Carving In Time
Between 1994 and 1995, I travelled to Tanimbar to undertake research into local traditions of sculpture. This research was funded by a Newcastle University Bartlett Travel scholarship and undertaken in conjunction with Pattimura University, Ambon and LIPI, the Indonesian Institute of Sciences.
The following is an online version of the report I wrote for the sponsors of this project. It is very minimally edited and remains very close to the original version, written way back in 1995/1996.
If would like to ask me any more about the work I undertook in Tanimbar, you can contact me.
01. Introduction
A general overview of the Tanimbar islands, and of existing research into art in Tanimbar.
02. Implementation
Approach taken in this research.
03. The History of Tanimbarese Art
A history of art in Tanimbar? Altars, ancestor statues and monuments made of concrete.
04. Images and Power
The relationship between images and power in the Tanimbar islands: adat ritual law, ancestral power, portraits and households.
05. The Sculptor in Society.
Art, religion, traditional belief and economics.
06. Past, Present, Future: Time, Art and History in Tanimbar
Three ages of history?
07. Tradition and Modernity: the unsatisfactory present.
Living in the present.
08. The Construction of Time I: The Jaman Purba.
The time of the ancients.
09. The Construction of Time 2: The Jaman Pertengahan.
The Middle Ages of Tanimbarese history.
10. The Construction of Time III: The Jaman Moderen.
Modernity, Westernisation and the new Christian art.
11. Conclusion.
Past, present and future.
12. Appendix: Selling History - New Patterns in Tanimbarese Art
Art in Tumbur: a traditional monopoly?