After World War II, US soldiers stationed in the South Pacific returned home with tales of trees loaded with exotic fruits, sleepy lagoons, white-sand beaches, and gorgeous people wearing grass and feathers as they danced half-naked during all-night orgies of food and music. The American imagination seized on this exotic version of island culture, and it exerted a massive influence on Fashion, pop music, eating and drinking, and even architecture. Everything from bars to bowling alleys adopted elements of Polynesian design. Tikis, the carved wooden and stone statues from across the Pacific, found their way into every hotel lounge and suburban living room. But as the fad was reaching it's peak, the big generation gap of the late 60s put a sudden end to Polynesian escapism as the children of the Tiki revellers decided to seek their own Nirvana in sex, drugs, and rock'n'roll. The 90s have seen a revitalised interest in this kitsch anomaly of post-war America -- lounge bars and the sound of "exotica" are back in. This enlightening and hilarious guide casts the reader as an "urban archaeologist" exploring the lost remnants of Tiki culture across the States -- discovering relics from this forgotten civilisation in thrift stores, yard sales, and used book and record emporia. A combination of nostalgia and fascinating pop cultural study, this volume is a long overdue investigation into the cult of the Tiki.
Sven Kirsten is the author of the "Book of Tiki", widely acknowledged as the bible of the style, and "Tiki Modern", which further explores Tiki style's relation to mid-century modernism. Sven was born in the the German port town of Hamburg in 1955. His childhood impressions gathered at Hagenbeck's Zoo, at the Hamburg Anthropology Museum, and the sailors' bars of the St. Pauli red light district left him with a longing for distant shores, and in 1980 he emigrated to California. Here he continued his career in the film industry (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0457032/#cinematographer) by studying at the San Francisco Art Institute and the American Film Institute. He left the AFI to join the vibrant music video production scene in Los Angeles in the 1980s, photographing music videos for such diverse talents as Tom Waits, Sergio Mendes, Billy Joel and The Cramps.
It was this love for visuals that inspired Sven to collect and photograph the remnants of the forgotten culture of Polynesian pop in America, leading him to identify the Tiki as its icon. As a hunter and gatherer of lost artifacts and ephemera of this phenomenon, he began to see the pattern of a unique art form, and decided to publish his findings in the "Book of Tiki" in September 2000. For the first time, the book presented all the aspects of Tiki style, its design, graphics, architecture, social culture and cocktail mixology, proving that it had been an art form in its own right, a fact which had not been recognized in its heyday. The book put Tiki firmly on the map of American pop culture, and is regarded as the standard work on the style. As it began to inspire a Tiki revival, Kirsten lectured, wrote and advised on Tiki culture in the United States and in Polynesia.
In 2007 Sven followed suit with his second book, "Tiki Modern", in which he concentrated on the juxtaposition of Pop primitivism and mid-century modernism, a key element of Tiki style. In 2010 he published his first music compilation, "The Sound of Tiki", a CD album with a 50 page booklet putting the songs into context with Tiki culture, to be enjoyed in conjunction with his books.
While regularly working as a cinematographer on German TV movies in such international locations as Capetown, St. Petersburg, Paris and Prague, Sven uses his off time at his home in Los Angeles to work on new book projects, such as the upcoming "The Look of Tiki", a treatise on the mid-century modern Aloha shirt. Sven also advises on new Tiki restaurants being built, curates Tiki exhibitions, and designs Tiki mugs, such as the new Bahooka restaurant signature mug.
