-
Details
- Other Titles
- Bark painting
Spathe painting - Place where the work was made
-
Maprik District
→
East Sepik Province
→
Papua New Guinea
- Cultural origin
- Abelam people
- Date
- mid 20th century
- Media category
- Painting
- Materials used
- sago palm petiole, natural pigments
- Dimensions
- 108.0 x 38.1 cm
- Credit
- Gift of Roy Harpur 1963
- Location
- Not on display
- Accession number
- IA5.1963
- Copyright
- © Abelam people, under the endorsement of the Pacific Islands Museums Association's (PIMA) Code of Ethics
- Artist information
-
Abelam people
Works in the collection
- Share
-
-
About
The towering ceremonial houses of the Abelam people - who live in the area from the grass plains of the Sepik River to the foothills of the Prince Alexander Mountains - are known as 'korombo'. They are the sites of important festivals, including the initiation of men into the spirit cult, and rituals revolving around the cultivation of very long 'ceremonial' yams. Known as 'wapi', these yams are only grown by men.
Painted facades – or 'bai' – of 'korombo' are created from panels made of flattened sago palm leaf stalks. Inside the 'korombo', sacred objects, including 'urungwall' carved figures, 'baba' woven masks, and individual paintings such as this example, also known as 'bai', are kept for use in initiation-cult and yam-cult ceremonies. 'Urungwall' may be used as resonators, to imitate the voice of the 'ngwallndu', the most powerful spirits of the Abelam.
[revised entry from Exhibition Guide for 'Melanesian art: redux', 2018, cat no 22]
-
Exhibition history
Shown in 2 exhibitions
Aboriginal and Melanesian art, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 19 Oct 1974 -
Melanesian art: redux, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 17 Nov 2018–17 Feb 2019
-
Bibliography
Referenced in 2 publications
-
Art Gallery of New South Wales, 1963 Acquisitions, Sydney, 1963, 75. cat.no. 169
-
Tony Tuckson, Aboriginal and Melanesian art, Sydney, 1973, 46. cat.no. 100
-
