Indonesia
Modang people, East Kalimantan

Wood and cowries
24 x 24 x 32 cm

Provenance:
Mark A. Johnson, Marina Del Rey
Private collection, Paris

Published:
Mark Johnson, The Kayanic Tradition, Volume I: Guardian Sculptures, Mark A. Johnson Tribal Art, Marina Del Rey, 2020, pp.45, 95

Carbon dating places this rare guardian figure of the Modang people around 1400 AD, making it one of the earliest known expressions of the Kayanic sculptural tradition. Such figures are understood to embody powerful protective forces and were reserved for the ancestral shrines of the village elite.
Originally, they formed the projecting ends of large hardwood shrine structures. Their terminal elements were often removed to facilitate transport from remote locations. The present example retains the essential features of the type: a face that is implied rather than fully articulated, defined by a protruding diamond-shaped mouth, a central ridgeline suggesting the nose, and inset cowrie shells.

(Rafter Radiocarbon test from July 2013).