Statue of A'a from Rurutu
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The A'a Idol from Rurutu in the British Museum
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| Material | Wood |
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| Size | 1.17 metres high |
| Created | Late eighteenth century AD |
| Present location | British Museum, London |
| Registration | AOA LMS 19 |
The Statue of A'a from Rurutu is a famous wooden sculpture of the god A'a that was made on the Pacific island of Rurutu in the Austral archipelago. The idol was given to English missionaries in the early nineteenth century as the local population converted to Christianity. It was eventually acquired by the British Museum in 1911.[1]
Provenance
The wooden figure of A'a was made on the island of Rurutu in the late eighteenth century. A'a was one of the principal deities worshiped on the island, one of the Austral Islands that now form part of French Polynesia. Europeans started visiting the islands in the early nineteenth century, as part of the colonisation of territories in the Pacific. This went hand-in-hand with mass conversion of the population to Christianity. At that time British missionaries were very active in the area and it is recorded that this idol was give up to the London Missionary Society in the 1820s. The LMS initially loaned their important collection of Polynesian sculptures to the British Museum but later sold it to the national collection in 1911.[2]
Description
The hollow figure of the god is carved from a hardwood called pua keni keni (Fagraea berteriana) that is native to islands in the eastern Pacific. Shown standing upright, the figure has a large cavity in the back that originally contained twenty-four statuettes, that were destroyed in 1882. All around the body and head are carved in high relief small anthropomorphic figurines. The exact meaning of the idol has been interpreted by scholars in many different ways, but there is as yet no clear consensus on the matter. The A'a image has inspired many artists since being displayed at the museum, including Henry Moore and William Empson.
See also
Further reading
- J. Harding, 'A Polynesian god and the missionaries', Tribal Arts (Winter 1994), pp. 27–32
- A. Gell, Art and agency: an anthropology theory (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1998)
- W.B. Fagg, The tribal image: wooden figure sculpture of the world (London, The British Museum Press, 1970)
- M. Caygill, The British Museum A-Z Companion, 1999
References
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