Exhibitions and Case Displays

Performing Tibetan Identities: Photographic Portraits by Nyema Droma

13 October 2018 - 30 May 2019

On display in the Court, the Long Gallery and the Clore Balcony of the Pitt Rivers Museum

This innovative exhibition features stunning images made by the young Tibetan photographer, Nyema Droma. Taking inspiration from the historic collections of Tibet photographs at the Pitt Rivers Museum, she has created a new series of portraits of young Tibetans that celebrate their creativity and challenge stereotypes. The exhibit includes an installation in the heart of the Museum, as well as film and digital displays. Together the works explore the complex interplay between past and present, diaspora and homeland, the local and the global, that inform Tibetan identity formation. Further information.

 

Tibetan Objects in Transition

31 August 2018 - 25 January 2019

This case display is an experiment to create a 'Tibetan' mode of displaying Tibetan material culture. Drawing from the Museum's collections as well as loaned objects from the Tibetan diaspora, the display privileges and features contemporary Tibetan voices, narratives and  perspectives.

Intrepid Women: Fieldwork in Action 1910 - 1957

15 October 2018 - 11 March 2019

This exhibition focuses on six of the Pitt Rivers Museum's most important female collectors and their fieldwork carried out between 1910 and the early 1960s. It highlights the challenges and prejudices encountered due to their gender, as well as the privileged position that their backgrounds gave them, in comparison to the indigenous communities being studied. The exhibition provides a unique opportunity to see objects and photographs resulting from their fieldwork travels, as well as original archival material on display here for the first time. The exhibition is part of the University of Oxford's Gardens, Libraries & Museums (GLAM) programme marking the centenary of the Representation of the People Act 1918, which gave British women the right to vote.

'A Variety of Portraits of Persons': From the Official Account of Cook's Second Voyage to the Pacific (1772-1775)

28 May - 28 October 2018, Archive Case (Entrance to first floor)

This display marks the 250th anniversary of Cook's first voyage, which left Plymouth in August 1768. The eighteen prints in this display are from a copy of A Voyage towards the South Pole, and Round the World. This was the official account of Cook's second famous voyage to the Pacific, from 1772 to 1775 and was written by Cook himself, with the assistance of Dr John Douglas, Canon of Windsor. The prints are derived from portraits drawn in red chalk during the Voyage by the official voyage artist, London-born landscape painter William Hodges (1744-1797). Further information.

Syrians Unknown

15 June 2017 - 30 December 2018

A photographic exhibition by John Wreford. Visit the Upper Gallery to encounter large scale portraits of people displaced from Syria, now surviving and thriving in Istanbul, Turkey. Each person photographed has written powerful testimonies about their experiences. Exhibition in English and Arabic.

A Tradition Continued: Iraqw beaded skirts old and new

29 October 2018 - 11 March 2019

A display of two elaborately beaded skirts made by Iraqw women in Tanzania, Africa. The skirts were made more than 50 years apart but show a continuation in the tradition of leather and beadwork, using similar colours and motifs. Such skirts were the product of the female initiation ceremony, whereby girls around the age of 14 years old began their transition into adulthood. During the seclusion, girls design and create such a skirt to wear on emerging as a woman, having learnt the domestic skills and responsibilities necessary for married life. The tradition of making these skirts has prevailed, whilst the associated initiation ritual is no longer practised. The display will explore the techniques, skill and craftsmanship in making such skirts, as well as the effects of missionary and modernising influences on Iraqw traditional ways of life.

Amazing Amulets

1 June - 30 December 2018

Amazing Amulets is returning for its fourth year, showcasing the work of Year 9 students from the Langtree Academy. Working alongside jeweller Kate Coker, the students have learnt new metal-working techniques, including chasing and repousse. The result is a unique and diverse array of amulets reflecting the young people's personalities and inspirations drawn from the Museum collection. This successful project has encouraged more girls to get involved with Design Technology - a subject area which has traditionally struggled to engage young women, and offers a unique opportunity for students to have their work professionally displayed alongside the main collection.

Amazing Amulets and the accompanying exhibition is funded by ACE and HLF.

Surveying the Nagas: Visual Representations of India's Northern Hill-Tribes in the R. G. Woodthorpe Collection

12 November 2018 – 19 May 2019

This temporary display presents a selection of visual material made or compiled by Robert G. Woodthorpe (1844–1898), whose writings and detailed illustrations provide one of the earliest ethnographies of the Naga people of north-eastern India. Among items exhibited are Woodthorpe's superb watercolour paintings and photographs –  focused around a large painted study of Naga tribes of 1875  – as well as contemporary line drawings reproduced for publication using the latest techniques employed by the Survey of India. Woodthorpe's work was both the inspiration and basis for subsequent British scholars of the region, notably J. H. Hutton and J. P. Mills, becoming in this way the central reference point for those who followed in the field.