Kanaka Kitsch: the return of poly-pop/tiki culture
pp. 43-45 · Read in the full issue
By Ed Rampell
Since the arrival of Westerners, the Pacific Islands have been rhapsodized as earthly paradises populated by heavenly heathen, unburdened by the constraints of civilization and its discontents. Captains’ logs, Melville novels, German postcards, exotica exhibits, Gauguin canvases, Tusitala tall tales, taller Mead anthropological studies, Maugham plays, hapa-haole ditties, far-flung location films, celebrated an Oceanic Eden inhabited by Islander Adams and Eves before the fall.
The romanticized view of the Pacific as a noble savage Nirvana of natural naked nubile pneumatic Native nymphs took on unique forms in the United States called Polynesia Americana.
Much has been made of Western influence on Oceania, but Sven Kirsten, who co-authored “Taboo: The Art of Tiki” and wrote the forthcoming “In Search of Tiki, A Guide For the Urban Archaeologist” points out; “Any Pacific Islander will be amazed to find out to what extent Polynesian culture was recreated on the mainland and how pervasive it was.”
“Taboo” editor Martin Mclntosh writes in his foreword that Poly-Pop is “a uniquely American interpretation of Tiki.”
The Poly-Pop phenomenon is making a comeback, due to the recent publication of the books “Taboo” and “Leeteg of Tahiti, Paintings From the Villa Velour” (“In Search of Tiki” follows by June ), the Tiki News newsletter, and two Los Angeles art exhibits at the La Luz de Jesus and
Copro/Nason galleries.
Inspired by Pacificana, and transmuted by American mass and commercial culture, Poly-Pop manifested itself as Isle-themed Disney attractions, Las Vegas casinos, motels, hotels, bars, and restaurants, from Trader Vic’s (nee Victor Bergeron) chain to Honolulu’s Tahitian Lanai to Manhattan’s Hawaii Kai (in the ‘7os, the Big Mango had a massage parlor named “Tahitia”). Tiki News publisher Otto von Stroheim calls restauranteur Don the Beachcomber (bom Ernest Raymond Beaumont-Gantt), who opened his Haole-wood haunt in 1934, “the undisputed founder of the 'Tiki culture’ as
we know it.”
These ersatz Oceanic oases in urban America, with faux Islander architecture, puffer fish lights, rattan furniture, bamboo, pandanus, palm frond, and tapa decor, black velvets (by Edgar Leeteg or an imitator), small streams and even waterfalls, and, but of course, tiki sculptures and other carvings, provided “exotica” for a fee: music (epitomized by “Leeteg of Tahiti” co-writer and Hawaii resident Martin Denny, whose “Quiet Village” features squawking birds), grass skirted dancers, sarong clad waitresses, Aloha shirt garbed waiters, pupu platter plates (usually more “Oriental” than Polynesian), and - often served in tiki mugs, coconuts, or pineapples - Island ambrosia.
According to Otto, this kitschy kava had even more outre names, like Blue Hawaiian (a vodka, pineapple, and essence of orange mix “which made Elvis flip”), Banana Bongo Bongo (“a rum based punch that will turn you into a spunky monkey”), Castaway (“you’ll get lost in a sea of pineapple, rum and a swirl of mocha”), and the ever popular Mai Tai (which is actually the Tahitian word for “good”). The Tiki News recipe for the volcanic “Smoking Eruption” is: pineapple, guava, lemon, and passion fruit juices, rock candy syrup, light rum, vodka, Appleton punch rum, and red food coloring, mixed (not stirred!) in a glass blender; inside the mug is a small glass full of dry ice, to pour hot water on before serving in order to create smoke.
Most tiki bastions are gone with the trade winds, but “Taboo” co-author Boyd Rice points out one of the best remains at San Francisco’s Fairmont Hotel, which turned its indoor pool into the Tonga Room. Shells and starfish festoon the pool’s bottom, now a lagoon upon which a floating band serenades diners. In “Taboo,” Boyd writes, “the final touch was sure genius.. .(a) sprinkler system... to replicate... a tropical downpour... every 20 minutes,” with tapes of storms and lightning-like flashes.
To be sure, London had its Beachcomber Bar in the Mayfair Hotel, Australia its share of Trader Micks, and even Oslo has the Kon Tiki Museum, paying homage to Thor
Heyerdahl. But sunny Southern California was ground zero for the Islander invasion of the West. Located on North America’s West Coast, the LA to San Diego region was, of course, the closest state to the South Pacific (until Hawaii’s statehood in 1959 inspired Poly-Pop, Rice points out) and part of the Pacific Rim.
Before World War 11, Polynesia Americana offered escapism from the Depression to a simpler, uninhibited, Edenic way of life. After WWII, this utopianism took on new forms, according to Sven: “Polynesian Pop is a term I invented to describe the American take on Polynesian culture in the ‘4os, ‘sos, and ‘6os.
It was something imported from the Islands by Gls and tourists to the mainland, as a memory and out of a desire to keep that experience alive here... It became synonymous with having a good time, recreation, and fun for that postwar
generation.”
Otto writes in “Leeteg of Tahiti”: “Tiki is not about the islands, it’s about fantasy. It’s about creating the island fantasy wherever you are at, mostly in non-exotic locations like New York. It’s about creating a fantasy that is warm and cosy and outside the doldrums of your job and city life.”
Sven, who’s been called one of Tiki culture’s Big Kahunas, says Poly-Pop peaked “in the mid-’6os, when the generation gap appeared..., but got so denounced by the younger generation that it virtually disappeared during the ‘7os and ‘Bos.” To unearth its remnants, one has to be what Sven calls an “urban archaeologist,” but as Kanaka kitsch makes a California comeback, it may face another denunciation - this time, by indigenous nationalists, for misappropriation of culture and cultural colonialism. Samoan film director Sima Urale has spoofed Tiki culture in her witty documentary “Velvet Dreams”.
Melanesian masks, Rapa Nui moai, Hawaiian tiki, are taken out of their traditional spiritual context in Poly-Pop. In “Taboo” (the Polynesian word for
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“forbidden”), pictures such as Van Amo’s “God’s Gift of Spam,” Coop’s “Still Life With Tiki,” and Todd Schoor’s “Idol Worship,” depict Pacific deities in sexual and/or bar scenes. Recently, “Piss Christ,” a Madonna portrait with elephant dung, and defaced Virgins of Guadaloupe stirred outrage, NY to LA.
Poly-Pop “is not done with a chauvinistic or colonial attitude, but just with pure naivete... It was done out of a genuine love of that culture,” not ridicule, Sven asserts. The German transplant to LA.
believes that given today’s
crossculturalism, “it would be the wrong attitude to be ethnocentric about one’s own
culture. One should be glad if others... pick up on other cultures and get inspired by them.” Sven also cites artists’ rights to freedom of expression.
Australian Martin Mclntosh, who published “Taboo” and owns , a hip Melbourne gallery, confesses in “Taboo” that one of Tiki culture’s “characterizing features was its lack of authenticity.”
In an interview, he told PIM: “It’s certainly not done out of disrespect... None of the artists... claim to be experts... in Polynesian culture.
It’s more out of a genuine love of the actual images themselves... (most) don’t even know the original myths... I’m sorry... if it seems disrespectful... Hopefully...
people in the Pacific... won’t be too offended... but will take it as a naive admiration of your culture.”
“Taboo: The Art of Tiki,” edited by Martin Mclntosh, $24.95, Outre Gallery Press, Melbourne, can be ordered via: www.lastgasp.com, (800)848-4277, or www.outregallery.com; “Leeteg of Tahiti, Paintings From the Villa Velour,” edited by John Turner and Greg Escalante, $29.95, Last Gasp, San Francisco, can be ordered at: www.lastgasp.com or (800)848-4277; “In Search of Tiki,” by Sven Kirsten, $29.99, Taschen 2000, can be ordered at: www.taschen.com by June; Tiki News can be subscribed to via: www.tikinews.com. ■