By Ali Ikram
The recent discovery of the Mashco-Piro clan in the jungles of Peru has reignited interest in the phenomenon of so called ‘lost tribes’ who have gone for thousands of years without contact with modern man.
Now an exhibition at the St Paul Street Gallery in Auckland looks at whether they are fact, fiction or whether we should even care.
In 1971, the Tasaday, a supposedly lost tribe, was discovered living in caves in the Philippines. Fifteen years later however, an investigative journalist found the Tasaday living in houses, smoking cigarettes and wearing western clothing leading to the suggestion the whole thing was a government hoax to create a tourist attraction.
The controversy rages to this day and inspired German artist Clemens von Wedemeyer's work ‘The Fourth Wall’.
"I wasn't so interested in finding out the truth, I was more interested in the gaze on this group," says Von Wedemeyer.
You see for Clemens it does not matter whether the lost tribe was real or not, because either way they were actors playing a role in our own fantasies and the deep need for there to be primitive tribes unsullied by the modern world somewhere out there.
And his film ‘The Gentle Ones' brings to life this very notion.
"Maybe this unspoiled existence fitted very well with hippies and the flower people in 1968 and the beginning of the 70s but the theory of the hoax fitted well with the 1986 theory of the hoax and the tumbling down of ideologies," he says.
The show places National Geographic alongside B grade movie posters alongside the artist's own hoaxes to disorientate the viewer. Another film against death provides the climax of the work.
"It's about an explorer who comes back to London, claims that he has been made immortal after an ancient ritual and the friend doesn't believe him".
All doubt is cleared up after a small demonstration but if you are still not quite getting the whole thing Von Wedemeyer with be giving a talk at AUT on Tuesday where he will certainly clear everything up.
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