British Museum - Dr Clare Rose

British Museum

Mourning Outfit -

Papua New Guinea

In Papua New Guinea people used to mourn people for many months,traditionally female relatives made there loss and grief visible, by plastering there skins in white clay which would pucker and scrape away at the skin as it dried this would have been a painful experience.
she would have also worn special clothing with gray seeds for a further year, after this the clothing would have been removed and thrown away, than it would be possible for her to re-marry.

Materials. 

Spiders web,ostrich feathers and cane are used to assemble this hat structure.

Western Egypt
Woman make wedding clothes and wear jewelry with patterns colours and certain patterns associated with fertility,Traditionally the wedding ceromony takes place over seven days the bide will wear a different costumes eachday, many of the costumes are decorated with amulets or embroided with patterns to ensure her well being.Silver Jewlery would be worn for the first time with sun motifs and elements which symbolised fatility there would have also been perticular coloures and materials that she would have chosen to wear in order to premote fatillity and health.

Patttern and materials

Young girls help there mothers to prepare the many trousers, dresses,shawls required for a wedding. they use bright coloures silk thread to embroider tiny designs, which could be a sun or a hand, you would also find mother of pearl which symbolised protection. 


Marriage Shoes


EGYPT 20THCENTURY

Safe Guarding children.
Central and South Asia

In order to keep children away from harm and to bring them good fortune the woman of South East and Central Asia would dress them up and decorate them, the image above is a classical traditional piece you would have found on a small child.

The Sainsbury African Galleries

Walking around this gallery you really get a feel for the contemporary and traditional craft,skill and the culture of life in Africa. There is a real contrast of past and present work, however you can still see the strong African influences in both. 

Woman's Fetility

Woman use five main colours - green yellow orange red and black to decorate wedding clothes and accessories these coloures maybe linked to the desire for the woman's fertility.

Kente rhapsody by El anatsui

 

 wood and pigment.

Up close.

 I really love this piece I was immediately drawn to it, the chunky shapes and uneven consistency with flashes of colour to pick up the texture of the surface works really well.

mans cloth
El Anatsui Ghana

This piece has been constructed with recycled foil neck wrappers,I love how resourceful this piece is.

In most of El Anatsuis work you can see traditional qualities appear but with a contemporary twist his work is a source of pride and a receptacle of cultures and memories .

Otobo- (hippo) masquerade

Sokari Douglas Camp.

This piece is constructed  out of steel, wood , paint palm stem brooms . This sculpture is representing the Kalabari people in full performance, hippos are dangerous creatures and are held responsible for allot of the deaths of tourists by upsetting there canoes. The Masquerade is said to be similarly wild and unpredictable when it performs in the town, it has been known to attack at unpredictable moments.  

Tree of life

This piece was by far my favorite and I have been numerous of time to revisit the  exhibition and this piece, it is an exceptionally inspiring piece of art, I find it fascinating how they were able to create such a magnificent piece of work and bring the community together and make good and happiness out of something which symbolises evil and disruption,however the symbols of death have been made powerless now.

 From a far it represents a tree- peace, new beginning a home etc and its not until you get closer when you realise that it is constructed with what in my mind only symbolises negative thoughts like death, hurt anger,etc.but when you see this amazing piece, all of the negative feelings are counter balanced by the joy the sculpture brings.

Crocadile

Mozambique war

History on the art pieces in the British museum

In 1075 Mozambique declared itself a marxist- leninist state after achieving Independence from Portuguese colonial rule. The new government's pro communist and anti- apartheid stance threatened the regimes in neighbouring south Africa and Rhodesia.They funded an opposition group in an attempt to destablize the countrym, in return the soviet union supplied Mozambique with economy and military aid, when this collapsed the civil war finally came to an end. 

Throne of weapons

Cristovao Canhavato

 This sculpture is phenomenal it is made out of decommissioned weapons from the Mozambique civil war.There is said to be almost one million people dead after the civil war and left 5 million displaced. This piece immediately got my attention I really  like the design the history behind it and how people swap there weapons for practical daily objects like a plough etc. I also like it because its taken something negative and disruptive and turned it into an exiting innovative design, it represents the pain and tragedy of what the war brought to there country,  but also it represents that good can come out of evil and the Mozambican artist has shown this in his creativity.    

Masks

Made in the late 20th by the Kalabari people

Above an example of the bekinarusibi masquerade.This piece is really interesting and strange at the same time it appears to be half ship, half water creature. I think possibly that it is representing the change of development from creature to man made object which are found in the water this mask has been constructed out of wood, mirror,plastic, paint,metal string and cardboard. It is a contrast to what you would see now, when masquerading, often you see masks filled with sweets, so as they dance the sweets fall out and the children collect them. 

This is another mask that I really liked.

It reminds me of a fly fish.