On November 5th and 6th Pacific Presences hosted museum professionals from around the UK, mainland Europe and the US for a two day workshop on the theme Museum as Method. One of the participants Rachel Barclay from Durham University Oriental Museum reflects on the main themes and outcomes of the workshop:

It was a real pleasure to participate in the ‘Museum as Method’ workshop hosted by the Pacific Presences project and the MAA. It was great to have the opening session of the workshop in the museum galleries surrounded by the wonderful collections but there was no risk of being distracted by the displays as Nick Thomas gave the sort of thoughtful, and thought-provoking, introduction to the workshop that anyone who has heard him speak or read his work would expect.  Nick built on the themes he outlined in his 2010 article in Museum Anthropology entitled ‘The Museum as Method’ but widened his thoughts beyond anthropology collections to consider museums, and particularly university museums, more broadly.  Nick asked us to reflect on two key areas over the course of the workshop:

• What kinds of research do collections empower? What is distinctive about museum-based research and what does it add to other forms of enquiry?  Are there methods empowered uniquely by museums?  What is their potential and how can it be fostered?
• What contributions do university museums make to research and is there scope for university museums to be more ambitious in shaping, supporting and collaborating in research?

The workshop group included participants from museums in the UK, Europe and USA and Nick’s introduction sparked a lively discussion on the topic of the museum as laboratory – a space for experimentation and risk taking.  The group was quite divided on the positive vs negative connotations that the concept of a lab might have when applied to the museum, but this became a recurring theme over the two days.

Day one, Nick introduces the workshop.

The second day began with two presentations that addressed the question of what kind of research collections empower.  Two strongly contrasting case studies were put forward.  One a small exhibition in the MAA’s micro gallery, the other a $1million, decade long project at UCLA, involving loans from more than 40 institutions and private collections worldwide.  While few of us will ever have the luxury of the kind of budget and time available for the UCLA project, both projects clearly demonstrated the potential for museum collections make unexpected connections and as a natural home for cross-disciplinary working.

The exhibition as a site for knowledge creation, a place for research to be undertaken as much as communicated, resurfaced in the second session.  The two case studies – the development of the anthropology galleries in the new Moesgaard Museum in Aarhus and the plans to develop Kelvin Hall in Glasgow to create storage, teaching and research spaces for the Hunterian Museum collections – both demonstrated very clearly just how ambitious university museums can be.  They also highlighted the importance of having a distinct offer that will attract funders and visitors as well as the need for risk-taking and experimentation – the museum as laboratory again.

The final session of the day focused on connections and collaborations emphasising the positives and negatives of the climate in which university museums in the UK exist, particularly with regard to funding.  Limited core funding has pushed many of us into a constant cycle of applying for project funding.  This leaves us with many masters to please, all with widely varying demands, and little chance of pleasing them all.

The whole workshop was very thought provoking and I do hope that plans for a larger conference go ahead.  I would certainly attend.  We are all struggling with the same questions of how to most effectively realise the research potential of our collections and how we contribute something distinctive to our universities.  Sharing thoughts and experiences with colleagues in university museums of widely varying size, type and location provides a wonderful opportunity to be inspired to take a risk and experiment. Museum as laboratory?

Rachel Barclay, Oriental Museum, Durham University.

The British Museum, a Pacific Presences partner, is investigating its own collection of Kiribati coconut fibre armour and is compiling a survey of Kiribati armour held in other UK Museums. These distinctive Micronesian artefacts are known to feature in many UK museum collections and information which would help build a comprehensive, contemporary picture of their UK museum presence would be very helpful.

Any information members may be able to provide would be welcomed, but if you are able to include details such as images, museum reference numbers, acquisition year and collector name, or other ethnographic information about these artefacts it would be much appreciated.

Click here for details of how you and your museum can be involved.

A big thanks to all who attended last week’s Pacific Presences conference at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. It was an incredibly fruitful event that was part of a week long series of events for the project, who were hosting the Oceania (2018) exhibition advisory committee, all of whom are based in the Pacific. A montage of photos of the week can be seen below;

l-r Michael Mel performs at the Tapa exhibit opening, Tina Rehuher-Marugg in the stores with Rachel Hand, Michael Mel and RA curator Adrian Locke discuss architecture, Francois Wadra and PP team member Julie Adams at the reception at NZ House, Megan Tamati-Quennell ‘unsettling the line’ at the conference, and the conference day end panel with Nick Thomas, Anita Herle, Maile Andrade, Francois Wadra and Lissant Bolton. 

Eve Haddow of the Pacific Collections Review project based at National Museums Scotland has kindly written a review of the conference, which can be found here.

With thanks from the Pacific Presences Team!

After our time in Munich in November, Julie, Elena, Mark and myself took a train through the mountains and across the border into Zurich – a spectacularly scenic journey! There we were enthusiastically received by Andreas Isler and Katharina Haslwanter who look after the Pacific collections at the Ethnographic Museum of the University of Zurich (VMZ). The museum is currently closed for refurbishment but we were given us a ‘hard-hat’ tour of the building site and Andreas talked us through the extensive renovations which will allow for exciting new permanent displays and temporary exhibition spaces. Curators will certainly have an opportunity to do exciting things with the ethnography collections here – this is one to watch! Zurich is such a major centre on the international contemporary art scene, it will be interesting to see how they embed the narrative of world ethnography collections into the city’s long-standing dialogue with art.

Elena, Mark, Julie, Andreas and Katharina. Photo Maia Nuku.

Next morning we returned to work through the collections. Once again Elena was guiding us towards a specific collection of artefacts associated with Johann Caspar Horner, astronomer on Krusenstern’s expedition (1803-06). The museum has 2,600 Pacific artefacts in its collections and Julie & I were keen to begin working with the Micronesian collections. Once again Mark Adams was keen to size up some potential shots of the museum environment and was particularly taken with the exterior of the ‘bunker’ where the collections are stored. As with so many university collections which date to the late eighteenth & early nineteenth centuries, the museum is set in the grounds of botanical gardens and we toured the gardens which were quite spectacular in the fading splendour of late autumn light.

Our hosts felt we should also take the opportunity to visit the Pacific collections which are displayed in the fabulous Rietberg Museum and helped us navigate the city tram through icy streets to the historic Villa Wesendonck, south of the city centre. Owned by a wealthy silk merchant, Otto Wesendonck was a great admirer of Wagner and placed the villa at the composer’s disposal when he visited Zurich in 1852. We walked in through the grand entrance hall and ascended the staircase: totally breathtaking as you soak up the light and glistening polish of marble which drapes over every surface. Stepping into the first gallery, the first two rooms are devoted to Oceanic arts which was startling and uplifting at the same time. Mark Adams lingered in the first room taking shots of a wonderful tauihu and carved pou and we nodded at each other – no words needed to explain just how strange and enlightening it can be to encounter taonga maori in a context so far removed from home.

Pacific objects. Photo Maia Nuku.

We were lucky to catch a major exhibition: Art in dialogue: Europe & Persia (27 Sept 2013 – 12 January 2014) during our visit which fused history, science & art in a bold display featuring early manuscripts and cartography, ceramics, prints & paintings, applied arts & strongly politicised contemporary works. Tearing ourselves away at closing time, we came outside & prepared to head back into the city when it began to snow: pure magic. Umbrellas held high, our feet crunched underfoot as we explored the streets of Zurich. Art & creativity is everywhere in this city: I spied off-beat art installations in hidden walkways, artful window displays and elegant street lighting – all a visual feast for the eyes. Zurich is also famously the birthplace of Dada of course so when we inadvertently passed Cabaret Voltaire, Mark shrieked with delight & we took some time out to descend into the basement where he spent a few quiet moments paying silent tribute.

Mark. Photo Maia Nuku.

After warming up with a glass of warm gluhwein, the decision was taken by our hosts that we ought to be educated in the fine art of fondue eating! Washed down with a glass of local kirsch it was quite the best way to finish a perfect Swiss day.

Maia Nuku

Volkenkunde Munich. Photo Maia Nuku.

One of the highlights of last year was our research trip to the Staatliches Museum fur Volkenkunde in Munich where Michaela Appel, curator of Indonesian and Oceanian collections, hosted us for two days in the museum stores (18-19 November 2013). Continuing our itinerary of visits to major European museums to investigate Oceanic collections, we were joined by our project colleagues, photographer and artist Mark Adams visiting from New Zealand and Elena Govor who had scheduled a visit through Europe at the end of a research trip to Russia in order to continue investigations into the whereabouts of Marquesan artefacts collected by members of Krusenstern’s voyage to the Pacific (1803-6). Two years ago we visited Tallin and Tartu together where we documented artefacts acquired by crew members of the Russian-commissioned vessels, specifically Baltic Germans who were on board Krusenstern’s expedition and Elena’s idea was to build on this further. Curator Michaela Appel has researched and published on the Krusenstern voyage artefacts currently in the collections in Munich and was happy to collaborate further, organising for Elena to have full access to the museum’s archives including the registers and inventories which document the original transfer of items into the museum. This is providing the kind of detail Elena requires to fine tune the profiling of individual collectors within the expedition as a whole.

At lunch we took the opportunity to visit the museum’s wonderful permanent galleries and were able to reconnect with colleague Hilke Thode-Arora who was flat out finalising details for her forthcoming exhibition: ‘From Samoa with Love’. The exhibition presents Samoan ethnography, photographs and archives associated with German brothers Fritz and Carl Marquardt who organised for travelling groups from Samoa to visit Germany between 1895 and 1911. The exhibition is now open (31^st Jan – 5^th October 2014) and was reported in the Samoan press with very positive reviews. Tackling sensitive and complex issues, the Samoa Observer reported that the exhibition “asks deep questions about the attitudes of the time towards travelling cultural groups that toured Europe extensively at the time” (Samoa Observer, Wednesday 29^th January 2014). Hilke explained that a component of the exhibition will travel later this year to Pataka Art+Museum in Porirua, Wellington NZ where she hopes members of the Samoan community will be able to engage closely with photographs and archives and continue to move the dialogue enabled by the exhibition forward.

Maia Nuku, Julie Adams, Elena Govor, Mark Adams and Michaela Appel. Photo Maia Nuku.

Returning to the stores Julie and I began to work through some of the museum’s Micronesian collections which are absolutely superb. Inspired by the impressive façade of the building, Mark Adams meanwhile was loading film and preparing to take his Deardorff camera outside to set up a long exposure shot before the light faded. Always with an eye out for vintage camera equipment, Mark was quick to spot an old camera tucked in amongst the artefacts on one of the open shelf storage in the stores! Enquiring about it, Michaela explained that it was a Gaumont Stereo Spido Ordinaire (8.5 x 17 inch) and that it had belonged to her grandfather Otto Hongimann who had travelled to Kashmir, Ladakh and Baltistan in 1911-12 on an expedition to the region.

Expedition book. Photo Maia Nuku

Very soon the two were lost in discussion, holding plates up to the light, comparing and discussing the various qualities one might achieve in the print. The beautiful sepia print photographs Hongimann produced, along with excerpts from his letters and personal archive, have been collated into a wonderful large-format book but it was quite something of course to encounter the camera itself with all its accessories, laid out alongside the museum’s ethnography collections.

Mark Adams & Michaela Appel. Photo Maia Nuku.

They certainly have strong personalities these marvellous grandes dames of the camera world and Mark thrives on experimenting with their manual technology. He showed us how the camera would have operated – sliding and clicking the various mechanisms to demonstrate how one might load film to produce specific effects. Mark is producing a series of works for our project which document and interpret our collaborative work in European museums. As well as giving us insight into our own research process, his photographs capture the subtleties and specifics of the unique museum environments in which we work. Inspired by the architectural façade of the museum, galleries and storehouses in which Oceanic collections are housed, exhibited and displayed, Mark’s photographs take us further … incredibly he manages to distil something of the unique atmosphere of these places into something tangible, something you can hold in your hand, which gives you an opportunity to focus, reflect upon and appreciate precisely what it is that you are doing there yourself.

The Deardorff. Photo Maia Nuku.

Maia Nuku

In January 2014 the team went to Cologne to attend the Made in Oceania Symposium hosted by the Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum. The symposium was run in association with their temporary exhibition of the same name, which features barkcloth from a number of museums including MAA.

Tapa from MAA in the exhibition. Photo Julie Adams.

The symposium, which was held over two days, explored the cultural meanings of tapa and its material quality, the conservation concerns of tapa for museum professionals, and the use of contemporary tapa. Speakers were museum curators, researchers and conservators from across the world. The variety of papers highlighted the breadth of bark cloth production not just within Oceania but across the world, as demonstrated by Mark Nesbitt’s paper which discussed ‘the tapa belt’. The large and visually stunning exhibition entitled ‘Made in Oceania; Tapa, Art and Social Landscapes’ gives a historical introduction to the collection of tapa, discusses its use as a backdrop within colonial portrait photography, looks at the differences in its production and decoration in Melanesia and Polynesia, and culminated with its use in contemporary art.

The old museum site. Photo Julie Adams.

The museum as a whole opened in 1906 and houses the collection of Wilhelm Joest, a gentleman explorer who collected around 3,500 objects from Africa, Asia, Oceania and the Americas. After his death in 1897 in Melanesia, his collection was left to his sister Adele Rautenstrauch. Rautenstrauch used Joest’s collection to form the basis for the new museum, which today comprises over 60,000 objects from Africa, Asia, Oceania and the Americas. In 2010 the museum moved to its current location on the Cäcilienstraße in the centre of Cologne. The new space displays its collections thematically within the construct ‘People and their Worlds’. It explores common themes experienced by people all over the world and concentrates on how they address them within that specific region. This comparative approach aims to present all cultures as equal. This new space draws on a multitude of advancements in museum technology to display its collections and these advancements are exemplified through the displays on the first floor in the section entitled ‘a matter of perception and opinion: art’. The space exhibits ‘masterpiece’ objects in glass cases with low lighting in the gallery space. When the visitor approaches the case they can touch a pad and the case will light up revealing photography and text to contextualize the object on view. The display is referencing how objects are often exhibited as either art or anthropology.

A matter of perception and opinion: art, before the light. Photo Julie Adams.

A matter of perception and opinion: art, with the light. Photo Julie Adams.

In addition the gallery before this takes all of the objects in the Museum’s Massim collection and displays them. Spears and clubs are displayed typographically, with their museum numbers across the walls from floor to ceiling whilst a deconstructed house hangs from the ceiling amongst these objects. The cases in the centre of this gallery offer the visitor photographs, text, smaller objects and even reproductions of the museum catalogue cards. All in all, a very engaging, innovative and exciting museum.

The Massim displays. Photo Julie Adams.

After the symposium Julie and Ali remained in Cologne to visit the museum’s Micronesian collections. The majority of collections not on display are still housed at the Museum’s old site at Ubeirring, a short tram ride from the city centre. We were hosted by curator Burkhard Fenner and had asked to view objects specifically from Palau and Nauru. We photographed approximately 70 objects in one day and of particular interest during the visit were the knives labelled as ‘women’s weapons’ perhaps due to their size, the banana fibre skirts and the woven child’s hats which will be exploring further in a visit to the British Museum’s Micronesian collections.

‘women’s weapons’. Photo Julie Adams.

Skirt. Photo Julie Adams.

The visit to Cologne really demonstrated the work of the project over the past year, as we are now able to draw comparisons between collections and show the curators we visit comparable objects and collections in other museums, giving us and them a sense of the networks these objects were and are a part of.

Ali Clark

In January the project sent conservation intern Rachel Howie to the Musée du quai Branly, in preparation for conserving a Kanak mask, here is her report:

‘Kanak, l’art est une parole’ at the Musee du Quai Branly. Photo R Howie.

A few weeks ago I had the fantastic opportunity, on behalf of the Pacific Presences research project, to visit Paris in order to see the temporary exhibition at the Musee du Quai Branly titled ‘Kanak, l’art est une parole’. It is the largest exhibition held on Kanak culture in Europe, including many spectacular objects, for example jade ceremonial axes, pole sculptures and a large number of statuettes and ornaments. The objects that I was particularly interested in were the 12 dancing masks on display, as my visit was in preparation for the work I will be undertaking on two Kanak masks from New Caledonia at MAA. In addition, I was able to discuss with the lead conservator on the project, Stéphanie Elarbi, some of the treatments that were needed to ensure the stability of the masks before they went on display in the exhibition.

Two Kanak masks at MAA undergoing conservation. Photo R Howie.

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