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A VARIETY OF PORTRAITS
OXFORD—A show devoted to the history of Oceania
can be seen at the Pitt Rivers Museum at the University
of Oxford until September 23, 2018. Titled “A Variety
of Portraits of Persons”: From the Official Account of
Cook’s Second Voyage to the Pacific (1772–1775), the
exhibition focuses on the drawings of William Hodges
(1744–1797), the landscape artist appointed by the British
Crown to accompany Captain Cook on his voyages.
During these expeditions he produced many charcoal
sketches and watercolors of the indigenous peoples he
encountered, intended to be used as visual components
of the written voyage accounts. The result is a collection
of sometimes touching, sometimes naïve, and sometimes
disconcerting portraits that blend historical reality and
fantasy in subtle and often surprising ways. The show
marks the 250th anniversary of Cook’s fi rst voyage.
MUSEUM NEWS
A WORLD OF FEATHERS
STOCKHOLM—The feather is being seen in all of its
forms in A World of Feathers, the exhibition currently at
the Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen in the Netherlands,
which has already been seen in Gothenburg and
will finish its tour at the Världskulturmuseerna in Stockholm
from October 6, 2018, through March
3, 2019. The show examines this light, fragile,
and eye-catching material that continues
to fascinate both artists and audiences with
its infinite possibilities. The often dazzlingly
colored feather, a symbol of freedom and
freshness, has been used as an ornament
by the native peoples of North America, the
Amazon, and Papua New Guinea. Feathers
are still widely used today in performances
of all kinds, ranging from rituals to fashion
shows. They can also be instruments
of power and objects of great value. The
feather, whose beauty is often proportional
to its rarity, has had symbolic and monetary
significance among many peoples. Native
American power headdresses, feather hats
from equatorial regions, and complete
feather outfits from Cameroon are all pieces
featured in this colorful exhibition that offers
an aesthetic experience which crosses
oceans and continents as it highlights and
explores the universality of a material that
can be both decorative and sacred.
RIGHT: Portrait of Honu, chief of Tahuata,
Marquesas Islands.
Print published by John Hall after an original drawing by William
Hodges.
Photo © The Pitt Rivers Museum.
RIGHT: Headdress, wuy jugu.
Munduruku, Brazil.
Early 20th century.
Ara and toucan feathers, rattan.
© Världskulturmuseerna; photo: Ina
Marie Winther Åshaug.
FAR RIGHT: Installation view
of A World of Feathers.
© Världskulturmuseerna; photo: Anja
Sjögren.
BELOW: Feather costume
with mask, nyal.
Northern Cameroon. Mask
dates from the early 20th
century and the costume to
the 1970s.
Feathers, vegetal fi ber, wood.
© Världskulturmuseerna; photo: Ina
Marie Winther Åshaug.