Post #805187 by TIKIGIKI on Mon, Aug 22, 2022 7:00 PM

So my opinion...FWIW. Any "movement", Tiki, art, music is as much about what it is NOT as what it IS. There are parameters. If everything is Tiki, then Tiki per se. just ceases to exist.

I am not old enough to have experienced the heyday of Tiki, however that's what I am trying to recreate for my own enjoyment. Tiki was always a "fantasy", right from the start. It represented no particular place and yet it did stick to things that might be contained by the Pacific Rim. Tiki was most effective away from anywhere "island-ish". If you could see real palm trees and beaches outside, then it was not a fantasy to walk inside and see fake stuff. Alaska (it had a bar), or something like the fabled "KAHIKI" in chilly Columbus of all places, is where the fantasy worked best. (Whoever demolished it should be forever consigned to the rum-less depths of Hell!) All those idols that you saw were NOT carved by natives to represent their Gods, but by sculptors who saw a way of making a living by producing something that LOOKED as though it just MIGHT have come from some remote uncivilised island out in the wilds of the Pacific.

Now if anyone finds Tiki not inclusive or diverse enough, add other stuff by all means BUT just be aware it's then NOT Tiki. You wouldn't add Mozart to a collection devoted specifically to Jazz, nor a Rembrandt to your French Impressionists if you are a collector of those. (Oh to have the money to do that!)

"EXOTICA" is often taken for a synonym of "TIKI" but in truth it's not. Exotic simply means from outside the borders of your country. You live in the USA? Then Cossacks and wildebeest are certainly exotic for you, but then you're not going to have them or see them in any Tiki collection. Just know that it's really exotica, and not Tiki.

As mentioned above, collections are about choosing what to include and what to reject. Genuine collectors of Tiki (or anything else for that matter) do this all the time. If you don't exercise this necessary discernment then you might just have an eclectic gathering but it doesn't constitute "Tiki". Calling it so just doesn't automatically make it so.

I see "pirates" as being somewhat contentious here. Now I confess that I do have a LITTLE bit of "pirate-alia" in my own bar. (I also have a small but fully functional cannon, but that's a story for another time!) Reason for those piratey things? Well pirates very often called the Caribbean home , (Port Royal) ...yes I DO know that's NOT within the Pacific Rim, however consider this. MOST Tiki cocktails are based on rum...yes? And the home and source of rum was the Caribbean Islands, so maybe the aforementioned Pacific Rim needs a little bulge adding in the East? Pirates and sailors were probably the first to put lime in rum, for it's prevention of scurvy, and we are still doing it. Maybe not for scurvy these days but well, if you love all those fabulous Tiki cocktails you'll know why. Although I have never had any patron of my Tiki Bar come down with scurvy! Perhaps some disorientation and a little difficulty standing yes, ....but NOT scurvy!

[ Edited by TIKIGIKI on 2022-08-22 23:52:34 ]

[ Edited by TIKIGIKI on 2022-08-22 23:55:12 ]