Re-Embodying Museum Objects: Rosanna Raymond’s Acti.VĀ.tions and the Question of the Object in New Museology

In her chapter Re-embodying Museum Objects: Rosanna Raymond’s Acti.VĀ.tions and the Question of the Object in New Museology, Karen Jacobs shows the role of the ‘heritage object’ in the relationship between the museum and communities and how this relationship is considered a central component of new museology. The chapter revolves around artist Rosanna Raymond, born in Aotearoa New Zealand, a multimedia artist, scholar, and curator. In her Acti.VĀ.tions in museums, she re-embodies and redefines museum objects, approached by her as possessions handed down from the ancestors that embody the lifeblood of Pacific living culture. Her Acti.VĀ.tions in museums are a way of re-embodying museum objects and awakening them out of a dormant museum state. On a theoretical level, this chapter thus draws on Indigenous theory and on new museology theory, regarding the importance of communities in and for the museum. One core case study is Raymond’s artwork known as SaVĀge K’lub, a series of installations and Acti.VĀ.tions that began in 2010 and that demonstrate how museum objects are treated by Moana people (of the Pacific region) as ancestors and living kin. Raymond makes the agency of the artists visible while encouraging community engagement and presenting Indigenous epistemologies.