Post #413151 by bigbrotiki on Mon, Oct 13, 2008 6:42 PM

Thank You. Some Tiki folks here still seem to not be that interested in museum threads, perhaps not realizing what relevance they have to today's and to mid-century Tiki culture. Each time I visit a museum, I make new discoveries. Take this display case with Polynesian and Micronesian artifacts for example:

Looking closer at the bottom right, we see a kinda crude Marquesan stone Tiki:

Waitaminnit I thought, this reminds me of one of my favorite Tiki apartment statues! The (as I used to call him) Teddy Tiki...

....at the Redondo Beach Tiki apartments!

To now know that the California carver (Mike Gildea in this case) did not just do silly freestyle, but based this guy on an actual Polynesian art style made his Tiki instantly that much cooler for me!

Too my shame, I had seen examples of that Marquesan stylistic variance over the years, but they had not "clicked", like this stilt Tiki:

...and even more so, during my 2002 journey with the Aranui to the Marquesas, at the museum on Ua Huka island!:

Sometimes one has eyes and still does not see! :)