CONTENT: What do you see?
FORM: The details (what you see more exactly). How the artist delivers the content.
CONTEXT: Everything NOT observable.
FUNCTION: The intended purpose of the work.

​APAH 250 Images:

Applied Art:
221. Navigation chart
219. Hiapo (tapa)
220. Tamati Waka Nene Gottfried Lindauer

Objects of Power and Authority:
215. 'Ahu 'ula (feather cape)
223. Presentation of Fijian mats and tapa cloth to Queen Elizabeth II​

Sacred Objects of Ritual and Performance:
216. Staff god  - staff god (contextual image)
217. Female deity
218. Buk (mask)
222. Malagan mask - Malagan display ​

Structures of Power and Authority:
213. Nan Madol
​214. Moai on platform (ahu)
BIG IDEA 1: Artists manipulate materials and ideas to create an aesthetic object, act, or event.
1. What is art and how is it made? Materials (Environment/Geography Art making techniques Why make art? (Function)
2. Themes: Power and Authority Funereal Traditions Sacred Objects and Spaces Historical Record
3. Form, function, content, context: Form and Content = VISUAL Function and Context = CONTEXTUAL

VOCABULARY

1. DEITY
2. TAPA
3. TATU(TATTOO)/MOKO
4. MANA(STRENGTH)
5. MALANGGAN (MALANGAN)
6. TATANUA MASKS
7. MOAI
8. PUKAO
9. MONOLITH
10. 'AHU 'ULA

SUMMARY

The huge span of islands throughout the Pacific was populated over thousands of years. The massive stretch of ocean is matched by the diverse artwork produced by seemingly unrelated people speaking a variety of languages but a few commonalities regarding the art of the Pacific Art can be summarized.

Many items are portable, usually created for use in ceremony, and made of wood and bark. When large wooden objects are presented, they are carved with precision and consume a whole wooden log. Intricately woven fabrics made of raw materials are a particular Pacific specialty. In all cases, intricate line definition is a trademark of art found in the Pacific.

Interestingly, none of the characteristics apply to the art of Easter Island, with its distinctive and colossal stone carvings that dominate the land. These large torsos and heads find their closest artistic similarities with the art of ancient America, but the connection between the two cultures has never been documented.

CONTEXT 

1. Geography and Materials: Variety of media due to varying ecological situations, social structure, impact of external influences (commerce/colonialism/missionary activities).
Media: fibers, pigments, bone, sea ivory and shell tortoise shell, wood, coral, stone
Organization of 25,000 islands into micro (small), poly (many), mela (black), nesia (islands)
Objects give form and preserve human history/social continuity, remind people of heritage and shared bonds, temporary constructions destroyed once memory is created
2. History and Tradition: The sea as a theme is pervasive/connecting and separating force Settled by Lapita culture 4,000 years ago - 800 CE the subdivision of regions established Sailing culture - migration of cultures creating devies of navigation, ships, personal charts, objects believed to provide protection/safe pasage
3. Power and Authority: arts are expressions of beliefs, social relations, essential truths and information held by designated members of society - objects/acts/events are forces of social life
Power/forces of deities, ancestors, founders, hereditary leaders are protected to prevent human access
Ritual dress/armor/tattoos encase and shield the focus of power from human interaction
Mana - a person’s vital force. Identity or strength expressed and protected by rules/prohibitions as well as wrapping/sheathing practices or tapu. Objects that project status/sustain structure hold and become mana - made secure through tapu
Power and Authority in the different cultures:
Nan Madol - ambitious residential/ceremonial complexes Hawaiian rulers - feather capes announce status and shield Polynesian - sacred ceremonial spaces announce legitimacy, power, life force Melanesia - earn status and power marked by exchange of objects
4. Performance and Ritual: Performed (dance/sung/recited/displayed) - colors/scents/textures/movements that enact narrative/proclaim primordial truths connected to epics of human history and experience - costumes/cosmetics/constructions
Objects and performance presented to stimulate response/outcome using dress/ritual settings - utilize all senses How the object is used in performance - carries the meaning of the work of art rather than the work of art carrying the meaning, rituals that evoke memory, reaffirm shared values/important truths

CULTURES

  • Organization of 25,000 islands into micro (small), poly
    (many), mela (black), nesia (islands)
  • Polynesia, Micronesia, Melanesia

QUICK HISTORY

  • 700-1980
  • Some of the oldest inhabited areas on Earth (The Aboriginals reached Australia 30,000-50,000 years ago)
  • Some places only inhabited up to 1000 years ago (remote islands of the Pacific, Easter Island, New Zealand)
  • We know about the culture of these areas because of explorations in the 18th century

KEY IDEAS

  • Strong gender roles for creating art: Men = wood carving, women = tapa cloths
  • Wood is the primary material: they have perfected woodcarving
  • The use of natural materials such as fibers (plant materials), pigments, bones, sea ivory and shell, tortoise shell, wood, coral, and stone are very important to the meaning and symbolism of the artworks
  • Intricate lines and details
  • Art of Easter Island is unusual in Oceanic art
  • Heavily influenced by the sea (point of isolation and connecting through travel and trade). 
  • Art is in the form of performances, chants, dances, or rituals. Objects of dress/costumes or masks are used as props or disguises in religious rituals. They are not produced for aesthetic reasons.
  • Sculptures representing life forces in the supernatural world are often wrapped (usually in tapa). The life force is referred to as mana. Mana is protected and defended by the act of wrapping called tapu.
  • "Artworks" are displayed in the men's communal house
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