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artist
Door, 19th - 20th century
Wood
165.1 x 53.3 x 5.1 cm (65 x 21 x 2 in.)
Gift of Georgia Sales 2004.114.1

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Artist Biography: (none) PROVENANCE: Nagata Collection, Tokyo, Japan PUBLICATIONS: 2009 FAM Bulletin entry (unabridged) - "The design and embellishment of traditional aristocratic houses reflected their owner's worldviews and religious philosophies. (1) These dwellings were more than simply a roof over one's head. They were “living” entities that embodied the collective wisdom and life force of the ancestors. Reflecting this notion, the Batak, the Toraja, and many other different groups equated different areas of a house with parts of the human body; i.e. “the head, navel, arms or legs,” etc. Amongst the Tetum people on the Island of Timor, the front of the house is described as being a “face” and the door situated there “the eye of the house” which was exclusively used by post-pubescent males. Conversely, passage to the house's largest and most important room is through the rear door or “the house vagina” and is used only by women. (2) The Tetum are a matrilineal society and their houses are decidedly run by females. (3) This particular door's imagery is clearly female, but with a twist -- the motif rising from the central geometric design and a pair of protruding breasts is actually a warrior's crest. Expropriating a powerful “male” image linked to head hunting symbolically expressed complementary associations between the inner, womb-like world of the house (female) and the more hostile outer world (male). In their ceremonies, traditional Indonesians always display heirlooms that are both “male” and “female” so that opposite forces can be balanced, and the order of all things harmoniously renewed and maintained." FOOTNOTES (1) Resources used for this entry: Waterson, Roxanna. The Living House, An Anthropology of Architecture in South-East Asia. New York: Whitney Library of Design, 1990; Rodgers, Susan, Power and gold: jewelry from Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines from the collection of the Barbier-Mueller Museum, Geneva (Munich: Prestel Verlag, 1988); Barbier, Jean Paul, Indonesian primitive art: Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines; from the collection of the Barbier-Müller Museum, Geneva (Dallas: Dallas Museum of Art, 1984); Barbier, Jean Paul & Newton, Douglas, Ed. Islands and Ancestors, Indigenous Styles of Southeast Asia (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1988. (2) Waterson, Roxanna. The Living House, An Anthropology of Architecture in South-East Asia. New York: Whitney Library of Design, 1990; Hicks (?). (3) Waterson, The Living House.

Related Keywords
Door Sales Georgia Gift Japan Tokyo Nagata people Tetum Oceania Timor island Indonesia Architectural Wood crest warrior's male also breasts protruding pair design geometric central rises motif female clearly imagery carved door's This 0813200812330010 A373235 2004.114.1 AOA