Introduction

Body, message and empowerment: shields in Island Southeast Asia and Melanesia

Interpretation of shields

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Tavarelli's Foreword, (pp 7 - 9); all references quoted by Tavarelli are cited in the bibliography)

The shields in this exhibition [Protection, power and display] were made in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries for use, with few exceptions, in either warfare or ceremony. They are powerful objects, intended as such by their makers. Although the rituals and symbolic meanings which attended their creation and use may elude us, their strong visual presence recalls the charged nature of these objects. ...

Shields exhibited in the western world have traditionally been treated as simple weapons despite the fact that their makers placed great emphasis on aesthetics, craft and imagery. ...

By connecting the shields to the larger visual and cultural traditions of the societies by which they are made, the catalogue essays show the means by these works extend beyond their role as defensive weapons. ...

The meaning of an art object changes with the context in which it is 'read'. The object, with its formal visual properties, stands nakedly at the center of a paradigm that includes the artist's intentions and aesthetics (shaped by his/ her culture), the viewer's aesthetics and cultural background, and the place in which the object is presented or seen.... The legitimizing effect of the venue is marked: cultural associations of power, prestige and value overlay the more particular meanings a work might have in the intimate domain of a studio. The shields in this exhibition demonstrate perfectly this phenomenon. Created a century ago, they traveled halfway around the world to this museum to enter our hierarchical 'system of objects' (Baudrillard 1968). The shields, once at the center of a human drama played against the shifting backdrop of earth and sky, are now displayed on clean, evenly lit walls. Brandished by warriors, seen in motion amid the turmoil and emotional intensity of conflict or ceremony, these objects, now stilled, are offered for our contemplation.

This transformation raises some important questions which in turn have occasioned much critical debate (cf. Clifford 1988, Price 1989). One position claims allegiance to the power of the objects to speak for themselves and reach across oceans of time and space in a universal visual language. The opposition holds that these objects, stripped from their original context, are divested of meaning and serve only the goal of western colonial aestheticism. Both positions have merit but suffer from a similar intractability. Original meanings ascribed to objects are transitory, accompanying an object for a particular period of time in a particular place. As the object lives out its history it accrues different meanings in each set of circumstances. A tribal shield, initially a proudly owned military necessity with spiritual power, may become, in turn, a spoil of war heralding a new owners [sic] prowess, a family heirloom with sentimental associations, a curiosity from an exotic trip, a revered example of a powerful art form. Ascribing meaning to things is a way of making sense of them in order to integrate them within our lives. ....

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Body, message and empowerment: shields in Island Southeast Asia and Melanesia

Interpretation of shields

Back to main shields page

Back to main 'thinking about objects' page