The Mingei International Museum has sponsored many magnificent displays of foreign art. Its new exhibition, Symbols of Identity: Jewelry of Five Continents, continues that trend, presenting a wide range of material from Asia, Africa, Europe, North and South America.

The exhibition resides on the second floor of the Mingei Museum and is roughly sectioned into jewelry from each continent, with that from Asia closest to the entrance. The strongest pieces are from the Far and Middle East. Symbols of Identity greets you with an extensive collection of Miao and Dong torques and crowns adorning the entrance walls that impressively start the show. Miao work is always exquisite, and the Mingei’s collection displays a wide spread of different methods and styles. Several pieces from Laos, specifically from the Yao and other cultures, such as the Hmong, are also wonderful. It is interesting to view similar techniques used on different pieces, such as a Dong torque and a pair of dragon bracelets from Laos. There are also Tibetan and Ladakh examples that are quite astounding; the use of semiprecious stones such as turquoise and carnelian in their headdresses and collars gives a truly earthy textural feel to these magnificent pieces. Further on are objects from the Middle East and Africa, which range from the extravagant to the minimally stated. Some necklaces from Pakistan and Yemen are complicated amalgamations of silver and other materials, but are no more and no less beautiful than a Sumatran belt buckle, simply constructed from silver and decorated with niello.

However, the strength of the collection does not continue evenly throughout the rest of the venue. While it covers work from five continents, only Asia and Africa are well-represented. The African section contains objects mainly from Morocco; several fibulas and necklaces are displayed in the back corner of the room. North America is limited to some modern work, as well as a moderate Native American section. Juxtaposed against the breadth of objects from Asia and the Middle East, this small selection seems paltry in comparison. Jewelry from Europe and South America are almost all displayed in checkerbox formation on a wall that is nearly the same size as the one containing the Miao/Yao torque collection. While this offers an opportunity to compare jewelry from different parts of the world, it seems more a curatorial misstep: one continent takes up nearly three rooms, while the other four continents take up only one.

The Mingei Museum is a pleasantly designed venue, inviting rather than austere. Symbols of Identity benefits from the Museum’s layout, but there are aspects that deflate its objective; this mainly stems from the density of objects in one small area. While much of the Asian and African jewelry is spread out in standing cases in the first two rooms, the last room is both the smallest as well as having content from nearly all five continents. The checkerbox formation of cases used on several walls works well with the Miao torque collection, keeping objects thematically organized. In this portion of the exhibit, several cases include Chinese bracelets using similar manufacturing techniques, which make for a nice detail. However when repeated in the last room, it becomes a liability. The jewelry is from many different cultures and creates a chaotic landscape where the viewer is pulled from case to case without understanding what is the underlying context to these diverse pieces.

Symbols of Identity: Jewelry of Five Continents is an exhibition with some very strong work and an intriguing premise; however, it is lacking in execution. Fully more than half the exhibition is work from Asia and the Middle East, with roughly seventeen pieces of European artwork and some two hundred sixty-five from Asia. While this lack of even distribution is one problem, the absence of a point of reference is the greater one. With limited captions and no wall panels describing how these cultures differ and relate to each other, one is left with little sense of their belonging to distinct cultures, each with their own beliefs and traditions, which would give the jewelry more meaning than simply as objects of fashion or decor. And without knowing their importance, the small sections of the exhibition diminish even more, while the large collections of Asian and Middle Eastern art, beautiful in their own right, blend together bereft of significance.

Symbols of Identity: Jewelry of Five Continents shows at the Mingei International Museum, 1439 El Prado, in Balboa Park, San Diego, California 92101, until March 2007. Professor of Art Emerita, San Diego State University, Arline Fisch lectures at the Mingei on November 19 at 4 P.M. The Museum’s telephone is 619.239.0003; website: www.mingei.org. Photographs by Patrick R. Benesh-Liu and Robert K. Liu/Ornament.