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Peter Brunt, Nicholas Thomas, Sean Mallon, Lissant Bolton, Deidre Brown, Damian Skinner & Susanne Küchler (Peter Brunt & Nicholas Thomas, eds.) (2012). Art in Oceania: A new history. London: Thames & Hudson. 536pp. hbk, ISBN: 978-0-500-23901-8. £60.00.
During my first visit to the Kingdom of Tonga (1988), I bought a wooden sculpture of an octopus holding an island map. Sometime later, a woman who saw it told me that her father was the first to make this kind of carving: Aleki (Alexander) Prescott, who had moved to Australia in the 1970s. When I came to know him, he told me that, after he left Tonga, local craftsmen began to produce sculptures that were designed by him, without revealing this to those who bought them. The most well-known one depicts a skinny man who sits cross-legged drinking kava (a ceremonial drink) from a coconut cup. It has even been reproduced for the souvenir trade in Hawai'i and, consequently, probably believed by buyers to be a genuine Hawaiian design. On the other hand, carvers in Tonga are commonly making tikis in a Hawaiian style, selling them as 'Tongan gods'.
Memories of the late Aleki Prescott came to my mind when I first browsed through Art in Oceania: A new history. He is one of many artists who has contributed to art in Oceania - Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia (and in this case excluding Australia) - but who seldom signed his work and who, with so many other artists like him, are totally unknown by most who purchase products that are results of their creativity. I was asking myself questions such as when a new design becomes 'traditional', or what are the distinctions between an 'artist' and a 'craftsperson'.
With its 550 illustrations (including 450 in colour), this book can be enjoyed for...