No.1 Neighbour: Art in Papua New Guinea 1956-2016

89 WHICH WAY? №1 NEIGHBOUR Lasisi restages the brief moment of revelation — central to creation — of a fleeting but powerful memory within malagan ceremonial rites. Lasisi’s words relating to this work provide some insight into his quest for meaning: Suddenly I found myself in front of this house A bearded man greeted me An old man was he Your name is a malanggan with tongue out Tide of relief flooded through my desperate soul. 2 Many years later, David Lasisi lamented: PNG has been independent for only a short time and we have moved from a ‘primitive, tribal, stone age’ culture into the twentieth century . . . You can imagine the problems this has entailed . . . the difficulties we face . . . the burdens we carry with these changes. I gave up my art career to be part of the changing style of the village. 3 1 David Lasisi, Searching , National Arts School, Boroko, 1976, p.11. 2 Lasisi, p.4. 3 Lasisi, quoted in Pamela Sheffield Rosi, Nation-Making and Cultural Tensions: Contemporary Art from Papua New Guinea [exhibition catalogue], Hess Gallery, Pine Manor College, Chestnut Hill, Newton, Mass., 1998, p.13. DAVID LASISI Lupa 1976 PP.86–7 My name 1976 PP.84–5 Asaro mudmen at the Goroka show, September 2014 / Photograph: Ruth McDougall