Exhibition’s guardian noticed strange events

Press, 2 September 1986, Page 9

Exhibition’s guardian noticed strange events

By

KAY FORRESTER

The first time she called it a coincidence. But after about 200 separate “strange” events connected with Te Maori exhibition its American “guardian,” Carol O’Biso, decided it was something else.

It began in 1982 when she first came to New Zealand to look at the pieces for the exhibition of Maori art work.

Ms O’Biso, who had a busy schedule, thought she would need only to check the pieces held at the lending museums, photograph them, and go. Instead she found herself the subject of ceremonies at each museum before she could handle the objects. That gave her an inkling about the spiritual aspect of the pieces. '

Then in Waikato she attempted to photograph a

small stone statue owned by the Maori Queen. As she clicked the shutter the lights went out in the museum. The director checked the fuse, warning that if it happened again she should forget about the photograph.

The second time the lights did not flicker and Ms O’Biso got her photographs. She had a contact sheet printed and forgot about the incident until several months later when she needed prints for the check list of pieces. She sent negatives, including those of the statue, to a photographer. He sent back all the prints except those of the statue, saying he could not find those negatives.

Ms O’Biso made a note in the check list where the photograph should have been: “Refused to be photographed.”

In San Francisco, a

small pumice head in the exhibition was “touched up” to disguise a small nick (with the permission of the lender). The conservator who did the work was asked to photograph the object. After many attempts by him and others with several cameras — all of which failed to produce a picture — he explained to the head that he needed a picture to send back to New Zealand, and that he meant no harm. The picture came out. Carol O’Biso believes that Te Maori pieces have a human energy absorbed from their carvers.

“Any artist who is intense about his work imparts some energy to it. These pieces come from a culture where the people believe the works are more than just pieces of wood. That energy is still alive,” she sajd in Christ-

church yesterday.

When she first became involved with Te Maori she was chief registrar at the American Federation of Arts in New York, which was curator of the exhibition. Ms O’Biso is now a freelance registrar and has a number of irons in the fire.

One is helping the new Philippines government to retrieve the art work taken from the country by the former President, Ferdinand Marcos, and his family. Another is a carving exchange between Maori carvers and the Nishga Indians of America. A third is to spend a year off in New Zealand.

Ms O’Biso was in Christchurch as part of a tour of the lending museums to give a talk last evening about Te Maori in the United States.