New exhibition reveals the Pacific craft of barkcloth

GLAHM:E.458/3 - Barkcloth, Fiji, Melanesia, 1700 – 1860.

A new exhibition opening at the University of Glasgow’s Hunterian Museum this August highlights The Hunterian’s world-class collection of barkcloth from the Pacific Ocean.

Barkcloth:Revealing Pacific Craft showcases some of The Hunterian’s outstanding and decorative examples of tapa and reveals the fascinating process of how it is made.

The exhibition features cloths from Fiji, Hawaii and Samoa, some of which are newly restored and on display for the first time. Also on show are items from the voyages of Captain Cook and the world’s earliest example of barkcloth from the small island-nation of Niue, donated to The Hunterian by the Presbyterian missionary Reverend George Turner.

Barkcloth: Revealing Pacific Craft is the result of a major three-year research project, Situating Pacific Barkcloth in Time and Place, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. Based at the University of Glasgow’s Centre for Textile Conservation and Technical Art History, the project connected The Hunterian collection with those of research partners at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and the National Museum of Natural History, part of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

Little was known about The Hunterian tapa collection prior to the project but the research, which combined methods of material science, conservation, anthropology and art history, has clarified the provenance of most of the pieces and has revealed new scientific findings about the production, trading and use of barkcloth.

Visitors will learn about the processes of making and decorating barkcloth and its uses, as well as the different plants used in its production and how they have been identified. They will also discover how the artefacts came into The Hunterian collection and the conservation challenges they posed.

Barkcloth: Revealing Pacific Craft is at the Hunterian Museum, University of Glasgow, from 29 August – 29 November 2019. Admission is free.

Barkcloth: Revealing Pacific Craft
29 August – 29 November 2019

Hunterian Museum

Admission free