Fictions featuring the Oceanian world that manage to break into international cinemas can be counted on the fingers of the hand: among them, Niki Caro's beautiful The Whale Rider (which we discuss here) or Bentley Dean and Martin Butler's Tanna , to which today's article is dedicated.
How can I describe a father’s suffering who is separated from his wife and children for six years?
How can I describe a mother witnessing her small kids growing up for six years in a prison camp?
How can I describe a young man who was full of life but has lost his opportunity to continue his education, to find love, has lost his health, his family, his hope, has lost many opportunities that you take for granted?1
Behrouz Boochani, TedxSydney Writing is an act of resistance.
The Casoar team respectfully advises Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders people that this article includes images, works and names of deceased Indigenous people and may include images of artistic, cultural or intellectual property that may be of sensitive nature.
Emily Kame Kngwarreye est sans doute l’une des artistes aborigènes les plus connues au monde. Son tableau Earth’s Creation a d’ailleurs détenu un temps le record de l’œuvre réalisée par un.e artiste aborigène la plus chère au monde. Mais saviez-vous que sa carrière de peintre fut aussi courte que fulgurante ? Et que son œuvre artistique ne commence pas avec la peinture mais avec le textile ? Aujourd’hui, Casoar vous emmène à la découverte de l’histoire de l’une des plus grandes artistes de la fin du XXème siècle.
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"I came to France with the intention of continuing the story.
In one respect, I am literally walking out of the lithographs.
I’m coming out of the picture and I’m in a repeat performance here in Rochefort.
However, the difference is that now the context has changed because this is all history. So the place where this context continues is in the museum."1
[Please note: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people should be aware that this article may contain images or names of deceased persons in photographs or printed material.]
Ten Canoes (10 canoes, 150 spears and three wives) is a film about Arnhem Land and its people, made with and by them. It is a film for Indigenous people and it is also an ambassador film for Aboriginal culture and therefore also made for an audience outside this culture. It is a story of forbidden love, brotherly bonds, kidnapping, witchcraft and revenge, treated with poetry and humour. In short, this is a rich work that CASOAR really recommends! Read More
As a new lockdown begins in France, many envy Australians and New Zealanders who have been able to enjoy bars, restaurants and even nightclubs for several weeks. However, the situation is far from being the same in the whole Pacific, and is even worrying in places like Papua New Guinea (PNG). This week we take a look at the latest news on this health crisis.
Since the 1990s, an “archival turn” has been happening in contemporary art in Australia1 where artists have been engaging with archives, whether it be in museums, libraries, or archives per se. An influential artist at the forefront of this “new” movement re-reading the archive is the Wirardjuri (NSW, Australia)/Celtic ‘conceptual artist’2 Brook Andrew. Artist Brook Andrew can be regarded as an ‘archival mediator’3 who ‘remak[es and] remark[s …] anthropological or ethnographic objects’.4 It is his work The Island created in 2007-2008 after encountering Read More
This article was first written for the catalogue of the Bourgogne Tribal show's third edition in 2018.
"You walk towards Auteuil you want to go home on foot
To sleep among your Oceanic and Guinean fetishes
They are Christs of another shape and another creed."
Guillaume Apolinaire, « Zone », 1913.
These lines by poet Guillaume Apollinaire testify to his early interest in non-European art. The year was 1913, on the eve of the First World War, and his famous collection of poems Alcools, had just been published. Apollinaire did not know then that the West was about to change the way it looked at Pacific objects. This metamorphosis would deeply mark the history of the arts and ethnographic museums. Read More
As Elizabeth Edwards has argued, visual repatriation visual repatriation is, in many ways, about finding a present for historical photographs, realising their ‘potential to seed a number of narratives’ through which to make sense of that past in the present and make it fulfil the needs of the present.”1 Edwards explains how visual repatriation visual repatriation is first a way for both Indigenous people and collections holders to shed light on groups of photographs, usually taken in the 19th and 20th centuries, and try to get information about these photographs. More importantly, visual repatriation visual repatriation can be said to allow one to generate narratives which bridge the gap between past and present. Read More
This article was first written for the catalogue of the Bourgogne Tribal show's third edition in 2018.
“A poet without a publishing house or work”1Jacques Viot entered the world of Parisian galleries and, more particularly, the surrealist scene in the 1920s. He represented artists like Joan Miró. After working for several artists and galleries and being deep in debt, Viot sailed the Pacific in 1926. After coming back to Paris in 1928, he got back in touch with Pierre Loeb who had had a gallery in Paris since 1924. Viot had worked with him before his departure. Viot suggested that he go to the South Seas in order to bring back objects that were fashionable at the time, particularly among surrealists. Read More
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