BIG THINGS

Robin White, woven flax

The second Gibbs gallery includes 1980s artworks. Robin White’s woodblock prints, made during her time in Kiribati, are included. They are titled: I am doing the washing in the bathroom (1983), The Canoe is in the bareaka (1983), Michael is sleeping on the bed (1983) and The Maneaba (1983). These prints, made soon after White's arrival in Kiribati, comprise a series titled Beginner's Guide to Gilbertese. They relate to her adjustment to living in a new environment and culture and learning a new language.

COLECCIÓN DE ARTE DEL BANCO DE LA REPÚBLICA, COLUMBIA

History of hamaca in Columbia

British colonial being carried on his hammock by his servants.

Michel Garnier, Le Hamac. 18th century, oil on canvas.

Wouski, 1788. Caricature depicting the Duke of Clarence, the future King William IV, in a hammock embracing an African or mulatto girl. Illustration from Die Karikatur der europaischen Volker vom Altertum bis zur Neuzeit, by Eduard Fuchs (Berlin, 1904).

Instructions for 1775 Royal Navy Hammock

Hammock ends

Ambahan poems inscribed on bamboo, Hanunuo-Mangyan people of Mindoro, Philippines more info here.

“The Hanunoo script is one of three indigenous scripts that is still being used today in the Philippines. The other two are the Buhid script (another Mangyan group) and the Tagbanua script in Palawan. Traditionally, the Hanunoo script was carved into fresh bamboo because paper was not readily available even 50 years ago. The script was occasionally used to communicate between communities, however, the main use of the script was to write love letters or love poetry called ambahan. Nais, one of the elders in the community we stayed with told us how they used to pass love letters to each other when they were younger. To send an ambahan or love letter to someone they would carve the script on bamboo and then place it on the corner of a path. When the other person passed by they would pick up the bamboo and read the message. She told us that everyone in the community knew what was going on, there were no secrets back then because these messages were left where everyone could read them. This was the way young men and women expressed their interest in each other and communicated.“ - Jacob Maentz

María Magdalena Campos-Pons, Finding Balance, 2015

“María Magdalena Campos-Pons, a woman, an expatriate, and a Cuban, makes art about identity and memory. Like all good art that begins in the personal, her work echoes the lives of African descendants rooted in Cuba, and of legions of fellow travelers from around the world at the turn of the 21st century. Born in Cuba of Nigerian ancestry, Campos-Pons’ work of the last 20 years covers an extended range of visual language investigations. It emerges from the early 1980s focus on painting and the discussion of sexuality in the crossroads of Cuban mixed cultural heritage to incisive questioning, critique and insertion of the black body in the contemporary narratives of the present. Installation art, performative photography and cultural activism define the core of Campos-Pons’ practice of the last two decades.“

Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons

Bencab

Bencab

Out for a Ride, Manila, postcard