PAPUA NEW GUINEA
20th c.
Carved wood
Without stand: 92" x 6 1/2" x 11"
Provenance: Allan Stone Collection, New York
Note: A later piece, this well-executed, sculptural, life-sized male figure was created to be viewed from the side. Conidtion note: Professionally conserved. See condition report for details.
Carved figures called aripa served as intermediaries through which Inyai-Ewa men of Papua New Guinea could contact their helping spirits and receive aid in hunting. These hunters understood that each aripa figure had a soul of its own, a soul that the hunter could induce to find the soul of an animal that he wanted to hunt. After a hunter died, his aripa figure was left in a cave with his bones and some of his possessions. The bones and possessions were eventually scattered, but the aripa figure often remained, some for centuries. Aripa first came to the notice of the outside world in the early 1960s, when the few remaining Inyai-Ewa people living in the heavily forested region of the headwaters of the Upper Korewori (Karawari) River began trading the figures for goods or to pay head tax. An aripa will always feature a prominent face, a serrated central section and a single leg. Within these conventions, however, a carver had free reign. This is a life-sized male figure, created to be viewed from the side. It is a later piece, but quite sculptural and well- executed: the serrated spiral sections are reminiscent of unfurling fern tips the overarching finial of spikes creates the impression of a being that is part human, part forest.


References


Gunn, Michael "Acquisitions: Hunter Helper Figure", Artonview, Winter 2013, vol. 74, p. 40.

The head was unstable. In order to stabilize it it was removed and secured with a stainless steel screw which was then filled in order to stabilize the piece and prevent future damage. Full conservation report available upon request. Condition reports are rendered as specialist opinion by the staff of the Auction House and/or independent consultants and not as statements of fact. We do not guarantee the content of written or verbal condition reports. The absence of a condition report does not imply that there are no condition issues with the lot. ?? ?Please call us at (609) 397-9374 or e-mail info@ragoarts.com with any questions about this lot at least 24 hours prior to auction.?