(selected) observational findings
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
A Chance Encounter (Surrealist doctrine of objective chance) on the Shinnecock Hills where Native Americans roamed freely for 14,000 years until the Town of Southampton laid claim to their land in 1859. This is where Sandrow’s path crossed with this young white bird ( above left): his feathered crest brought to mind Edward S. Curtis’s series of portraits “The North American Indian” (r, Portfolio plates 408, 418). And Eastern Woodland headdress regalia (pictured, at Shinnecock Indian Nation Annual Pow Wow, Shinnecock Nation performance artist, Shane Weeks.
The bird followed Sandrow home, where he made his home in a tree.
Update March 29: Identified as a chicken, a Padovana cockerel.
Update March 31: A cock Sandrow names Shinnecock for where they met.
Update July 20: And resemble crests of Padovana Pullets (12-week-old hens from Barry Koffler) pictured with Shinnecock (below l to r) his “Eve’s”: White Clarissa, Gold Lace Chloe, and Cleo.
The Shinnecock Hills (Southampton, NY) is where Sandrow’s path crossed with this young white bird, Shinnecock. A Chance Encounter when he followed Sandrow home.
His feathered crest brought to mind Edward S. Curtis’s series of portraits “The North American Indian." Snake Priest. Photo: Edward Curtis
Observational Findings: Under Glass for Purpose of Study
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A Gallus Gallus (chicken) embryo (pictured r), created by a Padovana Hen and Rooster in my Shinnecock Family Flock, looks identical to faces depicted on Ambrym Peoples “Slit Gongs” and “Grade Figures” (pictured right) on exhibit in the Oceanic Gallery at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Where I invite you to view them with smartphone in hand: and via the new media work Happening Live you can observe the Padovana chickens in my Open Air Studio Shinnecock Hills.
The context for my photographic portraits of Padovana Embryos, Eggs, Chicks, Roosters, and Hens is their resemblance to Avian Dinosaurs; to reveal they are an inspiration for Oceanic, African, and Native American masks and regalia. Native Americans, including Shinnecock Nation, wear feathered head-dress identical in form and shape to Padovana crests as while performing ritual dances. As do Peoples of Oceania: for example the New Irelanders of Papua New Guinea.
A recent study concluded chickens inhabited Ambrym Island during the earliest of recorded times.
My “Finding” proposes Ambrym figures are based on direct observation rather than imagination.
Hands and fingers depicted on the Ambrym sculptures reveal what paleontologists learned only recently:
“Eventually, four-limbed creatures colonized the land and settled on five digits, and all the shapes we see today, including wings, hooves, and the hands of concert pianists evolved from the five-digit hands and feet of our lumbering ancestors. Birds wings are highly modified hands with the bones of two digits fused together” states Paleontologist Jack Horner. “There is now direct photographic evidence showing embryonic bird hands beginning with all five fingers - II, III, and IV are prominent, I and V are reduced. As the wing develops, first digit I disappears followed by digit V.”
Note digits 2, 3, 4 remain on the wings of the Padua embryo pictured.
Hope Sandrow
Observational Findings: Under Glass for purpose of Study
Untitled I Open Air Studio spacetime
Digital Color Photographs November 2015 Size Variable
(l to r) “Slit Gong (Atingting Kon), mid to late 1960s Commissioned by Tain Mal, carved by Tin Mweleun (active 1960s)
Vanuatu, Ambrym Island, Fanla Village Wood-Musical Instruments, paint; H. 175 1/4 x W. 28 x D. 23 1/2 in. Metropolitan Museum of Art (http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/309995);
Padovana Embryo (Shinnecock Family Flock) H. 1 11/16” x W. 5/8” in ethyl alcohol; glass jar
-Vanuatu (2003) By Bennett and Harewood p23, “Musical Instruments: The typical tamtam, also called slit-gongs or slit-drums, has a representation of a human face above the drum part - some in northern Ambrym have rooster faces.”
March 10 2016 update:
Documentation, from a 1910-1912 German study, shows Ambrym Peoples include chicken and eggs in their diet but not all Vanuatu islanders do.
Some Islanders restrict eating Hen eggs to women only.
Amongst those who eat Hen eggs: only “when they are half-hatched out”.
In other words: Islanders crack open eggs taken under Hens. To eat the chicken embryo; in the state of being I found that looks identical to the faces, arms and hands depicted on the Slit Gongs.
Modern chickens descend from Jungle fowl: likely brought 3000 years ago by “peoples associated with the Lapita Culture” to the archipelago of Vanuatu. In the center sits the volcanic island of Ambrym. Peoples of Oceania are thought to be the earliest to domesticate chickens.
June 23, 2016 update: “A balut is a developing bird embryo that is boiled and eaten from the shell: a common food in Southeast Asia.”
July 5, 2016 update: - Arts of Vanuatu, 1996. - fig. 37, page 29 “Masks, headdresses and ritual hats in N. Vanuatu by Kirk W. Huffman: “theatrical context in which a dancer plays the part of the bird..and also in the form of a carved image in central and northern Vanuatu”. A Rooster in “A group of Slit Gongs photographed by Lucas, 1895”.
- Arts of Vanuatu“Music” by Peter Russell Crowe, p149: “Myths typically say a primordial woman invented the slit gong ..”
- Arts of Vanuatu,"Mastering the Arts” by Mary Patterson, p 259: "above the face. There is a row of crudely worked ‘toothing’ around the edge of the face…a much more elongated face in what we now consider the ‘Ambrym’ style with a quite large crest”.
-Vanuatu (2003) By Bennett and Harewood p23, “Musical Instruments: The typical tamtam, also called slit-gongs or slit-drums, has a representation of a human face above the drum part - some in northern Ambrym have rooster faces.”
Thirty-seven glass jars contain embryos, including one photographed above, preserved for future study.
Observational Findings: Under Glass for purpose of Study
Untitled II Open Air Studio spacetime
Digital Color Photographs November 2015 Size Variable
(l to r) Detail, “Slit Gong (Atingting Kon), mid– to late 1960s Commissioned by Tain Mal, carved by Tin Mweleun (active 1960s) Vanuatu, Ambrym Island, Fanla Village Wood-Musical Instruments, paint; H. 175 1/4 x W. 28 x D. 23 1/2 in. Rogers Fund Metropolitan Museum of Art (http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/309995);
Observational Findings: Under Glass for Purpose of Study
Untitled IV Open Air Studio spacetime
Digital Color Photographs November 2015 Size Variable
(r to l) Finial from a Slit Gong (Atingting Kon) early to mid-20th centuryVanuatu, Ambrym Island, Fanla village
Wood, paint H. 62 x W. 21 x D. 21 in. Wood-Musical Instruments The Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection, Gift of Nelson A. Rockefeller, 1972 (http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/311178);
