During agricultural rites, masked hudoq dancers would help ensure a bountiful rice harvest.
The object’s exaggerated features are heightened by painted designs––intimidating the viewer with round, staring eyes, a pointy nose and fanged teeth. Masks such as the Hudoq (20th century) were used by the Dayak peoples of Borneo to impersonate spirits who had come down to earth to bless and protect the harvest. In the gallery, an array of Pacific masks evokes the spiritual transitions that were required for travel between the sacred and earthly realms. “Artworks from the region generally express a fundamental preoccupation with survival and physical well-being through divine protection, fertility and regeneration.” Capistrano-Baker, Consulting Curator, for the MFA. “Pacific Islanders’ notions of self and group identity, complicated by colonial entanglements, rarely align neatly with outsiders’ perceptions,” said Florina H.
Visitors to the new gallery can find a variety of materials and objects, such as sculpted wood and stone, carved jade and engraved bamboo as well as delicate weavings and paintings on bark and wood. Artworks also reflect the influences of the region’s main religions, including Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam and Christianity, in addition to traditional beliefs in local spirits and deities. Rather than a chronological or geographic arrangement, the gallery is grouped thematically––highlighting conceptual and stylistic connections between the islands, which have been linked through centuries of migration and trade. Set at the nexus of the Museum’s South, Southeast and East Asian galleries, the space reinforces the region’s location at the crossroads of cultures. The MFA’s newly installed gallery explores the ideas and aesthetic traditions of Pacific art. “The works on view offer a unique opportunity to visually trace artistic connections throughout the Oceanic region.” “The new Arts of the Pacific Gallery opens a window to vibrant cultures and features a wide range of artistic traditions from across the Pacific,” said Malcolm Rogers, Ann and Graham Gund Director at the MFA. Some of these objects were used in daily life, while others had ceremonial and ritual functions, serving as links to the ancestral or spiritual worlds. Mostly dating from the 19th to early 20th centuries, works include Melanesian sculptures, monumental Dayak guardian figures from Borneo, richly carved ornamental artworks from the Maori peoples of New Zealand, Indonesian textiles and Polynesian tapa cloths. Reflecting some of the artistic traditions of a region known alternately as Oceania, the Pacific Islands or the South Seas, objects on view attest to the distinctive and expressive use of many materials and forms. This diverse display represents four main cultural spheres: Polynesia, Melanesia, Micronesia and the islands of Southeast Asia (including Indonesia and the Philippines). Nearly 80 works from the region, including a number of recent acquisitions, are on view in the new Arts of the Pacific gallery at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), opening on November 11, 2014. Sculptures, Masks and Decorative Art Objects Reflect Links to the Spiritual WorldīOSTON, MA (October 29, 2014)-The Pacific Ocean could be called a “continent of water.” It covers more than one third of the Earth’s surface and consists of thousands of islands––stretching from Indonesia and New Guinea to Easter Island off the coast of South America, and spanning the distance from Hawaii in the north to New Zealand in the south. Conservation and Collections Management.
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