78 sale. There is deliberate stylistic similarity, which through time continually renews the connections between makers, wearers, and their home area. In most parts of the Pacifi c, barkcloth is made and decorated by women. However, in the coastal and island societies of Papua New Guinea, initiated men traditionally created spectacular masks using barkcloth that were used as part of rituals designed to mediate with spiritbeings living in the surrounding natural environment. The masks were made in secret and then ceremonially revealed as the dancers emerged into the village from the communal men’s house or the forest. Of three examples on display, one was a kovave mask (fi g. 8), a type formerly worn by male initiates of the Elema people, who live in the Gulf region of Papua New Guinea. The mask maker would call out to the spirits of the bush, the kovave, as he cut the cane for the basketry frame. After being covered with stretched barkcloth, the features of specifi c spirits were carefully created with split cane, ochre, and charcoal pigments, encouraging the kovave to temporarily inhabit the masks. Red, black, and white pigments increased the potency of the masks, being connected with male and female power, and the generative abilities of the spirits themselves. Other barkcloth masks were created by the Baining people, who live on the large island of New Britain, for use in day and night dances. These masks represent forest-dwelling spirits, and the white of the barkcloth is considered the color of the spirits. The Baining mask featured in the exhibition (fi gs. 7a & b) was made for a night dance, and its symbolism relates to birds and insects. At night dances, the performers dance through a bonfi re, eventually stamping out the embers, just before dawn. The maskers are then driven back into the forest by the musicians, demonstrating human mastery over the spirit realm. In Island Melanesia, barkcloth is produced in certain parts of the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. Each cluster of islands in the Solomons group has a particular style, and barkcloth is considered an important part of local cultural heritage. In the New Georgia group and on the island of Isabel, designs of birds, sharks, and dugongs were painted with indigo onto white barkcloth to represent symbolic themes and stories. The serpentine design on an Isabel cloth (fi g. 12) was described by Solomon Islander Reuben Lilo as related to the FIG. 5 (left): Woman’s skirt, nioge, titled Asimano’e Soru’e (Men’s Ancestral Tattoo Designs), by Sarah Ugibari. Huvaemo/Mount Lamington, Oro Province, Papua New Guinea. 2012. Barkcloth, pigment. 131.5 x 73 cm. British Museum, inv. 2014,2006.2. Purchased through Ömie Artists, Inc. in 2014. © The Trustees of the British Museum. FIG. 6 (below): Man’s loincloth with feather plume design. Collingwood Bay, Oro Province, Papua New Guinea. 1890s–1910s. Probably collected by Bishop John Montague Stone-Wigg between 1898 and 1908. Barkcloth, pigment. 236 x 54 cm. British Museum, inv. Oc1990,07.60. Purchased from Winchester College. © The Trustees of the British Museum. ART on view
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