Sven Kirsten, Tiki Archaeologist

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Sven Kirsten is one of the key figures in the modern Tiki revival that we are now enjoying in the 21st century. As a young cinematographer, he moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in filmmaking. As history would have it, the city was undergoing a sort of devolution and departure from the Mid-Century design that had influenced Southern California during the preceding decades. Motels were being demolished and the Polynesian palaces of the 1960’s were being closed and remodeled to fit into the 1980’s aesthetic. A handful of curious fanatics took notice and set out to preserve an era that hadn’t yet been deemed to be of historical significance. Sven was one of those people. When he saw that no one had documented this ephemera, he published The Book of Tiki and went on to write Tiki Pop, Tiki Style, and The Art of Tiki. And he’s not slowing down. He is still active as an urban archeologist and in preserving the last vestiges of the height of Polynesian Pop.