Tag Archives: artists

Kauge, objects and bilums from the M+M Collection shown at the Amity Craft Exhibition

held in the George Paton Gallery
2nd Floor Student Union Building The University of Melbourne 19th – 21st November 2013
WORLD Craft Council – Asia Pacific Region South Pacific
Alcaston Gallery and CRAFT (formerly CRAFT Victoria)

Amity Craft Exhibition was curated by Lindy Joubert and Ben Sievewright of the UNESCO Observatory at the University of Melbourne. Artists and others represented included :

Nick Mount presented by Kirra Gallery, Dr Marian Hosking presented by Gallery Funaki, Igora Lucyna Opala Igora Design, Tiwi Islands—Robert Edward Puruntatameri presented by Manupi Arts (photograph by Sabrina Talarico), Professor Robert Baines, PNG—m+m collection — Billums and Contemporary Objects, Cook Islands — Kay George, West Timor — Dr Ruth Hadlow Textile Collection, Australian Tapestry Workshop, Central Australia — Tjanpi Desert Weavers presented by Alcaston Gallery, Central Australia — Tjanpi Desert Weavers presented by Alcaston Gallery, Tonga — Sahra Stolz Collection, Pam Hovel Raw Edge Textiles, South Asia — Sally Campbell, South Pacific — Footscray Community Arts Centre (Artwork by Debbie Flowers, Treahna Hamm and Kui Taukilo; photography by Steven Rhall)

Martin Fowler helped design and install the show with Lindy Joubert and Ben Sievewright, and Bo Svoronos helped hang the works presented by the Footscray Community Arts Centre participants. Others like Sahra Stolz who photographed the opening, helped with interpretation and generally at times. Lighting was by the staff of the George Paton Gallery.

The Amity show was very impressive, colourful and richly diverse as it opened up with a horizontal banner fishing net and Island objects through small jewellery and like objects through the tapestry, textile, Tiwi and Central Australian works to the PNG selection which closed off the end of the long gallery. Interspersed were the tall free standing objects including mannequins with costume pieces —one being a white ‘bilum dress’ by Vicki Kinai called First Contact (Twisted cotton and bilum weave). There are a number of other women artists who have made bilum dresses over the years —entering them in Fashion Shows, and some of their works are now collectors items held by galleries such as Queensland Art Gallery, and by some overseas collections.

The selection from the m+m collection shown at this exhibition is some of the prints acquired from the National Art School (PNG) and, later, bilums, paintings and objects that were commonly available, and found mostly ‘on the footpath’ in towns, and occasionally from artefact dealer shops, or direct from people in villages —from about 1973 to mid 2013.

They give a reasonable indication of the artistic creativity and highly developed and disciplined craft skills displayed in a range of readily available, and sometimes everyday objects to be found around the country of Papua New Guinea. The scale of these objects belies the range and size of much other production in some parts of the country — like the amazing and very big art objects that some of the traditional mens houses represent, and the costuming and music and dance that go with celebrations and events all over the country.

The Catalogue can be downloaded as a pdf.

Bilum Artists

A little bit about them, their bilums and their markets.
Below: A few of the bilum artists posing at their ‘shops’. Their works are in the m+m collection, Now, all I have to do is locate the notes with their names.

Bilums are made by women, most of whom are very skilled, and many of them are artistically creative in their design and aesthetic approaches, especially in the modern bilum arena. Bilums are functional objects on the most basic level, but they are importantly also imbued with layers of cultural, symbolic and symbolic meanings.

The aesthetic and robust properties of the materials and techniques of the looping and construction of modern bilums has seen bilum artists branch out into dress fashion works and other forms of expression.

That is not to dismiss the beauty and individuality and variety within traditional ceremonial bilums, made of natural fibres, where there are often quirky or spectacular attachments added to the surface patterns. And, there is the skill of making the fibre into string and then naturally colouring it with special known things like raw turmeric roots.

White girls and bilums

Ruth, Georgia and Megan, Tongwinjamb in 2013. Isobel in a highlands bilum, Lae about 2006. photos : Justin Francis and Jonika Paulson

L: Ruth, Georgia and Megan, Tongwinjamb in 2013. R: Isobel in a highlands bilum, Lae about 2006.
photos : Justin Francis and Jonika Paulson

A note for occasional collectors of bilums

Most of our bilums were collected from anonymous artists at various footpath and other communally operated selling points. And, at the time of purchase it was difficult to ascertain the WOMEN ARTISTs’ names, especially when the purchase is spontaneous and done during a rush to the airport, or some other appointment. At other times the bilums were presents given after a stay at, or a visit to a village. If a festivity or ceremony was involved then the difficulty of locating the maker greatly increased.

The provenance of some of the more recent bilums (2004 onwards) can be found by searching through diary notes, or stray available pieces of paper stuffed in there after the event. My filing system usually works —eventually, but I should be more systematic with referencing and tagging such notes etc.

Some of the sellers at stall-markets sell for their friends, and each other, at times. In such cases it is common for the names of the makers to be on a slip of paper in the bilum (sometimes with a nominated price). That makes it easier to keep the provenance clear, but sometimes transcribing info and getting the details of ‘ples’ and surname takes time. — For example, at the roadside bilum and craft market on the edge of Wewak town it was a woman who had moved to town from Chambri who was selling hers and others’ bilums and carvings. She knew the info about all the bilums —but had to serve other customers too -so the process took a while.

Whenever possible, on occasional trips to PNG, Martin tries to encourage sellers or agents to properly identify the amazing women artists as creators of their works. He also urges any occasional collector, and particularly regular collectors to plan time to get this provenance information.

Other Samgik Visual Arts

Just because this surprise visit was just that, a surprise showing of a whole integrated new range of cultural production, from an unexpected area (previously unpublicised, forgotten?) this has been an opportunity to introduce the PNG cultural material in a relatively inclusive way.

We can see this in material from other areas later, but for now here is some of the other material culture from Samgik that adds a bit more scope to the art featured in the previous post.

The first image shows bilums made by the women hanging off the various figures and totems of the carved lintel, ‘ticket’, of the haus tambaran at Samgik in August 2013. Obviously here, and as they are in the neighbouring Abelam cultures bilums like these are integral to the traditions, and origin legends of the Wama and their affiliated cultures.

Art on Yams

July-August is the time for yam festivals in the Abelam and other areas around Maprik. The main harvest is over and some of the prize yams are starting to shoot, so those are ready to contribute their offshoots to the new season. Prize yams are cultivated by their skilled initiated male growers to be big (almost person height) and to attain anthropomorphic shapes and are decorated appropriately for display at the festival, which has the added edge of a fertility rite atmosphere to start the new season’s plantings.

The prize yams here are shown standing in front of the haus tambaran, the usual backdrop for the festival ceremonies. At Brikiti the next day another display of yams had them laid horizontal with their headrests upright behind them. A week earlier there had been a yam festival at Milak, a village to the north of Brikiti and I had seen guys there decorating some that lay horizontal the day before the festivities. Villages that maintain some affiliation arrangements with each other around the Maprik district attend each others’ festivals, and exchanges take place as well.

Bilums

The bilums displayed on the Guest House at Samgik were made by women of the Wama cultural group and were very fine examples of these usually exquisitely designed, and well crafted works of art. The ones on the facades here are made in the plant fibre and natural dye traditional, for which the Maprik area was once very famous.

Bilums can be seen as purely utilitarian objects, but to look at them that way is to miss the point that here is displayed high aesthetic sensibility. These objects certainly are rugged and can carry objects well, but they also carry strong symbolic and ritual meanings, even to the point where they often codify the identity and ples of their makers.

Obviously for the Wama at Samgik, and certainly for the Abelam (and for the Kwoma in slightly different ways) the bilum is highly symbolic and is integral to key origin stories. Bilums feature on Abelam haus tambaran facade artwork as, what can appear to outsiders, as abstract infil decoration. But they are not included on these current Samgik facade panels. Nevertheless, bilums are displayed on the skirts to the facades here in much the same way as they are on Abelam haus tambaran fronts for events like openings and special occasions.

If you want a really good reference book with thorough explanations and including great images and even beautiful drawings of the techniques of looping involved see : Maureen MacKenzie. Androgynous Objects: string bags and gender in central New Guinea, Harwood Academic, 1991.

Pottery

The women of the Abelam, the neighbouring Wosera and other surrounding groups made pottery some of which was decorated by men who incised and painted colourful traditional images with figures and totems. The ones shown are plain forms with only surface decoration. Reputed to have died for many years, pottery seems to be making a come back from the Kwoma to some areas around Maprik. It is refreshing to see that women are keen now to have their art skills revived, and made available to the market again.

Kundu drums

This is a hand held drum made out of light wood with a snake or lizard skin membrane stretched taut to form the sounding surface which is fixed to one end. That is treated with a beeswax type resin which helps in producing a distinct resonating timbre by making parts of the acoustic skin sticky to the touch. The kundu shown here is a special, patterned, relatively solid and elaborately decorated example.

Dance and Body Art

For the performances we saw at Samgik there was mostly decorative apparel and apparatus rather than face painting applied to the dancers. Here we see skirts, arm, and ankle bands, kinds and bilums. The detail image show decorated dancing sticks carried and danced with by the women.

Art on Architecture

Samgik follows a pattern somewhere formally between their northern and eastern Abelam neighbours and their western Ilahita ones. I will look at the architecture itself later and make comparisons across groups, and hopefully across time. This is just a visual introduction to these graphic related large objects that are a cultural focus in may ways. They act as a stage and backdrop as we see in the way the dances were performed here on our visit. Normally the sort of art seen in the Wama Guest House, or its more tradition and sometimes secret versions are housed within, and in turn host initiation ceremonies. And before the initiation of festival the interior functions as a workshop-studio for the production of the artworks (the facade panels and its lintel, the sculptures and interior painted panels, maybe material for yam festivities, and so on.)

Hopefully this entry helps give an indication of the comprehensive nature of the art production proudly put on show by the associated culture groups represented at Samgik in mid 2013.

Wama Guest House

The guest house is a hybrid form with a more secular, a modern function, rather than that seen in the traditional haus tambaran. The form again is an interpretative representation of a bird form with the wings extended maybe like a hen sheltering its chicks. The head is the peak with the conical cap. Similar shaped forms housing stage/rostrum functions were seen at Ilahita in the important sacred places which are still communal gathering spaces where public meetings are held and announcements made. At Samgik this building came before the haus tambaran. It seems to me to have elements that may have been a bit of trail run before embarking on the much higher stake venture that the haus tambaran represents.

Samgik Haus Tambaran

We will look at the haus tambaran in more detail, and across cultures and time in a future entries. But here is a glimpse of the house as an object, and its painted art in detail. Part of the painted panel is here and the lintel detail is above.

Samgik New Art

Viewed early August 2013

The collection of art that we saw displayed at Samgik was quite different to most of the art of the Maprik area seen in published sources, and in real objects in various collections. The images here have been enhanced to correct problems due to very compromised light conditions and time constraints.

The culture and language groups are listed below, as far as we were told. There was too much happening and too little time to collect any of the stories associated with the works, or even to get the artists names and details.

Nevertheless, what you can see is that the most of the sculptures look like ancestor figures, male and female. There are also many smaller carved animals and birds, and an impressive snake. These appear to be clan totems and some are attached to the tall carved figures.

The images do show a very unusual art style, or representation tradition. This material is stylistically quite unusual compared to that of their famous neighbours to the north and east the Abelam. It is different again to published Wosera material to their south. And it also differs overall to the material of the Ilahita Arapesh to the west, whose work is represented with material from a Sunuhu haus tambaran (neighbours to the west of Ilahita) collected in the late 1970s by F Gerretts and held in the National Museum and Art Gallery (NMAG) in Port Moresby. There is, however, some similarity with some Ilahita art, and notably there is a new inverted heart shaped piece that was obviously done recently in concert with artists making new work at Ilahita for display at the joint Brikiti – Ilahita festival held on the 9th August 2013. More on that later. In the art on the haus tambaran front there is clear similarity to the art of the Abelam of Brikiti and Apengai.

The material in the entry room collection is more public objects, some is prosaic, and the group of objects is quite varied, indicating maybe a few different artists. The work in the inner room was generally stronger in its sense of presence, and more pieces were bigger, and the same hand or hands was evident in groups of objects.

Most of the carved and ‘painted’ timber pieces were coloured with ochres or what looked like chalk, charcoal and pastels, including some touches of pale blue, aqua and lemon. The expressions on the faces and the detail of figures looks naive at first on some, but at a second glance has power and character.

So the art here was a surprise on a number of levels. There may well be other sources and earlier collections from this culture area that maybe known in material held overseas. But, if so they must be more obscure than is the case for the Abelam, Wosera and Arapesh. The arts here seem also to be undergoing a revival of interest and skill development and pride in their cultural distinctiveness, again in spite of majority disparagement or hostility —at least that is what has been inferred. But, time and research needs to be invested to get a proper and reliable account of the cultural change issues here. Here and for most of the Maprik and surrounds!

It looks to me like this could be a new wave of art manifesting at Samgik, celebrating and telling traditional stories, but with enough remove from strict training to be exploratory, and to have a refreshing informal vitality.

———-

Now here are a few details given to us on the 8th August 2013 :

There was an opening of Wama Guest House, SAMGIK, 12th June 2012 by MP John Simon.

These guys met us and took us around — Beni Dua, Daniel Malken, Jurex Guralangu, Lawrence Francis. The big man with the Culture group badge etc was Lawrence Yupi.

The two who won best Yam prizes: Linson Toby and Jesse Kamblapi who come from the BkM culture group and the BAL clan. I think it was their group who danced at the haus tambaran.

DANCE GROUPS at SAMGIK They danced as we arrived at the Guest House
1 BAL culture group— I think they also performed in front of the haus tambaran
2 NINGALIMBI did the dance with the log
3 WAMA culture group big man culture rep – Lawrence Yupi

EXCHANGE GROUPS linked to Samgik KAMU language group. SAMGIK, NINDIGO, SARAGAKUM, NINGALIMBI (3) *same language group – Ilahita Arapesh, LAINGA*, KATNIKUM, GWELIGUM, NERIKUM

ART for SALE

In the rooms inside the Wama Guest House at Samgik we were told this information :
Closed room : All men’s house stuff (no women of the area can come in here) : the whole collection of big figures etc for sale PGK 40,000
Entry room : all the stuff PGK 30,000

Wama culture bilums were on display and for sale at the Wama guest house.
Dance groups can be hired to perform.

Ruki Fame

Ruki Fame started out as a welder, who then became one of the first intake of artists at the newly formed Creative Arts Centre around 1973-74. He welded with cut steel from such sources as old 44 gallon drums, chrome bumper bars from wrecked cars, and reinforcing bars. Ruki has had a distinguished career as a sculptor with many architecture related commissions and some large urban sculptures.

Ruki has inspired and influenced some other artists such as Gikman Kundum and Tommy Deko. The large scale urban rusty steel sculpture in colour was photographed by Sebastian Fowler in a round-about near Waigani in late 2003.

Cowboy on a Horse is an early, small, welded steel sculpture exhibited at the Creative Arts Centre early 1970s.

Ruki is watching the assembly and installation of his large steel sculpture Woman on the PNG Development building at Waigani about 1975. Ruki was commissioned to do this major work through the National Arts School by the building’s architect Jim Birrell from Brisbane who at the time also had a Port Moresby office. Ruki’s design was fabricated in pieces with the help of a steel fabricating firm and was craned into position and attached to the building. A significant amount of unedited super 8 footage of the whole process is in our archive awaiting an opportunity to be digitised and taken into a documentary.

The other B&W pair of photos shows Ruki’s Woman in context on the wall of the building, and a closeup of her head with the young NAS lecturer Bob Brown photographing it from above being assembled.

Martin Morabubuna

Martin Morabubuna the artist preparing his presentation for a talk at UPNG in June 2013. Martin was a very engaging presenter who put his current work in the context of his Trobriand Islands upbringing, He was finalising his apprenticeship as a traditional master painter story teller when he finished his high school studies to take up a scholarship at the newly opened Creative Arts Centre (National Arts School in the early 1970s).

His art has continually evolved as he has matured, and he sees himself working with his own messages and traditional stories to tell through new means to an international audience. His deploring of the neglect of serious creative endeavour in PNG over the years was well reasoned and very moving, especially his concern for the dearth of opportunity and lack of support for emerging young talents in the nation.

Martin’s famous early prints from the 1970s are in expatriate private collections and in some institutional collections in PNG, Australia and overseas. His mature painting style recently is concerned with modern Trobriand Island themes expressed through a subtly inflected style influenced by his studies of cubist european masters.

Waikua’s team in Brisbane

This is the set-out being tested in chalk on the floor of the GOMA dock as the first step in working out how to produce this facade in modern materials. See the completed works at GoMA 7th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art.