Mask for Malagan, New Ireland, Bismarck Archipelago, Papua New Guinea

Voyageurs et Curieux, Paris

Private Collection, Paris, acquired from the above in March, 2013

Carlier, J.-E., Archipel Bismarck, 2012, front cover and pp. 94 - 95, n° 70

Parcours des Mondes, Catalogue 2012, Paris, 2012, p. 137

Paris, Parcours des Mondes, Voyageurs et Curieux, Archipel Bismarck, September 11 - 16, 2012

With its remarkably elaborate headdress and iconography, this Tatanua mask perfectly illustrates the power of fascination exerted by the arts of New Ireland when they were discovered by Europeans at the end of the 19^th century.

Today we have little reliable information on the significance and context of these Melanesian objects. However, the accounts of Europeans such as missionary Richard Parkinson and Elisabeth Krämer, who published an account of her trip to New Ireland in 1907-1908 Among Art-loving Cannibals of the South Seas, show that the three main types of representation used in Malangan mourning ceremonies - masks, friezes and statues - are the expression of their worldview, but also the projection of social relations, territorial rights and clan membership.

Tatanua masks were worn on the occasion of the important multi-day ceremonies for which Tabar Island is famous, notably the dances at the end of funeral rituals and ceremonies commemorating the dead. Peekel reports that these masks probably represented real people, since they were often called by the name of the deceased during these dances [1]. At the end of these ceremonies, we know that the sculptures and friezes that formed part of the decorum were abandoned in the bush, while the Tatanua masks were carefully preserved, proof of the importance attached to them.

The duality of the headdress, different on each side, was intended to provoke a visual shock when the wearer turned. In fact, it consists of two distinct sides. One side is over-modelled with a lime shell decorated with scrolls, while the other is embellished with woven plant fibers. It is also topped by a crest of orange-yellow plant fibers, further accentuating its majesty. This was closely linked to the context in which the masks were used, that of mourning, as Parkinson explains: "this particular hairstyle was obtained when the relatives of the deceased grew long hair, which was then coated with burnt lime and dyed yellow. During the funeral ceremony, the hair was shaved off at the sides, leaving a crest in the middle down to the nape of the neck [...] the sides were then coated with a thick layer of limestone and various ornaments were produced"[2]. The face, with its tight features, is enhanced by the multiplicity and finesse of the sculpted and painted motifs that adorn it. These also reflect the ideals of masculine beauty in New Ireland : a broad nose with a rounded bridge, sculpted earlobes, very stretched and pierced, and a large mouth set in a square jaw.

Referring to Helfrich's classification [3] of Malagan masks in Berlin's Museum für Völkerkunde, the present mask can be linked to type 1-B, to which the author links twenty-one other masks in the museum's collections. Three of these masks appear to be particularly close to our own : nos. 24, 27 and 28, which feature the same square jaw, rounded nose bridge, identical eyes, long ears and extremely similar scrolls and plant braids covering one side of the headdress.

This Tatanua mask perfectly illustrates the iconographic richness of Neo-Irish art, particularly visible in the treatment of facial motifs. It also embodies the skill of an artist who, drawing on the talents of a generation of sculptors, sums up in a single object the complexity of a society and the harmony of its aesthetics.

[1] P. Gerh. Peekel, Die Ahnenbilder von Nord-Neu-Mecklenburg. Eine kritische und positive Studie., Anthropos, vol. 22, 1./2, 1927, p. 33

[2] R. Parkinson, Dreissig Jahre in der Südsee, Stuttgart, 1907, p. 647

[3] K. Helfrich, Malanggan 1, Bildwerke von Neuirland, Berlin, 1973, p. 62