Nov 26, 2006 8:00 am US/Eastern
CBS 2 At The Met: Art Of The Papuan Gulf
by Dana Tyler
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
See the art of Papua, New Guinea and see real photographs depicting the bond between art and community life. The Metropolitan Museum of Art's new exhibition "Coaxing the Spirits to Dance: Art of the Papuan Gulf," explores detailed sculptures and rare historical photographs from about 1885 through the 1960's.
Research Curator Virginia-Lee Webb told CBS-2's Dana Tyler, "People had legends that were identified, certain families lands and rivers, that they lived on and those lands had spirits. And art was made to attract those spirits for the benefit of the community, to placate them on various occasions."
The spirit boards museum visitors will see on display were made from the inner bark trees. They were pounded, painted and decorated in much detail. Webb explained, "Spirit boards were created to attract spirits to inhabit the boards and the boards were kept in family houses to remind people of the spirits that were protecting them. The spirits took many forms, they took forms of human figures, sometimes with very accentuated anatomical features, drooping eyes. But the one thing that the spirits do, the spirits dance, the spirits are very happy!"
The masks come in just about every size and shape, and look closely, because most of them have a bellybutton. "The way the spirit entered the board was by the design, but all the board have navels to let the spirit in."
Some look awkward to carry let alone wear on your head, like one on display that is similar to a Papuan structure, called a longhouse. Webb said, "This is a replica of a house, it's an actual mask that was danced, worn on a mans' head then covered by a large cloak of leaves."
When a woman got married, she brought one of her father's spirit boards and gave it to her new husband. He placed it in the family's longhouse shrine. There were generations of them. And together the spirit board represented a family tree.
Men made masks and they danced with them to show the solidarity of a family in the village. "During these dances the spirits came into the village, they came in and took over, and the dancers could do incredible feats. The danced for hours with heavy masks on them," according to Webb.
"Coaxing the Spirits to Dance" is at the Metropolitan Museum of Art now through Labor Day.
(© MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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