South Australian Museum - Pacific Cultures Gallery - Locating Tiki

P Paipo Member Aotearoa / NZ Joined: Jun 22, 2006 Posts: 1886	P Paipo Posted posted on Tue, Nov 4, 2008 10:22 PM Disclaimer: I did find another thread about the SA Museum but the images were broken, the location was misspelt, and the thread had devolved into a discussion of the merits of various Aussie beers, so I figured this place deserved a fresh start... This is the first collection of Oceanic Art I ever encountered - I grew up in Adelaide, and the museum and zoo were like a second home to me as a kid. The last time I was back in Adelaide the collection was still in an identical state to what I remembered from my childhood, and after years of viewing the dimly lit perspex enclosures that have become the norm in most modern museums, the Victorian style "Curio Cabinet" presentation was quite refreshing. A major refurbishment has since occurred without changing the essential character of the display, although the lighting made it very difficult to get good direct shots of many of the objects. This is a truly great collection of Melanesian art - something we don't see much of in NZ as the museums here tend to favour Polynesian works. There are a handful of fine Maori pieces, which I suspect may be connected to George Grey who was Governor of both New Zealand and South Australia. As the website mentions, this is the collection of Oceanic art in Australia and is a must-see if you are going to visit SA! Apologies for the lack of captions - I had barely half an hour to look around before closing time, and my familiarity with Melanesian art isn't that great. I will add information as I find the time (and work out what some of the pieces were!) Enjoy! (pics follow next post....) [ Edited by: Paipo 2008-11-05 02:22 ]

Disclaimer: I did find another thread about the SA Museum but the images were broken, the location was misspelt, and the thread had devolved into a discussion of the merits of various Aussie beers, so I figured this place deserved a fresh start...

This is the first collection of Oceanic Art I ever encountered - I grew up in Adelaide, and the museum and zoo were like a second home to me as a kid. The last time I was back in Adelaide the collection was still in an identical state to what I remembered from my childhood, and after years of viewing the dimly lit perspex enclosures that have become the norm in most modern museums, the Victorian style "Curio Cabinet" presentation was quite refreshing. A major refurbishment has since occurred without changing the essential character of the display, although the lighting made it very difficult to get good direct shots of many of the objects.

This is a truly great collection of Melanesian art - something we don't see much of in NZ as the museums here tend to favour Polynesian works. There are a handful of fine Maori pieces, which I suspect may be connected to George Grey who was Governor of both New Zealand and South Australia. As the website mentions, this is the collection of Oceanic art in Australia and is a must-see if you are going to visit SA!

Apologies for the lack of captions - I had barely half an hour to look around before closing time, and my familiarity with Melanesian art isn't that great. I will add information as I find the time (and work out what some of the pieces were!)

Enjoy! (pics follow next post....)

[ Edited by: Paipo 2008-11-05 02:22 ]

Post #417342 by Paipo on Tue, Nov 4, 2008 10:22 PM