Jeremy Millar: Given at National Maritime Museum on artrepublic.com
Exhibition running from Sep 28 2009
until Jan 17 2010
This is the first solo Museum exhibition by British artist Jeremy Millar. Inspired by the voyage of pioneering anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski and artist and writer Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz, Given is a new commission which explores the exchange of ideas and values that take place between people, nations and societies. Millar is interested in how events in the history of ideas resonate with the understanding of the present. In 1914 the Malinowski and Witkiewicz journeyed to Adelaide, Australia, to attend the Congress of the British Association of the Advancement of Science. The pair planned to travel from the conference to, what is now known as, Papua New Guinea to conduct research into the lives, habits and customs of its people. Witkiewicz was to act as Malinowski’s photographer and draftsman. Things did not work as planned: Witkiewicz left (following a quarrel) to fight in the First World War, leaving Malinowski to continue his venture alone. On reaching Papa New Guinea, Malinowski traveled to the Trobriand Islands where he conducted fieldwork into the Kula, a ceremonial exchange system. Participants in this gift economy, that continues today, at times travel hundreds of miles by canoe in order to exchange Kula valuables. His research was based on experiencing the everyday life of his subjects – a methodology that would become the foundation for modern anthropology. Although Witkiewicz never reached Papa New Guinea, the region became the setting for one of his most extraordinary tropical plays – Metaphysics of a Two Headed Calf. The exhibition contemplates the kinds of photographs Witkiewicz might have taken had he ventured to the Trobriands with Millar performing Witkiewicz’s process of making images, creating 12 black and white portraits of contemporary Trobriand Islanders. A pair of films documents the staging of Witkiewicz’s play Metaphysics of a Two-headed Calf: A Tropical-Australian Play in both Australia and Papa New Guinea. Each play was presented and documented at the invitation of the artist, with the theatre troupes and directors given complete free rein as to how the play was realised and filmed. In each case the individuals involved asserted their own interpretation of the play. Finally, the exhibition includes a sculpture titled With the Left Hand that is based on a traditional shell and bead necklace from the Trobriands, known as ‘souvlaka’ intertwining Polish coins from 2002 bearing Malinowski’s portrait. Given draws together photography, film and sculpture to speculate on the ways in which an understanding of the present is informed and misinformed by what has gone before. Lisa Le Feuvre, the Curator of the exhibition says: “Given is a project that explores the ways in which travel, imagined versions of elsewhere, and the histories of power are represented by the material cultures of the sea. Jeremy Millar’s erudite project explores the very ways that we exchange ideas, values and misunderstandings and how these form our perception of history”. OPENING HOURS: Daily 10.00 – 17.00 Image Credit: Jeremy Millar, As Witkiewicz (Gumakawai Sitautau, Chief, Osusupa Clan) I, 2009. Courtesy and copyright of Jeremy Millar  |
