- Museum number
- Oc,LMS.19
- Title
- Object: A’a
- Description
-
God figure known as A’a, carved in anthropomorphic form with 30 small figures over surface of the body and making up the facial features. A lidded cavity in back.
- Production date
- 17thC (before 1821 (see curatorial comments))
- Dimensions
-
Height: 116.80 centimetres
-
Width: 36 centimetres
-
Depth: 36 centimetres
- Curator's comments
- In November 2015, wood samples taken from inside the figure were tested by British Museum scientists and found to be Sandalwood. The wood was too deteriorated to be definitive about the species but it is likely to be Santalum insulare. This information was fed back to the island of Rurutu and the Council of Elders met to discuss it. The Elders chose not to accept the Sandalwood finding, preferring to uphold their own histories which state that A'a was carved from pua wood (Fagraea berteriana). At the same time wood samples from inside the figure's cavity were radiocarbon dated by the Socttish Universities Environmental Research Centre. The results suggest that A'a was carved at some point between 1591 and 1647.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
Exhibited:
1984-1985, New York, Museum of Modern Art
1998, London, BM, 'BP Ethnography Showcase: The Return of the Museum of Mankind'
2003, London, BM, Round Reading Room, 250th anniversary/Poems of the Underground display
2006 21 May-13 Aug, Norwich, Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, Pacific Encounters
2006-2007 28 Sept-7 Jan, London, BM, Power and Taboo
2008 16 Jun-14 Sep, Paris, Musée du quai Branly, Pacific Encounters
2014 23 May-3 Aug, Canberra, National Gallery of Australia, Atua: Sacred art from Polynesia
2014-2015 12 Oct-4 Jan, St Louis Art Museum, Atua: Sacred art from Polynesia
2016 17 Mar–30 May, London, British Museum, Containing the Divine: a sculpture of the Pacific god A'a
2018 18 Sept-9 Dec, London, Royal Academy of Arts, Oceania
2019 12 Mar-07 July, Paris, Musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac, 'Oceania'
2023 - 2026 1 Mar-28 Feb, French Polynesia, Tahiti, LTL Musée de Tahiti et des Îles
- Acquisition date
- 1911
- Acquisition notes
- Presented by a group of people from Rurutu to representatives of the London Missionary Society stationed at Ra'iatea in August 1821. Given as a symbol of their conversion to Christianity.
- Department
- Africa, Oceania and the Americas
- Registration number
- Oc,LMS.19
- Additional IDs
-
CDMS number: Oc1911C27.19 (old CDMS no.)
-
Miscellaneous number: Oc1890,Loan (originally loaned to BM in 1890 by LMS)