Water - precious medium for many cultures in the Pacific as highlighted in Oceania

An intensely blue 11-metre installation ‘Kiko Moana’ (made in multi-layers of polyethylene and cotton), which hangs in the opening room of the Oceania exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts in London's Piccadilly, sets the mood for what to expect.  It's displayed in the centre of the room with on one wall an imposing map showing the great stretch of water of the Pacific in which cultures in island groups have lived throughout the centuries.

Photos © Lucia Carpio

The shape and colour of water as well as deep tones and intimate hues serve well to take visitors on a journey in the Oceania exhibition to explore a treasure trove of some 200 artefacts, exceptional art and amazing crafts -   materials that various cultures and island civilisations in the Pacific used covering "shell, greenstone and ceramic ornaments, to huge canoes and stunning god images."

Spanning 500 years. Oceania showcases impressive techniques and provides insights into the life of the indigenous populations encountered by Captain James Cook on his voyage to the unknown lands in the vast ocean.  

Impressive to view is New Zealand artist Lisa Reihana's in Pursuit of Venus (infected ) -2015-17 single-channel ultra HD video set up in a room of its own.  It presents in a continuously running screen scenes of encounters between Polynesians and Europeans, acknowledging "the nuances and complexities of cultural identities and colonisation."

And John Pule's Kehe te Hauaga foou (To all new arrivals - 2017) is a fascinating painting to round up the exhibition.   It serves as a map of the Pacific ocean providing a perspective "onto the nature of worldwide reality.  

Look intensely closer, and study the images. depicted on the painting  You will find images of various representations of our world today, "bombs and nuclear testing are contrasted with pollution and global warming. 

All photos © Lucia Carpio

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