The art of the Pacific Islands is known to the rest of the world mostly through artifacts and tourist souvenirs. The intention of the Pasifika exhibition at Cambridge in 2006 was to integrate
and display the wide variety of art being created by Polynesian, especially New Zealand, artists. But that was only the beginning. The chronicle of this exhibit is as groundbreaking as the art,
itself. Rather than describe the final display, the exhibition is followed from its foundation through all the stages of development, including installation. Raymond, an artist, performer and
curator and Salmond, a curator at the University of Cambridge, asked participants to record their experiences. The result shows that the artists were active in all aspects of decision making, a
most unusual event. Pasifika was not confined to the museum but spread throughout Cambridge as a cultural happening with performances, demonstrations and workshops. The cutting-edge
contemporary work was blended with the museum's collection of artifacts from as far back as Captain Cook's first voyages, seen again as objects for use rather than merely quaint relics. The
essays must give only a taste of the artistic, ethnographic and spiritual impressions of Pasifika. The photographs of the art, artists and audience make the reader long to have been there.
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