Description
Crochet mask Rao / Romkun population, Central River Region Ramu // Upper Goam River, Madang Province Province, Papua New Guinea Carved wood, black pigment Early 19th century Height: 43cm Provenance: Kevin Conru Collection, Brussels Kevin Conru Collection, Brussels Galerie Flak, Paris Literature: Galerie Flak, Sepik. Crochets, Figures & Masques, Paris, 2018. Reproduced on page 34. André Breton, fascinated by the artistic creation of Oceania, saw in it "the greatest immemorial effort to account for the interpenetration of the physical and the mental, to triumph over the dualism of perception and representation, to go beyond the bark and up to the sap." (André Breton, in L'Art magique, 1957) Art as an intermediary means of transcending physical realities, exploring, suggesting and revealing the very essence of existence and spirituality. From the artistic dimension emanated the metaphysical dimension. Behind the sculpted "bark" lies the "sap", the spiritual force and sacred energy through the object's incredibly inventive plastic solutions. This crochet mask, whose very rare corpus is poorly documented, presents a skilful and complex architecture that plays on volumes and planes with ingenuity. Set in an elongated, stretched oval with sharp, pointed ends, the stylized face is articulated around a resolutely ingenious, original and structured composition. From forehead to chin, a series of interlocking, curved hooks deeply carved into the wood surround the face, accentuating its features and expressiveness. The circular, tubular eyes in relief, the slim, hooked nose extending disproportionately far into the protrusion of the mention espouse a similar shape, one joining the other to form a median axis, thus accentuating by contrast and linear opposition, the rhythm conferred by the repeated curves around the perimeter of the hook mask. The small oval mouth with slightly raised, half-open lips. According to John Friede (Friede, 2005. Vol1, page 152. Vol2, n°128), this type of mask, with its curved hooks, similar and comparable to the faces of the Romkun anthropomorphic sculptures of the Rao, was attached by means of fibers, at each end in the shape of a button, to long bamboo tubes up to 4 meters long, used to modify the voice. This voice modification created the illusion that the sound emanated from supernatural entities. This type of sacred instrument was played during initiation rites (Friede, New Guinea Art. Guinea Art. Masterpieces from de Jolika Collection of Marcia and John Friede, 2005: 152, fig.128 (vol.I), 102, n°128 (vol.II), exhibition catalog, Gallery de Young, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, October 2005).
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Crochet mask Rao / Romkun population, Central River Region Ramu // Upper Goam River, Madang Province Province, Papua New Guinea Carved wood, black pigment Early 19th century Height: 43cm Provenance: Kevin Conru Collection, Brussels Kevin Conru Collection, Brussels Galerie Flak, Paris Literature: Galerie Flak, Sepik. Crochets, Figures & Masques, Paris, 2018. Reproduced on page 34. André Breton, fascinated by the artistic creation of Oceania, saw in it "the greatest immemorial effort to account for the interpenetration of the physical and the mental, to triumph over the dualism of perception and representation, to go beyond the bark and up to the sap." (André Breton, in L'Art magique, 1957) Art as an intermediary means of transcending physical realities, exploring, suggesting and revealing the very essence of existence and spirituality. From the artistic dimension emanated the metaphysical dimension. Behind the sculpted "bark" lies the "sap", the spiritual force and sacred energy through the object's incredibly inventive plastic solutions. This crochet mask, whose very rare corpus is poorly documented, presents a skilful and complex architecture that plays on volumes and planes with ingenuity. Set in an elongated, stretched oval with sharp, pointed ends, the stylized face is articulated around a resolutely ingenious, original and structured composition. From forehead to chin, a series of interlocking, curved hooks deeply carved into the wood surround the face, accentuating its features and expressiveness. The circular, tubular eyes in relief, the slim, hooked nose extending disproportionately far into the protrusion of the mention espouse a similar shape, one joining the other to form a median axis, thus accentuating by contrast and linear opposition, the rhythm conferred by the repeated curves around the perimeter of the hook mask. The small oval mouth with slightly raised, half-open lips. According to John Friede (Friede, 2005. Vol1, page 152. Vol2, n°128), this type of mask, with its curved hooks, similar and comparable to the faces of the Romkun anthropomorphic sculptures of the Rao, was attached by means of fibers, at each end in the shape of a button, to long bamboo tubes up to 4 meters long, used to modify the voice. This voice modification created the illusion that the sound emanated from supernatural entities. This type of sacred instrument was played during initiation rites (Friede, New Guinea Art. Guinea Art. Masterpieces from de Jolika Collection of Marcia and John Friede, 2005: 152, fig.128 (vol.I), 102, n°128 (vol.II), exhibition catalog, Gallery de Young, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, October 2005).
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