Exhibitions and Case Displays
12 July — 16 October
Long Gallery (Ground Floor)
This exhibition presents a selection of photographs on the subject of kabuki theatre, the popular Japanese style of drama which developed around four hundred years ago and still thrives today. Drawing on the recent work of photographers Akio Kushida and Stephanie Berger, the large-format prints explore the history and traditions of the dramatic form, taking for their focus the celebrated actor Nakamura Kanzaburō XVIII and his two sons and heirs. Also conveyed — in the photographs and with accompanying video — is the energetic and colourful, sometimes raucous nature of modern-day kabuki performance.
My Siberian Year, 1914-1915
Until 31 October
Showcase display to mark the centenary of the Oxford and Pennsylvania expedition to Siberia
In May 1914, Polish anthropologist Marie Antoinette Czaplicka set off for Siberia in charge of an expedition to study the reindeer-herding Evenki people. She was twenty-nine years old, had recently completed a diploma in anthropology at Oxford, and had started researching the peoples of Siberia, looking particularly at spirit worship and shamanism. This small temporary display of artefacts and photographs explores the expedition, the extraordinary hardships its members endured, and the Evenki people that were the focus of their research.
18 July – 6 November
Archive Case (First Floor)
Among the Pitt Rivers Museum’s collections are over 3,000 photographs from Frederick Spencer Chapman (1907–1971). The majority of these are from the 1930s, when Chapman participated in a Himalayan climbing expedition, and served as private secretary on the British Political Mission in Tibet. Before he travelled to the Himalayas, Chapman spent several years in Greenland as a member of the British Arctic Air-Route Expedition (BAARE) in 1930–31. He wrote the official account for this expedition, Northern Lights (1934), and a film of the same title was also produced. This Archive Case display presents a selection of the photographs taken during his time on this expedition, under the tripartite theme of sky, seas and land.
Stitch of a Symbol - Insights into the textile journeys of Sheila Paine
16 August 2016 – 12 February 2017
Case displays (Lower Gallery, First Floor)
A showcase of textiles and embroideries from the collections of Sheila Paine. This display will feature material assembled by Sheila Paine during her fieldwork throughout East and Central Asia. Items on display will include yurt amulets from Turkmenistan, Uzbek hats and fine embroidery from Pakistan, as well as other examples of textile craft from East and Central Asia. There will also be a related exhibition of Sheila Paine’s photographs (opening in the Long Gallery November 1 2016 – April 30 – 2017).