The Seventh Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

ASMAT The eloquence of wood The moment when we speak across languages and cultural zones is a moment when the exchange of words, visual signs, or looks and gestures, brings a new world, a new culture into being, one which had not existed before the moment of meeting, before these questions were asked, and those answers were given. 1 Asmat art is renowned for its aesthetic efficacy. Objects such as bisj poles, spirit masks and wuramon have long been displayed in Western museums as sculptural objects with an emphasis on their visual impact and historical origins in customary practices. 2 The imaginative ingenuity displayed in the masks, wuramon and bisj poles is undeniable, but we gain by knowing that the carving and display of bisj poles forms part of an important feast cycle, known as the bis pokombu , in which the community honours departed ancestors and seeks to restore the balance between life and death; and that spirit masks are created to be worn in lengthy feast cycles, in which the spirits of departed individuals are bid farewell by their family, so that all can move on. 3 The visually arresting wuramon also becomes much richer when we understand that it is an object used in initiation and mortuary ceremonies, and that flowing water, visible in this bottomless canoe, is considered a gateway to the next world. What happens, however, when these works are placed in conversation with those from other locales, speaking in another cultural zone? This is an important question, not only because the works displayed in APT7 initiate discussion, but also because the bisj poles, wuramon and spirit masks on display themselves derive from cross-cultural encounters. Most of these works were created specifically as art works for sale: in the Asmat region, the appreciation and acquisition of carving and weaving have taken place since the first collectors visited the region in the early twentieth century. Over the past 50 years, with the introduction of Christianity, the development of cash economies and increased cultural diversity, there has been an influx of new ideas, materials and values. This has had a considerable influence on how the Asmat view their work. 4 Those who believe that such encounters have a negative impact, leading to the loss of customary ways, should attend the annual Pesta Budaya in Agats, initiated by the local Catholic Diocese in 1981. Here we can see that carvings concerned with local events, values and beliefs are flourishing. Encounters with other art styles and access to new tools has generated some market-driven work, but has also stimulated the exploration of harder, more durable woods and different ways of depicting the human form. The opportunity to display and sell carvings and weavings in this event has inspired artists to innovate, adapting art as a tool to express aspects of contemporary life. New art forms and styles have impacted on earlier ones: customary objects such as bisj poles and wuramon are now often created on a much smaller scale, human figures and objects are treated more naturalistically, and new figures, including women, are introduced. Yet their purpose is retained. As the former Bishop of Agats, Alphonse Sowada, has observed: A number of the Asmat inform me that the modern marketed carvings are also spirit-imbued and of value to the people, for the simple reason that some representation has been carved in wood. Yufentius Biakai [then curator, Asmat Museum of Culture and Progress, Agats] insists that this is true. According to him, once an object is carved, the spirit of the tree from which the wood was taken returns to live on in the object, and, in addition, the spirit of the carver gives it life and power. 5 Such insistence is encouraging. Rather than getting caught in distinctions between old and new, traditional and modern, it prompts us to consider the ways in which Asmat artists appropriate what is useful and reject what is not from both their customary local practices and those introduced from the outside. For even when we look at the most narrative of story carvings — such as Patung Cerita – Fumeripits myth 2011, the work is undeniably Asmat. 6 These carvings in wood derive from and articulate Asmat life and beliefs. The collecting of Asmat carvings and the introduction of new markets, such as the Pesta Budaya, has shaped the course of Asmat art, providing impetus and support for objects that articulate modern aspirations and ideas, as well as those relating to customary practice. The continuing importance of these works is that they allow the Asmat to mobilise prior values and beliefs relating to the practices of carving and weaving, engaging with a rapidly changing world while continuing to achieve balance and harmony. Ruth McDougall 1 See Diane Losche, ‘The impossible aesthetic: The Abelam, the moa bird and me’, Oceania , no.66, 1997, p.309. 2 See collections such as the Völkerkundemuseum, Heidelberg; American Museum of Asmat Art, University of St Thomas, Minnesota; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the National Museum of Ethnology, Leiden; Tropenmuseum, Amsterdam and the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. 3 Known as bi pokomban , such feasts occur in stages, the climax occurring some months later. See Alphonse Sowada, ‘Bi Pokomban: Spirit mask feast’ in Gunter and Ursula Konrad, Asmat: Myth and Ritual, The Inspiration of Art , Erizzo Editrice, Venice, 1996, pp.215–25. 4 For a history of changes in Asmat art over the past 40 years, see Alphonse Sowada, ‘The decline, suppression and rejuvenation of Asmat culture and art’ in Asmat: Perception of Life in Art , Ursula Konrad, Alphonse Sowada, Gunther Konrad; Yufentius Biakai (eds.), Museum Kebudayaan & Kemajuan Papua, Indonesia, 2002, pp.47–64. 5 Konrad, pp.63–4. 6 Patung Cerita – Fumeripits myth 2011 tells the story of the Asmat hero, Fumeripits, who created the Asmat by drumming carvings of human figures into life, asserting the importance of carving as the basis of Asmat being. For the extended, original version of this story see Father G Zegwaards ‘Famiripitsj Story’ in An Asmat Sketch Book (1984), vol.4, Crosier Missions, Hastings, pp.31–4. 89