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25/4/2013

Fiercely Modern

Rubin Museum of Art, New York

April 4, 2013, New York, NY– Featuring a collection of rarely seen objects, photographs, and video, the Rubin Museum of Art’s upcoming exhibition, Fiercely Modern: Art of the Naga Warrior , explores the societal evolution of the Naga people through thei r material culture. The exhibition includes clothing, jewelry, weapons, shields, and ceremonial objects as well as large-scale black-and-white photographs from one of the oldest collections of Naga art, assembled in the 1930s by the anthropologist Christoph Fürer-Haimendorf and now in the collection of the WeltMuseum Wien in Vienna, previously known as Museum für Volkerkunde. The exhibition will also include a video of ceremonial drumming. On view from April 26 through September 16, 2013, Fiercely Modern tells the story of how the Naga organized their society and celebrated their festivals with stunning displays of power and artistry.

The Naga are a group of culturally and linguistically linked tribes who live in the mountainous regions of northeastern India and northwestern Burma (Myanmar). As headhunters, they were feared and avoided by their neighbors, allowing them to develop a distinct ive material culture—in which objects they created are of impressive aesthetic value and possess great symbolic importance to the community—and a complex system of norms and taboos. The main tribal groups of the Naga include the Angami, Sema, Ao, Kalyo- Kengyu, Konyak, Lhota, Rengma, Tangkhul, Chang, Sangtam and Sema.

The British colonization of India in the 19 th century and then the 20 th- century conversion by Baptist missionaries of nearly the entire Naga population to Ch ristianity resulted in drastic changes in their way of life. Today the Naga live between two extremes: they maintain a highly de veloped aesthetic culture informed by ancestral traditions but are a fractured society, disrupted and transformed by outside influences. Though now fervent Christians, the Naga’s ancient customs and habits remain alive under a layer of Christian devotion.“

Fiercely Modern explores the intricate cultural heritage of the still little-known society of the Naga and provides an important opportunity to consider its trajectory within a larger historical context,” said Jan Van Alphen, Director of Exhibitions, Collections & Research at the Rubin Museum. “Through a thorough examination of the distinctive, value-laden objects, tr aditions, and intangible heritage of the Naga, we are able to draw parallels among the many disparate communities of the wider Himalayan region and tell a more comprehensive story of the headhunting cult ures in Asia as far as the Philippines, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia.”

Enlarged black-and-white photographs of Naga people in ceremonial clothing will provide the context for the objects on view. Fürer-Haimendorf acquired the orig inal photographs and the majority of the objects presented in this exhibition during his field research in 1936-1937. As a sympathetic chronicler of the Naga throughout his life, he supported a greater unde rstanding of non-Western cultures and argued for the political rights of marginalized groups. His complete collection has been preserved in the WeltMuseum Wien.

The exhibition is divided into six sections:

Warriors: Symbols of Riches and Prestige
Much of Naga life revolves around the acquisition of pr estige, especially for men. From feasts celebrating a full granary to the practice of headhunting, the Naga commemorated status and significant village events through ritual, the erection of sculptures, and specific dress. In particular, the practice of headhunting holds a deeply ingrained religious and cultural meaning for the Naga. While ethnologists debate the motivations behind this tradition, the Naga themselves explain that a successful headhunt brought prestige to the tribe, made one an acceptable potential husband, and entitled the victors to wear particular adornments. Highlights from this section, include:
-Head trophies such as facsimile heads carved of wood, human skull trophies, and heads woven from bamboo and rattan. A head damaged in a ba ttle by an enemy could not be brought back to the village out of respect for the dead;
-Ceremonial hats, embellished with animal horns a nd furs meant to evoke the power, courage, and beauty of the animals;
-Shields, spears, and ceremonial baskets similarly embellished with leather, fur, animal hair, and monkey skulls.

Clothing
Traditionally the one piece of warm clothing worn by Naga men and women was a body cloth which could be worn wrapped around the torso or folded ov er the shoulder with the ends tucked into a belt. Body cloths were not worn by children. The life stor y of each Naga was told through symbols woven into the warp and weft of the cloth, and each cloth told of its wearer’s tribe and position within the tribal hierarchy. Such body cloths are still worn over m odern clothes during cultural events today. The exhibition includes:
-One striking body cloth worn by the king of Longkhai of the Konyak-Naga people. Its coloration and patterns are symbolic. The black base color stands for life’s struggles. The white zigzag patterns symbolize peace, the yellow strips hunger, and the red st ripes headhunting and bloodshed. The round metal disks depict wars between villages.
-Red and yellow striped tassels of goat hair worn by the wife of the village king of the Sangtam- Naga. Other women of her village could wear only b ody cloths featuring single-toned red threads.

Jewelry
For the Naga, jewelry is more than mere ornamentati on; it serves as a symbolic descriptor of the wearer's tribal orientations and social status. This was esp ecially true for men, whose status was based on how often he and his forefathers hosted lavish feasts, hi s prowess in warfare, how many heads he had taken, and, in some areas, how many extramarital affair s he could boast. Examples of jewelry include chest ornaments, earrings, headdresses, armbands, sashes, gird les, and aprons worn by both men and women.
-Wearing tiger teeth symbolizes the courage of men who have hunted and killed tigers.
-The color red in a warrior’s sash connoted danger and symbolized blood and flame.
-Successful headhunters were entitled to decorate th emselves in a warrior’s apron woven of cotton and cane. Girls wore narrow cotton aprons as d ecorative belts before they reached puberty. When they came of age, they wore the aprons around the hips.
-A “warrior’s tail,” a small basket worn on a ma n’s back to hold poisoned bamboo points used in battle. Decorated with red-colore d human and goat hair, it was a symbol of power and prestige.

Artisanry
Specific crafts belonged strictly either to women or men. Thus, weaving was the absolute domain of women, and basket making and wood carving were typically male-dominated handicrafts. Elegantly designed and finely crafted objects were used in everyday life. The exhibition features:
-Ceremonial baskets made of bamboo that might be given by a father to his daughter on her wedding day. It would be used to carry a harvest back to the village from the fields;
-Finely woven baskets by the Konyak-Naga that were the standard unit measure for rice;
-Gracefully shaped footed dishes carved of wood used for eating.

The Morung: The Stronghold of Tradition
A key fixture in nearly all Naga settlements was th e Morung, or Men’s House, which served as something of a community center. It was usually the biggest a nd most beautifully furnished building in a village, spacious and decorated with ornate carvings. Mostly a residence for bachelors, married men could also sleep there in threat of attack or preparation fo r a feast of merit. Some tribes also had analogous establishments for unmarried girls. The Morung was u sed as a barracks, school, and youth club combined, and a boy would typically join at the age of nine or ten and live there until he was married. There he would learn the skills required for adulthood from the older members of his community: craftwork, agriculture, martial skill, and the oral traditions.

Wood Carvings and Sculpture
Numerous wooden sculptures decorated the walls and pos ts of the farthest end of the innermost space of the Morung. They expressed the narrative traditions of the Naga.
-A Naga man might erect a wooden sculpture near his home during a feast to represent every bull he offered for the celebration, or an organizer might demonstrate prestige by exhibiting sculpted wooden panels on the façade of his home.
-Wooden carvings of erotic subject matter posted on the walls of the Morung were not uncommon and thought to relate to fertility.
-Artists made grave monuments a nd decorations for the Morung: pillars and crossbeams were decorated in bold relief with symbols for the hea dhunt like hornbills, tigers, elephants, and carved human skulls.

The most impressive woodcarvings were the giant log drums, which are shown in a video in the exhibition alongside models of dugout drums. These enormous stationary instruments carved from a single tree trunk were taken from the jungle according to strict ritual. Once a seer has been blessed with the vision of a particular tree, it is cut down, ho llowed out, and brought into the village with great ceremony by the entire community. The dugout drums embodied the community’s potential for happiness and brought with them good luck, wealth, and pros perity. They also functioned as a communication instrument and were used to rapidly spread the news of a fire, an enemy attack, a successful headhunt, or the death of a distinguished villager across a distance of several miles.

This is the Rubin Museum’s second exhibition expl oring Naga life and culture. In 2009 the museum presented Nagas: Hidden Hill People of India , an exhibition of color phot ographs capturing contemporary Naga life by Pablo Bartholomew.

RELATED PROGRAMS:

Key Talk
April 28 at 3:00 p.m.
Anthropologist Christian Schicklgruber and collect or of Naga art John D. Marshall will discuss the contemporary lives and material culture of th e people of Nagaland. $12. Free to members.

Lunch Matters
During the month of September, Lunch Matters, th e museum’s Wednesday lunchtime film series, will feature documentary films about the Naga people. $10 includes museum admission. Free for members. Attendees are encouraged to purchase lunch at Café Sera i and bring it into the theater. Check the website for additional dates and titles:
www.rmanyc.org/lunchmatters

. September 4 at 1:00 p.m.

Two short films:

The Story of a House
Directed by Sophy Lasuh and Sesino Yhoshu, Running time: 5 minutes, 2012 The 55 residents of one house live in Nagaland during the day and sleep in Myanmar each night. A very rare meeting with the tribal chief re veals why this is and how it is possible.

Apfutsa (Grandfather)
Directed by Sesino Yhoshu, Running time: 8:56, 2009
Apfutsa is an intimate portrait of the filmmaker's grandfather as he reflects upon his life experiences in Nagaland. The film, also a portrait of the region itself, brings us from his childhood, through the loss of his daughter and father during the Indian occupation, and into the present day.

ABOUT THE RUBIN MUSEUM:
The Rubin Museum of Art’s immersive environmen t stimulates learning, promotes understanding, and inspires personal connections to the ideas, cultures, and art of Himalayan Asia. The only museum in the U.S. dedicated to the Himalayan region, the Rubin has welcomed more than one million visitors since its founding in 2004. Its outstanding collections of Tibetan, Chinese, Indian, Afghan, Bhutanese, Mongolian, Nepalese, and Pakistani art, which include photography , are complemented by a diverse array of films, on-stage conversations, concerts, and special even ts. The Museum’s education, community, and access programming is dedicated to providing audiences of all ages and backgrounds with multidimensional experiences that foster dialogue and active engagement with the traditions and cultures of the Himalayas. The Rubin Museum’s Café Serai and shop are also insp ired by the region and serve as a natural extension of the gallery and programming experience.

Image: Photograph of a Naga warrior, 1937 Assam, India (Konyak-Naga). WeltMuseum Wien Glass, brass, cotton

Collection Christoph Fürer-Haimendorf

For further information and images, please contact:

Alina Sumajin/Ariel Hudes
Resnicow Schroeder Associates
212-671-5155/212-671-5169
asumajin@resnicowschroeder.com/
ahudes@resnicowschroeder.com

Anne-Marie Nolin, Head of Communications
Rubin Museum of Art
212-620-5000 x276
amnolin@rmanyc.org

Rubin Museum of Art‎
150 West 17th Street - New York, NY 10011
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