Queensland Art Gallery Presscuttings Book 8 : Pressclippings, 1977-1981

Colomblon exhibits (clockwise from obove), Votive figure; Pendant jaguar; Pectoral with ornamental face; Helmeit with ornaments; Pectoral with bird; a Poporo lime container In form of a woman with neck– lace. The_:eekend Australi Magazine 8 Febru,ry 25-26th, 197 GLISTllRING! ~ E L DORADO can be found for the next three weeks on North Terrace, Adelaide. At the Art Onllcry or South Austrnlta n collection of rare, pure Cotornblnn gold Is on show by courtesy o! the pco1,>le who brought Aus1rnlta tne Chin– ese Exhibition, the Australtan Art Exhl• bttton Corporation Llrntted. Its nntton•I tour starts nt the Adelaide Festlvnl, nnd nfler the P erth, Melbourne and Bria– bane galleries end In Sydney In Oc· tober, There ure 238 exquisite gold ob· Jeclll and 24 ceramics and stone pieces In the show. And the value: priceless. The cost or protecting It Is high, too. A modern-day conqutstadore nrtcr loot tn Adelaide would not only have to sail Into the New World Gallery and hack his way through the Juncle-llke crowds, but then find he has to scale the most mountainous, secretive security nrrnnge– menlll, human and electronic, nn Aus– tralian gallery has seen since the Chin• cse Exhibition. And the Chinese Exhibition wns a spectnl case: " breakage or loss would have been nn embarrassing culturnl nnd diplomatic raux P••· But were n suc– eese!ul ptlfernge to occur with the Co– lombtnn cold exhtbttton tile loss would be nbsolutc. Oold Is negotiable In n wny !hat Jade funeral suits are not. And so, nccordtng to the corpornllon, tile "prlcclessness" or this cxhlbllton occurs In the rarity value thut you add alter the melted-down vnlue has been as– sessed at, ns one person has punted, a cool million. It lnoks priceless. Pure, glowing yel– low gold or yellow gold mixed with copper to mnke a so!lly colorcd pinkish alloy called tumba:Ja, foshtoncd Into n splendid array of ornaments, snuft' trays, musical Instruments like pipe• nnd trumpets, nose rings, pcctornl plates, penis covers, needles, flshhcoks, spoons, and lime contntners. And why, you might well ask, did the natives nee::t lime containers which happen lo be !ashtoncd In the rorm ol bulbous little ladles? Well, In the trade that existed between the vnrtous pnrls or pre-Spanish Colombll, one of the commodities gold artefacts were ex– changed for was seasnells frorn which lime was made, Lime was mixed wllh leaves from tt1e coca plant which then gave the taker a pronounced narcotic e!!ect because drugs · played an Impor– tant part In pre-htspantc magical and religious hcllc!s In the Colomt11nn region. Thus the poporo nnd the bng In By PETER WA~ which coca. leaves ,v re carried were symbols of the power, and wisdom ol the priests. The snuff dishes, on the other hn:id, were usedIto take In yopo, n haliuctncgen that mmes rrom. po•·– dcred seells. Clrar,y 1re-hts,ory h.b11s tn the Amerlcns h nvc ded hard. But why Colombta1~ gold? Why not ,~:~f1~:;gy 0 ~1o~~t~~v~;t_er~rva~r':!~~~~ from the Andes t/rough Ecuador, Colombln, Panamn. C 3tn Rica up Into Mexico. The tradition devcbpcd over some thirty centuries until he beginnings or the . 16th Century vhen production ceased as the IndIan , /Uitures began to disintegrate ns n resut or the Spanish conquest nnd Ihe gait/' plunders or the Europeans. Each dl!!erent Am,rtcan zohe deve– loptd lls own style art! !avored certain techniques, nnd becau e Colombia Is at the end or I.he Am lean Isthmus It was thus ln!tuenced progressively by trlbnl movcmentf; nnd (nigratlons. Gold in burial ceremonies Bo thnl's one rens\n. II Is uncom– monly nnc work. Bu( another Is lhnt becnuse Colombian go~ was often used m burinI ceremonies rnny fine pieces were hidden from tl I depredallons of' the Spanish. The co/ectton about to tour Australia Is ram Colombln'r. Bank of the Republc's museum of gold, which Is housol In the cnpllnl, Bogotn. The bnnt: wa; founded In 1023 and hns controlled nj gold Irndlng In Colombtn since then. It now has gntherd In more 11rnn 26,000 gold pieces , eprescnttn3 the world's largest collecLbn of pre-C:olom– btnn gold In America Further, Colom– bin wns In fact lhe ,olace where the Spanish llellcvcd El ·Dorado, the city or i;old, wns to be ibund, somewhere In Its mountains or Ik valleys. In fnct, like most ieople blllen with gold rever nnd the h,rbartsms or 16th century tmperlnllsm, tley has misheard the locals. Followtng the succc:sful conquests ol Mexico and Peru and !ho pillage of Co- 10111L11nn to1111,1s, mnny cxpcatuons W\o!rc launched in tcurch or new r1cl1es. Tutes Hrcw or legendary Oorados. In fac, the story cnmo by way 01 n Dorado ceremony carried out by the Muston In– dians at Lake ouatn\'ila, in t.ne ccntrat nigh plateau or Colombia. 1 L cornustcd 01 u King movtng on rnfls Into II lake, covered with restn und gold dUSI, lo nrnkc ot 1er111~s 01 gold jewels and emeralds. 'l'he gold was w•••••d l'rom his skin In the tuke's water•. Tales of this rtluul spread among the Indian tribes and cve111.ually came to th.e cager cars o! the Con– quistadors. Thus were so many expedi– tions lu;ed Into peril In search of El Dorado which uctunlly meant "the Ullded one.'' Ttius a century afler the beginning at lhe conquest o! America and Spant.ih colonial admtntstrntlon 181 tons of gold and 16,000 tons or sliver had been iJrought to l:lpatn from tile American colonies, cnu~lng unprecedented tnfla• lion In Europe but maintaining the Spantsn 9mplre as one or the most powerrul ever known. So we have Colombian gold In Ade– laide. For the exhibition the gold• working artisans of Colombia are di· v,de:l tflto seven mnJor groups, each or which show n marked standardisation 111 lcchntcal and formal aspects and re– venllng commonwork po.Items In their vartlculat· regions. They nrc nil represented In the Ade– laide exhibition und display un aston– ishingly Wide range of techniques for n civilisation which had only relatively primitive smelting techniques. Hammer– ing, ~nnenling, repousse work, and tost– wnx casting methods were used with srcat dexterity together with stone r•1ntrJccs for the manufacture of 1<te1,1t1cal pieces, and tn nntshtng, bur– nishing, polishing and In the cnse ot "tumba3a" gil<1lng to protect against rapid copper oxidation. Tne vnluc that the western world ascribes 10 gold, as a sytnbOI ol rnnterlal riches, Is somewhat different from the value the lndlans conferred on the metal. But It sllll had Its vul,ue, was a sign of stntus of wealth or social, nnd thus splrltunl. power to the tndlnns. And that's WllRL can be seen In Ade– laide's El Dorado - the most splendid collecllon of exquisitely fashioned gold objects ever to visit these shores. Ham– mered, chased, tntrlcntely pnttemed, brllltant conceptions of long-vanished, entirely vanquished artisans of n now rlead nnd o!len mysterious, even brutal, pre-Colombian culture.