Research - notes from readings

From: Joy Hendry, 'Arts, Architecture, and Creativity' in Reclaiming Culture: Indigenous People and Self-Representation, Palgrave Macmillan, 2005, p131-155.

"Our art is like a bridge between non-Aboriginal and Aboriginal people, making them aware of our culture and stories" - Inawinytji Williams, Desart Committee, Australia

- nice quote but there are problems:

1. classification of some artist's work as 'primitive' art then demeans their contemporary work ie. it freezes their work in a certain points in their past
2. problems of interpretation; if people are to learn from these works of art then they may need a lot of help with this as the real meanings and stories may be deeply hidden/sophisticated

Resistance & Renewal

Example of the Jean-Marie Tjibaou Cultural Centre as an expression for the Kanak culture - built to immortalise the Kanak man of the same name who tried in vain to lead his people to independence from their colonial masters (nice link with MAU).

• "The Pacific people need to be proud of what they are doing and not worried that they are not like their grandfathers were. The Centre...recognizes that culture changes and offers nothing less than a laboratory of creativity." - Emmanuel Kasarherou, the Kanak cultural director fo the project
• Renzo Piano's proposal was to make the centre modern but "as Kanak as possible", consulting with Kanak druing the process
• also sought to create a symbiotic relationsip with the surrounding vegetation - the path to the buildings plays an important cultural role
• some old-style Kanak buildings were built nearby at the same time so he could reflect their features  -"construction was as important as the finished product"
• he also wanted an unfinished look, saying that architecture is a living being that evolves with time and use

Architecture as a form of self-expression and creativity?

Pacific Space: The Pacific Conception of Building
Bill McKay and Antonia Walmsley, Interior Design, Unitec New Zealand

In the West, architecture, landscape and interior are seen as separate disciplines, with the latter two subordinate to architecture’s concern with object, form and structure. Buildings of the Pacific subvert this Western model eg. the Maori Meeting House (or whare nui) and the Pacific Island falé.

Pacific indigenous buildings can be reviewed, not in terms of architecture, but through looking at the garment and the body.
It's doubtful if the people of the Pacific share the Western notion of architecture as something separate from craft, art, ornament, interior, landscape.

The Samoan falé or Maori whare were seen as primitive shelters by European arrivals

• justifiable because of the climate; a paradise, where little was required in the way of protection for the human body or agriculture.
• however, today we see these buildings as functionally well adapted to climate, but no longer appropriate to today’s social, cultural and physical conditions.

However, these 'shelters' are not primitive structures - on closer examination, the ‘grass hut’ is a highly crafted work.