Gope spirit board, Era River Delta, Gulf of Papua,... Lot 46

Gope spirit board, Era River Delta, Gulf of Papua, Papua New Guinea Early 20th century Wood and pigments Written on back: "Gouri, Pai River". H. 124 cm Provenance : Philip Goldman Collection, London, UK Franco Ignazio Castelli Collection, purchased from Philip Goldman in 1970 In the heart of the villages of Gulf Papua, in south-east Papua New Guinea, large communal houses, known as Men's Houses, were erected. Each had its own very special space, containing a dedicated shrine housing Gope spirit boards, Bioma figures, skulls and other sacred objects associated with different spirits, called imunu. Each imunu corresponded to an element, a specific place (land, river or ocean), making it possible to know, distinguish and geolocate the clan to which it referred. The Gope or votive board, also known as the spirit board, is a two-dimensional ritual sculpture, generally featuring figurative features from which often captivating expressions emerge. The schematized representation of the human figure in New Guinea was not intended to materialize and designate real men, but to embody figures of spirit-ancestors, supernatural powers. Inscribed on a bark support enhanced with ochre-red pigments on its surface, this Gope plate, characteristic of the Gulf of Papua, stands out for its remarkable dynamics, accentuated by the rhythmic ordering of the stylized body elements made up of spiral or undulating motifs enhanced with white pigments and highlighted by delicate black outlines. White pigments enhance the expressive power of the open mouth and drooping eyes. The figure appears to be moving on its slender support. Like the other Gope plates, "it was kept in the clan alcove, in the longhouse, and represented the clan's specific ancestor" (Kaufmann in Peltier et Morin, 2006: 424).