In Haute Couture featherwork is one of those arts developed by specialised ateliers creating works of arts using the lightest or most colourful feathers. Yet featherwork can be studied from an anthropological and ethnographical point of view as well, if we consider that it is part of the traditions of specific countries, as proved for example by the exhibition "Royal Hawaiian Featherwork: Nā Hulu Ali'i" at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA; until this Sunday 7th August).
The event - developed by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco in collaboration with the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum in Honolulu - features around 70 featherwork objects in addition to photographs from the museum's permanent collection.
"The exhibition marks a rare opportunity to feature the bold abstract compositions and the high degree of technical expertise evidenced by Hawaiian featherwork," states in an official press release Nancy Thomas, Senior Deputy Director for Art Administration & Collections at LACMA.
The objects on display - rarely exhibited outside Hawai'i - include indeed brilliantly coloured cloaks and capes that were crafted from the feathers of hundreds of thousands of indigenous birds and were carefully attached to woven fiber supports.
Nā hulu ali'i - or royal featherwork - dates back hundreds of years: feathers from endemic birds were valuable cultural resources on the Hawaiian Islands and they were employed to make spectacular garments constructed by hand, including 'ahu 'ula (long cloaks and short capes), royal staffs of feathers (kāhili), feather leis (lei hulu manu) and helmets (mahiole). The feathered garments symbolised the divinity and power of the ali'i (chiefs), ruling men and women who wore them for spiritual protection and to proclaim their identity and social status.
Nā hulu ali'i were also used as diplomatic gifts to cement political alliances or were worn as battlefield regalia. Kings would indeed also fight wearing their cloaks and the winner would keep the cloak or trade it after battle.
Hawaiian featherwork started being recorded after Captain Cook's voyage in 1778 and the first drawings, as well as actual featherwork pieces, were taken back to England after Cook's death (in some cases the items were returned to Hawaii from European collections).
Fewer than 300 pieces remain, most of them stocked in four American museums - the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, Honolulu Museum of Art, the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard, and the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution.
The artistic tradition continues today, even though some of the birds have gone extinct; it is actually important to highlight that birds weren't killed for their plumage, as the feather collectors would harvest the materials they needed when the birds would moult by venturing in the forest with sticks that had a sticky substance at the end.
The artworks on display are testament to the artistry and technical skills of the Hawaiian people, but the abstract patterns on these pieces, the shapes of crescents, triangles, circles and lines combined with a bold colour palette are incredibly fascinating and inspiring (and the leis could definitely be reinvented as necklaces, maybe using different materials that may lend a final effect similar to feathers).
Yet the event is not just about the vibrant colours of the featherwork: the undergarments are equally important as they were created using woven plant fibers knotted and crafted to support the featherwork.
In a nutshell, "Royal Hawaiian Featherwork" is a feast for the eyes and a tactile pleasure (well, you can't touch the pieces as they are obviously stored in display cases, but you can imagine how soft it would be to do so...), a celebration of bold graphic designs and a way to ponder a bit about the soft VS hard dichotomy.
Image credits for this post
'Ahu 'ula (cape, detail), pre-1861. Yellow and black 'ō 'ō (Moho nobilis) feathers, red 'i'iwi (Vestiaria coccinea) feathers, and olonā (Touchardia latifolia) fiber. Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, Ethnology Collection, 09670/1909.007. Photograph by Hal Lum and Masayo Suzuki
'Ahu 'ula (cape), pre-1861 (detail). Yellow and black 'ō 'ō (Moho nobilis) feathers, red 'i'iwi (Vestiaria coccinea) feathers, and olonā (Touchardia latifolia) fiber. Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, Ethnology Collection, 09670/1909.007. Photograph by Hal Lum and Masayo Suzuki
Lei hulu (feather lei), 19th century. Blue Japanese pheasant (Phasianus versicolor) feathers, black ribbon. Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, Henriques Collection, D.01616/1932.079. Photograph by Hal Lum and Masayo Suzuki
Lei hulu (feather lei), 19th century. Yellow 'ō'ō (Moho sp.) feathers, red and green Kuhl's lorikeet (Vini kuhlii) feathers, and black ribbon. Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, Princess Victoria Ka'iulani Collection, 10386/1911.005. Photograph by Hal Lum and Masayo Suzuki
Lei hulu (feather lei), 19th century. Yellow 'ō'ō (Moho sp.) feathers, red Kuhl's lorikeet (Vini kuhlii) feathers, and black ribbon. Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, Ethnology Collection, D.02620/1962.062. Photograph by Hal Lum and Masayo Suzuki
'Ahu 'ula (cloak), possibly mid-18th century. Red 'i‘iwi (Vestiaria coccinea) feathers, yellow 'ō'ō (Moho sp.) feathers, and olonā (Touchardia latifolia) fiber. Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, Ethnology Collection, 11094/1913.001. Photograph by Hal Lum and Masayo Suzuki
'Ahu 'ula (cloak), pre-1825. Red 'i'iwi (Vestiaria coccinea) feathers, yellow and black ‘ō‘ō (Moho sp.) feathers, and olonā (Touchardia latifolia) fiber. Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, Ethnology Collection, 1969.181. Photograph by Hal Lum and Masayo Suzuki
'Ahu 'ula (cape), possibly late 18th–early 19th century. Red 'i'iwi (Vestiaria coccinea) feathers, yellow and black 'ō'ō (Moho sp.) feathers, and olonā (Touchardia latifolia) fiber. Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, Ethnology Collection, C.00208/1927.073. Photograph by Hal Lum and Masayo Suzuki
'Ahu 'ula (cape), possibly 19th century. Red 'i'iwi (Vestiaria coccinea) feathers, yellow and black 'ō'ō (Moho sp.) feathers, and olonā (Touchardia latifolia) fiber. Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, Kapi‘olani-Kalaniana‘ole Collection B.07236/1923.125. Photograph by Hal Lum and Masayo Suzuki
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