Post #294250 by bigbrotiki on Sat, Mar 24, 2007 10:43 AM

On 2007-03-22 17:01, FreddieBallsomic wrote:
I think its a perfect mug for the event and where its held.. Good Stuff Joe!

I agree! As I agreed it IS a cool mug. And I also agree with this:

On 2007-03-22 12:37, teaKEY wrote:
...How much designs could you do on the same tiki.

Tooo many already! The Tiki revival is stalling artistically, because the same tired ol' grinning toothy cartoony Tiki has been done over and over again. So to avoid that, Tiki artists reach so far into other pop culture genres that the results have nothing, or very little, to do with original Oceanic Art. But that is where it all came from!

When I discovered Tiki culture, what inspired me was a.) How authentic primitive art was irreverently re-interpreted by mid-century designers, and b.) the incredible variety in which this was done, convincing me that mid-century Tiki style was worthy of being defined as an art genre of its own.

But for my taste, the irreverence has gone too far. Irreverence with no reference to the original art form is pointless. It's all good fun, yes,...but what about art?

Today, many new carvers that pick up the chisel seem to only go as far as the Book of Tiki, or other (current) publications for reference, IF even that. Often they just seem to have looked at the nearest Tiki stuff on the net or at their neighbourhood hipster store. Tiki has become a self-perpetuating genre, going in circles.

But this is not neccessary. What did our Poly-Pop forefathers do? Since they did not have originals at hand, they used Oceanic Art books as references. And in the those pages, there was, AND STILL IS, a treasure trove of unique and crazy design concepts that are waiting to be tapped into. The arsenal of authentic primitive art is seemingly endless, yet has barely been touched on by the Tiki revival, which seems to have forgotten its roots.

The impact of primitive art on artists like Picasso and the surrealists has defined modern 20th Century art. They were inspired by the creative power of the radically abstract and mold-breaking design ideas that came forth in the work of so-called "primitive" peoples at the turn of the century. In turn Picasso and others informed mid-century modernism, and so 50s Tiki Temple designers created the modern primitive idol. These modern primitive stylings inspired me to write the Book of Tiki.

This may all sound like boring art theory, but it's not. I am into fun too, but a big part of my fun IS art. And I am not asking for slavish adherence to mid-century, or authentic Oceanic Tiki style here. I recognize and admire the Tiki revival as a new art form in its own right. But when Picasso acknowledged that in primitive art the SPIRIT of a piece could even be found in "fakes", (if they were well done), I felt that this was programatic for mid-century Tiki style, too. I am currently looking for that spirit.

And please, this is not a critique of the above mug, which is a truly unique piece in its own right...except that I would not call it Tiki.