Noh to Noah: Highlights from the new Woodworking display

If you've visited the Museum this year and made it up to the first floor (Lower Gallery), you might have seen our new display of Woodworking, part of Phase 2 of VERVE's redisplay plan. Here we take a closer look at some of the objects featured in the display.

Selecting objects wasn't easy. There are literally thousands of objects in the Museum's collections made of wood. We decided that the case would follow themes established in the previous Metalwork display comprising tools, raw materials and finished products to showcase some of the shaping and decorating techniques associated with wood from across the world.

We eventually whittled a long list of 650+ objects down to 190. Using a large table we created a 'mock-up' outlining how the material might be arranged (and to ascertain that it would all fit!)

Woodwork layout © Pitt Rivers Museum

The main sections are concerned with carpentry (including joinery), carving, natural form, pyroengraving, fretwork, and veneer/marquetry.

You can see on the centre-right we've left a space called 'NOH'. This was for the inclusion of three new Noh masks from Japan, specially commissioned by the project from a master craftsman in Tokyo. Hideta Kitazawa's series and notes documented the process of making such a mask, from the selection of 300-year-old Hinoki (Japanese Cypress) wood, to the use of hammers and chisels, urushi lacquer and 30 coats of white oyster-shell paint. The finished mask is a ko-omote mask, depicting a beautiful teenage girl.

Hideta Kitazawa making a ko-omote Noh mask for the Museum's displays © Pitt Rivers Museum

This video shows Hideta demonstrating Noh mask carving in Australia in 2015:

Another highlight in the display is a fantastic Noah's ark, known to date to before 1860. Originally thought to have been made in Worcester, comparison with other existing examples indicated that it was more likely made in the town of Seiffen in the Erzgebirge (Ore Mountains) region of eastern Germany. Seiffen has been renowned for its wooden toy industry since the 18th century, and more than half the town's population is still employed in the woodworking trade.

Noah's Ark, Grühainichen, Germany, 19th century PRM 1956.9.70

We included this object to illustrate two separate processes - straw marquetry and tyre-turning. The sides of the ark have been painstakingly covered with glued strips of straw, which have been soaked in water for different lengths of time to produce varying shades of gold and brown. Its 255 animals and birds have been produced using an ingenious method called Reifendrehen ('tyre turning') which enabled the cheap and efficient production of lots of wooden animals. A large disc of fir wood is put on a lathe to create a tyre-like 'Seiffen ring' of 30-50cm diameter,  the cross-section of which takes the form of the desired animal. Small slices are taken from the ring, which are finished and painted by hand. Many of the makers had never seen exotic animals and so used their imaginations to create green hyenas and red camels. We've deliberately placed this object low down in the case so that children can see it.

Choosing a selection from the 255 toy animals to display with the ark © Pitt Rivers Museum

This unicorn was not part of a pair. Might it not have made it on to ark, thus explaining its 'extinction'?!

From a series entitled Reifendreher by Johannes Geyer, 2014. Reproduced under the CC BY-NC 4.0 licence

Another example in the 'Marquetry and Inlay' section is this beautiful Qur’an stand from Iran that folds out to an 'X' shape. Folding lecterns, or rahla, are among the oldest and most valuable furnishings in a mosque. Designed to support a large Qur’an, the Muslim holy book, early rahla were often made of luxury woods such as walnut or teak, and decorated with sumptuous inlay or openwork carving. This example is inlaid with wood and gold stars in a geometric pattern.

Qur'an stand, Iran. PRM 1965.12.46 A © Pitt Rivers Museum

My other favourite object in this case is neither beautiful nor remarkable, but it has a vernacular and rustic charm that is hard to resist. It is a large disc, around 33cm in diameter, carved with concentric circles of Icelandic script. It is a bread stamp, the inscription carved back-to-front so that it would appear the right way around when stamped into the bread dough prior to baking.

Bread stamp, Iceland. PRM 1900.13.2 © Pitt Rivers Museum
Original view (left) and reversed (right) to enable the inscription to be read 

One of the huge advantages of being part of Oxford University is that it is home to experts in many academic fields. We were thankful to Dr Carolyne Larrington from the Faculty of English, who teaches Icelandic, for her translation of the inscription, which turned out to be a prayer:
FRÓNI ÁRTAL 1876 JD; BLESSI HERRAN ÞETTA VORT Á BORÐI BRAUÐ; SJER HVER MAÐUR ROMI, SÁR AÐ GRENNIST SULTAR NAUÐ

“Iceland, year 1876 JD; May the Lord bless this bread on our table in order to diminish the sore pain of hunger; this every single man should say.”

As you can see, there is a lot of variety in this display. I hope that next time you visit, you have time to head to the Lower Gallery to have a look at these intriguing objects in the flesh.


Helen Adams
Project Curator & Engagement Officer

 

Visible Mending with Tom of Holland

This autumn we ran two 'Darning Masterclasses' with textiles practitioner Tom van Deijnen (AKA Tom of Holland). They sold out almost instantly. Here, Tom explains his techniques and celebrates 'visible mending', many examples of which can be found on objects in the Pitt Rivers Museum collections!

Detail of a gourd vessel, decoratively repaired
using beads; 1979.20.167 © Pitt Rivers Museum

"There is a temporary case exhibit at the Museum (until 3 January 2016) called 'Preserving What is Valued' and an accompanying museum trail. They demonstrate how people from all parts of the world repair their material culture. Conservators study objects in great detail and part of their role is to determine at what stage a repair has been made. If the repair was made by the originating community while it was still in use this provides an additional level of information and can give the object a deeper resonance. Identifying an original repair can raise questions that make us think about the object’s history differently.


"I was invited to run two darning classes as part of the events accompanying this display. My name is Tom and I’m a self-taught textile practitioner, and one of the things I do is run the Visible Mending Programme. Through this programme I seek to highlight that the art and craftsmanship of clothes repair is particularly relevant in a world where more and more people voice their dissatisfaction with fashion’s throwaway culture. By exploring the story behind garment and repair, the programme reinforces the relationship between the wearer and garment, leading to people wearing their existing clothes for longer, with the beautiful darn worn as a badge of honour.

"A mother's work" Repair commission for a private client © Tom van Deijnen

Left: Swiss darning in action by one of the participants. Right: a completed practice swatch,
showing a stocking darn and rows of Swiss daring in bold colours. © Tom van Deijnen

"The darning classes were well attended and the participants were taught two classic knitwear repair techniques: firstly Swiss darning, also known as 'duplicate stitching', which is a good way to reinforce thinning fabrics such as elbows on sleeves, or to cover up stains.


"The second technique taught was the classic stocking darn, using a darning mushroom. It creates a woven patch that is integrated with the knit fabric, and is a good way to repair holes. Of course this is best known for sock repairs.

"Throughout the classes, I shared many hints and tips on repairing, such as what tools and materials to use for best results, examples of my work, and how to look after your woollens. Half-way through  we had a break, and everybody was encouraged to see the display cabinet and follow the museum trail to find original repairs.

The Pitt Rivers Museum is home to many repaired objects from all over the world, as well as closer to home. Shown here are details from a delicate muslin handkerchief with some rather crude darns, and and a tortoiseshell comb mended with a riveted metal strip, both from a collection made in Essex, UK; 1949.9.121 and 1949.9.373 © Pitt Rivers Museum

"I found the repairs very inspiring: an inventive use of locally available materials such as baste fibres, small decorative additions such as beads, or the neat way stitching cracks, the use of staples, or even items made in such a way that they could be easily repaired in the future. I won’t go into too much detail, as it’s fun so go and see it all for yourself!


Tom van Deijnen

http://tomofholland.com

The Preserving What is Valued case exhibit and museum trail at the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, 29 June 2015 – 3 January 2016. More information."

Oxfordshire Travellers' Stories Project

"Socks", belonging to the Collins family at the Redbridge site.

Over the last six months, the Museums Outreach Office and VERVE have been working alongside Oxfordshire County Council's Family Learning team (Oxfordshire Skills and Learning Service) and the Museum of Oxford with four of Oxfordshire’s Traveller communities: Redbridge, Middle Ground, East Challow and Bloxham.

The collaboration aims to capture something of the lives of these different local Traveller communities - encouraging them to tell their own stories, relate their families’ cultural tales and represent themselves through objects, pictures and oral history. All these things are integral to their values, history and lifestyle. 

Traveller groups are under-represented museum visitors, so this ASPIRE-funded project aims to raise awareness of the local museums among these communities, and encourage further engagement and visits in the future.

Diana makes blankets for any new babies
born at East Challow, Wantage (her
grandmother taught her how to make them

Initially, each of the four groups spent some time with the Family Learning team discussing which objects reflected their Traveller community and history. Now the groups are developing work for display in an exhibition this winter to be held jointly at the Pitt Rivers Museum and the Museum of Oxford. While each of the four groups have chosen to represent themselves through different objects - taking photographs, writing and telling stories, making model wagons, knitting blankets and decorating 'Crown Derby' papier mache plates - they have also been working on their literacy and computer skills. As the exhibition takes shape, Family Learning will continue to work with the groups by creating trails, captioning work and presenting their story. 

The Oxford University Museum’s Outreach team have been busy visiting the four sites, joining the local Children Centres and Mobile Children’s Centre bus, taking museum handling objects out, and meeting different members of each community. They have particularly enjoyed the opportunity to learn more about Traveller culture and lifestyle, which in turn has highlighted how many misconceptions exist with regards to education, jobs, lifestyle and sites.

Chantelle collects porcelain dolls and displays
them on her trailer at Middle Ground site, Wheatley

During the Easter holidays, the Redbridge and Middle Ground groups visited the Pitt Rivers Museum to have a guided tour, handle objects from the collections, and take part in craft activities such as drum and mask-making. The majority of the group had never visited either museum before, so it was an eye-opener to many!

Several weeks later during the summer holidays, one of the Middle Ground families visited the Museum of Oxford and took a tour behind the scenes. They spent time exploring Oxford’s stories through a wide range of objects. Some of these were surprisingly familiar like the Victorian stove from West Oxford, which reminded a group member of her mother’s old stove:

“It’s amazing, everything here has a story. We used to have a stove just like that. It was my Mum’s when we were travelling. I love stoves like that.” (Chantelle, visit to the Museum of Oxford).

Other objects were less familiar and even a little spooky, including 'Giles the Skeleton' and one of the Museum’s old wax dummies! The youngest member of the group was particularly interested in the Museum’s Civil War collection and was inspired to paint himself dressed up as a Cavalier soldier (see photo). The group enjoyed exploring the gallery space where their work will be displayed later this year and the Museum is looking forward to welcoming other families from the project once the exhibition is in place. Do come and visit us then!

Work with the four groups will continue in the autumn in preparation for the exhibition at:

• Museum of Oxford                                                   21 November 2014 – 10 January 2015

• Pitt Rivers Museum                                                   5 December 2014 – 18 January 2015 

Maya Herbolzheimer (Pitt Rivers Museum)
Antonia Harland-Lang (Museum of Oxford)
Nicola Bird (Oxford University Museums)

Sarah Levete (Oxfordshire County Council, Oxfordshire Skills and Learning Service, Family Learning Tutor Coordinator)

Inventions for Living

Image courtesy of Oxford Brookes University

The case in the south-east corner of the first floor (Lower Gallery) plays host to a varied and imaginative series of changing displays by external partners. These displays all take an aspect of the Museum's collections as their starting point but throughout the VERVE: Need / Make / Use project, we're particularly interested in work that explores considered design, ingenuity, craftsmanship, and functionality. Currently the case is hosting 'Inventions for Living' by Oxford Brookes University Art Foundation students - a joint exhibition with Oxford's Museum of the History of Science - exploring why humanity has created design solutions for certain everyday needs. 

"Being given the opportunity to exhibit our work in this amazing museum has been a very exciting experience for all of us and has given us a taster of life as a practising artist. Personally, I have never been to a museum full of such a variety of artifacts displayed in such tightly packed vitrines. These cabinets of curiosity make the museum feel like something out of Harry Potter and you can't help but expect half of the objects to come alive. What also makes this place so magical is the story allied with many of the artifacts, some of which are more poignant than others. In particular, a lot of us found the idea behind the shrunken heads extremely shocking. Tales of voodoo dolls and black magic also resonated with many of us. One of the interesting aspects of our exhibition ‘Inventions for Living’ is the variety of responses to the title: ‘Need, Make, Use’. Such a range of avenues have been explored, from video installations to objects of extraordinary craftsmanship. This is clearly a reminder of the ever-changing artistic domain that we live in. It is great to see the exploration of 21st-century media, yet also classically built sculpture, which in my opinion will cease to lose credibility, even in our era of Modern art."

Image courtesy of Oxford Brookes University

"On behalf of all of the Oxford Brookes art foundation students, I would like to thank Pitt Rivers for providing us with this fantastic opportunity and also all of our tutors for spending hours of their time discussing the ideas and concepts behind our work. The title of the exhibition hints at the fallible nature of 21st-century materialism, as although we believe we ‘need’ something, it seems apparent that as soon as we acquire our desired object we ‘use’ it at our disposal. The growth of consumerism and excessive consumption is something we should all be made to think about and I hope this exhibition can be appreciated for its ability to make us consider the true meaning of what it is to ‘need’."

Hannah Marshall, Fine Art Foundation student, 2014

Inventions for Living is FREE on the Lower Gallery, until 23 March

Puppets at the Circus

Louisa Birkin from Giffords Circus on 2013's collaboration with the VERVE team at Pitt Rivers Museum...

The title of the show was decided: ‘Lucky 13’. We had a theme and an inkling of a show. Superstition, gypsies, chaotic Eastern European music, puppetry, shadows, the clash between the west and the east were all ideas conjured up. It was cold and snow lay thick on the ground at our remote base in Gloucestershire, but Giffords Circus were thinking of the long hot days of summer and planning our 2013 tour.

Working closely with Nell Gifford, I began to explore these themes. Responsible for the art department, I was looking for design ideas to help tell the story and visual references to use. Nell had been exploring puppetry in the early days of the shows’ development, and in particular shadow puppetry, so this seemed an interesting avenue to explore. We visited Pitt Rivers Museum to see their collections of shadow puppets from the Far East, as well as London to the V&A Museum of Childhood. I loved the effect of the silhouettes, and the idea of these dark figures in motion, on a journey and telling some sort of story. 

It was in these first stages of planning that we were approached by Pitt Rivers to work together in collaboration to extend our audience bases. It was somewhat of a coincidence that we had indeed already looked to the Museum for inspiration, as at the time they were unaware of our puppet theme. So it seemed only natural to form this friendship and use puppetry as our tie. Over the summer, staff from the VERVE team at Pitt Rivers came out to several of our touring grounds and created a children’s workshop area for families to interact in between show times. This added a new dimension to our site and proved very successful. 

If you missed this summer's show you can get a taste of it in this short video: 

After our season was over, we were offered the opportunity to put on a Giffords Circus display in the Museum. Happy to showcase the prop-making and design aspects of the show, I worked on ideas to include our initial puppet research and demonstrate how it influenced ‘Lucky 13’ and its final design. I incorporated elements of the set design with part of our scenery backdrop, some unusual costumes from the show and humanette puppets that we made and which were used to great comic effect by several of the performers. 

As well as being an interesting case to look at, hopefully it will teach a little of the behind-the-scenes work of the circus and, with any luck, reach some new audience members for Giffords. And conversely I believe some of the trusted fans of the circus may now be enticed to visit Pitt Rivers.

"Puppets at the Circus" is free to view on the Lower Gallery until 17 November 2013.