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

Archaeological findings on early New Zealanders and Maori culture

Whanganui River valley

Some very interesting biological archaeology finds have been published from research conducted at the University of Otago, New Zealand. The research looked at the human remains, known as koiwi tangata, of early New Zealanders who traveled to the Malborough region 700 years ago.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/05/130516105700.htm

Mt. Ruapehu, Mt. Ngāuruhoe, Mt. Tongariro

Though the article covers the complexities of carbon ratios, dietary makeup, and isotopes gauged from the remains, aside from the deeper scientific importance, of key interest to me were the archaeological materials found in the graves of three different groups. The evidence suggested that the groups were hunter gatherers who possibly used the burial site at Wairau Bar as a ceremonial place. The burials themselves were very telling about one group in particular, from the position of internment to the grave goods discovered, such as whale bone and moa eggs. It is possible the findings ‘may represent the roots of the tangihanga ritual, in which Maori are buried in their ancestral lands, developing among these first New Zealanders’.

Koriniti marae

The Maori practice of the tangihanga, or tangi, takes place on the marae or family home and acts as the ceremonial remembrance for ancestors who have passed away. The ceremony allows families to gather to remember the deceased and commemorate the dead. During the tangi, photographs are placed around the body and both the visual images of ancestral kin and the body are addressed as if they were living. This embodiment of life within pictures and the objects of importance to the deceased, displays the significance of objects to community memory. These archaeological findings have wider importance to understandings of early Polynesian life both socially and culturally.

Auckland, New Zealand