Collecting & Display seminar
17 June at 6pm
Torrington Room 104, Senate House, Ground floor, Malet Street, London
WC1E 7HU.
Dr. Mariana Françozo, Leiden University
'Dressed like an Amazon’: The transatlantic trajectory of a red feather
coat
In 2000, Brazilian Ministry of Culture prepared and organized an
exhibition commemorating the five hundredth anniversary of the arrival
of Europeans in the South American continent. Located at the Ibirapuera
Park in the city of São Paulo, the exhibition was called ‘Mostra do
Redescobrimento’ and showcased a wide variety of examples of Brazilian
art, including Amerindian Art. For this occasion, the Danish National
Museum agreed with the loan of a particularly rare artefact that was
probably produced during the first century of colonial contacts: a 1.2
meter long, 60 cm wide red feather coat, most likely made by the
Tupinambá indigenous group of coastal Brazil. This object had been
housed at the Danish Museum for about 350 years, and therefore made its
first appearance in Brazil since its departure almost four centuries ago.
Taking the first Brazilian exhibition of this artifact – and the
public’s reaction to it – as a starting point, this presentation will
retrace the trajectory of a collection of Amerindian feather adornments
now housed at the National Museum in Copenhagen. This trajectory will
take us from the backlands of colonial Brazil to the courts of the
English and Dutch royal families in Golden Age Holland to present-day
Copenhagen. By focusing on the specific episodes where feather coats
were given, worn and displayed, this presentation will investigate how
the meanings of these objects continuously shifted as they became part
of different social contexts. Consequently, it will discuss how they
served and may still serve different purposes as representations of
power and exoticism but also of Amerindian identity, heritage, and
political rights in the contemporary world.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|