The Seventh Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

BRIKITI CULTURAL GROUP Collaborative group Est. 2006 Papua New Guinea Abelam people, Brikiti Korumbo ( Spirit house ) (detail) 2012 Synthetic polymer paint, plywood, pine, steel, bamboo, bamboo leaves, sago, split cane, natural string, synthetic and natural dyes / Installed dimensions variable / Commissioned for APT7 and the Queensland Art Gallery Collection / Purchased 2012. Queensland Art Gallery / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery PREVIOUS PAGES Coastal Arapesh dancers, Dagua, East Sepik, in performance, National Mask Festival, Kokopo, East New Britain, July 2011 / Photograph: Michael O’Sullivan THE ADZE, THE HAND AND THE BRUSH: CREATING CONNECTIONS IN CHANGING TIMES RUTH MCDOUGALL Bold contrasts of colour and texture — often in tandem with vertiginous scale and sophisticated sculptural form — are key attributes of many of the objects created as part of kastom (customary government, law and religion) in Papua New Guinea today. These objects include bilas (ornamentation) and masks, as well as sculptures and paintings used in ceremony or to decorate men’s spirit houses. Combined with the rousing rhythms of a drum, a chorus of chanting voices, food and the heady scents of flowers and leaves, such objects are designed to effect transformations. These may range from emotionally engaging an audience and resolving communal conflicts, to having control over processes, including the successful transition from life to death, the abundant growth of key food crops, or even a local business venture’s success. When the Queensland Art Gallery chose to focus on masks and men’s ceremonial houses in its exploration of contemporary art practice in Papua New Guinea for this Asia Pacific Triennial (APT), a central interest was in the ephemeral nature of many of these objects, along with their astonishing aesthetic presence. Travelling to New Britain and the Sepik River region, and hosting ten Sepik artists in Brisbane to create new work, expanded our understanding of the roles that ephemeral objects, and by extension, art, play within a village context. 1 I would like to retrace some of this ground, especially the tension that exists around ideas of the ephemeral, exploring how this tension is creatively used by the artists and communities we worked with, inspiring an art that builds significant relationships between people, history, ancestors and the environment. 2 In Western terms, the men’s spirit houses created by the Abelam and Kwoma people of the East Sepik are ephemeral. Created primarily from local forest materials, Kwoma koromb (spirit houses) decompose rapidly in the area’s tropical climate, rarely lasting beyond 25 years. The life of an Abelam korumbo is even shorter, as the structures are not maintained beyond the specific ceremonies for which they have been created. In a recent conversation, Dr Andrew Moutu, Director of the National Museum and Art Gallery in Port Moresby, expanded on the idea of the ephemeral in relation to these buildings. 3 Drawing on his time with Abelam elders, he observed that the outside of these buildings, the parts that we see and that decompose back into the forest, are considered female. But, there is always also a skeleton that lasts beyond the life of the building, and this is considered male. Much has been written about the structure of male/female relationships within Sepik communities. The shape of the Abelam korumbo replicates the wings of the large bird, Kwatbil, sheltering a woman during labour, bringing together the creation of this architectural form with the origin of human birth. 4 What is significant here is that the towering gabled Abelam structures are considered to initiate a framework that endures; their creation and use are both ephemeral and have longevity. By working closely with the Abelam and Kwoma artists, from initial concepts through to the final documentation of individual paintings and carvings depicting totems and important ancestral figures, we gained a strong sense that the creation of a men’s spirit house, and the art associated with it, is a participatory process through which important social relationships are initiated and maintained. The creation of paintings and carvings is also a primary avenue for telling stories relating to clan totems and cosmological beliefs. As an example of this narrative role, the spectacular ceiling created by the seven Kwoma artists for APT7 comprises some 200 painted panels, each depicting an artist’s clan totems. These designs are predominantly non-figurative but nevertheless depict animal, plant or spirit entities. The artists readily recognise them by having either observed the animals and plants in their local environment, or because the design is associated with a myth belonging to their respective clans. The repetition of these designs helps educate younger members about their surroundings and their place within their community’s social structure. Such knowledge is augmented through the process of carving poles, which reference stories relating to the important ancestral sikiyawas (spirits), the subjects of many of a clan’s designs and stories. The most important post in the APT7 Kwoma structure has been carved by senior male Wanyi (cassowary) clan members and features their sikiyawas . The overall work or structure carries significant status and is understood as nominally belonging to them. Rather than dilute the significance of this ownership, 222