamtime.

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• How do you think Aboriginal bark painting could
  be connected to ancestral spirits?
• See previous slide.

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The aborigines (Australia) the flat world was
transformed (mountains, etc.) by animal and
ancestral beings.
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Latmul Tamberan house, Blackwater area, Kiningra
Village, New Guinea 1989

• Sub. for 27-5

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Sub. 27-5 Interior detail of Tamberan house, New
Guinea. Abelam, 20th century, carved and painted
wood with ocher pigments on clay ground

• Construction is accompanied by ceremonies. The
  completion is celebrated with elaborate fertility
  rituals and an all-night dance. Women participate
  only in these inaugural ceremonies. Afterward,
  the house is ritually cleansed and closed to
  them.
• The Abelam believe the paint itself has magical
  qualities.
• Ritual repainting revitalizes and continues the
  potency of the images.

• New Guinea Abelam Society Yams male potency
  (reproduction, fertility). Tamberian houses
  shelter yam cult and clan identity images and
  objects that are to be hidden from women and
  uninitiated boys (modern fertility rituals,
  initiations, rites of passage?).
• The panels are painted with the faces of a clans
  ancestral spirits.

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• Discuss the role of women in Melanesian arts.
• Women, although barred from ritual arts, gained
  prestige for themselves and their families
  through their skill in the production of other
  kinds of goods.

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Lapita (Melanesia) culture spread by seafaring
farmers who carried plants and animals with them.
Lapita pottery was likely done by women.
Melanesian arts offer "communication" with the
supernatural. Rituals/ritual arts limited to
men.
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• How are Asmat ancestral spirit poles symbols of
  male fertility?
• See the next slide.

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Fig. sub 27-6 Asmat ancestral spirit poles
(mbis), Indonesia, New Guinea. c. 1960, wood
paint, palm leaves, and fiber. height approx. 18

• Asmat Poles memorialize the dead. Central to
  ceremonies for reestablishing life/death balance.
  The Asmat believe a mythic hero carved their
  ancestors from trees.
• Phalluses (reproduction, male fertility)
• Praying mantis (bent pose) and birds breaking
  nuts headhunting.
• Enemy heads placed in the "banyan" bottoms of the
  poles.

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(Sub) Fig. 27-7 Dancer wearing tatanua masks,
New Ireland. 1979, approx. 17 high

• Painted carvings and masks are central to
  Malanggans (funerary rituals) on New
  Ireland/Papua New Guinea.
• Tatanua masks (New Ireland) assure male
  fertility. No contact with women for 6 weeks
  prior.
• The masks represent the spirits of the dead.
• a good tatanua performance is considered a feat
  of strength, a poor performance can bring
  laughter, ridicule, and humiliation.

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Fig. 27-9 Moai ancestor figures (?) Ahu Nau Nau,
Easter Island, Polynesia. c. 1000-1500, restored
1978. volcanic stone (tufa), 36 average height

• These puzzling figures may have represented
  ancestors or dead chiefs.

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Fig. 27-11 Portrait of a Maori, 1769, wash
drawing, 15.5 high, later engraved and published
in Parkinsons Journal, 1773

• Sydney Parkinsons drawing (1769, before
  photography). He was one of the artists on a
  British expedition artist for Captain Cook.
• This shows Maori with facial tattoos, headdress,
  comb, feathers and carved pendant of human
  figures.
• The ear pendant is probably made of greenstone.
  The Maori considered greenstone to have
  supernatural powers.
• The tiki figure hanging from his neck represents
  legendary heroes or ancestors. It would provide
  highly prized symbolic power.
• The moko (tattoo) is typical of mens facial
  tattoos bilateral symmetry and personal forms.
• The moko (and weaving and carving) is thought to
  have birth-death/ancestral symbolism because of
  religious beliefs that these crafts brought the
  Maori from the underworld realm of the Goddess of
  Childbirth.

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Chris Rainier, Moko (facial markings) on a
contemporary Marori chief, National Geographic
magazine, 2001
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Fig. 27- 13 Raharuhi Rukupo, Te-Hau-ki-Turanga
(Maori Meetinghouse), from New Zealand. 1842-43,
restored in 1935

• Rukupo, master woodcarver and converted Christian
  artist/priest/diplomat constructed a
  meetinghouse.
• Carved relief ancestors "support" the house and
  were believed to participate in discussions
  there.

• Women made lattice panels for Maori
  meetinghouses, in which they were prohibited.
• Rukupo's Maori meetinghouse symbolizes the sky
  father ridgepole backbone, rafters ribs,
  bargeboards arms.

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• What territory was annexed by the United States
  in 1898 and made a state in 1959?

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• What territory was annexed by the United States
  in 1898 and made a state in 1959?
• Hawaii

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Page 908, Feather Cloak, known as the Kearny
Cloak, Hawaii. c. 1843, red, yellow, and black
feathers, olona cordage, and netting (56 long)

• The feathers of 80,000-90,000 honey eater birds
  were used in this royal cloak. Red color of
  the gods (Hawaii) and church/state (demigods)
• The yellow feathers (from mamo birds, now
  extinct) were valuable because one bird produced
  only 7 or 8 suitable feathers.
• The birds were released after their tail feathers
  were plucked.
• The Hawaiians prized featherwork.

• Chiefs wore feather cloaks into battle, making
  them prized war trophies as well as diplomatic
  gifts.
• The cloak is worn from the shoulders like a cape.
• Hawaiians also made their fishnets, fish line and
  canoe rigging out of olona cordage, from a shrub
  that grows only in Hawaii .

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Fig. 27-15 Deborah (Kepola) U. Kakalia. Royal
Symbols. 1978, quilt, 67 square

• Contemporary artists in Oceania use
  reintegration.
• heraldic Polynesian and European imagery
• The European crowns are ironically used as
  symbols of Hawaiian monarchy.
• The kahili (in the corners) are ancient Hawaiian
  symbols of authority and rule.
• the 8 sectors are arranged to symbolize the
  uniting of Hawaiis 8 inhabited islands into a
  single Christian kingdom.
• The procedure for making this is just like the
  way children create paper snowflakes.

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• Give one example of reintegration from chapter
  24.
• See the previous slide.

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• Which culture creates images with the point of
  view that may be that of someone looking up from
  beneath the surface of the earth?
• See the next slide.

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Fig. 27-16 Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri. Mans
Love Story. 1978. synthetic polymer paint on
canvas, 7 high

• Aboriginal artists carry on traditional
  techniques with contemporary materials.
• This conveys a complex narrative involving two
  mythical ancestors.
• U-shapes are people, concentric circles are ants
  nests, the short white line is a digging stick,
  footprints to the brown u-shape, the dart form is
  a hair spindle, the footprints and wavy lines
  represent ancestors movements, the straight
  lines are miragesthe wiggles and dots are food
  caterpillars and seeds

• The point of view is that of one looking up from
  beneath the surface of the earth.
• The paintings resemblance to modern Western
  painting is accidental.
• Geoff Bardon, an art teacher, introduced new
  mediums and organized Aborigine artists into a
  cooperative to preserve ancient traditions and to
  develop artistic and commercial possibilities for
  many groups in the region.
• This artist was also a founder of the Papunya
  cooperative. He gained an international
  reputation after an exhibition in 1988. He works
  with his canvases flat on the floor.
• Modern and contemporary art viewers appreciate
  the work as art for arts sake

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• Why do you think many western European and
  American artists are invigorated by indigenous or
  native art?

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The End