Purari Delta, Papuan Gulf, Papua New Guinea
19th century
Wood and native pigments
Height: 44 inches (112 cm) Width 11.5 inches (29 cm) Depth 8 cm
Provenance: Robert Bleakley - head of Sothebys Australia / Sothebys – London 1975 / Chris and Anna Thorpe personal collection – Sydney, Australia.
The spirit board is the signature art form of the Papuan Gulf. Created and used throughout the region, spirit boards are known by a number of different names. Among the Kerewa, Urama, Era, and Turama peoples of the western gulf they are known as gope; the Purari of the central gulf call them kwoi, and the Elema, in the east, hohao. Often carved from the side of an old canoe, each board was created as the dwelling place of an individual spirit or imunu, whose image appears upon it. In the past the imunu, the focus of virtually all art and ritual activity, were the primary supernatural beings throughout the Papuan Gulf. Each imunu was associated with a specific feature of the landscape or a location in a river or the sea and intimately linked to the clan or gu within whose lands or waters it dwelt. The adult men of each clan lived in a communal longhouse, divided into cubicles, in which the members of each particular clan or subclan slept. In each cubicle the men of the gu constructed a clan shrine containing the spirit boards, figures, and other objects, such as human and animal skulls, embodying or honoring the various imunu associated with their clan. Massed together in the shrine, the spirit boards and other objects gazed down upon the living men below, the supernatural powers of the imunu ensuring the ongoing fertility and prosperity of the clan and its continuing success in war. The form and imagery of spirit boards varied considerably from place to place, depending on local stylistic conventions, as well as on the ways in which the artists conceived the appearance of the individual spirit. All spirit boards, however, consist of oblong plank-like images portraying the face of the imunu and sometimes other elements of its body, such as the arms, torso, and, more rarely, the legs, are shown. Geometric motifs, which in some cases codified aspects of oral traditions that were revealed to novices during initiation, often wholly or partially surround the face and body. Besides the face, the other universal feature of the boards is the navel, which appears at the center of the board. It is often represented, as here, as a circular motif. The navel is said to be the element that supernaturally enlivens the board and likely served as the portal through which the spirit entered the board.
The fine and early kwoi spirit board presented was created by the Papuan Gulf people of the Purari delta, its form and iconography suggestive of Maipua village. Characterized by its large, central stylized face, with less emphasis given to bodily depictions compared to neighboring Papuan Gulf groups, the designs of Purari spirit boards are often more fluid and less angular, often featuring a prominent nose carved in high relief. The finely carved facial features and curvilinear motifs are highlighted with applications of white lime, black charcoal, and ocher pigments. The mouth is highly stylized, its toothy grin reinterpreted by the artist as an undulating band of zig-zag patterns. Below the mouth, the spirit boards naval portal is depicted within a teardrop motif. The surface of the wood is dark and oxidized, attesting to the great age of the sculpture.
Purari Delta, Papuan Gulf, Papua New Guinea
19th century
Wood and native pigments
Height: 44 inches (112 cm) Width 11.5 inches (29 cm) Depth 8 cm
Provenance: Robert Bleakley - head of Sothebys Australia / Sothebys – London 1975 / Chris and Anna Thorpe personal collection – Sydney, Australia.
The spirit board is the signature art form of the Papuan Gulf. Created and used throughout the region, spirit boards are known by a number of different names. Among the Kerewa, Urama, Era, and Turama peoples of the western gulf they are known as gope; the Purari of the central gulf call them kwoi, and the Elema, in the east, hohao. Often carved from the side of an old canoe, each board was created as the dwelling place of an individual spirit or imunu, whose image appears upon it. In the past the imunu, the focus of virtually all art and ritual activity, were the primary supernatural beings throughout the Papuan Gulf. Each imunu was associated with a specific feature of the landscape or a location in a river or the sea and intimately linked to the clan or gu within whose lands or waters it dwelt. The adult men of each clan lived in a communal longhouse, divided into cubicles, in which the members of each particular clan or subclan slept. In each cubicle the men of the gu constructed a clan shrine containing the spirit boards, figures, and other objects, such as human and animal skulls, embodying or honoring the various imunu associated with their clan. Massed together in the shrine, the spirit boards and other objects gazed down upon the living men below, the supernatural powers of the imunu ensuring the ongoing fertility and prosperity of the clan and its continuing success in war. The form and imagery of spirit boards varied considerably from place to place, depending on local stylistic conventions, as well as on the ways in which the artists conceived the appearance of the individual spirit. All spirit boards, however, consist of oblong plank-like images portraying the face of the imunu and sometimes other elements of its body, such as the arms, torso, and, more rarely, the legs, are shown. Geometric motifs, which in some cases codified aspects of oral traditions that were revealed to novices during initiation, often wholly or partially surround the face and body. Besides the face, the other universal feature of the boards is the navel, which appears at the center of the board. It is often represented, as here, as a circular motif. The navel is said to be the element that supernaturally enlivens the board and likely served as the portal through which the spirit entered the board.
The fine and early kwoi spirit board presented was created by the Papuan Gulf people of the Purari delta, its form and iconography suggestive of Maipua village. Characterized by its large, central stylized face, with less emphasis given to bodily depictions compared to neighboring Papuan Gulf groups, the designs of Purari spirit boards are often more fluid and less angular, often featuring a prominent nose carved in high relief. The finely carved facial features and curvilinear motifs are highlighted with applications of white lime, black charcoal, and ocher pigments. The mouth is highly stylized, its toothy grin reinterpreted by the artist as an undulating band of zig-zag patterns. Below the mouth, the spirit boards naval portal is depicted within a teardrop motif. The surface of the wood is dark and oxidized, attesting to the great age of the sculpture.
