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

exhibits (clockwlae e). Votive figure; guar; Pectorol with face; HelmE~ with Pectoral with bird; lime container In woman with neck- The Weekend Australi -n Magazine 8 Febru,ry 25-26th,197 GLIST8RING! _j E L DORADO can be found for the next three weeks on North Terrace, Adelaide. At the Art Oallcry or South Australia a collectlon of rare, pure Colombian gold Is on show by courtesy or the people who brougllt Austrnlla tno Chin• cse Exhibition, the Australlnn Art Exhl· bttlon Corporation Limited. Its nntlonal tour starts nt the Adelaide Festival, and nfter the Perth, Melbourne 11nd Bris– bane galleries end In Sydney In Oc• tober. There ure 238 exquisite gold ob· Ject., and 24 ceramics and stone pieces In the show. And the value: priceless. The cost or protecting It Is high, too. A modern-day conqulstadorc nfler loot In Adelaide would not only have to sall Into the New World Gnllery and hack his way Uuough the jungle-like crowds, but then find he has to scale the most mountainous, secretive security arrange– ments, humun and cleclronlc, an Aus– tralian gallery has seen since the Chin• ese Exhlbllion. And the Chinese Exhibition wns a speclnl case: a breakage or loss would have been an embarrassing cultural nnd diplomatic faux pns. But were a suc– ces,;ful pilferage to occur with the Co- . lomblan gold exhibition the loss would be absolute. Gold Is negotiable In a way that Jade funeral suits are not. And so, according to the corporation, t11e "prlcelessness" or this exhlblllon occurs In the rarity value that you add after the melted-down value has been as– sessed at, as one person ha., punted, a cool million. It looks priceless. Pure, glowing yel• low gold or yellow gold mixed with copper to make a softly colored pinkish alloy called tumbaaa, fashioned Into a ftplendld array of ornaments, snuft' trays, musical Instruments like pipes and trumpets, nose rings, pcctora I plates, penis covers, needles, flshhcoks, spoons, and lime containers. And why, you might well ask, did the natives need lime containers which happen to be fashioned In the form ot bulbous little ladles? Well, Jn !he trade that existed between the various pnrts or pre-Spanish Colombia one of the commodities gold artefacts were ex– chanRr.d for wns seashells from which lime was made. Lime was mixed wllll leaves from the coca plnnl which then gave the taker a pronounced narcollc effect because drugs played an Impor– tant part In pre-hlspanlc magical and religious hellefs In the Coloml11nn region. Thus the poporo und !he bag In By..-.EtER WARD '· which coc£L lcnves \I.Jtrc carried were symbols of lhe power an<l wisdom ol the 11rlests. The snu rr dishes, on the other hand, were used to take In yopo, n huliuclnogen that mmes rron1. pow– dered scc,ts. Cl~ar;y J1'c-hls1ory h. b11s ln lhe Americas have dcd hard. But whv Colombian gold? Why nol Mexican ·or Pcruv1a1\I For Amertcan metallurgy flourished lver n vast region from the Andes 1/ roug'11 Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, C 3la Rica up Into Mexico. The tradition devqbpcd over some thirty centuries untll he beginnings or the , 16th Century vhen production cenocd as thr. Indian ,1ultures began to disintegrate ns u resu~ or the Spanish conquest and the goltl plunders of the Europeans. Each dtrferent Armrtcan zohe devc– loptd Its own style a;• fnvored certnln techniques, and beca\l e ColPmbla ls al lhe end or t,hc Am · lcnn lsthmua It was thus Influenced ' progressively by t.rlbal muvcmcnts and 1nl::rrntlons. I Gold in burjal ceremonies So thnt's one rensln. Il Is uncom– monly fine work, Bu-i another Is lhnt because Colombian gojl wns often used In burial ceremonies )10ny fine pieces were hidden from tlil depredalions or the Spnnlsh. The cclectlon about to tour Australln Is irom Colombla'r. Bnnk or the Repubtc's museum or gold, which Is housol In the capltnl, Bogota. The banh w4/ founded In 1023 nnd hns controlled nl gold trading In Colcmbln since then. It now has gntt1erd In more lhnn 20,000 gold pieces ,;epresentln:; t110 world's largest collec~bn of pre-Colom– bian gold 111 Amcrlcu Further, Colom– htn was In fact lbe ,place where the Spanish believed El ·Dorado, the cliy of sold, was to be -bund, somewhere In Its mountains or 1k valleys Jn rncl, like mos ieople bitten wllh ~old fever nnd t11e h,rbnrlsms or IOlh centuri• lmperlnllsm, tiey has mlshenrcl the locals. Following Ihe succc~ful conquests ot Mexico und Peru and the pillage of Co- tcmlann touh.. s. many c>:pt!atllons w..:r'-= luunchcd in search of new r1ct1cs. Tules grew of legendary Dorados. In fact the st~ry came by way ot n Dorado ceremony curried out by the Musicn Jn– l.lians at Lake Quntavlt.u, in tnc ccntnu ill~h plateau or Colombia. Jl con.:ustcd o, u ttlng 1110· ~ng on rafts Into n lake, covered wlth resin and goltJ dust. lo make ol1cr1n1;s o, gold Jewels nnd emernlds. The gold wns w""ned l'rom his skin In the 1ake"s waters. Tales of this rltuul sprcud ,unong lhe Indian tribes and cvemually came to the eager ears of the Con• qulstadors, Thus were so many expedl• lions lu;ed Into peril In search of El Dorado which actually meant "the ulldcd one." Thus a century afler the beginning ol the conquest or America and Spanlllh colonial administration 181 tons of gold 11nd 16,000 tons or sliver had been brought to Spain from the American colonies, causing unprecedented lnfla· lion In Europe but maintaining the Spanlsn empire as one of the most powerful ever known. So we have Colombian gold In Ade· lnlde. F'or the exhibition the gold· working 11rtlsans of Colombln arc di· v,dcd 11'Jlo seven major groups, each or which show a marked standa rdlsntlon In tecllnlcnt and l'ormal aspects a nd re– venllng ccmmonwork patterns In their 1mrt,cula1· regions. They nre all represented In the Ade– laide exhibition nnd display an nston– lshlngly <,•Ide rnnae of techniques for 11 civilisation which had only relntlvcly primitive smelting techniques. Hammer· Ing, cnncullns, repousse work, and lost– wax casting methods were used wllh grcnt dexterity together with stone matrices for the manufacture of lcl<1Jllcal pieces, and In finishing, bur– nishing, polishing and In the cnse ol "LumbaJn'' g1ldl1lg to protect ugntnst rapid copper oxldutlon. 'fnc vnluc thnt the western world ascribes to gold, as a symbol ol materia l riches, Is som~wlint differen t from the value the Indians conferred on lhc metal. But 1L still had lls value, wns a sign of sintus of wcallh or social, nnd thus splrllunl, power to the lndluns. And that's wllnt can be seen In Ade· lnldc's El Dorndo - Lhe most splendid collection of cxqu1sllcly fashioned gold objects ever to visit Ihcse shores. Ham– mered, chased, 1n11·lcately pnttcmed, brllllunt conceptions of long-vanished, entirely vanquished artisans of a now dcnd and often myslerlous, even brutal, pre-Colombian culture.