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Dr Mark
Nesbitt, Dr Andy Mills and Dr Adrienne Kaeppler examining a rare Samoan upeti at Kew.
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We
have recently come to the end of a three-year research project on Pacific
barkcloth, Situating Pacific Barkcloth in
Time and Place, at the University of Glasgow, funded by the Arts and Humanities
Research Council. The project grew out of long-standing relationships between
the three project partners, the Centre for Textile Conservation and Technical
Art History at the University, the Economic Botany Collection at Royal Botanic
Gardens, Kew (EBC) and the National Museum of Natural History at the
Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. (NMNH).
The
three investigators: Prof Frances Lennard in Glasgow, Dr Mark Nesbitt at Kew
and Dr Adrienne Kaeppler at NMNH, were keen to take a new approach to research
into Pacific tapa. Investigation focused on barkcloth as a material, through a
close examination of the objects in two collections, the University’s Hunterian
Museum and Kew’s EBC, backed up by Adrienne Kaeppler’s previous research into
the NMNH collections.
The
three project researchers came from different backgrounds: Pacific art
historian, Dr Andy Mills, researched the provenance of the two collections and
looked at the plants used to make barkcloth, drawing on historic cloths in
other collections and working with tapa makers and botanists in the Pacific. Dr
Margaret Smith, materials scientist, developed methods of identifying the plant
species used to make barkcloth and carried out analysis of fibres and
colourants in conjunction with other scientific specialists, while Misa Tamura,
research conservator, carried out conservation treatment of the cloths,
improved their storage and investigated tapa conservation techniques.
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Dr
Margaret Smith using portable X-ray
fluorescence to identify inorganic pigments on a Hunterian barkcloth.
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This
interdisciplinary approach gave us new insights into the preparation and
manufacture of barkcloth, showing how small changes in manufacturing techniques
led to variations in cloth type. Historic records list many different plant
sources but, interestingly, our research identified only a small number of
colourants on the cloth in the two collections; this aligns with research into
the British Museum and National Museums Scotland collections.
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Reggie
Meredith Fitiao demonstrating barkcloth
beating during a workshop for
conservators.
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We
were fortunate to be able to interact with many tapa makers, curators and
conservators through workshops held at the Auckland War Memorial Museum, the
Bishop Museum in Hawaii and here in Glasgow. We were delighted to welcome
Reggie Meredith Fitiao and Uilisone Fitaiao, barkcloth practitioners from
American Samoa, who led workshops on making and decorating tapa in Glasgow for
conservators, project partners and students.
Specific
outcomes from the research are forthcoming – in the near future we will launch
a new website which will contain information on barkcloth and a searchable
database of the Hunterian and Kew collections (https://tapa.gla.ac.uk is the address
for both the existing and new websites). An edited volume with contributions
from project partners and collaborators is also in preparation. An exhibition, Barkcloth: Revealing Pacific Craft, is
at the Hunterian Museum at the University of Glasgow until 29 November. As well as describing the research project and
key findings, it gave us the opportunity to display some of the fine tapa cloths
in the Hunterian collection for the first time, as well as some of the tools
and other interesting botanical materials from the EBC.
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Misa
Tamura treating a Hawaiian tiputa from Kew.
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Further project
funding from AHRC is allowing us to hold a series of barkcloth workshops for
regional museum staff and for the public in museums around the country in April
2020. There will be more information about these on the project website and on twitter (@UofG_Barkcloth).
All images
© University of Glasgow
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