Torres Strait Islands Tortoiseshell mask, Papua New Guinea

The famous turtle shell masks of the Torres Strait Islands are among the most visually powerful works of Oceanic art. Named after Luis Baéz de Torres, the first Westerner to sail through the sea-passage between mainland Australia and the island of New Guinea in 1606, the strait is interspersed by 274 islands of different sizes which have been inhabited since more than 2,500 years and produced one of the most fascinating culture-clusters of island Melanesia. The exceptional role of Torres Strait culture has been highlighted by Douglas Fraser already in his 1958 dissertation Torres Straits Sculpture. Fraser (1978: 1-2) notes: "The islands that virtually bridge the ninety-mile gap between New Guinea and Australia once formed the chief continuous transition-ground between these major culture-areas, the sole region in this category. The Straits islands have long attracted attention as the probable stepping stones used by the primitive Tasmanians and Australians moving into their more recent habitats and, since the only direct water-route from the Arafura Sea and Indonesia to the Coral Sea involves a transit of Torres Straits, the area has figured importantly in several controversies about migrations to Melanesia and Polynesia."

And he continues (27): "The masks of Torres Straits are [...] one of the outstanding art forms of the primitive world. The principal examples were constructed of wood or turtleshell, although some were fashioned of palm spathe, bark, grass, leaves or even European tin. In turtleshell, a medium almost universally prized for its beauty of color and surface, the craftsmen of Torres Straits achieved what is unquestionably the most expressive development of this material in the entire world. As a rule, the Straits artists depicted human or animal features in their masks, but sometimes these were imaginatively combined so as to represent mythological or supernatural beings. Frequently feathers, shells, seeds and hair were attached to the variously constructed masks giving them an additive or composite appearance."

Regarding the manufacture of the tortoiseshell masks, Friede (2005: 169, text to cat. 500) explains: "Very large marine turtle plaques were locally available and were the principal artistic medium on the Torres Strait Islands. These plaques can be cut or permanently shaped when heated. The turtle shell masks were often more elaborate than the wooden ones, combining human and animal aspects referring to mythical culture heroes 'and their associated totems.' Examples are a crocodile head surmounted by a human face or a human face surmounted by a bird."

Stylistically, the treatment of the eyes of the Shoher Mask closely resembles a mask which was collected by McFarlane and is today in the British Museum, London (inv. no. "3397"). This mask has been suggested to originate form Mabuiag island (Fraser 1978: 223, text to pl. 14). The pierced holes around the masks edge suggest that the mask originally had additional attachments such as smaller tortoiseshell plaques, shells, or cassowary feathers. However, given the relatively small size of the Shoher mask it is also conceivable that it was the central piece of a larger composition combining a human face with animal features. For the latter see Fraser (1978: pls. 10-13, 48, 50, 51, 71).

Pre-contact Torres Strait islands turtleshell masks like the Shoher Mask are exceedingly rare, and only few remain private hands. Most were collected by members of colonial expeditions that visited several island communities in the second half of the nineteenth century. Today, several masks are found in the British Museum and the Cambridge University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, England. Most of these were collected by the renowned scholar Alfred Cort Haddon during his two expeditions to the Torres Strait in 1888-1889 and 1898, respectively. Others were obtained by the London Missionary Society. Although the source of the torn and partially missing paper label on the reverse of the Shoher Mask has not yet been identified, it is likely that it originates from a European museum.