The color of a frog

Shuar man, woman (after Pierre Allard, Visages de bronze)

Like last year, a number of recording from the LP Jivaro: Indiens Shuar, Cayapa, Otavalo are listed in the Top 100. I still have not been able to find a photo of Philippe Luzuy, who recorded the music on the LP, or Pierre Allard, the photographer who was with him in 1960. And, as I did last year, I used images from the book Visages de bronze [1960] with photographs by Pierre Allard and text by Luzuy. The two portraits here represent a social dance song sung by a man and a woman. I had already commented before on social and gender relations in Shuar communities, and the recording here illustrates further the discrepancy between the written account of archaeologists concerning the separation of genders and their photographs and musical recordings. For a second painting illustrating the Shuar I used the image of Simone Dreyfus-Roche, listed as the editor on the sleeve. In another gender reversal of norms, it is Dreyfus-Roche who is the authority and well known anthropologist. Luzuy, I assume, is working under her guidance. Simone Dreyfus is known for her work and recordings done in the Amazon regions of Brazil. She recorded the Capoeira among others in the mid-1950s.

Capoeira indian with Simone Dreyfus

I did not use the random color selector for the Dreyfus painting. The Shuar painting was the last of a series of works with random colors. I do like the generator though, it makes me use colors I would have never thought of using. Here's an anecdote about random colors from about twenty years ago: While my boss at a museum job was at a meeting I sat down behind his desk. I don't remember if I put my feet on his desk or not, but I did make myself comfortable. With one hand I was playing with pencil sharpener in the shape of a frog and with the other a book of color samples. Then my boss unexpectedly came back early, catching me and asking what the hell I was doing. I told him I was looking up the color of the frog. And when I actually matched the color, its name was "frog green." I chose golden colors for my painting illustrating Kulali singers from Papua New Guinea because I had done the same thing for the Top 100 2018.

Ulahi and Eyo:bo

Ulahi was still a repected and active singer among the Kulali of the Bosavi Rain Forest when Steven Feld revisted them some 25 years later in 1991. Now she was wearing western style clothing and make-up but she hardly looked much older then in 1977 when Feld took the photo I used above. This time Feld took the famed Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart with him. Hart produced a follow up CD with brand new recordings. [Voices of the Rainforest, 1991, Smithsonian] Ulahi is now credited for her performances as modern day pop singers would be credited—Her name comes first.