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Mask, 19th century
Bark cloth, rattan, pigment
15 x 6.5 x 4.5 in.
The Marcia and John Friede Collection, a Promised Gift to the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco L05.1.385

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Artist Biography: (none) PROVENANCE: Jolika Collection of New Guinea Art PUBLICATIONS: 2005 - "This type of mask may bear some relationship with the eharo (e meaning "dance" and haro meaning "head"), one of the three major types of Elema masks. Kaeppler (1962: 361-62) suggests that, in her opinion, comparable masks in the Bishop Museum at Honolulu, acquired in 1916, are eharo but that they are part of a local style version. In comparison with the usual eharo masks, however, there are differences in appearance, construction, and the manner of wearing them. Most eharo masks are more complex in construction and design (see, for example, Mamiya and Sumnik, 1982, figs. 30-33). This mask does not have the eharo's typical helmet-like cane framework, as it was not placed on top of or over the head but worn in front of the face (ibid., 363) while the porous bark cloth (sometimes including open slits or holes) would allow the dancer to see through. The eharo masks, representing nythical beings associated with nature, would be worn in the context of the hevehe ceremonial cycle of feasts when performed surrounded by admiring women, mainly relatives of the wearers. However, another function was to terrify children and act out comic pantomimes ar any given moment (Williams, 1969). The mask depicted here may have played a role in the latter context. According to the collector of the Bishop Museum masks, they were used in a totemic dance called raiva ruku (S.G. McDonell, cited in Kaeppler, 1962: 361). His observation that "women and children are not allowed to see them, as they are supposed to promptly die as they do" (ibid.), may refer only to the masks as such, not when worn by masqueraders, or it may simply be an error or overstatement. The Bishop Museum's (see Kaeppler, 1982, figs. 6-16) group of these masks is from the village of Muru (about 10 kms inland from Orokolo). Most of them have the entire surface covered with white dots, as does the present example. The greatest resemblance is with fig. 8 in that both masks lack the padded T-shape forming the forehead and nose of some of the other masks. See also Moore and Turner (1968: 30, figs. middle and bottom) for comparable masks at the Australian Museum, Sydney. These, acquired in 1915, were collected by the same person (although his name is spelled differently: S.G. Macdonell, ibid., 29) and in the same village as the ones in the Bishop Museum. There is also one of these masks in the Queensland Museum, attached to a small circular frame. Perhaps the rest of the wearer's head was covered with a fiber drape which may have hidden his whole body." (Catalog #433, New Guinea Art: Masterpieces from the Jolika Collection of Marcia and John Friede, 2005, Volume 2, p. 157.)

Related Keywords
Mask Francisco San Museums Arts Fine Gift Promised Friede John Marcia Art Jolika speakers language Orokola people Elema western Oceania Province Gulf Guinea New Accessory Costume pigment rattan cloth Bark 0709200406050523 A365298 L05.1.385 AOA