ART Exploration –

“Pacific Encounters brings together for the first time many stunning Polynesian objects collected by voyagers and missionaries during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.” “Illustrated are over 270 items gathered from the major regions of Polynesia. Many are from the British Museum, which houses fine and rare material from the expeditions of Captain Cook, Captain Vancouver and members of the London Missionary Society. Ranging from massive images of gods to small fish hooks, they are discussed in the contexts of their local use and meanings, and their journeys to museums all over the world. These pieces have remarkable stories to tell of encounters between humans and their gods, between Polynesians and Europeans, their respective chiefs and priests, beliefs and technologies.”

• Published to accompany the exhibition: Pacific encounters : art and divinity in Polynesia 1760-1860, Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, University of East Anglia, Norwich 21 May-13 August 2006.
• Book and exhibition part of the research project: Polynesian visual arts : meanings and histories in Pacific and European cultural contexts.
• Includes bibliographical references and index.

• • Material culture — Polynesia — Exhibitions
  • Art, Polynesian — Exhibitions
  • Polynesia — Antiquities
  • Art of indigenous peoples
  • 287 pages : colour illustrations ; 28 cm
  • #020226