Art Ew - National Gallery of Australia

they are all the more impressive after reflecting upon how
each work was created. Connections to the environment
played a great part in sourcing raw materials for sculpture.
For example, the tree trunk used for the impressive
Kanganaman village house post at the entrance to the
Pacific Arts Gallery would have been selected because the
spirit that lived in the tree made itself ‘known’ to the artist.
Once the tree was chosen, the artist simply worked on the
natural shape of the wood to reveal the spirit’s true form.
The tools used by some artists are remarkable in
themselves – sharply ground edged stones (which in
themselves took considerable time to produce) acted as
the cutting blades of adzes for hewing out the mass and
volume of an object. Smaller pieces of worked shell and
bone, even the sharp teeth from small mammals, were
employed to complete the finer details of a figure, mask or
sculpture. To achieve a pleasingly smooth surface required
laborious rubbing with the tough edge of a boar tusk or
the rough skin of rays, sharks and certain plant leaves with
abrasive properties.
For Pacific art, colour can be equally as important
as form, and the application of colour was often a ritual
event in itself. Particular colours are known to be powerful
visual communicators for different island cultures. Colour,
when used within an important event or ceremony for
many communities, symbolically communicates otherwise
unsaid ideas and concepts. The colours used in arts from
the Pacific were sourced from a variety of natural resources
– plants, pounded shells, ochre and soot obtained by
burning fruits such as candlenut all contributed to the
artists’ palette. An exception is the Lower Sepik Spirit mask
which is highlighted with Reckitt’s laundry bluing dye. This
interesting adaptation shows that artists were not afraid
to incorporate exotic materials. (Indeed the use of Western
materials may have been considered a way to imbue a work
with extra magical capabilities.) What seems to be a limited
range of natural resources did not dim the imagination of
the artist – the individuality, uniqueness and latent power
of each artwork can still be felt in works that have endured
many years of exposure to the tropical elements.
Specialisation in certain media was common for many
Pacific artists and their communities. A prestigious object
such as a delicate Marquesan fan, Tahi, was made by
specialists known as tuhuna who focused on refining
the singular aspect of fan making in order to elevate the
production to an artform difficult for others to replicate.
Fans were made only on Tahuata Island and were exported
great distances across the Marquesas group. The finely
braided continuous cordage of the Hawaiian necklace,
Lei niho palaoa, was once the preserve of artists who
worked only with human hair – one of the most important
materials in Hawaii. Hair was highly regarded as being
Lower Sepik people
Papua New Guinea, Lower
Sepik River area
Spirit mask c. 1885–1920
wood, pigment, laundry
dye 89.0 x 24.0 x 28.0 cm
National Gallery of Australia,
Canberra Purchased 1970
Te Fenua ‘Enata people
French Polynesia, Marquesas
Islands, Tahuata Island
Fan [tahi’i] 1800–1850
wood, pandanus, coconut
fibre National Gallery
of Australia, Canberra
Purchased 1972
artonview spring 2007 17