Oceania at the RA

 Several weeks now since I went  to  see 'Oceania' at the Royal Academy. As I'm no longer a member , I paid full wack and thus spent as long as possible to get value for money! I normally don't bother  with the audio guide  but I'm glad I persisted as there was disappointingly little interpretation.  or description of items apart from that. As the exhibition was principally about how the items were used or  the cultural  and spiritual significance, the stories told   on the guide added another dimension.

What I also found of great value when looking round were the teachers resources I'd printed out  and read beforehand  (KS1&2 ; KS3,4,5  ; art detectives ). Apart from featuring what were some of my  favourite pieces, they provided a different  way of looking at things. For instance ,  for the Marshall Islands navigation charts ( below)  students were asked to think about the materials used; the senses other than sight; how do you get somewhere you don't know ; examples of different kinds of maps.  Linked art activities  included creating symbols for visual features  and for younger pupils,   asking them to think about their journey to school - could they draw it on paper  with their eyes closed  or explain to their friends   and using matchsticks and Blue-Tack to create their own navigational  chart.

The rooms were dark ( I presume to preserve the materials used )  so the lighting produced very interesting  shadows while proving a bit frustrating for taking photos, certainly too dark to draw.  When the piano was being played in room 2  it was also very loud. Nice idea but  you didn't feel you could linger and look at the items on display.

Some of the artifacts on display ( above ) were similar to  some  I'd seen and in some cases drawn at the British Museum  , for instance  the headdress , masks and barkcloth  below were part  of the fantastic barkcloth exhibition 

 The stories behind  some of these objects  such as the Polynesian deity A"a  are   on the RA website and their powerful presence reminded me of  drawing this  figure from Papua New Guinea,  again at the British Museum  

 The piece that most  moved and inspired me, based on format of barkcloth  was  ' To all New Arrivals ' by John Pule  ( interview here ) . Taking on the themes of war, global warming  and nuclear testing,  he says  " I don't want to show our gods  safe in nice , clean  dark storage rooms , I wanted to show these prized objects out in the open world." The  monumental  size  of it , with  variation in  media and scale from large paint daubs of  enamel to tiny intricate drawings and the multiple layers of meaning and story telling was  breathtaking.  I spent a long time  looking and discovering. The art activities in the teachers guides for this work included  discussing environmental issues and proposing designs for a floating island to carry environmental scientists, activists, journalists and artists  to different parts of the world that need their help. What a wonderful idea.