Arts of Oceania

Contemporary Aboriginal Paintings

Context: Were forced to new nodes of expression. Acrylic paint introduced, women began to paint in the 1970s. Paddy Sims and others. Emily Kame. Abstracted landscapes. Kame is known for her ability to create movement with lines and dots. Dreamtime images. Emily Kame didn't start painting until she was in her 70s. Batik-dyed fabrics and textiles. Dreamtime painting. Contour lines. Dot matrix, sense of movement. Sense of rivers and mountains. Emily Kame compared to Honoring Som? Shared themes; continuation of traditional subject matter, incorporated landscape. Elements celebrate the past; ceremony and dreamtime. Due to European Contact; new mediums, forced assimilation versus freedom.

Auuenau (male ancestor figure)

Period: Oceania/Australia/Melanesia. Culture: aboriginal. Medium: Ocher on bark. Context: X-ray art. Culture attached to nature. Believed in "the dreaming" refers to their specific mythology and origin stories. Each clan/family will have their own story. Ancestry important. Ancestors left their mark on the landscape. Auuenau would eat the flesh of the dead, is hairy, has lightnenig (looking to feast during lightnening storms). Depicted Dramings, ancestral beings whose spirits pervade the present, using the X-ray style that shows both the figure's internal organs and its external appearance. PG 1115

Men's ceremonial house (Bai) from Belau

Period: Oceania/Caroline Islands/Micronesia. Culture: Belau. Location: Belau, Caroline Islands. Context: Republic of Belau. Used as a gathering place for governing elders. Discussed important community matters. Traditionally, constructed without nails and pegs, but used lashings. Known for expectptional use of hardwoods. Highly decorated, ornamented interiors. Open plan, seating around walls (based on rank/status), fireplaces in middle. Most important structure in village, in village square. Most important structure in their villages. Iconography important way to incorporate women. PG 1121

Dilukai from Belau

Period: Oceania/Caroline Islands/Micronesia. Culture: Belau. Location: Belau, Caroline Islands. Context: Splayed female figure placed over the entrance. Symbol of procreation and protection, as well as death and rebirth. Women played important role in society-to even power men were given spiritual to represent in art. Faces west toward sun. Blatant, geometric, not necessarily sexualized but a symbol. Symbol of fertility and protected the men's house. PG 1122

Staff god (Tangaroa?)

Period: Oceania/Cook Islands/Polynesia. Culture: Rarotonga. Medium: Wood. Context: Staff was used an oratory visual aide, to bring narrative to community. Most art historians agree it has enlarged head, stylized, geometric, we are looking at the god Tangaroa. Boundary between spirit and earthly realm blurred. Includes union between human and divine resulting in demi-gods. People can trace back their ancestry to these demi-gods. Demi-gods are the "teeth" from the god (head). PG 1126

Feather cloak of Kamehamaeha III

Period: Oceania/Hawaii/Polynesia. Medium: Feather and fiber netting. Context: Believed their gods were covered in feathers. Feathered cloak-wearer of this cloak or cape, linked you to the gods and ensured protection. The longer the cloak the more royal you were, king has longest. Used for ceremonies. Worn by people of the most significance. If an item has a lot of detail and work, it was made for someone high ranking. Red feathers from iiwi bird. Yellow come from ohoh and momo, feathers turned yellow during mating season. No one has seen them since 1985. PG 1128

Tattooed warrior with war club

Period: Oceania/Marquesas Islands/Polynesia. Culture Marquesan. Medium: Color engraving in Carl Bertuch. Context: Belief that body is meeting place between temporal and spiritual world. Mask can act as mediators between physical and spiritual world. Body adornment emphasizes its sacredness. Marquesas warriors have overall body tattoos, geometric, symmetrical, emphasizes skeletal structure. Process of tattooing (chanting while done) important for capturing mana (spiritual power). Tattoos enhance status and beauty. Like a spiritual armor. Tatau/tatu (tattoo). PG 1125.

Iatmul ceremonial men's house

Period: Oceania/New Guinea/Melanesia. Culture: Iatmul. Location: East Sepik, Papua New Guinea, Melanesia. Context: Most important structure in the village. Similar to function of Kiva. Saddle of roof reflects female body, interior considered female, symbolizes protective matle of ancestors. Men only, anyone else could be put to death for entering. Interior space is where the men would discuss community, eat, create art, center of art production for ceremony and ritual, multiple carvings and shelving for art objects inside. Carving part of the house inside and out. Boy initiates creating art. Sacred realm, important spiritual center. Carvings in Oceania, body seen as meeting place between living and spirit world. Carvings acted as temporary homes for spirit of ancestors. Each community has own unqiue spirits and carvings, other communities wouldn't recognize others spirits. Geometric forms, some curving, simplified shapes. Reenacts death and rebirth when enter and exit the 2nd story. PG 1117

Te Hau-Ki-Turanga meeting house

Period: Oceania/New Zealand. Location: Poverty Bay, New Zealand. Artist: Raharuhi Rukupo. Culture: Rongowhakaata clan. Context: Geometric lattice work. Created and installed by women from the exterior (cannot enter the house). Symbolism of meeting house is the sky god. . Wharenui (meeting house). Structure symbolized the body of an ancestor the sky father. Barge boards are his outstretched arms, ridge beam is spine and rafters his ribs. Poupou (relief panels) depict male and female ancestors, frontal, stacked, decorated with tattoos. Pou tokomanawa (freestanding figures) is a self-portrait of Raharuhi Rukupo, spiral details represent tattoos. Chiefs facial tattoos mimicked wrinkle lines. PG 1113

Abelam yam mask

Period: Oceania/Papua New Guinea/Melanesia. Culture: Abelam. Medium: Painted cane. Context: Culture intensly focused on agricultural process. Yam cult main role of social interaction for men in community. Status within society based on geneology. Achieve status by becoming a big man. Big man by producing art, if you can speak well within the community, and can grow big yams (can reach up to 12 ft in this culture!) As a big man you can throw feasts and others would supply food and objects, people would bend to your will. Yam cult behind ceremonial art. Prized yams are tubular, long straight yam. Yams part of diet-utilitarian function. Best yams would wear headdresses called tumbuan. Made with red black, opening for eyes on the mask to show they are alive. Culture believes yams are alive. Growing of the yams are a mans job. Would go into sacred gardens to grow prize yams, have knowledge of spells and rituals. Would go up to 6 months of abstinence to focus on growing yams. PG 1119

Elema hevehe masks

Period: Oceania/Papua New Guinea/Melanesia. Culture: Elema. Context: . Spiritual energy known as Hevehe cycle. Is a cycle of ceremonies that last 10-20 years. Begins with construction of mens ceremonial house, then each stage of mask production would be celebrated. Month long parading masks. Mask represent female sea spirits. Significance is desire to appease water, woodland, sea spirits. Masks up to 20 ft. Cane bamboo, cloth/bark, topper with animals. Dance end with masks being burned. Fibers at bottom cover wearers torso. . Hevehe cycle- Villagers would come in and be part of the ceremonies. Eharo masks part of a prelude of comedic dances for entertainment and pleasure rather than spiritual. Variety of masks and functions of them. PG 1118

Row of moai on a stone platform

Period: Oceania/Rapu Nui (Easter Island)/Polynesia. Location: Ahu Tongariki, Rapu Nui. Context: On ahu (raised platforms). Made of volcanic tufa and red scoria. Restored view top right. Share similar attributes, deep set eyes, concave nose, shield-like chest. Up to 70ft tall. Oldest, colossal statues. Believed they were made up to 1500ce. Overpopulation cause inter-tribal warfare causing the halt of production. Most likely represent ancestors, or deceased chiefs. PG 1123

Ngatu with manulua designs

Period: Oceania/Tonga/Polynesia. Artist: Mele Sitani. Medium: Barkcloth. Context: Only region that was never colonized. Tapa (barkcloth). Tongan Bark cloth with manulua designs. Source is paper of mulberry trees. Size ranges because the could glue or beat them together. Used naturally occurring pigments. Everyday use, wrappig products, coronation of chief (wrapping dead bodies), clothing. Economical as well as spiritual functions. Shared similarity of great plains women working with softer mediums, both used for everyday objects, incorporate geometric patterns. Made with 2 bird design for the coronation of Tupou IV. PG 1124

Asmat bisj poles

Period: Oceanic/New Guinea/Melanesia. Culture: Asmat. Medium: Mangrove wood, paint and fiber. Context: Cannabilistic and head-hunting culture. They represent dead ancestors, recently deceased village members. Would be placed in front of mens ceremonial house for reasons such as revenge, to appease ancestors/spirits, ensure health of community. Would be thrown out after successful headhunt. At bottom would contain a cavity wear a head could be inserted. Mana is a power concept, believed head contained most power (where soul resided in). Everytime a member was lost, power was lost from community. Would take enemies power by removing head and eating the body and getting vitality/power back. Heads will be larger in art because of belief of power in head. Ancestor depicted with bent knee-symbol of power (mimicking praying mantis). Fruit eating animals represent headhunter. PG 1116