PADDLE F.0013
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(Source: UCL Ethnographic Collections) Red and black pigments are very visible, loss of white pigment. |
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(Source: UCL Ethnographic Collections) The handle is not as decorative as the blade. |
Object
F.0013 is listed and described in the Ethnographic Collections at UCL’s
Anthropology Department as a paddle – carved and painted in red, white and
black designs. It measures approximately 165 cm in length by 15 cm at
the widest point on the blade, and is only about 5 cm thick. The
object has been claimed to be originally from the Solomon Islands, Melanesia,
and previously held within the Wellcome Collections before entering the
Ethnographic Collections. The
paddle is light in weight and designed for aesthetic pleasure due to the
painted carvings, which have remained somewhat intact, and induce the fact that it was not intended for hard, laborious ocean work. Haddon (1937, 84) notes that the
blades on the paddles from the Bougainville and Buka islands in the northern
Solomons are an elongated oval, not so sharply pointed, and characterized by
remarkable designs, sometimes human figures, in red and black paints and on a
white ground.
There has been a tremendous amount of loss concerning the
pigments, the white pigment in particular, which once covered the backdrop as
suggested by the remaining stains appearing all over the background of the
paddle. The blade forms an elongated oval tapering down towards the handle, and
is not as sharply pointed as some of the other paddles within the Ethnographic
Collections, nor does it have a decorative crutch. Haddon (1937, 84) has
theorized that the whole blade may represent a fish. Paddle F.0015 is the most
similar object within the collection.
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(Source: UCL Ethnographic Collections) Low relief carvings, almost undetectable without raking light. |
The
design on the paddle was carved in a very low relief by outlining the
compositional components with a sharp implement and removing the surrounding
wood to produce subtly raised images (Kjellgren 2007, 165). There
are very small pieces of wood that seem to be splitting or cracking where some
of the designs have been carved, as they are extremely brittle, which could be
a consequence of changes in relative humidity. The
object has been housed, uncovered on a large wall mount in the Material Culture Room along with numerous other paddles, held together with padded ties, leaving it exposed to dust particles and light damage.
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(Source: UCL Ethnographic Collections) Damage is visible as chips to the black pigment and splits in the wood. |
Melanesian
dance performances are a complex cultural form with many purposes and
significances, while most of them employ the use of many hand held objects,
which possess a magical energy. There are many native groups among the islands that practice paddle dances, however the exact significance of these performances is unknown, they have been speculated to be focused on puberty, initiation, or death (Chowning 1977, 63).
References:
Chowning, A. (1977). An Introduction to the Peoples and Cultures of Melanesia, 2nd ed. London: Cummings.
Haddon, A. (1937). The Canoes of Melanesia, Queensland, and New Guinea. Honolulu: The Museum.
Kjellgren, E. (2007). Oceania: Art of the Pacific Islands in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art.
This
post refers to coursework done for ARCLG142
(2016-17), one of the core courses of the UCL
MA Principles of Conservation. As part of their
assessed work for this course, students were asked to investigate objects from
the UCL Ethnography
Collections at the UCL Department of Anthropology. Here they
present a summary of their main conclusions. We hope you enjoy our work!
Comments are most welcome.