Includes detailed chapters devoted to each of the five major cultural regions of the Pacific: Australia, Melanesia, Micronesia, Polynesia, and the islands of Southeast Asia.
"Lavishly illustrated analysis and guide discusses the significance of art for the people of the Pacific Islands. Examines the art forms and practices of particular regions, for example, Maori ancestral carvings, and rituals of exchange and warfare in the Solomon Islands. Discusses topics such as maternal symbolism and male cults, and also provides a chapter on narrative art and tourism. Includes a bibliography, references and an index." - product description.
The visual arts of Oceania tell a wealth of dynamic stories about origins, ancestral power, performance, and initiation. This publication explores the deeply rooted connections between Austronesian-speaking peoples, whose ancestral homelands span Island Southeast Asia, Australia, Papua New Guinea, and the island archipelagoes of the northern and eastern Pacific. Unlike previous books, it foregrounds Indigenous perspectives, alongside multidisciplinary research in art history, ethnography, and archaeology, to provide an intimate look at Oceania, its art, and its culture. Stunning new photography highlights more than 130 magnificent objects, ranging from elaborately carved ancestral figures in ceremonial houses, towering slit drums, and dazzling turtle-shell masks to polished whale ivory breastplates. Underscoring the powerful interplay between the ocean and its islands, and the ongoing connection with spiritual and ancestral realms, Oceania: The Shape of Time presents an art-focused approach to life and culture while guiding readers through the artistic achievements of Islanders across millennia.
Masks and figural sculptures are the most familiar examples of the visual culture of Oceania, yet they provide only a glimpse of the fascinating art of this expansive and diverse region. The artisans of the Pacific Islands have produced objects ranging from stained and beaten fabric, rock engravings, and woven containers to tattooed and painted bodies, drawings on sand and paper, and contemporary installation art. This sweeping survey looks at the full range of objects created over several millennia, spanning the settlement of Oceania in the prehistoric period to the present day.
This magnificent treasury features a wealth of original designs carefully adapted from authentic folk art of New Zealand, the Solomon Islands, New Guinea, Hawaii, Australia, and other locales comprising the Pacific island regions known as Polynesia and Oceania. Rendered with great detail and accuracy, the collection contains over 200 images drawn from the area's ancient tradition of decorative art: geometric patterns from tapa, the much-admired bark cloth; highly ornamented masks, canoe prows, and shields of Papua New Guinea; wood carvings from the Marquesas Islands; images of the mysterious giant statuary of Easter Island; Australian rock paintings; and much more. Additional sources include wall tapestries, pictorial ornaments, sand paintings, pottery, wooden musical instruments, temple art, and numerous other artifacts.
From New Guinea to New Zealand, Easter Island to Hawaii, the Pacific region known as Oceania has long excited the Western imagination, but its traditional sculptures, pots and paintings have only recently been studied and appreciated as fine art. While much about these works and the cultures that produced them remains mysterious, we do know that most items were created for use in daily life rather than as products for the art market. Nonetheless, their beauty and craftsmanship elevate the best of them to objects of contemplation and wonder. This catalogue presents some 80 Oceanic works of art, each illustrated with its form and function described. Michael Gunn's introduction places the works in context; Christraud Geary discusses provenance; and contextual photographs throughout show many of the objects in situ, aiding in a growing understanding of these intriguing but still elusive works, and adding to the scholarship on, and interest in, Oceania.
With more than one hundred illustrations--most in full color--this volume offers a stimulating and insightful account of two dynamic artistic cultures, traditions that have had a considerable impact on modern western art through the influence of artists such as Gauguin. After an introduction to Polynesian and Micronesian art separately, the book focuses on the artistic types, styles, and concepts shared by the two island groups, thereby placing each in its wider cultural context. From the textiles of Tonga to the canoes of Tahiti, Adrienne Kaeppler sheds light on religious and sacred rituals and objects, carving, architecture, tattooing, and much more.