ANCESTRAL VISIONS
69
This article is adapted
from the introduction to
Ancestral Visions:
Papua New Guinea Art
from the Sepik–Ramu
Edited by Kevin Conru and
Jonathan Fogel, with essays
by Barry Craig, Crispin
Howarth, Virginia-Lee
Webb, and Kevin Conru.
Published in English by
Cornu Editions.
27.5 x 35.5 cm. 298 pages.
Fully illustrated. Limited
edition of 450 copies.
ISBN: 978-1-7330078-0-1.
285 euros.
A number of such objects fi eld collected by Londoner
Philip Goldman and by George Kennedy
of Los Angeles in the 1960s are represented.
Sepik–Ramu art is old. While the last major migrations
occurred some 1,000 years ago, lineages
stretch back millennia. Much of the extant art
also is of great age. Carvings that were thought
to have been made in the early twentieth century—
or, more generically, “circa 1900”—have
proven through the ever-more-refi ned process of
C-14 dating to have age ranges that sometimes
reach back hundreds of years. Whole cultural
productions, such as the spirit fi gures from the
Karawari caves, have been reassigned to a time
well before New Guinea was even placed on a
map. And from this great age come great patinas.
Perhaps unique among wood carvings from
non-Western and non-Asian peoples are the surfaces
found on an abundance of artifacts from
the Sepik–Ramu basin. Ritual application after
ritual application of pigment, with the intervening
time acting as the bond between each layer’s
ceremonial witness, created a derma that is perhaps
rivaled only by the great works of medieval
European and ancient Chinese religious statuary.
The majority of the pieces of the artworks
from the Sepik–Ramu have, by dint of their collection
circumstances and the long passage of
time, been orphaned. In what prior context did
they exist? How did they function? And, indeed,
who made them? While such questions cannot
ever be answered completely, the authors of the
print aspect of Ancestral Visions have endeavored
to address these questions and to reconnect
these remarkable and signifi cant
objects with their correct cultural
affi liations. This project was fortunate
to have three relevant voices
share their depth of experience.
Barry Craig fi rst went to Papua
New Guinea almost sixty years
ago and conducted fi eld investigations
throughout the Sepik–Ramu
for decades thereafter. Old New
Guinea hands are rare, and having
the insights of one brought to these
artworks is an incalculable treasure.
Likewise, Crispin Howarth
has contributed his discourse on
the masks and fi gures of the Murik
Lakes, and Virginia-Lee Webb has written about
the role photography played in bridging the Sepik
and the West, while also tracing the broader history
of scientifi c endeavors in the region. Hughes
Dubois spent several months exclusively on these
pieces and, by spending time engaging with the
works, revealed their magic under his camera’s
impartial eye. We hope that our combined efforts
will have brought a degree of renewed context
and perspective to these many remarkable masterpieces
that have lived so long a world away
from their origins.
Ancestral Visions
Papua New Guinea Art from the Sepik–Ramu
May 24 until June 28, 2019
Lempertz, Brussels