29 July 2020
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Climate change and environmental disruptions in Pacific contemporary arts

*Switch language to french for french version of the article*

       In last week’s article, CASOAR presented the exhibition À toi appartient le regard (…) et la liaison infinie entre les choses (musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac) which focuses on contemporary photography. We mentioned several artists who use their art as a platform to discuss the environmental changes caused by pollution and global warming. Today, we are having a look at some Pacific contemporary artworks that deal with these themes. Read More

15 July 2020
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Can museums exhibit everything? Are "tjuringa" a well-kept secret?

If you have the opportunity to visit the exhibition Thirst for Knowledge Meets Collecting Mania at the Museum der Kulturen in Basel,1 you will certainly be curious about the presence of an orange rectangle in one of the showcases, in which no objects are displayed. At first glance, you might think that this absence is due to a restoration problem, a loan that did not arrive in time, in short a technical problem. If you look closely, it actually says on the label that the object in question will not be on display, as it cannot be seen by everyone.

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25 March 2020
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Is there such a creature as “traditional culture”? *

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As explained by Sean Mallon in his now famous ‘Against Tradition’ (2010), the story began with Samoan writer Albert Wendt. While Wendt started his discussion on the word “tradition” and its use in the 1970s, the debate took a larger scope in the 1990s, as he was working on the creation of a museum - Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington, New Zealand – as member of the Pacific Advisory Committee. Wendt had a simple request then: to abandon the term “traditional art”1 in the future museum. But why?

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30 January 2020
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Tearing away coloniality: a "way of seeing" in between

* Switch language to english for english version of the article *

Je ne suis pas une fa’afafine, je ne suis pas gay, je ne suis pas transgenre, je suis juste un être humain et je suis ici pour secouer ».1

        Tuisina Ymania Brown's words at a panel entitled ''Fa'afafine Towards Decolonization''. She refers to the Western desire to categorize human beings and identities. Against this Western desire to classify and categorize, CASOAR will talk about a photographic series made by the artist Yuki Kihara. This series Fa’afafine. In the Manner of Women including three self-portraits was created in collaboration with the photographer Sean Coyle. But who is Yuki Kihara? Read More

28 August 2019
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Spear: the story of an Indigenous heritage

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Djali wants to understand what it means to be a man. His journey begins in Arnhem Land and takes him to Sydney. Djali’s search for meaning exposes him to the troubled stories of other Indigenous Australian men. He witnesses the indignities and hardships they face as they negotiate life in a contemporary society that ignores their needs. Djali’s challenge is to navigate his way to a state of being that will nourish rather than destroy him.1 Read More

14 August 2019
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The Other Side of Mountains

*Switch language to french for french version of the article*

This article was first written for the catalogue of the third edition of the Bourgogne Tribal Show, 2018.

     It was in 1926 that a young 24-year-old Australian arrived in Papua New Guinea for the first time. Like many others, he was attracted by the easy gold of Edie Creek mine. Far from being an El Dorado, the island was a burden for the Australian administration of the 1920s which had just acquired these German lands as a result of the Versailles Treaty. The hot and humid climate of New Guinea and the supposed poverty of its soil dissuaded the government from investing in this new mandated territory, whose only wealth seemed to have been its population who had become cheap labour for planters and colonial miners. Read More

3 July 2019
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Captain Cook, Pacific Ocean's crook

*Switch language to french for french version of the article*

     Myth: “a widely held story; a misconception; a misrepresentation of the truth; an exaggerated or idealized conception”.1 The specific myth which we are going to consider is the colonial myth of the “discovery” of the Pacific Ocean – Australia and New Zealand being the centre of our study. Read More

12 June 2019
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The Enlightenment in Tahiti or the story of a tragic misunderstanding

This article is an adaptation of our conference De la Vahiné à Vaiana : mythologies européennes de l'Océanie, des Lumières de la philosophie à celles des projecteurs, which was held at the École du Louvre on 27 March 2019, as part of our partnership with the Bureau Des Élèves de l'École du Louvre for the "Mythes et Légendes" gala.

White sandy beaches, turquoise waters and vahines: these are the few images that come to mind for many of us when we think of Oceania. If the paradisiacal landscapes do exist, what about those famous vahines? Eternally accompanied by her ukulele, following the steps of a lascivious dance... the Polynesian woman as seen in the popular imagination seems to give a foretaste of paradise. Read More

10 April 2019
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Tā Moko: the art of Māori markings exhibited in Canberra

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I would like to thank Crispin Howarth for his time, answering these questions about Tā Moko: Māori Markings and his willingness to share his knowledge.

Curator for Pacific Arts since 2007 at the National Gallery of Australia, Crispin Howarth has curated a number of exhibitions over the past 12 years. Born in the Wirral, UK, Howarth began his interest in the art and cultures of the Pacific from visiting the comprehensive displays of the Liverpool Museum (now World Museum) and by living near Antique dealers who took the time to share their knowledge of objects from far away places, Tibet, Africa, Polynesia, Australia with him as a young child. From this beginning Howarth moved to Australia to be closer to Melanesia. Māori Markings: Tā Moko is his fifth exhibition for the National Gallery, it opened March 23rd and runs until 25th of August 2019.  Read More

27 March 2019
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The Treasure Room: A Reflection of the Primitivist Tendencies at the Trocadéro

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This article was first written for the catalogue of the third edition of the Bourgogne Tribal Show, 2018.

Treasure: noun from Latin thesaurusand greek thêsauros.
Amas d’objets précieux mis en réserve, souvent cachés, oubliés puis inventés fortuitement : découvrir un trésor.
Ensemble de biens, de produits, d’objets considérés comme des richesses que quelque chose recèle, contient ou produit : les trésors de l’océan.
Nom donné à certains grands ouvrages, certaines grandes collections : trésor de la langue française.
Archeology. In large Greek sanctuaries, a small edifice dedicated by a city or a tyrant and which housed offerings, votive plaques: the treasure of Athenians in Delphi.
Histoire et arts décoratifs. Lieu où l’on gardait les archives ou les objets précieux d’une seigneurie, d’une communauté, et où l’on garde encore ceux d’une église ; ces objets précieux eux-mêmes. Read More