Oceania

Men's ceremonial house from Belau

(Bai) Micronesia 20th c governing elders gathering place (using cords to secure roof/building components - extraordinary use of hardwood. Highly decorated ornamented interiors, paintings; legends of the goddess of creation, 2 fireplaces and seating around the perimeter of the room -most important structure in community. Note the figure/carving on front outside surrounded by painted tree. Symbolism female splayed figure-Dilukai???-Bringing in the importance of female figure in society.

Diluki from Belau

(almost always facing the sun) wood, pigment, fiber, 2' high splayed female figure set over the entrance to a men's ceremonial house symbol of procreation and protection, also death and rebirth. Realm of spiritual art giving to men to balance the female power over procreation. (Not as sensualize or erroticized as more illusionistic art.. but dilukai not as sexualized, geometric, and explicit)

Rarotonga staff god

Cook Island, Polynesia, aid of oratory of historical narrative - geometrical/stylized, love of pattern, see ancestors: procreation/fertility: the body of the sculpure consists of figures that represent god Tangaroa's human offspring; wrapped with tapa cloth. (Not distinct dividing line btwn diety and human - they mixed and procreated to demigods, which figure into their origin narratives.)

Iatmul ceremonial men's house

East Sepik, (mid -late 20th C.) Papua New Guinea - Melanesia - Iatmul ceremonial men's house, most important for ceremony, art, spiritual etc. -supposed to reflect the female body on outside and inside the building. Only boy initiates and already initiated men , warriors/farmers, were allowed inside or you could be put to death. Center of art production used for ceremony or ritual. Art hub of community. Carvings acted as temporary homes for spirit beings of the ancestors. Body seen as meeting place btwn physical world and the spirit world. Each community has their own unique beings/carvings - more simplified shapes. Give the intangible world of the spirit a tangible form

Feather cloak

Hawaii, Poloynesia, ca. 1824-1843, feathers and fiber netting, 4' 8" x 8'. Created by male artists only. Belonged to King Kamehameha III. Symmetrical, geometric. The longer the cloak, the more royal you were. They were Feathers were collected from birds. Yellow tail feathers the most sought after for the cloaks even tho Red was the color of royalty. Status symbol, luxury product, connection to deity? (Product of 90,000 birds and 100000? feathers. Gat

Kuka'ilimoku

Hawaii, late 18th C, wood, 2'6" high - Hawaiian war god. - emphasizes the important role of the head. extra-large, most detail. Bent knees - meant power. Muscular treatment of body.

Asmat bisj poles

Irian Jaya, New Guinea - Asmat bij poles, Buepis village, Fajit River, Casuarina Coast, Iran Jaya, Melanesian mid 20th, carved painted wood, rich symbolic meaning - represented dead ancestors, recent or children too. To promise revenge, to appease ancestorys, offering them peace... this culture was warring and also canibalistic. At bottom there was a cavity were a head could be placed.

Abelam yam mask

Maprik district, painted Kane. (To be placed on the heads of the large yams.)-Abelam - Yam Cult plays main role of social interaction for men. (Big Man/Big yams) - live in mountainous regions - culture intensely focused on agricultural practices. In Melanesia you can be a social climber and achieve greater status by becoming Big Man - by producing art, effective, able to speak fairly well and grow big yams - which grow 12 ft... means others provide food for feast and bend to your will. One of the driving forces for men. Very tubular, long straight yams. At end of ceremonies the yams would be given to their training partners. Yams also big part of diet. Most prized yams would wear headgear mimicking the head dresses of the men. Called turban, yam masks - giving the sense that they are alive (as beloved by this culture.) Huge spiritual implications also. Growing of yams only responsibility of men - going into sacred gardens, use spells... part of their power came from 6 months of abstinence.

Tattooedwarrior with war club

Nukahiva, Marquesas Islands, Polynesia, E 19th C, engraving in Carl Bertuch, Bilderbuch fur Kinder, 1813, specialized treatment - tattoos were spiritual armor, enhancing mana - tattooing varies depending on the geographical area. (And symbolized a lifelong commitment of pain (ongoing process to get allover body tattoos) emphasizing your ability and legitimacy to be a warrior. Tattoos also communicate beautifying aspects, informs status in society. Geometric, symmetrical, emphasizing bone structure, joints, balanced all over treatment. The process is as important as the product - process of chants when getting tattoos - bringing in and capturing mana. They provided spiritual protection for the warrior according to Polynesian belief. Tattoos are very regional - some places assymetrocal or symmetrical.)

Elema hevehe masks

Papua New Guinea, men dancing as part of cycle with masks that represent female sea spirits... every stage of mask construction celebrated... after a month of masquerade, masks burned and spirits symbolically destroyed. Elema Hevehe masks, Papua New Guinea, men dancing as part of cycle with masks that represent female sea spirits. Every stage of mask construction celebrated after a month of masquerade, masks burned and spirits symbolically destroyed. Significance to appease the spirits of the water/ forest spirits. Made from stretched... and ending in the masks being burned... spirits destroyed, cycle ok... Elam Eharo masks, things of gladness, Orokolo Bay, painted bark cloth; worn and made by visiting villages.

Raharuhi Rukupo and others, Te Hau-ki-Turanga meeting house

Poverty Bay, New Zealand, Polynesia. Maori meeting houses symbolically represent an ancestor's body. Carved freestanding you tokomanawa support the ridge beam, and pompous relief panels represent ancestors in frontal positions. Some figures are female, and the stitched lattice tukutuku panels are the work of female fabric artists, but women were not permitted to enter the Maori men's community house.

Mele Sitani, ngatu with manulua designs

Tongan Bark cloth (ngatu or tapa with manulua designs-repeating geometric designs) 1967; produced by women from bark of paper mulberry trees. Technique: bark strips folded, layered, beaten in a felting process; designs are rubbed and painted on using natural pigments. They're produced for economic exchange and have a spiritual function. Softer materials, geometric, everyday use. Overall functions- everyday and important ceremony/ritual - wrapping products/goods, clothing, king wrapping bodies of individuals.

Wepiha Apanui (designer), Mataatua meetinghouse (marae)

interior- another example of men's meeting house -to gather for important functions, similarly to others important function to health of community and given special art treatment. Maori, Whakatane, New Zealand, 1842-5. 'poupou' releia panels, depict images of the ancestors; 'tukutuku' - lattice panels, geometric and created and installed from the outside by women; 'pou tokomanawa' - sculpted supports. Overall symbolizm of meeting house represents the Sky Father - main deity. Ridge line represents spine, and supports coming from represent the ribs of the Sky Father. Ridge pole supporting the whole structure is also a sculpture (self-portrait of artist, Raharuhi Rukupo, learned man, chief, priest (1800-1870)). Designs of relief panels and on sculpture in the support beam also incorporate spirals, representing tattooing (again an important power symbol and other reasons - in the chiefs, those of power, the tattoos mimicked naturally occurring wrinkle lines, enhancing representation of wisdom and knowledge/experience. Men only, highly treated, place of ritual, alluding to the ancestors of their culture.

Row of Moai on a stone platform

on stone platforms (ahu), Rapa Nui, Polynesia, 10th-20th c, made of volcanic tufa and red scoria, up to 70' tall, deepest eyes, emphasized browline, concave nose almost childlike face. Created out of single stone. Used sledges to bring to coastline, possibly. Would have had painted eyes and a red topnot. (See restored figure) Oldest statues in Oceana. Most likely represent deceased chiefs (or maybe ancestors) and act as mediators between chiefs and gods and between the natural and cosmic worlds. Rapa Nui population eradicated from 10000 to 600 by the intruduction of small pox from westerners.