20 July, 14.30
Catching Frogs and Fishes: Basketry techniques from around the world

Contemporary Basket Makers Geraldine Poore and Margaret Sparks engage with the Pitt Rivers Museum basketry collections. They will be demonstrating basketry techniques and talking about the exhibition Soundweaves, currently on display here at the museum.

The knotting method that Margaret will be using can be seen in soft bags and in fishing nets from many parts of the world. Geraldine is going to demonstrate plaiting, another universal technique, and she will give a short talk about the baskets made by the Yekuana people of southern Venezuela.  Basketry is of great significance for them, and making plaited baskets with geometric patterns representing sacred animals, such as frogs, monkeys and anacondas, is one of the skills which adult men should learn!

Come and see Geraldine and Margaret demonstrate these two techniques, talk to them about their work, and that of other artists in the “Soundweaves” exhibition.

17 August, 14.30
Royal College of Art at the Pitt Rivers Museum: Matrimonial Rituals, Gender Studies and False Facial Hair

“I attempted to understand an Angolan marriage ritual by reenacting it with 30 women from London… Did we discover the truth? I’m not so sure, but we did unearth many other truths along the way.”

RCA artist Joanne Wardrop discusses her project, Matrimonial Rituals, Gender Studies and False Facial Hair exhibited at the Pitt Rivers Museum from April-June 2013. Joanne will focus on the ways in which this Museum has influenced her practice, and how she believes this diverse and expansive collection can enhance comprehension of our own culture, and ourselves within it.

21 September, 14.30
How do you make a film about the Pitt Rivers Museum?!

How do you make a film about the Pitt Rivers and represent the work that goes on behind the scenes of the Museum and the people who make this happen? This was the challenge that documentary film makers Alan and Udi Mandel faced when they were invited to make a film following the Small Blessings: Exploring the amulet collections at the Pitt Rivers Museum project. They will talk about their experience of making the film Artisans of Memory, and of making documentary films more generally.

For a taste of the talk and the film see also: http://pittrivers-amulets.blogspot.com/2012/09/pitt-rivers-on-film.html

19 October, 14.30
Cecilie Gravesen 2013 “The action of objects”

Cecilie Gravesen is a visual artist working in film and installation. Her work centres on questions raised by the conservation of Ethnographic objects and the ethical and philosophical implications of preserving objects that are imbued or empowered in various ways. She works with source communities and conservators and is interested in how the objects lodged in museums have the power to instigate dialogue and social change by highlighting what is at stake for both the museum and the source community.

In the meeting between the abstract world of spirits and the scientific approach of conservation, a friction is created. Cecilie suggests artwork as one of the ways in which we can focus in on this opposition, and thereby learn about bigger questions in our society, not least the ongoing question of how we deal with the legacy of colonialism.

For this Spotlight talk, Cecilie will talk about her work and present her film, recorded at the Pitt Rivers Museum conservation department, and featuring conservator Misa Tamura. The film follows the conservation of a quiver of arrows from the Ainu people of Japan.