CAG on museums: African art and artistic inspiration

I’ve been working at the Great North Museum Hancock for two months now, and I’m finally getting more familiar with their ethnographic collections. I’ve discovered a collection of mainly Dogon and Ashanti artworks collected in the 1970s. As far as African art goes, I don’t have a world of experience and knowledge, but I was reminded of the first presentation on Dogon art that I ever saw in my favorite documentary series The Tribal Eye.

In this series, David Attenborough treks across the world exploring the arts of tribal cultures in 1975. The first episode in the series is on the life and customs of the Dogon people of Mali. Attenborough draws a connection between the fervor for Dogon artworks in the European art world and also links the use of African artifacts that inspired artists like Picasso.

Me looking at a Dogon equestrian god sculpture in the stores

The idea of ethnographic collections being inspired by European art world collection trends has been looked at as one of the least culturally valid reasons to assemble a collection, but in reality expressions of art from all parts of the world have been inspiring collectors and viewers of these artworks across continental boundaries. For example, there was a copy of the Ice Age female figure found in Italy (thought to be 22,000 years old) that Picasso had in his studio for inspiration. This figure can be seen in the current ‘Ice Age Art: arrival of the modern mind’ exhibition at the British Museum.

Female figure lent to British Museum by Château-Place Charles de Gaulle, copyright BMP

The point being, there hasn’t been much work on the Hancock collection of 1970s African art (purchased by the Hatton Gallery), but I’m really excited to look deeper into the collection and come up with some interesting research points.

After all, even one of biggest collectors of Dogon art, Lester Wunderman said, ‘Dogon art can hardly be called primitive. It contributes to expanding and enriching the life of those for whom it is carved; it is an integral part of Dogon society. Nor is that society as I saw it, necessarily primitive either...It is simply another course, an alternative method of human organization.’

Asanti bronze weight, man with fowl and bowl

These collections weren’t made as part of an agenda to classify and categorize cultures, unlike many world collections, but were seen as a way of relating to another world through the shared paradigm of art.

Ashanti bronze weight, man with rifle

CAG on museums: The Royal Tyrrell Museum, and Dinosaurs!

The Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology will always be one of my most memorable museum visits. Although I prefer art and anthropology museums, what kid didn't grow up wanting to be a paleontologist and study dinosaurs? So there’s still a soft spot in my heart for massive dinosaur exhibits and the Royal Tyrrell is fab.

I happened to be visiting Calgary, Alberta and my friend and I decided that this museum was worth the hour and a half drive into the middle of nowhere. There is also a Dinosaur Provincial Park nearby, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site and is meant to be worth the visit. I didn't make it there, but if dinosaurs are really your thing you should definitely check it out as well.

The Royal Tyrrell had a wonderful Charles Darwin evolution exhibition at the time. It also had a lot of rooms that brought you through the timeline of the evolution of dinosaurs by looking at bones, fossils, and interactive displays.

Though the museum learning programming is mainly aimed at schoolchildren, everyone can really learn from a museum as well put together as this one and enjoy their time.

CAG on travel: Easter Island and archaeology adventures

Ten years ago my interest in the Pacific began unexpectedly. I had the chance to go on an archaeology excavation with a group from the University of Hawai’i Prehistory Project on Easter Island. I originally went as an archaeologist who had only done South American archaeology, and had no real knowledge about Pacific cultures. I just wanted to explore something as far away as possible!

Ahu Ahanga

My first impressions of Easter Island were that it was so geographically different than I had expected. I was thinking it would be more tropical like Hawai’i, but in reality it was a much more sparse landscape with a much cooler climate. It was still one of the most beautiful places I’d ever seen.

View from Poike volcano

A typical day of excavating and mapping

As an archaeologist you tend to wake up before dawn so that you can hike out to a site for work, and by mid-afternoon you’ve already put in your eight hour day. This left plenty of time after the excavations to explore the main town of Hanga Roa, and the (limited) nightlife.

Cultural show (that we attended about four times)

At that time ten years ago, this mainly consisted of three bars- only one of which tourists frequented. Although archaeologists are known for their partying (sorta), and after a month I think most of us were bored of this and used most of our energy to explore the other wonders of the island. 

View from the cave 

Tangata manu (birdman) cave paintings in 'Cannibal Cave'

Finding the tangata manu (birdman) cave paintings in the ‘Cannibal Cave’ and exploring the stories of the island are what first sparked my interests in the cultural history of the Easter Island people, and shifted my interests more towards anthropology. There were so many questions I had for the descendants of these populations, and it didn’t hurt that the Pacific is absolutely gorgeous. 

Downtime at Anakena Beach

Ahu Tongariki from afar

CAG on museums: Working at the British Museum

The British Museum

As a California girl who has always dreamed of working at the British Museum, once I was there it did not disappoint. While working at with the Department of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas, I worked with some of the finest collections and some of the best minds in the museum world. Most days something very exciting happens like a special visitor comes to view the collection, or there is news of an exhibition that is about to be put on. This is exciting if you work in a museum at least. Other days, there is a bit more manual labour involved- but at least it’s in a storeroom that looks like the last scene in Indiana Jones Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Me putting away a tiny tiny object

There are lots of visitors to the storerooms and the department, and especially visitors from the Pacific and Australia. The Pacific is my area of anthropological interest. The Pacific and Australian collections are a particularly well-used resource at the British Museum. We have many individuals, indigenous researchers, and groups who come to see a specific part of the collection within a week. Thinking through anthropology, issues of politics in the museum, and collections care on behalf of the public, means that though the Museum is an academic institution, a lot of the work must also benefit the source communities from whom collections originate to create access for wider audiences.

Torres Strait Island dance objects laid out for a visit

Last year when a dance group from the Torres Strait Islands came to our storage site to see dance related collections of masks, ornaments, drums and other related objects, many people in the group had varying responses to the objects that they saw.

Dance performance and acknowledgement of ancestors

After the group saw the objects, they asked to give an acknowledgment of the ancestors and give a dance performance. These kinds of interactions between living communities and their ancestors’ historic objects highlights the importance of access to collections in the museum, and continue to make objects important on a daily basis.