Research Catalog

Title

Tapa : barkcloth paintings from the Pacific / [curated by Nicholas Thomas and Julie Adams].

Publication

• Birmingham : Ikon Gallery Ltd, 2013.
• Ikon Gallery Ltd

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

• Nicholas, Thomas
• Adams, Julie
• Adams, Julie (Julie Ann), 1969-
• Ikon Gallery
• Ikon Gallery, host institution.

Description

40 pages : color illustrations; 3 x 3 cm

Summary

Ikon presents the first major European gallery exhibition of tapa, the great painted barkcloths from the islands of the Pacific. For millenia, Pacific Islanders have made traditional cloth from the bark of trees. Often taking on ceremonial significance, its decoration is extraordinary, with patterns that are enjoyed for their abstraction as much as their symbolism. Curated by Professor Nicholas Thomas, material for this exhibition is drawn from the worldclass collection of the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Cambridge, dating from the nineteenth century to the present day. Barkcloth is made by soaking and beating the inner bark of specific trees, most commonly the Paper Mulberry (Broussonetia papyrifera). Across the region, from New Guinea to Hawai'i, barkcloth has been decorated, in some places in the form of huge sheets featuring optically dynamic abstract patterns, while elsewhere barkcloth garments feature plant and animal life, sacred creatures and mythic narratives. Some barkcloths were wealth objects, spectacular fabrics many metres in width and length which operated as vital valuables, presented by one clan to another on great ceremonial occasions. Others marked sacred spaces, or were incorporated into masks and other ritual assemblages. Cloth was often understood as a kind of skin, a powerful wrapping for the body which revealed its inner state and identity. Primarily created by women using inherited clan designs, the manufacture of barkcloth formed a major vehicle for both creative expression and social cohesion, maintaining and communicating the artists' deep connection to their ancestors and country. This exhibition includes cloths spanning over 200 years, from Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, the Cook Islands and elsewhere in the Pacific. Although the painted barkcloths collected by European museums have remained largely hidden from public view

Subjects

• Exhibition catalogs
• Tapa > Exhibitions

Genre/Form

Exhibition catalogs

Note

• Cover title.
• Published on the occasion of the exhibition held May 1-July 14, 2013 at Ikon Gallery, Birmingham.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

ISBN

• 9781904864868 (Paper)
• 1904864864 (Paper)

OCLC

• 982687723
• SCSB-13225834

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library