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ENCOUNTERS WITH POLYNESIA IN BRITAIN: Art, Ancestors, Artists, and Curators
Author(s) -
Hooper Steven,
Jacobs Karen,
Jessop Maia,
Nuku George
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
museum anthropology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.197
H-Index - 15
eISSN - 1548-1379
pISSN - 0892-8339
DOI - 10.1111/j.1548-1379.2012.01118.x
Subject(s) - exhibition , kinship , residence , context (archaeology) , anthropology , politics , visual arts , art , genealogy , history , sociology , archaeology , law , demography , political science
Abstract The exhibition, P acific E ncounters: A rt and D ivinity in P olynesia 1760–1860 , shown in 2006 at the S ainsbury C entre for V isual A rts, N orwich, U nited K ingdom, involved many P olynesians in opening and closing rituals and a program of artists‐in‐residence. The ancient artworks displayed, called taonga (“treasures”) in N ew Z ealand M aori, were explicitly treated as embodiments of ancestors who were activated and enlivened by the ritual procedures and chanting in their vicinity. The relationship between ancestors, artworks, and descendants, particularly artists and ritual practitioners, is examined in the context of ethical and political debates about the role and location of such artworks, as many of them are held in museums and collections outside P olynesia. A new environment is explored using a conceptual model of kinship between the cultural descendants of makers and the cultural descendants of collectors, in which exhibitions can be vehicles for new productive collaborative relationships based on mutual respect.