Left arm in, right arm out: Museum hokey cokey with Japanese ogre figures

As promised in a previous entry we are going to look in a little more detail at the two Japanese oni figures 1964.1.1 and 1964.1.2, which are being redisplayed as part of the project.   

Oni are creatures from Japanese folklore. They are shape-shifters, able to change their form and appearance, and are most often depicted as evil, humanoid, demonic or ogre-like figures. Oni often have horns, extra eyes, or additional or fewer fingers and toes. As you can see, our figures have horns and only four digits on their hands and feet. Oni are also often depicted wearing a loin cloth. However, both our figures are dressed in velvet kimonos with differing embrodered designs on the chest. We believe they may be around 200 hundred years old. I have tried to find other similar examples elsewhere, but so far have drawn a blank. So, if anyone reading this knows of similar objects in other collections, please do get in touch.

The figures are large (approximately 1.2 metres tall) and occupy a big presence in the Collections office and Conservation lab! They are very eye-catching, especially with their bulging painted eyes, realistic-looking limbs and only four fingers and toes.

Oni figures in their old display, high up on the south wall of the Court

Once they were removed from the case we were able to get a proper look at them and discovered that their construction is very interesting. Dressed and perched high up in the Court for more years than anyone could remember, it was assumed that each figure was solid wood. In fact, a closer look revealed they were comprised of six, much lighter, separate parts, which was welcome news when it came to moving them! -

• the torso and legs
• two detachable arms
• a detachable head
• a velvet kimono
• a silk belt

The lower sections of the limbs and head are carved in wood and then painted with gesso - a thick paint mixture, which gives a smooth surface. The body and thighs are made from a wooden frame bound and nailed with cane strips to give it a more naturalistic shape.

Once the figure was separated into its constituent pieces we were able to look more carefully at the construction techniques used. The arms and head are attached through slots in the torso. The upper arms are made using the same technique of winding cane around a wooden frame, but have then been covered with once-white textile.

Despite their hollow bodies, they are still very awkward and difficult to move.  The gesso is brittle and has separated from the wood in many places. The velvet kimono is very fragile and so far over 80 hours of conservation work has been done on one figure alone. The kimono and belt are still being conserved.

As with any object in the Museum that comprises several detachable pieces, the figures are being carefully documented. Each piece is being assigned its own number to ensure its movements through different departments at the Museum and its condition can be noted, as well as enabling us to add the maximum amount of information to our database.

At some point during these process, it became clear that at some point in their history, the two figures’ left arms had been swapped over! The limbs for 1964.1.1 are all numbered using small cream stickers with numbers written on them. Similar stickers are also placed on the body at the appropriate holes to help assemble the figure correctly. The head and arms for 1964.1.2 however, have no stickers and are labelled with the same Japanese characters, which we believe say “set one”.

The situation was further complicated by the fact that the figures’ limbs and bodies have also been numbered with roman numerals in blue pencil, but that this took place after the left arms were swapped over.

There was no mention in the accession books, card catalogue or correspondence regarding their arrival at the Museum  that the figures’ clothing and limbs could be detached. There was also no note regarding the labels, Japanese writing or blue pencil. However, this is not unusual. This kind of information was seldom included in documentation for objects donated until relatively recently. The cataloguing of these figures demonstrates how there is just no such thing as too much detail when adding information about objects. You never know what information someone will need in the future.  Therefore all the writing on these objects has been noted, including the colour and type of material used, i.e. ink, pencil.

Conservation intern Alison Foster (UCL) has spent
many hours working on one oni figure

So, what's next for these figures? Once the documentation and conservation processes are complete, they will head downstairs to our Technical Services department, who will start work designing their mounts and new display... 

Sian, VERVE Curatorial Assistant

Feeling the beat (and the heat!) at Cowley Road Carnival

The project's summer of outreach and collaboration with fellow University museums continued last month with the Cowley Road Carnival - a popular event that's become something of an Oxford institution. Here, one of the cross-museums' interns reports:

Under the brilliant sunshine on Sunday 7th July, an estimated 35,000 people took part in the Cowley Road Carnival, either watching the procession, shopping in stalls and participating in activities. Cowley Road itself came alive as locals sat on balconies to watch the procession of schoolchildren and community groups - 600 people in total - dance their way down to Saint Mary and Saint John Church. 

There in the churchyard, “Museum Music Madness” reigned as some 440 children and adults enjoyed taster drumming sessions and made recycled instruments at the Oxford University Museums and Collections (OUMC) tent. The crafts and handling activities were designed and led by the HLF museum education trainees as part of our training across the OUMC. In keeping with the 'green' theme of the carnival, all the instruments were made out of recycled plastic and cardboard kindly donated by museum staff and decorated with old promotional materials. 

Each trainee also worked with artists and a Cowley school group to create costumes and to choreograph dance moves inspired by museum visits for the procession. After our visit to the Museum of Oxford my group from St. Christopher’s School were inspired to build a “Bullnose” Morris car, first produced here in Oxford 100 years ago. By working with the group over 2 months I had a chance to really get to know the kids. Seeing them gain confidence in their new skills as they learned the Charleston and sewed costumes was a wonderful experience. For me, the outpouring of support from the crowds as the kids jived and drove their model car in the procession really summed up the community involvement and sheer fun of the Cowley Road Carnival. 

The museums also got a nice profile boost by being part of BBC Radio Oxford's coverage of the event. PRM Head of Education, Andy McLellan was interviewed and explained why it was important the museums took part, commenting, "It’s everyone’s city and everyone’s museums so hopefully people who come to the carnival today will also come and see us."

See these links for BBC Oxford's coverage and more information on the HLF training programme

Liz Danner, HLF Museum Education Officer Trainee

Making it easier to explore the Museum's African mask collections

Work continues on selecting masks for the new displays in the Museums' Court (ground floor). We have masks from many cultures, but our African mask collections demonstrate significant historical importance and variety.

In addition to new displays of African masks as part of VERVE, colleagues are also working on a parallel  - and much larger - display of African masks at ground level. Here, the lead researcher on this work - Zena McGreevy - shows you some of the wonderful masks we've been looking at so far and invites anyone with information about them to get in touch!

Hi my name is Zena and I work at the Pitt Rivers Museum. Over the last few months I have been busy photographing the Museum’s collection of more than 270 African masks. I’ve taken images like this to record each mask and view it from different angles:

Mask from the Idoma people of Nigeria, PRM 1932.33.5 © Pitt Rivers Museum

 

 Three views of an Igbo mask from Nigeria, PRM 1938.15.8 © Pitt Rivers Museum

Me photographing an African mask © Pitt Rivers Museum

You can explore the collections for yourself using the Object Database on our website. It updates regularly to include any new information or images we add in-house, so you're guaranteed to find all the known information we have. To see all the African masks select ‘mask’ from the drop-down list in the Classification field then type ‘Africa’ into the Continent field, then hit Perform Search. You'll discover most of the masks are from Nigeria, plus you can also find examples from Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Congo, Gabon, Guinea, Malawi, Sierra Leone, Swaziland, Tanzania and Zambia. If you want to focus on masks from a particular country, simply search again selecting the appropriate country from the drop-down list.

Mask depicting a buffalo head from the Bamum people of Cameroon,  PRM 1959.9.1 B © Pitt Rivers Museum

Views of four-faced helmet mask from Sierra Leone, PRM 1908.23.3 © Pitt Rivers Museum

To find out more about a particular mask, click on an individual record. This will give you all the information we have, including cultural group, specific geographic location and dates (if known), any researcher's or donor's notes, original accession book entries and display captions, etc. You will also be able to see any photographs we have.

Current display of African masks © Pitt Rivers Museum

We are always keen to improve this information, and it can be quite sparse for certain objects which perhaps arrived in the Museum many years ago without much documentation. I am particularly interested in learning and understanding how masks, like these, are used in African masquerade.

Looking at the Museum’s current main display you cannot tell that African masks are often worn as part of a larger masquerade costume. New displays are being planned on the south side of the Museum's ground floor (Court). The main case will focus on clusters of masks from various Nigerian groups - including complete costumes and dynamic images of masquerades - and additional displays of masks from Cameroon and Sierra Leone will be installed above.

Inviting people to look at such up-to-date images is enabling experts around the world to examine this important collection. With their advice and help we intend to provide you with better quality information and displays/visuals, whether you're in the Museum or at your computer. Exciting times ahead! Keep an eye on this blog where I will keep you posted of new developments!


In the meantime, if you have any information you can tell me about the African masks in this collection send an email to zena.mcgreevy@prm.ox.ac.uk

Zena

A new addition to the project team!

We're delighted to welcome a new member to the VERVE: Need / Make / Use team - Jozie Kettle. 

Hi, I'm Jozie, the new VERVE Communications and Events Officer. Having studied for a Masters degree based at 'the Pitt' from 2010 - 2011, I'm super excited to be returning to contribute to a project as meaningful as VERVE.

To be able to assist with enhancing the accessibility of a collection as fantastic as the Pitt's is a unique opportunity and I'm itching to start. I am particularly looking forward to hitting the road and taking the Pitt Rivers Pop-up Tent on tour...look out for us in a field near you soon!

Previously, I managed events at The Foundling Museum in London and I have experience ranging from organising education days and artists networking events, to Mad Hatter's tea parties, outdoor cinemas, and mass 'soup-ins'!

If you would like any information about upcoming events or activities drop me an email.

Jozie 

Oh, What a Circus! The Pitt Rivers tent on tour

Last week the Need, Make, Use team ran away with the circus! For a couple of days we teamed up with the 1930s-style Gifford Circus - a perfect fit for the project's focus this year on performance and music.

After much preparation for the event ordering and sorting art materials, printing out templates, creating prototypes we loaded up the van with tables, chairs, equipment and miles of bunting and set off for the lovely village of Stadhampton, around 9 miles from Oxford. Our excitement grew as we rounded a bend and saw the Big Top commanding the village green, surrounded by retro caravans. This year, the Giffords performance involves some hilarious puppets, so we thought it was the perfect opportunity to bring along the Museum’s considerable collection of beautiful Indonesian shadow puppets and give families a chance to make their own!

We set up in an adjacent tent, decorating it with bunting and pictures, and laying out our wares in time for the visitors arriving pre-show. The atmosphere at the circus was lovely with our chandelier-lit tent (we might ask to replace our ordinary office lights with chandeliers!), riders rehearsing outside, and the performers putting on their costumes and greasepaint - a great atmosphere in which to demonstrate the playfulness of some of the Museum’s objects. 

We had brought wayang kulit - puppets used in Indonesia, especially on the islands of Java and Bali - to perform shadow plays. Visitors got to touch and play with the intricate puppets - hand-made from buffalo skin, horn and bamboo - and hear recordings of the gamelan music that traditionally accompanies the performances. 

Volunteer Olly with some Indonesian shadow puppets

Our puppets were characters from the Ramayana (you can see some traditional shadow puppet characters here) and it was nice to see recognition on children's faces who knew the story from lessons at school. We also took with us this short video made by UNESCO demonstrating the puppets in action so people could get a real sense of the skill, movement and context involved.

Families could then, if they wanted, make their own versions of Prince Rama, Princess Sita, the demon Ravana, or the monkey god Hanuman and perform with them in our mini, portable puppet theatre. The glorious Midsummer sunshine, although appreciated, did make getting shadows from torches a little difficult at times, but the team were able to improvise using the ready-made theatre of the tent walls and the sun!

Video (90 seconds) of the puppet theatre booth in action!

It was great to take our event to people outside Oxford who might not have heard of the Museum, or realised just how close they are to it, or who maybe needed some inspiration to re-visit. More than 350 people of all ages flowed through the tent over the course of the two evenings, including some of the circus performers who were curious to learn about other performance traditions from another side of the globe. In turn, we had the chance to watch the spectacular circus ourselves before rushing back to take the puppets out to greet people during the interval.

All in all, the event was a great success and a lot of fun, with one visiting parent commenting, "This was an absolute joy – wonderful to have the children distracted during the interval and continuing the creative process! Thank you. More please!"

For more information about shadow puppets, the Multicultural Canada website features an interesting collection held at the Simon Fraser Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology.

Giffords Circus info and tickets here.

Alex Ross, volunteer

Japanese eyePad

One of the cases we are working on in the upper perimeter of the Court contains Japanese material realting to oni – creatures from Japanese folklore, variously interpreted as demons, devils, ogres or trolls. They are popular characters in Japanese art, literature and theatre.

The case contained two large costumed oni figures in devil form (1.2 metres tall), identifiable as such by their small horns and their feet and hands, which have just four digits each. These figures are possibly two hundred years old and require a lot of conservation work. We will photograph them and talk about them in more detail a bit further down the line. 

The original display of Japanese oni material 

There are also two large masks with grotesque features, one representing a demon queller and the other a horned demon. These were likely to be used during the traditional Japanese new year celebration, Setsubun (Bean-Throwing Festival), when the evil of the past year is thrown out and good fortune for the year to come is ushered in. To enact this sentiment, someone would don the demon mask and members of their family would throw roasted soya beans at them saying something like ‘Demons out! Luck in!’

Japanese masks. Left: Demon-queller PRM 1959.2.2 B
Right: demon PRM 1959.2.1 B 

These two masks are made of wood and / or papier-mâché with animal-hair facial hair and eyelashes. They are in reasonable condition but the horned mask was missing a the pad that formed the white behind its glass eye. After examining the other eye, Andrew the conservator discovered it was made of cotton wool with small threads of red silk representing the blood vessels, so he constructed a new, similar ‘eye-pad’ for the other eye. This dramatically improves the mask’s appearance and emphasizes its expression.

Existing eye - cotton wool with red thread behind glass

Andrew's new eye pad

Mask with repaired eye

When a junk isn't junk

Recent collections work for the project has had a nautical theme with boats, balers and anchors all being catalogued and conserved. The boats range from coracles from Wales, Ireland and India to a beautifully painted model junk from China, and each has its accessories, be they paddles, sails, balers or flags.

As someone with relatively little knowledge of boat anatomy, I am learning new boat building techniques daily now. I never cease to be amazed by how many different construction methods can be found in just one small corner of the Pitt Rivers.

Inside the Chinese junk were what turned out to be 70 bundles of cord (around 100 metres in all) made from hair - we don't know if the cord was associated with the junk and if so, what it might have been used for.

Chinese junk (PRM 1886.1.375 .1) and chord found inside

This brilliant anchor and chain from Mansinam in West Papua, Indonesia is definitely one of the longest objects I’ve ever catalogued at well over 12 metres long. The links are all made from plaited rattan and, despite the fact that they are well over 100 years old, they are still robust.

 

Anchor and rattan chain, 19th century (PRM 1898.56.7)

The coracles are made with a basketry frame covered with either hide or bitumen covered calico. This one has a baler, paddle and salmon club or “knocker” for dispatching the freshly caught fish. They are manoeuvred using a single paddle in a figure of eight movement. This method means they make little movement in the water and so do not frighten the fish.

Coracle from Carmarthen in Wales (PRM 1907.71.1)

Once processed, the boats will return to display in the upper perimeter of the Court (ground floor) of the Museum, where they will be positioned and lit in a way that renders them much more visible than before.

What will we be working on next?

Sian (VERVE Curatorial Assistant)