Sadness in the SF Asian Art Museum

[Montino Bourbon]

I visited Thailand last year. The main royal palace and its attendant temples are incredible; basically a city, with some of the most impressive art I have ever seen.

While stopped for a moment next to a wing of the palace, I looked inside a room through a window and saw racks of swords, dha's, and spears. There were hundreds, neatly racked, without sheaths, and rusting. I (Thought I) recognized a Pattaya-era dha from it's slightly rounded point, beautiful shape, and length.

These weapons were obviously some that had served to defend the throne at some time. I noticed, even from the door, some combat nicks in a few of them. We were not allowed to go in.

These weapons were totally uncared for. They were within their historical context, in a country where the military and its tradition is strong.

We understand something about weapons and their importance, their esthetic qualities, and their importance both historically and as an artifact. Other people don't care. I cringe when I see a musical instrument of value and obvious utility on a wall. Other people couldn't care less. It's what one fucuses on that gets the polish, the care. My step-father was the president of the Metropolitan Museum of art in New York. I got to go and look and talk to the curators in the basement. They have MANY HUNDREDS of Nihonto in drawers that are never seen. I don't have the slightest idea what else they have, keris or others. I do know that they do take care of the collection very well. There's NO rust, and I can attest to that. Stain? probably not, but at this stage, I don't know. They have INCREDIBLE Oriental and western weapons. The sword of the Ottoman emperor Murad the fifth has big emeralds on its incredible fittings, and the blade is wonderful.

[A. G. Maisey]

Neglect and musical instruments.

In Solo, Jawa, there are two branches of the House of Mataram:- the Karaton , which is the principal branch, and a minor branch that is the Mangkunegaraan.

In the museum of the Mangkunegaraan there used to be a wonderful and totally unique vibrafone.

The tubes under the plates were made of blue glass that had been made in France. The sound was totally unlike any vibrafone I had ever heard. Unique. One of a kind. Wonderful.

It was still playable in 1978.

Sometime in the mid 1980's my wife and I were visiting the Mangkunegaraan and noted that this vibrafone was missing.

We asked where it was.

Nobody knew of it.

Then we asked one old fellow who looked like he had been around the place for ever. He remembered it and thought he knew where it was.

We followed him to a decrepit old shed stuck in a back corner of the palace grounds, and there was the magnificent, unique, vibrafone of blue glass in a pile in a corner. The frame eaten by insects, many of the blue glass cylinders broken, and other junk thrown on top of it. The roof of the shed leaked and every time it rained the things in the shed got wet.

I do not know where this vibrafone is today.

If these cultural artifacts --- including weapons --- had not been removed from their cultures of origin it is very probable that they would not exist today.

And now the governments and people of these places want the Western Barbarians to return their cultural artifacts?

Yeah --- right!!

[Rick]

Then the responsibility of preservation, conservation, and education must fall upon Us; the Students, Enthusiasts, and Collectors of these incredible iron expressions of dreams, wishes, mystical intent and the eternal search for perfection within a form .

My .02

[aerosick]

Hopefully the museums will sell these to the public, like the museum did with the Philippine Kris I purchased recently.

And hopefully they will sell these while they are in fair shape as mine was.

Billy

[Rick]

Originally Posted by aerosick

Hopefully the museums will sell these to the public, like the museum did with the Philippine Kris I purchased recently.

And hopefully they will sell these while they are in fair shape as mine was.

Billy

Lots of red tape involved in de-acessing I'll bet .

[drdavid]

Lots of red tape involved in de-acessing I'll bet

Even worse if the items were gifted to the museum.

The buzzword in many museums these days is interactive. The assumption is that people need to be entertained to be informed. The problem with that is we are told what it is we need to know, rather than allowed to decide what we are interested in knowing. Perhaps it is all down to shorter attention spans and the need for bells and whistles to capture those attention spans

On the other hand the concept of an interactive collection of edged weapons.....nahh, cant go there
drd

[fearn]

Originally Posted by drdavid

Even worse if the items were gifted to the museum.

The buzzword in many museums these days is interactive. The assumption is that people need to be entertained to be informed. The problem with that is we are told what it is we need to know, rather than allowed to decide what we are interested in knowing. Perhaps it is all down to shorter attention spans and the need for bells and whistles to capture those attention spans

On the other hand the concept of an interactive collection of edged weapons.....nahh, cant go there
drd

Interactive? Why not?

What I'd suggest for a keris and many other blades is a simple platform that can be rotated (slowly) by the viewer, so that they can see all sides of the object and its sheath. Right now, every weapon in an art museum is (sometimes tacky) wall art, and showing it in three dimensions really would help.

For a more military museum, they can do a great set of displays on shape, edge geometry and cutting for swords. Not that museum visitors would actually get to cut things, but I think a lot of blades would be appreciated more if there was a stack of cut reed mats, or a punctured target (or whatever) sitting beside it, along with a video showing how some of these things were used. Heck, even a display of how much rope (or whatever) various blades could cut when sharp would be useful. imagine a set of piles with a standard swiss army knife at one end, and some truly sharp blade at the other. Just as an example.

I don't have a problem with interactive. In fact, the reason I got angry at the SF Asian Art Museum was the lack of context. The weapons weren't properly named, properly mounted, or even stained and cared for to show how great they would look if cared for properly. The sin (read omission) of the museum in this case is that they're missing a great opportunity to introduce the public to an important facet of Indonesian culture by displaying these keris as mere curios. It's too bad.

Just a thought,

F