KOREWORI FIGURE

Female spirit figure
Inyai-Ewa
Korewori, Middle Sepik, P.N.G.
19th century or earlier
Carved wood and pigments
Height: 96 cm
Provenance:
Loed Van Bussel collection, Amsterdam
Adrian Schlag collection,Brussels / Ibiza

This sculpture presents the classical characteristics of female spirit figures in the ancient art of the Ewa region (upper part of the Korewori River). The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York notes that such figures are often described as the representations of two primordial sisters who, according to oral tradition, were at the origin of the creation of the valleys where the Inyai-Ewa people live and hunt. These supernatural beings are seen as the female ancestors or founders of particular clans.

Spirit figures were kept in the sacred part of the Men’s House (ceremonial house), or in shelters under overhanging rock cliffs or caves serving as palaces for religious or commemorative rituals.

Female representations are much rarer than their male counterparts, the aripa figures represented in profile and standing on only one foot in Korewori art.

Object Presented by:
Julien Flak
M.: +33 6 84 52 81 36