NEWGUINEAART

plaited,coiled,

58 HALI ISSUE 151

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ALL OBJECT PHOTOS JOHN BIGELOW TA YLOR
NEWGUINEAART

NEW GUINEA FIBRE MASTERWORKS twined & looped

JILL D’ALESSANDRO & CHRISTINA HELLMICH

The non-loom techniques used by generations of New Guinean women to create everyday necessities, and by their men to fabricate sacred ritual objects, reveal a mastery of the fantastic and ephemeral materials found in their island surrounds. Among the more than 3,000 objects amassed by Marcia and John Friede in the Jolika Collection of New Guinea art at San Francisco’s de Young Museum are historic tours de force made of plant fibres and materials that celebrate the rich and diverse local and regional artistic traditions based on the core fabrication techniques of plaiting, coiling, twining and looping.

NEW GUINEA MASKS capture our imagination. Men wearing them for elaborate ritual ceremonies are transformed into spirits and ancestors. Masks are mediums between the past and future, the world beyond and the earthly realm. But their absolute meaning and symbolism is revealed to very few, even within a clan or ceremonial men’s house community, so many of our questions about them must remain unanswered. What cannot be concealed is their aesthetic power and the prowess of their creators. Complex in structure and form, a rare Sawos mask (11) has been built of many individual units combined into an elaborate helmet shape. The multifaceted eyes and broad lower jaw appear to be suspended in separate planes. As collectors, Marcia and John Friede are compelled to collect such ‘unique’ works, particularly since so few Sawos basketry masks are known. They are also captivated by the “fascinating use of unprocessed natural materials to create such effective compositions”. Lesley Bone, a conservator at the de Young, marvels at the three-dimensional construction of this mask. She has observed that the rods, green and supple when worked, shrink when drying, producing a very tightly coiled surface, an additional consideration for the mask-maker. A field photograph taken by the anthropologist J.Anthony Forge in 1960 (22) shows the attached framework that would have supported the costume, and also bands of basketry now missing from the top and rear of the mask. Forge recorded that the mask (mivai)belonged to the Meipe clan, and was kept in the Aulimbit village ceremonial men’s house (Nggaigo),a short distance from Torembi village in the Sawos area north of the Sepik River. 1

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1. Sawos mask, Middle Sepik River, East Sepik Province, New Guinea, 20th century. Height 54cm (1'10"). Jolika Collection of New Guinea Art, The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, L05.1.344

2.“Basketry mask (mivai) belonging to Meipe clan and kept in Aulimbit Nggaigo”. Photo by J. Anthony Forge, July 1960, courtesy Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Photo Stu dy Collection

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