Uniquely Singapore Merlion Keris inspired by unduk-unduk

[David]

Originally Posted by alexish

Here are the original designs of the unduk-unduk blades that inspired my Merlion piece. Any opinion?

Well, the first thing i see in your models is a modern interpretation of an unduk-unduk keris design being mass produced for market. You show three exact copies of a keris design here. I don't think i have ever seen three keris made so precisely like the other. Same dhapur, sure, we see that often, but with nuanced differences, not carbon copies of one another. All these keris and the dress are very contemporary and more along the nature of commercial art pieces than ethnographic weapons. If a feeling of authenticity was your goal i feel like you would have stood a better chance basing your design on a nice pre-WWII example of an unduk-unduk keris than these modern clones. Then you take your copy one more step removed from traditional ethnographic weaponry by adding the Merlion, a symbol created for the Singapore Tourism Board by a citizen of the former colonial power (Great Britain), to be used by sports teams, in advertising, for branding, tourism as well as a symbol of national personification. The symbol appears frequently on STB-approved souvenirs.
We often ask ourselves here what defines a keris? What distinguishes a keris from a work of modern art or a keris-like-object? I believe the answers to that question will be slightly different from each and every collector. But i do think it is fair to say that what you commissioned here stands firmly outside the realm of ethnographic weaponry. Of course, your mileage may vary.