Oceania


Interesting exhibition at the Royal Academy the art of islands of the Pacific Ocean.

The show was based on the premise that Captain Cook embarked from Plymouth on the first of his journeys across the Pacific Ocean 250 years ago just a few months before the Royal Academy was founded, both events coming from the ideas of the Enlightenment.

There were some lovely items in the show but I’m afraid I just couldn’t engage with it. It was well themed and some interesting points were made about the contact between islands and sharing of artistic traditions but somehow it just didn’t do it for me. I’m ashamed to say the highlight of the show for me was that someone was  playing the Red Piano by Michael Parekowhai in 2011 however it amused me when I realised we were getting an Abba medley which was followed by the theme from Top Cat!

My favourite piece was the amazing video installation by Lisa Reihana called “The Pursuit of Venus (Infected)”. It mimicked an expensive wall paper which was made to commemorate Cook’s journey. Moving images of the indigenous people and Cook’s men set against a painted backdrop of an island scrolled across a long screen with new scenes appearing from the right all the time. Each scene was a story and you couldn’t decide whether to follow one across the screen or start news ones as they appeared. I wish I’d had time to watch the whole thing which was over an hour long but I did stay mesmerised for about half an hour.

Closes 10 December 2018

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