Why Tiki = Tacky, yet African and Asian is traditional

I just wanted to rant a bit (more) about the fact that everywhere you see "tiki" in retail today, it is nearly always also crazy tacky. But, I see faux African and Asian art and it is designed to look like the real thing! If the tiki stuff looked like the African stuff at home decor and craft stores, I'd probably buy a lot of it. Why are they hating Polynesian Culture this way!

[ Edited by: TIKI DAVID 2008-04-29 12:50 ]

Simple answer, Tim! What informed the Tiki Revival? The discovery of Polynesian POP! No such real event as the statehood of Hawaii, Kon Tiki the book, or any other actual cultural phenomenon related to Polynesia. Polynesia as a cultural concept is often forgotten in nouveaux Tiki, which is too much self-referential navel-gazing in my opinion.

What caused the flood of imported exotic decor? A sort of multi-culty, United Colors of Beneton interest, something that is actually based on, and sometimes made by the culture groups whose works are sold. It is a consumers version, too, yes, but its tackyness is more hidden.

"More hidden" maybe... i think that African stuff is tacky. Sure, it may be in natural tans, browns and back, but really... a giraffe carving in your living room??? What's that supposed to represent?

When I used to travel and do furniture store sell offs, I saw a lot of what Bongo Bungalow is describing. Most of it was super tacky. Elephant and giraffe statues, fake elephant leg coffee tables, African drum tables, etc.

(if this isn't tacky and wrong, I don't know what is)

However, I tend to agree with bigbrotiki about the importing of a real culture with the Asian and African stuff. A lot of what is considered tiki is a mainland U.S. creation. Because of that, there is not a lot of P.C. backlash.

Yes, some is "tacky", but I see a lot of masks that look like copies of original primitive art, and certainly more Bhudda heads than You can shake a stick at. Tacky as in rather poor taste for your living room and tacky as in painted neon colors is a wide distance. Compare Party City tiki to Pier One African...

It's just a huge disrespect for a culture. But if you raise a stink about it, everything would go away, the awful and the decent.

One 'koolkids' 'tacky' is another man's treasure !!!!

On 2008-04-30 06:27, Swanky wrote:
It's just a huge disrespect for a culture.

Correct me if I'm misunderstanding you, but what culture? Mid-century tiki was pop culture. How can one show direspect for a pop culture that was little more than an entertaining diversion for most people of the day? All of us here have latched onto it so deeply because it strikes a chord with us, but I think we'd be deluding ourselves to assume that product designers today, not to mention the general public, have any clue what Polynesian Pop is or what it should look like. We're a tiny group holding onto something that most everyone else has forgotten, or more correctly, never knew in the first place.

I don't mean this to sound harsh, but Africa and Asia are big places with many cultures that designers can rightfully or wrongly draw from. Mid-century tiki culture, apart from true Polynesian cultures, is rarely going to be used as inspiration by mainstream designers. For that matter, I doubt true Polynesian cultures are drawn on much either. I mean, how many people (us excluded) would want a Papua New Guinea mask hanging in their living room? They'd rather have a giraffe carving. Try giving a PNG mask to your mom for Mother's Day and see what happens. :wink:

..also, there was never a big asian or african "movement" or design phase in our pop culture that even remotely came close in duration and extent that tiki did from it's origination....

On 2008-04-29 12:38, Swanky wrote:
I just wanted to rant a bit (more) about the fact that everywhere you see "tiki" in retail today, it is nearly always also crazy tacky. But, I see faux African and Asian art and it is designed to look like the real thing! If the tiki stuff looked like the African stuff at home decor and craft stores, I'd probably buy a lot of it. Why are they hating Polynesian Culture this way!

Well, I personally find a lot of the new 'Tiki Art' (yes, even here @ T.C.) to be very much like the Asian's Anime cartoon world & sometimes even making fun of the Polynesian Culture, kind of like a tacky 'Hello-Kitty In Heat Meets The Monkey Shriners'.
Even though I enjoy collecting the vintage Tiki items from the 50's and 60's, I would worry that my hodge-podge of 'Tiki' stuff would probably be offensive to any true Polynesian person visiting my home~ just as the Buddah Statue decorating fad must be offensive to folks of that religious upbringing.
Most cultural items sold in decorating stores are probably tacky to some folks. And (eeek!) most are just junk made in China.

On 2008-04-30 06:27, Swanky wrote:
… Compare Party City tiki to Pier One African...

Today:
Tiki = Party
African (or Asian) = Decoration

Party supplies look more tacky than room decoration.

On 2008-04-30 11:43, Moai_Mama wrote:

just as the Buddah Statue decorating fad must be offensive to folks of that religious upbringing.

....any true follower of buddhist principles would never find offense at any such thing.....buddhism, particularly zen buddhism places no importance on symbolic representation, especially to the extent that they would take offense to such things....those that would be offended have probably not delved deep enough into buddhist scriptures to understand the deeper message that buddhism offers that is beyond the pettiness of offense.....one could imagine if buddha himself were here he would probably point at such imagery and statues and have a good chuckle to himself!!

African decor can represent a wide range of things. On one hand, it can bring imagery of the Teddy Roosevelt 'big-game hunter' and the trophies from the era, and thus the imagery of the European explorer wearing the khaki outfit with the pith helmet, coming home with the elephant tusks, the leopard skins, or the umbrella stands made from an elephant's foot. (I have an old college textbook with a photograph - the caption says 'The giraffe in its natural environment', the photo shows a dead giraffe lying on the ground, surrounded by a group of hunters) Todays era is focused less on hunting, but the game preserves are still very popular, so one still sees lots of decor with the wild animal/nature preserve theme.

On the other hand, there is the more primitive style African art which more resembles tiki art - the tribal masks, the wood carvings, or the warriors with spears. I've always considered the main market for these to be African Americans, who are trying to build a decor that might honor their ancestral heritage. The imagery may be somewhat generic, especially when you cannot be sure of what part of Africa your ancestors came from.

Calling one's persons personal heritage 'tacky' can be seen as quite rude, so it tends not to be done - even though the markets may be overflowing with cheaply made products - after all, even those earning very little money may feel the need to have something in their home to symbolize their heritage.

Likewise, the environmental/game preserve/hunt-with-cameras-only genre is still somewhat relatively new, and most people have a hard time calling animal-based art tacky.

The old explorer-theme decor tends to have the tacky label stick to it when thrown in its direction - perhaps because those ideals have fallen out of favor.

Perhaps the tiki figures were not seen as being tacky during the 50's and 60's, because the connection with the returning South Pacific military was still strong. 50 years later, as that population ages, that connection may not be as strong, and it is thus easier to label tiki as being tacky.

On 2008-04-30 13:18, Kawentzmann wrote:

On 2008-04-30 06:27, Swanky wrote:
… Compare Party City tiki to Pier One African...

Today:
Tiki = Party
African (or Asian) = Decoration

Party supplies look more tacky than room decoration.

That made me laugh out loud!

Both because it is funny AND because it is so true.

To clarify, I am not saying I want stuff to look like our version of Tiki, but wondering why I see African masks that look like an old authentic African mask and tiki masks that look like clowns.

Someone is buying it all and using it as decor in some way. It's not tacky if you do it right as with many things.

There is Polynesian culture and Tiki drew from it. There is native American culture, etc. We see reasonable and nice versions of a lot of old cultural arts. But not Polynesian. Maybe it is our own fault. Well, Don's fault. He made the tiki bar and it is echoing down to today as a party theme and all anyone recalls is someone said tacky and now all anyone knows is that dying breath of "tacky tiki". Don muddied the waters and now they are extreme.

On 2008-05-01 06:59, Swanky wrote:
To clarify, I am not saying I want stuff to look like our version of Tiki, but wondering why I see African masks that look like an old authentic African mask and tiki masks that look like clowns.

Someone is buying it all and using it as decor in some way. It's not tacky if you do it right as with many things.

There is Polynesian culture and Tiki drew from it. There is native American culture, etc. We see reasonable and nice versions of a lot of old cultural arts. But not Polynesian. Maybe it is our own fault. Well, Don's fault. He made the tiki bar and it is echoing down to today as a party theme and all anyone recalls is someone said tacky and now all anyone knows is that dying breath of "tacky tiki". Don muddied the waters and now they are extreme.

There are many realistic masks and works of Art available, especially online. Here's one example which I enjoy browsing through: http://www.art-pacific.com/index.htm or you can Google: Hawaiian/Pacific Islands Home Decor, for a variety of decent quality tiki style websites.
Although it's true that tiki masks (and most anything else, for that matter) look like clowns @ party supply stores, I don't know of too many folks who shop for home decor @ a party supply store~ most of that stuff is made cheap to be disposable.
Sometimes the higher quality wicker/rattan furniture stores also carry nice tiki masks and such.
Does anyone else know of some authentic tiki home decor shops or websites?