11th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

NOTES 1 Dutch Calvanist and Protestant missionaries arrived on Ataúro during the 1930s and 1950s, respectively, and had an acute impact on the custom of ancestor worship and its attendant art practices. 2 Joanna Barrkman, The Sculptures of Ataúro Island , Charles Darwin University Art Gallery, Casuarina, Northern Territory, 2017, p.30. ATAÚRO ISLAND, TIMOR-LESTE AGUSTO WETARESE LANGUAGE GROUP (HRESUK, BELOI AND BIQUELI HRASUA), MAQUILI, ATAÚRO ATAÚROCARVER ATAÚRO JOSÉDACOSTA WETARESE LANGUAGE GROUP, MAQUILI GONÇALODACOSTA PEREIRA WETARESE LANGUAGE GROUP, MAQUILI GONÇALODACOSTA SOARES WETARESE LANGUAGE GROUP, MAQUILI JOANICODACOSTA SOARES WETARESE LANGUAGE GROUP, MAQUILI ANTÓNIOSALDANHA SOLUAN/MAUNUA PEOPLE, B.1972, ATAÚRO MÁRIOSALDANHA SOLUAN/MAUNUA PEOPLE, B.1976, MAQUILI MÁRIOSOARES WETARESE LANGUAGE GROUP, MAQUILI PAULINOXIMENES (LIA NA’IN [ELDER/ GUARDIAN]) WETARESE LANGUAGE GROUP, MAQUILI LIVE+WORK INDILI, TIMOR-LESTE +ATAÚRO ISLAND There is a group of islands in the Banda Sea, south-east of Indonesia, that were once one land. Local oral histories recall that it was the force of a giant eel’s tail slapped against this large piece of earth that fragmented it into smaller islands — known today as Alor, Ataúro, Kisar, Lira, Timor and Wetar. Situated only 30 kilometres north of Dili, the capital of Timor-Leste, one of those islands — the mountainous Ataúro — is one of only a few areas in this young nation where the creation of carved wooden sculptures continues. Hewn from local timber species — including whitewood, eucalyptus, rosewood, red cedar, teak and cassia — the figurative sculptures carved by local men descend from a tradition of whittling ancestor figures to memorialise the original founders of Ataúro communities. Leaders would perpetuate each clan’s history through the recitation of extensive genealogies, reaching back to their forebears. The imaginative ingenuity of the carved ancestor figures enabled them to be incorporated into the daily life of Ataúroans, and the sculptures were believed to help balance the ancestral and physical worlds. The banning of ancestor worship by the Protestant church during the 1970s and the use of Ataúro as a prison by the Portuguese and, later, Indonesian colonisers interrupted the transmission of carving skills and knowledge between generations in the important sculpting communities of Macadade and Maquili. 1 Following the arrival of the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) in late 1999, many of the remaining Ataúroan carvers travelled regularly to Dili, working from a roadside stall on the esplanade to create and sell their works to the malae (foreigners) who arrived in large numbers during this time. The Ataúroan carving co-operative created in Dili in 1997, known as Grupu Kultura Manukoko, is open to the influx of new ideas, values and materials, and its carvers create a vast array of contemporary sculptures — from the tiny to the monumental — to sell to the malae. Including ancestor figures alongside mermen, mermaids, fish and eels, these figurative sculptures continue to be inspired by deeply held beliefs as well as local stories that glorify the deep and unpredictable sea surrounding Ataúro. The opportunity to display and sell carvings has inspired artists to innovate, adapting their practice as a tool to also express aspects of Ataúro’s material culture and daily life. Many carvers’ figurines now include diving goggles, goats, baskets and machetes. It is true that the new carving art forms, beliefs and styles have impacted earlier ones. For example, customary fertility sculptures representing the feminine ancestor figure Lepu-Hmoru and the masculine Baku-Mau have absorbed Christian beliefs, with representations of the Virgin Mary and Joseph becoming more common. As Curator Joanna Barrkman has observed: The classic Lepu-Hmoru and Baku-Mau figures provide the basis for a more contemporary style of figurine, more accurately described as a bust . . . The incorporation of fish, turtles and crocodiles often suckling a woman’s breast or laying in a position suggestive of copulation, replaces human genitalia and progeny in these busts, suggesting a relocation of fecundity back into the untamed natural world. 2 While the emergence of a market for carvings from Ataúro undeniably shapes the course of the island’s art, it provides impetus for the creation of objects that articulate not only modern aspirations and ideas, but also the changing nature of customary practice. The continuing importance of these works is that they allow Ataúroans to mobilise prior values and beliefs relating to the practice of carving, engaging with a rapidly changing world while continuing to achieve a sense of balance and harmony. RUTHMcDOUGALL ATAÚROSCULPTORS Mário Saldanha / Liurai Mane ( King ) 2024 / Rosewood (Ai na’a) / 120cm (high); Liurai Feto ( Queen ) 2024 / Rosewood (Ai na’a) / 119cm (high) / Commissioned for APT11 / Purchased 2024 with funds from Ashby Utting Foundation through the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art Foundation / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art ARTISTS+PROJECTS ASIAPACIFICTRIENNIAL 50 — 51