Post #206034 by bigbrotiki on Fri, Jan 6, 2006 1:46 PM

Waitaminnit here, kids. First of all, this is a very good catch, because conceptually, it is as fine an example of midcentury Tiki culture as you can get:

The juxtaposition of the extremes of mid century SPACE AGE and PRIMITIVE ART in one place is what made Tiki so unique to me, as the BOT gushes on page 60:

"...The Jetsons met the Flintstones as middle-class modern primitives parked their shuttle crafts in front of these spaceships from planet Tiki and willingly entered the dimension barrier to another world where for a while they could become members of the Tiki tribe.."

And second, I myself more than anybody appreciates sensitivity about too cartoony Tikis, but in the picture which Unga whipped up so quickly the two sculptures in the back are very close copies of Vanuatu/New Hebrides SLIT DRUMS. The surviving examples of these bear traces of paint, so it is assumed that they were colorful at some time (maybe not THAT colorful). I think we had a post about slit drums somewhere here in "Creating Tiki" a while back..?

What would now be really cool would be finding images where the carvings and Robbie the Robot or people in space suits are in one frame together!

So I say congrats to that find!