ART on View protective function. Never blinking, its gaze fixed on the horizon, this image of the canoe’s guardian spirit fends off malevolent spirits such as kesoko, whose rapid movements are imperceptible to the eyes of men. At the summit of both the prow and the stern, two Janus figures looking out to starboard and port, as well as fore and aft, add to the protection of the vessel. All of these sculpted and incised beings are representations of creatures whose powers and qualities men sought to appropriate: predatory skill, physical strength, speed, and divinatory abilities. This symbolically powerful iconography supported the goals of the expedition, that being the taking of live prisoners and the 76 subsequent offering of their heads to the ancestors. This enabled the chiefs who organized the raid to establish and assure their status, both among the living and the dead, and to acquire mana, a supernatural power. On the canoe, the heads of these victims were represented by a row of white shells (Ovula ovum) affixed to the outside of the prow and separated by small sticks wrapped in red cloth representing blood. On the inside, a frieze of Tridacna-shell plaques carved into triangles with one crenellated edge were reminiscent of pagosia (fig. 12), the charms that were kept on ancestral altars and brought on board to ensure success. THE RADIANCE OF THE SHADOWS As this brief analysis reveals, white, red, and black were the dominant visual values of the Western Solomon Islands war canoe. Indeed, this contrasting combination, highlighted by the luminosity and the iridescence of the shell inlay, are characteristic of most pre-Christian art objects from the Solomon Islands. The complementary nature of color and light that they employ appears to be universally recognized. For example, in old Germanic languages, some terms designating “white” and “black” both have their roots in the verb “to shine,” an attestation to the primacy of luminosity of color. In the Solomon Islands, this visual effect can be associated with natural phenomena such as the rainbow, the rays of the sun, shooting stars, the iridescence of certain animal species, etc. These are observed and interpreted as manifestations of invisible and spiritual entities, known as the “Shadows,” which emanate from the dead. Such visual effects and the ways they are realized in objects form the central theme of the exhibition L’Éclat des ombres, l’art en noir et blanc des Îles Salomon (The Radiance of the Shadows: Black-and-White Art from the Solomon Islands) currently being presented by the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris. They provide insight into the importance of the relationships that the living maintain with the spirits of the dead, whose favor they curry and whose immanent power (mana) men seek to ensure their prosperity and success in their undertakings. This informs the conception of a startling variety of art forms in the region: Eastern Solomon Islands funerary bowls with motherof pearl inlay and their complex marine iconography; Santa Cruz Islands feather money rolls, whose value is a function of the brightness of their red color; the bodies of the men and women of Bellona and Rennell Islands, which are covered with intensely orange Curcuma; and a wide array of pendants, armbands, and Tridacna-shell or mother-of-pearl charms and amulets. All of these serve to make the invisible world visible and to give presence to the ancestors. The concept remains important even today in rituals, during fishing expeditions, or at matrimonial ceremonies and exchanges. inside of the hull. The planks are sealed and made watertight using a sticky resin obtained from ground nuts (Atuna racemosa). The canoe is then further coated with a paste made of charcoal mixed with resin and then varnished with a sap extracted from the external roots of a climbing plant of the Araceae family. From the choice of the wood to the launching of the vessel, this sequence of operations took more than a year and was punctuated by a number of specific rituals. Design elements carved from Nautilus shell mother-of-pearl (Nautilus pompilius) stand out clearly against the hull’s dark surface, enhancing the craft’s appearance and making it gleam as it slides across the water. On a model canoe in the collection of the Musée du Quai Branly (fig. 2), crenellated circles highlight the prow, and squares outline the stern. Fish (including bonito, a small variety of tuna of the Scombridae family) and frigate birds with hooked beaks are arrayed along the hull moving up toward the prow, to which, just above the waterline, is lashed a sculpted black wooden head, whose eyes and ears are also inlaid with mother-of-pearl pieces. The intensity of the expression of this figure, called toto isu in the Marovo language and nguzunguzu in the Roviana language, is associated with a
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