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War Art & Ritual Shields from the Pacific

08/03/2020

2019, 2 vols boxed, 484 pages, Bill Evans (ed), private press Bill Evans, Sydney, 750 copies. Reviewed by Crispin Howarth

This is an ambitious work, signalling the culmination of a lifetime’s passion upon one single form of material culture by Bill Evans, a Sydney based art dealer. Volume one has firm focus on shields from Island South East Asia with essays by Steven Alpert, Robyn Maxwell and Andrew Tavarelli. The second volume is dedicated to shields from Melanesia with essays by Harry Beran, Barry Craig, Natalie Wilson, Crispin Howarth and Kevin Conru.

Being primarily a study of a singular object type – the shield, this publication visually demonstrates the overwhelming diversity of form and decoration on shields across Island Southeast Asia and Melanesia. Evans has selected many exceptional shields; the Island Asia material comes mainly from private hands and while the majority are shields from Borneo, there are highly decorated dancing shields from both Bali and the Moluccas. The Melanesian material is predominantly drawn from Australian museum collections many of which have not been published before, particularly those from the Bismarck Archipelago and PNG Highlands.

Full review next edition.

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Category: Book Reviews, V25 Issue 1

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Transformation and Understanding

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