OBJECT HISTORY
119
FIG. 11 (below):
Maternity figure.
Upper Wahau River, East
Kalimantan (Borneo),
Indonesia.
4th–6th century AD.
Bronze (90% copper, 7% tin,
3% trace metals). H: 33 cm.
Honolulu Museum of Art, gift of the
Christensen Fund, 2001,
inv. 10,469.1.
of this sculpture is not a heavy archaeological patina
but rather a smooth mellow metal with some
flat encrustation, not unlike Imun Ajo’.
While Imun Ajo’ has a Kayan pedigree, there
is absolutely nothing about its aesthetics, save
perhaps for the eyes, that can be described as
Kayanic. Although the details discussed above
combine to form a figure that clearly depicts
a Dayak and possibly a Kayan individual, it is
about as naturalistic as a Borneo sculpture could
possibly be and, as such, equally as far from the
extreme stylization of Kayan art, both ancient
and modern (fig. 8). It is a unique artwork of indeterminate
age and cultural origin—albeit with
certain qualities we consider archaic—but given
what we currently know, we can say little more,
save that art styles change and art objects, like
cultural subgroups, often move from one place
to another, where they are taken up by other
groups. This begs the question: Why not subject
the object to scientific testing? Though no absolute
test for the age or origin of metal exists,
much can be learned from alloy analysis and
careful examination of the surface and a cross
section of the patina.
Sadly, this is not possible. The current location
of Imun Ajo’ is unknown. It does not seem to be
in the Sarawak Museum, and there is some speculation
that Harrisson may have taken it with him
when he retired from the museum and took up
a research position at Cornell University in Ithaca,
New York. Indeed, when he tried to return
to Borneo in late 1967, he was denied entry, apparently
due to unsubstantiated accusations that
he had stolen property from the museum, though
these seem to have been the result of a misunderstanding
(Chambers 2007). He went on to
an academic position at the University of Cambridge,
and he and his third wife, Belgian Baroness
Christine Forani, were killed in a traffic accident
in Thailand in 1976 (Heimann 2015). With
their passing also went the most likely knowledge
about the location of this remarkable sculpture
that may well be an important link to the shifting
cultures and artistic development connecting Borneo’s
past and present.
If you have any information about the current location
of the Imun Ajo’ figure, please contact the author at
jonathan@tribalartmagazine.com.
REFERENCES
Ball, Marieanne Davy (2009), “’Betek, Tali ngan Atap’ (‘Knots, String, and Blades’): Production and
Use of Organic Utility Objects by the Orang Ulu of Sarawak,” doctoral dissertation, Durham
University.
Chambers, Richard (dir.) (2007), Tom Harrisson: The Barefoot Anthropologist, Icon Films for BBC
Television.
Curnoe, Darren (2016), “Ancient Deep Skull Still Holds Big Surprises 60 Years after It Was
Unearthed,” The Conversation. http://theconversation.com/ancient-deep-skull-still-holds-bigsurprises
60-years-after-it-was-unearthed-61572 (accessed 10/18).
Furness, William Henry (1902), The Home-Life of Borneo Head-Hunters: Its Festivals and Folk-
Lore, Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company.
De Grunne, Bernard (2015), Dayak 2 from Borneo, Brussels: Bernard de Grunne.
Harrisson, Tom (1964), “Imun Ajo’, a Bronze Figure from Interior Borneo,” Artibus Asiae, vol. 27,
no. 1/2, pp. 157–171.
Heimann, Judith M. (2015), “Barbara Guttler Brunig Harrisson: 1922–2015,” The Free Library,
Borneo Research Council, Inc. https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Barbara+Guttler+Brunig+
Harrisson%3a+1922-2015.-a0462983516 (accessed 10/18).
Hose, Charles, and Alfred C. Haddon (1912), The Pagan Tribes of Borneo, London: Macmillan
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Johnson, Mark A. (2018), The Kayanic Tradition: Kayanic Art from Borneo. Volume One: Guardian
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/Barbara+Guttler+Brunig+
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