The
Art of Adornment Tribal Beauty |
 The
Bowers Museum’s exhibition of personal adornment in the Susan and
Stephen Chandler Gallery is a triumph on multiple fronts. For its size,
it manages to show a breathtaking range of ornamentation. The subject
allows for the unusual opportunity to view objects of art from all over
the world, and from all manner of cultures, side by side. And almost every
work is more or less contemporary, reminding us that if we look hard enough,
perhaps we can still see similar works today. The Art of Adornment: Tribal
Beauty runs the gamut of intellectual and sensual stimulation because
of these elements. Tribal Beauty retains the location of the recent Evita exhibit: a corridor leading to the Museum’s main gallery. Previously used for various temporary exhibitions, it is a newly-named permanent gallery dedicated to tribal art. As such, it is a modest layout and aside from a small sign with 
the name of the show hanging overhead, there is no other introduction
or fanfare. When hearing the word “tribal,” one might think
of dusty headdresses and shields and bowls, or an arrangement of Native
American commercial jewelry. Tribal Beauty is none of that. The seventy
displayed pieces originate from various tribes in Asia, the Pacific Islands,
Africa, and the Americas, and are all vibrantly preserved. Everything
shown except for two items is from the nineteenth or twentieth centuries.
Often, contemporary pieces in exhibits belong to famous western artists
or from various periods of recent western history. Seeing the objects
in Tribal Beauty is refreshing—they might have been crafted yesterday
and yet are still so flamboyantly alien.
Upon entering the exhibition area, the first pieces are Asian silver and
gold works. Tribal Beauty has a wonderful sample of the Miao culture’s
jewelry and textiles. Of particular note are the earrings shown on the
mannequin; massive silver cones stamped with patterns are connected to
the earwire, and the whole piece lies parallel to the head. This unusual
design makes it stand out from the other Miao earrings on display, even
though several of these are no less spectacular. One composite earring
seems to incorporate multiple Miao design motifs, such as the use of spirals
and diamond structures. There is also beauty in simplicity: a southern
Indian gold torque, a basic crescent shape, with only a few punched details
at the ends, conveys its own grace and style.Moving from Asia to the Pacific Islands, we observe a drastic shift in materials, however the quality remains superb. Indeed, it is refreshing that almost all of the pieces in the exhibition are of such high caliber; it is like a banquet of the best foods from over the world. A Tojaran sword pommel and scabbard are reminiscent of the popularized Japanese katana, yet carved from wood rather than ivory or metal. Another item is a Tema chest ornament, from the Santa Cruz people of the Solomon Islands, made from  clam
and turtle shell. The whitish clam shell contrasts sharply with the dark
brown to black of the turtle shell, which is carved into an abstract conglomerate
of frigate bird and fish motifs. A wedding veil from New Guinea is a vision
of painstaking detail, with literally hundreds of marine shell beads woven
into the fiber, as well as two conus shell whorls. A burial staff from
the Solomon Islands, with its abstract shapes carved from shell, looks
like some otherworldly wind chime.Adornment from Africa and America makes up the remainder of the exhibition. Many of these pieces incorporate feathers as their main material, the most magnificent example being an Aka, or elephant dance headdress, from Cameroon in western Africa. This headdress can almost be called over-the-top, but the distinguishing colors between the white and the blue-red keep the headpiece from being monotonous. A Yoruba hat stands out as one of the only in the exhibition utilizing glass beads as its material. Multicolored faces, designs and sculpted birds adorn the hat. Several scintillating South American ornaments use beetle wings to spectacular effect. The separate regions shown in Tribal Beauty are all roughly separated, each having their own wallboard describing several of the various clans or tribes, as well as featuring a map showing where the pieces are located. With little space, the museum has done a good job in providing captions and descriptions for all major pieces, although several earrings or groups of similar items are listed under a general caption. I would have liked to see the materials listed in the captions, even though they are often included indirectly in the title or the description. 
The Tribal Beauty exhibition has value beyond its size and one wishes
that it could be expanded upon. I seldom see aggregate exhibits that present
such a wide range of cultural adornment, and the result, given this limited
setting, is impressive. By presenting these cultures together, comparisons
can be made between them. These pieces are not only works of art but,
in addition, provoke many questions. What materials do these people value?
What is the significance of these objects to the tribe? Is there ultimately
some universal connection between these pieces? It is encouraging to hear
that even with Tribal Beauty being a pitstop on the way to the Museum’s
main display of Mummies: Death and the Afterlife in Ancient Egypt (through
April 15, 2007), many people have shown interest. The Art of Adornment: Tribal Beauty opened February 12, 2006 and is ongoing, with no announced end-date. The Bowers Museum is located at 2002 North Main St., Santa Ana, California, 92706; telephone 714.567.3600; website www.bowers.org. |
Published
in Ornament Magazine, Volume 29, No. 3, 2006. — Author Patrick R. Benesh-Liu is Editorial Assistant of Ornament. View This Issue Order This Issue |