CAG on museums: Art, science and an exhibition on Maori Modernism in NZ

The arts and sciences have long been paired together in the museum and share quite similar qualities of promoting distinctive and thoughtful ideas. Artists have been inspired by science and technology, and scientific design has taken point from artistic innovation as well. The sciences and arts have their own significances and are both part of the legacy of humankind.

Three Vessels Ralph Hotere oil on card, c. 1958, Whangarei private collection

There seems to be a trend and an increase in science and art collaborations in the museum world. The recent British Science Festival taking place in Newcastle is just one event/ display that exemplifies this trend (Link to previous post). The links between art, conservation and preservation sciences have always been understood as given behind-the-scenes work, but now the interest in displaying the science behind art has picked up pace.

On 21 September 2013 the launch of the Media Space area displaying photography and art at the Science Museum London supplies another significant link and correlation between science and art. At the Science Museum, Vivienne Westwood gave a speech where she was quoted as saying, ‘there are basically two types of people in the world and the thing about great artists and great scientists is that they have great imagination – they can see the world differently’.

Presence part of Universal Everything & You installation at Science Museum
21 Sept 2013 to 7 Feb 2014. This digital artwork explores anthropomorphism
and uses technologies such as 3D printing

Coming soon to the Whangarei Art Museum in New Zealand, the exhibition ‘Salon to Marae: First glimmerings of a Maori Modernism’ will display art of the late Selwyn Wilson and highlight the scientific conservation that has occurred to bring these dilapidated works back to a high standard of display. Selwyn Wilson was one of the first Maoris to graduate from Elam School of Fine Arts. His 14 paintings and drawings were in an extremely poor state and will be shown for the first time since 1951. The exhibition will also display paintings by Ralph Hotere, Dame Katerina Mataira, Muru Walters, and Arnold Manaaki Wilson as artists considered early Maori Modernists. The exhibition will also showcase the integral relationship between science and the arts that allowed these Selwyn Wilson paintings come back to life. ‘Salon to Marae’ opens November 11 at the Whangarei Art Museum.

Girl with a Grapefruit Selwyn Wilson oil on board c. 1949, Private collection

Matthew Darbyshire 'Oak Effect' with TWAM anthropology collections

This weekend I had to chance to stop by an exhibition in the Bloomberg SPACE that I have been trying to get to for ages. The exhibition is presented by British contemporary artist Matthew Darbyshire, but includes social history and anthropology collections from the Tyne and Wear Archive and Museum service. Months ago I helped gather the anthropology collections to accommodate the artist’s main criteria – that he had similar ethnographic objects made of wood with examples from all the continents.

Unfortunately, that is a rather tight criterion for our limited anthropology collections, but that didn’t mean the exhibition demand didn’t take up a good part of my time for quite a while. I had blogged previously about the need for correct loan valuations of these important objects (here). Part of the loan requirements demanded the individual objects being loaned had the appropriate contextual labels so that even though they were being shown out of their ethnographic context, the audience looking at the exhibition could still understand something deeper than an artistic interpretation of the objects.

 

Baule carving of a queen, Fred Uhlman collection...In a shower!

I expected to show up and see the familiar faces of our objects interpreted in an artistic context ‘exploring a contemporary world of collisions between objects, ephemera, styles and epochs’. I found the faux EU standard housing interior I expected with the objects unsettlingly dispersed throughout the exhibition, but with the added surprise of two ladies dressed up in vinyl wood patterned suits doing performance art in the room.

I think they were mock acting out daily activities you would do at home just in extreme slow motion. I really wasn’t sure though. I think the value that performance art adds to installations such as the Darbyshire installation is interesting, but in all honesty I really didn’t get it. It was really funny though. There was a kid at the show who I believe agreed with me and went out of his way to follow the wood girls around and try to interact with them. It definitely made the room feel a lot more comfortable.

Kid trying to get wood girls' attention

The show ends at the Bloomberg SPACE on June 29, but will be coming up to The Shipley Gallery after that.

Wood girls taking a break