The Islands of Orkney are a group of 70 islands and skerries 10km (6.2 miles) from the north-east tip of the Scottish Mainland. The largest island, known as ‘Mainland’ is home to most of the total 20,000 population but the main north islands of Shapinsay, Gairsay, Stronsay, Wyre, Rousay, Egilsay, Eday, Sanday, Westray, Papa Westray and North Ronaldsay and the south islands of Graemsay, Hoy, Burray, Flotta and South Ronaldsay are also populated. Although Burray and South Ronaldsay are ‘islands’ they are connected to Mainland Orkney by causeways. A few of the very small islands also have permanent or seasonal residents.
The islands of Orkney and Shetland are littered with archaeological remains. People first came here over 5000 years ago and many of their remains survive. New architectural sites are discovered every year. Some, such as Skara Brae, were buried under sand, only to be exposed by a winter storm thousands of years later; Skara Brae presents a fascinating glimpse of stone age life from the beds with their little shelves and cubby holes, to the remains of jewellery and medicine. Research is ongoing here and elsewhere excavation by archaeologists continues to uncover new information. The islands are therefore of enormous interest to anyone who enjoys first-hand contact with ancient settlements and buildings, and the people who once lived here.
Orkney Islands
The State of Sabotage
Robert Jelinek and Christoph Steinegger, Graphic by Gustave Doré and SGD
The formation “Sabotage” was founded by artist Robert Jelinek in the area of the Documenta IX in Kassel in June 1992. Sabotage” began operating in 1992 as a small project and collective, later 1994 as Sabotage Communications- an art organisation and music label, than a union of various sublabels brought together by their shared way of thinking and similar style of expression through different media. Since 1992 more than 100 international “public sabotages” have taken place in form of performances, actions, events and exhibitions. There are a number of flexible subdivisions which emerge as the needs arise and dissolve under their own inertia. Each of the sublabels primarily works within its medium, nevertheless their bonds are firm and fruitful.
The fields of activities of Sabotage defy definition of contents, theme and geographic concentration and therefor different projects and target groups are represented in different sublabels such as: art: Sabotage actions (1992-95), Alibi Service (1992-95), Sabotage projects (since 1995) or CaSH (1998). music: Sabotage Recordings (1994-99), Craft Records (since 1995), Subetage Records (since 1999).
“Sabotage” in this sense means the braking of conventions, the artistic interruption of processes of thinking and manipulational transfer. “Sabotage” is not a technic that transports meaning. Sabotage transgresses positions without presenting a new social order, provokes thinking by intervening in the official discourse. Sabotage is the experiment to brake up incrustation of an organised bourgeois society that insulates itself against all changes and tries to make thinkable new possibilities.
Atlantium Global Sovereign State
The Empire of Atlantium is a unique parallel sovereign state based in New South Wales, Australia.
Atlantium recognises that the days of nation-states founded on fixed geographical locations or majority ethnic identities are numbered, as global mobility, cultural evolution, and the growth of electronic communication networks render the assumptions that underlie and provide justification for their existence increasingly obsolete.
In an age where people increasingly are unified by common interests and purposes across - rather than within - traditional national boundaries Atlantium offers an alternative to the discriminatory historic practice of assigning nationality to individuals on the basis of accidents of birth or circumstance.
Atlantium has a heritage that spans three decades. What began as a local political statement by three Sydney teenagers on 3rd Decimus, 10500 (27th November, 1981) has since evolved into the world's foremost non-territorial global sovereignty movement and state entity, with a diverse, rapidly growing population living in some ninety countries.
Atlantium is predicated on a belief in the inevitability and the desirability of eventual global social, economic and political union, and it operates as a secular, pluralistic, liberal, social democratic republican monarchy. We encourage the active participation of Citizens in the public life of the Empire, and invite anyone with the desire and motivation to forge their own destiny as a true citizen of the world to consider joining us.
George II
Imperator et Primvs Inter Pares
Sovereign Head of State
The Virtual State of NSK
The NSK State was created in 1992 by the groups comprising the Slovene arts collective Neue Slowenische Kunst (NSK). Amongst others these included the groups Laibach, IRWIN, Noordung, New Collectivism and the Department of Pure and Applied Philosophy. Neue Slowenische Kunst was founded in Ljubljana in 1984 as socialist Yugoslavia began to fracture. By the end of that decade the NSK groups had gained a reputation across Western Europe, America and Japan. NSK works and actions have commented on many of the political events of the last two decades and NSK is now widely acknowledged to have played a key role in the political and cultural history of Slovenia and former Yugoslavia, even being credited with playing a role in the pluralisation of society and culture in 1980s Slovenia.
The NSK State was created in the aftermath of Slovene independence. It has carried out a series of temporary ‘Embassy’ and ‘Consulate’ events in locations including Moscow, Ghent, Berlin and Sarajevo plus other collective actions. The State is conceived as a utopian formation which has no physical territory and is not identified with any existing national state. It is inherently transnational and describes itself as ‘the first global state of the universe.’ It issues passports to anyone who is prepared to identify with its founding principles and citizenship is open to all regardless of national, sexual, religious or other status. It now has several thousand citizens across numerous countries and all continents, including a large number in Nigeria. The NSK State itself is a collective cultural work, formed by both the iconography and statements of its founders and its citizens’ responses to these and to the existence of the state. It is also part of the wider ‘Micronations’ movement which has grown increasingly visible and received growing critical and theoretical attention in recent years.
www.times.nskstate.com
Micronesia 1900 A.D.-Present, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
The twentieth century represents a tumultuous period of cultural, political, and artistic upheaval for the peoples of Micronesia. In 1900, Germany controls the vast majority of the region, including the Marshall, Caroline, and Northern Mariana Islands as well as Belau and Nauru. Britain holds a protectorate over Kiribati, which later becomes a formal colony, while the United States has political authority over Guam. The presence of larger numbers of Westerners and the continuing activities of Christian missionaries have an increasingly profound impact on many Micronesian cultural and artistic traditions.
From 1908 through 1910, the Hamburg Südsee Expedition, traveling widely among Germany's colonial possessions, documents the arts and cultures of Belau and the Caroline and Marshall Islands. The expedition also acquires vast collections of Micronesian art and material culture. Museums and universities in other parts of Germany also assemble substantial holdings of Micronesian objects. Following the German defeat in World War II, the League of Nations transfers authority over Germany's Micronesian possessions to Japan.
The Japanese colonial period witnesses the further erosion of Micronesian art and culture. In one instance, however, a Japanese expatriate is responsible for the development of a new tradition within Micronesian wood carving. During the 1930s, folklorist Hijikata Hisakatsu (1900–1977) persuades Belauan artists to carve scenes depicting incidents from their traditional histories and legends, traditionally carved and painted on the rafters of ceremonial houses, on smaller portable boards for sale to outsiders. The creation of these "storyboards" develops into an important Belauan art form, which continues to the present. The late 1930s and early '40s are also marked by the increasing construction of fortifications, airstrips, and other military installations throughout Japan's Micronesian territories as the nation prepares for war.
Of all the cultural regions of the Pacific, Micronesia is the most severely impacted by World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Allied and Japanese forces fight many of the major battles of the Pacific campaign on Micronesian islands. These include Tarawa in Kiribati, Chuuk (then known as Truk) in the Caroline Islands, Peleliu in Belau, and Saipan in the Mariana Islands. In 1945, the aircraft Enola Gay takes off from Tinian in the Marianas to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. After the Allied victory, control of Japan's Micronesian possessions is transferred to the United States, which administers them as a Trust Territory. In 1946, the U.S. begins the first in a series of nuclear weapons tests in the Marshall Islands when it detonates an atomic bomb on Bikini Atoll. The testing program ends in 1958.
In the 1960s, the islands and archipelagos of Micronesia gradually begin to achieve political independence. Nauru is first in 1968, followed by Kiribati in 1979, Belau in 1981, and the Federated States of Micronesia (encompassing all the Caroline Islands except Belau) and Republic of the Marshall Islands in 1986. At the end of the century, only Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the majority of whose inhabitants vote to remain part of the United States, are under the authority of a foreign nation.
For Micronesia's artistic traditions, the first half of the twentieth century sees a dramatic decline in many art forms as the result of colonial and missionary influences. A number of Micronesian sculptural traditions, such as the creation of dilukai (female gable figures) in Belau, and masks in the Mortlock Islands (part of the Caroline Islands), cease to be practiced during this period. However, other art forms such as the carving of hos (weather charms) and seated figures in the Caroline Islands, the construction of the elaborately decorated ceremonial houses in Belau, as well as the majority of women's arts, such as weaving and plaiting, continue. The second half of the century sees a growing renaissance of Micronesian cultural and artistic traditions. In 1955, what will later become the Belau National Museum is founded in the capitol of Koror. The gradual independence of Micronesian nations that begins in the 1960s is accompanied by renewed interest and respect for indigenous art and culture. The numerous art forms that survived the colonial period are rejuvenated and taught to new generations of artists while others are revived. In the final decades of the century, a significant contemporary art movement begins to develop among Micronesian artists.
In Europe and the United States, the latter half of the twentieth century witnesses a growing awareness of the spare and elegant aesthetic qualities of Micronesian art. Micronesian objects, formerly considered simply as sources of anthropological information, begin to be appreciated and displayed as works of art. Initially, Micronesian pieces are incorporated into general exhibitions of Oceanic art, such as Arts of the South Seas in 1946 or The Art of the Pacific Islands in 1979. In the 1980s, museums and art galleries begin to mount exhibitions devoted exclusively to Micronesian art. These include broad surveys such as The Art of Micronesia in 1986, and explorations of specific traditions like Palau (Belau) in 1992.
Basket (Egadakua), late 19th–early 20th century
Nauruan people, Nauru, Caroline Islands
Pandanus leaves, fiber, shark's teeth
H. (excluding handle) 3 1/2 in. (8.9 cm)
Gift of the American Friends of the Israel Museum, 1983 (1983.545.1)
In former times, the people of Nauru in the Caroline Islands used small box-shaped baskets, called egadakua, to carry personal items such as drinking cups and containers for precious oils. The baskets were also associated with childbirth, where they were used to hold the implements and substances needed to bring the newborn into the world. Like all the fiber arts on Nauru, egadakua were created by women. The baskets were typically adorned with designs that served as family emblems, indicating the rank and lineage of the bearer. Although the woven portion of this basket is unornamented, the rows of shark teeth that adorn the edges possibly served to indicate the family affiliations of its owner.
Bracelet, late 19th–early 20th century
Nauruan people, Nauru, Caroline Islands
Fiber, coral beads, traces of feathers
Diam. 2 in. (5.1 cm)
Gift of the American Friends of the Israel Museum, 1983 (1983.545.26)
As among other Micronesian peoples, women on Nauru excelled in the fiber arts, creating a diversity of beautifully plaited ornaments and accessories. Possibly intended for a child, this small bracelet, only two inches in diameter, is remarkable for the fineness and detail of its decorative plaitwork, executed in alternating strips of plain and dyed black fiber woven together to create a rhythmical geometric design. The bracelet is further adorned with pink coral beads that were originally accented with small bundles of feathers, only traces of which remain.
'Watering Can' New Poem Collection by Caroline Bird
Caroline Bird’s two earlier collections were acclaimed for their exuberant energy, surreal imagination and passion - 'a bit of a Howl for a new generation', wrote the Hudson Review. Watering Can celebrates life as an early twenty-something. The poems, writes Caroline Bird, 'contain prophetic videos, a moon colonised by bullies, weeping scholars, laughing ducks, silent weddings - all the fertiliser that pours on top of your head.' The extraordinary verve and compassion of her verse propels us into the anxiety of new responsibilities. Raw but never hopeless, Watering Can has comedy, wordplay and bright self-deprecation.
What an original captivating and spellbinding voice. Bird is fearless like 'the girl who dropped her ice-cream down a volcano and leaped in after it'. She’s dangerous and witty too with a rare quality of imagination. This is a wonder, a beautifully written book of poems. - Lemn Sissay
Published by Carcanet December 2009
New species of Sea Urchin for auction on Ebay
POLITICAL L IFE IN NAURU
Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip visit Nauru. Great Britain helps fund rehabilitation for mining-damaged land.
and five cabinet ministers as well as a judiciary and a public service. Nauru maintains diplomatic relations with several countries. There is no military force.
'Iles tragiques: histoires terribles et magnifiques' by Hugo Verlomme & David Konig
Les îles fascinent ; on les dit paradisiaques. Mais au-delà des clichés, une autre réalité transparaît, souvent terrible, effarante. Après ce livre, vous ne verrez plus les îles de la même façon ! Tour à tour prison ou utopie, l'île agit telle une loupe qui déforme les émotions. Dans ce huis-clos infernal, les passions s'exacerbent, parfois jusqu'aux pires furies criminelles. Chacune de ces histoires vraies fait apparaître des facettes de l'âme humaine au révélateur des îles. Un mélange explosif où se croisent pirates et aventuriers, négriers et utopistes, naufragés et déserteurs, sur les plus petites scènes du monde. Exécutions, complots, trahisons, viols, anthropophagie, supplices, domination, folie, deviennent alors le lot quotidien.
Helmet-Hornbill faces extinction
The Helmet-Hornbill is easily distinguished by having the front of its nearly vertical and slightly convex epithema composed of a solid mass of horn instead of a thin coating of the light and cellular structure found in the others. So dense and hard is this portion of the “helmet” that Chinese and Malay artists carve figures on its surface, or cut it transversely into plates, which from their agreeable colouring, bright yellow with a scarlet rim, are worn as brooches or other ornaments. This bird, which is larger than a raven, is also remarkable for its long graduated tail, having the middle two feathers nearly twice the length of the rest. Nothing is known of its habits. Its head was figured by George Edwards in the 18th century, but little else had been seen of it until 1801, when John Latham described the plumage from a specimen in the British Museum, and the first figure of the whole bird, from an example in the Museum at Calcutta, was published by General Hardwicke in 1823 (Trans. Linn. Society, xiv. pl. 23). Yet more than twenty years elapsed before French naturalists became acquainted with it.
- $17,500
- Price includes buyer's premium
- $18,000 - $25,000
Sale 1977
The Meriem Collection Important Chinese Snuff Bottles, Partii
19 March 2008
New York, Rockefeller Plaza
**A CARVED HORNBILL SNUFF BOTTLE
1780-1850
Of flattened form with flat lip and recessed flat foot surrounded by a footrim, the material of warm, orange-yellow tone, carved through the red surface on the narrow sides with sinuous chidragons, coral stopper carved with a chi dragon, pearl finial and horn collar
2 3/8 in. (6.0 cm.) high
Prospective purchasers are advised that several countries prohibit the importation of property containing materials from endangered species, including but not limited to coral, ivory and tortoiseshell. Accordingly, prospective purchasers should familiarize themselves with relevant customs regulations prior to bidding if they intend to import this lot into another country.
Hugh Moss Ltd.
JICSBS, March 1978, front cover.
Canadian Craft Museum, Vancouver, 1992.
Hornbill was a valued substance to the Chinese well before snuff bottles came into fashion in the Qing dynasty. It came into its own, however, for the manufacture of Qing belt-buckles, snuff bottles, and other small objects during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Among the greatest carvers of the material was the scholarly artist known as Baishi, who signed his wares and dated two of them, establishing himself as having worked in the Daoguang period. Although many of his bottles are signed, it is also obvious that he produced unsigned works as well (see, for instance, a bottle formerly from the Meriem Collection, sold in these rooms, 19 September 2007, lot 707). Many of his signed works are carved with very similar chi dragon narrow sides, allowing the possibility that the workshop with which he was associated also made a range of plain bottles, the present example included.
Examples of Pacific String Figures
Caterpillar that comes after the rain
People of Biri
Bulging growth in the trank of a tomana tree
Chief Gaunubwe
Woman of Nauru
The String Figures of Nauru Island - Dan Coopey
A Loop of String, Approximately 72" in Circumference
Allied pilots, during World War II, who had to fly over certain remote and exotic areas such as Borneo (now called Kalimantan), were encouraged to carry a loop of string up to six feet long, the ends of which were tied together to make a single loop about three feet long. The idea was that if they crash landed their plane in an area where non-English-speaking natives were likely to be present, the pilot should (when someone approached through the jungle), casually take the loop of string from his pocket and begin to make a "cat's cradle" string figure, and as many other string figures as he knew. It is said that, on more than one occasion, this was actually tried.
In each case, the story goes, the native watched with increasingly friendly interest, and then politely borrowed the loop to demonstrate some string figures popular in his own tribe. It seems to me that such an anthropological First Contact technique might be useful in extraterrestrial First Contact as well. You will find out if and how the ET pays attention to your activity, have something to talk about, and -- after you've handed the loop to the ET -- learn something about how dexterously the ET manipulates at least one kind of object. If you're very lucky, the ET will show you patterns of its own culture. After all, the string figure has been (sometimes independently) discovered and perfected by members of the tribes, areas, or nations: Apache, Austria, Australia, Borneo, Chaco, Cherokee, China, Chippewa, Clayoquaht, Denmark, England, Eskimo, France, Germany, Hawaii, India, Ireland, Japan, Kabyles, Kiwai, Klamath, Korea, Kwakiutl, Lifu, Melanesia, Natik, Nauru, Navaho, New Guinea, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Omaha, Onandaga, Osage, Pawnee, the Philippines, Polynesia, Pueblo, Pygmy, Salish, Scotland, Switzerland, Tannas, Tewas, Tlingit, Tsimshian, Uap, Ulungu, Wajiji, and Zuni.
The best reference on how to weave with both hands a hundred intricate patterns supposed to represent natural and artificial objects is String Figures and How to Make Them77.
Perhaps the most important anthropologist ever, Dr. Franz Boas, was the first to publish a careful description of how a so-called primitive people (Eskimo) make string figures, in 1888. Other cultures use "a thong of skin... a cord of cocoanut fibre ... [or] of human hair finely plaited. A woven cord which does not kink as easily as a twisted cord will prove most satisfactory; unfortunately, it cannot be spliced, the ends therefore must be knotted in a small square knot or laid together and bound round with thread.”
An extract from: Me Human, You Alien: How to Talk to an Extraterrestrial
By Jonathan Vos Post.
(c) 1996 by Emerald City Publishing
an excerpt from a book entitled THE HANDBOOK OF UFO CONTACT, to appear Spring 1997, New York: William Morrow & Co.
http://www.magicdragon.com/EmeraldCity/extraterrestrials/alien1.html
Pacific Islanders and Obesity Rates. Source: BBC
Pacific islanders, especially women, are the fattest people in the world, according to latest figures published by the International Obesity Taskforce. Obesity is most often related to poverty, low economic status, exclusion from the health system.
"The Pacific is the world's capital of obesity," says Neville Rigby the director of International Obesity Taskforce's public affairs. The figures show that 55% of Tongan women, 74% of Samoan women and 77% of men and women living in Nauru are obese. This is two times the proportion of overweight people in developed countries.
The levels of obesity and chronic weight-related diseases in the Pacific have grown at an alarming rate, according to the report, which was prepared for the triennial Commonwealth health ministers meeting in New Zealand. "This is placing a tremendous burden on the health and well-being of individuals and communities and upon health care workers," the report said. Obesity is defined as an unhealthy amount of body fat. According to the World Health Organisation, an obese person is one whose body mass index, or weight in kilograms divided by the square of one's height in metres, exceeds 30. The report blames the trend on a move away from traditional diets towards fattier, western-style foods and a lack of exercise.
Cultural notions.
"The prevention and treatment of obesity in the Pacific is also made difficult by the traditional cultural notion that 'bigness' is a sign of wealth and power," the report said. The amount of hours spent watching TV has a direct effect on the obesity of children. "It is not about being rich and well fed. Obesity is most often related to poverty, low economic status, exclusion from the health system," Mr Rigby said. "In the Caribbean and many African countries, obesity is disregarded, ignored, neglected. It is just taken for granted that a poor, middle-aged woman gets fat and then dies from diabetes," he added. Mr Rigby, who is attending the Commonwealth health ministers meeting, said obesity rates in New Zealand were also rising at an alarming rate. "New Zealand hasn't been spared the obesity epidemic," he said. "Never in the history of the human race have so many people been so fat."
In New Zealand, 15% of men and 19% of women are obese. But the condition is worse among the country's Maori women - 27% of whom are obese - and Pacific Island women, 47% of whom are affected by the condition. He said juvenile obesity was also on the rise around the world because children were less active. "The amount of hours spent watching TV has a direct effect on the obesity of children," Mr Rigby said.
Various strategies were proposed for dealing with obesity. One was using taxes to encourage people to buy low-fat foods. Others were making children walk or cycle to school and limiting the size of portions served at take-away restaurants.
New member: Christopher Robbins
I am Christopher Robbins, and as the newest member of the Nauru Project, I thought I'd take this first post to introduce myself.
I first got to know Nauru while working at the University of the South Pacific from 2002-2005, a University with campuses on 12 different island nations including Nauru, Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Niue, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. While conducting a research and development project at the Nauru campus, I was deeply struck by this little island with a hole in the middle, sitting plop in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
I began to write about my experiences on Nauru, create sculptures based on Nauru, and make my own frenzied plots for saving this little island.
Almost five years later, I'm still thinking about Nauru: as an insanely compressed microcosm of the environmental reaping we are all involved in, as an almost metaphysical take on capitalism as a way of coping with the aftermath of this extreme mining, and as examples of the vibrant daily life that perseveres in this moon-scaped tropical paradise.
This summer, at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, I focused on Nauru, building a life-sized New England replica of a 4m x 4m x 4m slice of this island in rural Maine, as a platform for exploring possibilities for action on the pinnacles left from the mining, and attempting to deflower my own hangups around Nauru as an object or source.
I have collected a number of my old posts on Nauru from my own blog here for you, and look forward to using The Nauru Project as a venue for continuing to explore Nauru as a place, a people, a symbol, and a project.
- Nauru Yugo Stealth Pinnacles
- Storefronts of Nauru and Rome
- Noddy in Nauru
- my photos of Nauru
- Holes and Depressions
- Nauru a potential Nuclear dump
- Flying Nauru
- MacDowell Colony
- Nauru wants dirt back
- Flotilla 2004
- Billion $$$ Shack
Bumpkin Island Art Encampment
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN ARTISTS ANNEX AN ISLAND?
In collaboration with the Boston Harbor Island Alliance and Studio Soto, the third annual Bumpkin Island Art Encampment invites proposals to live and work in a temporary artist community in Boston's largest national park area.
Starting Thursday, July 30 and continuing through Monday, August 3, 2009, eight artists/artist groups will each be awarded one plot of prime, arable land in the middle of Boston Harbor.
As "homesteaders" for five days, they will:
Build some kind of "home" on the land,
Live on the land for five days, and
Improve the land via a site-specific temporary project, performance or installation.
Artists will:
Develop projects that respond to the environment, as defined in the broadest sense. Projects may reflect the island's natural resources and human history (see background below), the cultural context of homesteading, the concept of artist community, or other themes.
Use the resources/elements they find on the island. Rocks on the shore, fallen branches, shells, seaweed, washed-up debris, and invasive species are all fair game. As a starting point, artists may only bring the basic tools and supplies they themselves can physically carry on to the land, including everything they need to sleep and survive for five days. Everything found and used on the island must stay on the island at the end of the project. Installations that are not within the tent sites and which are made exclusively of found materials may remain intact.
Spend two days developing projects, two days meeting the public, and one day deinstalling and moving off the island. Artists are encouraged to interact with day visitors, other campers, boaters, etc. while creating projects.
Artists will receive:
A five day "land grant" with ferry transportation and campsite access
A $100 stipend to cover basic expenses, and a supply of shared drinking water
Support and critical feedback from project curators and rangers.
The Nauru Project, Performance for 'IRP Goes Live', Southwark Playhouse
A Performance based on an extract from 'Impressions of Africa' by Raymond Roussel
Performer: Sonja Byrne
Dramaturg: Francesca Manfrin
Visitor Presented with the 'Cup of Love & Welcome' on Nauru, 1916 & Fishdance Ritual
The traditional costume for the "dance of the fish".
After the dance, the fish are eaten.
