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244
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Totem pole with superimposed ancestral figures.
See original version (French)
244
-
Totem pole with superimposed ancestral figures.
See original version (French)
Estimate €1,200 - €1,800
Voluntary lot
Description
Totem pole
with superimposed ancestral figures.
Wood, remains of pigments, marks of time.
Middle Sepik, Papua New Guinea, Melanesia.
Height: 162 cm
In the cultures of the Sepik, the mythical river of Papua New Guinea, carved poles are one of the most powerful vehicles of ancestral memory. Erected inside or at the entrance to the men's houses - the haus tambaran - they represent the presence of the clan's founding spirits and serve as a visible link between the world of the living and that of the ancestors. Each superimposed figure corresponds to a distinct spiritual entity, whose vertical superimposition expresses the genealogical and cosmological depth of the group.
This post stands out for the quality of its composition: two standing figures are superimposed, one with his head turned towards the sky, the other inverted, with his head pointing towards the ground - an arrangement that probably reflects a cosmological duality between the world above and the world below, a recurring theme in Sepik mythologies. The faces, with their raised eyes and open mouths, are articulated in a continuous sculptural movement of great formal coherence.
See original version (French)
Auto-translation. Refer to original language for legal validity.
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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