Chubwan mask

Archives | Vanuatu

Chubwan mask

Vanuatu

Pentecost Island, Vanuatu (New Hebrides)

Carved wood
19th century
Height: 23 cm

Provenance :
Ex collection Arman, Paris / New York
Ex auction Loudmer Poulain, 8 June 1978 Paris, lot 287
Ex private collectio, Paris, acquired at the above sale

Sold
As stated by Crispin Howarth, Curator, Pacific Arts, National Gallery of Australia: this type of Chubwan mask from the Island of Pentecost in Vanuatu belongs to a very limited corpus.
Chubwan are carved from hardwood with a domed forehead and pierced septum through a bulbous nose. The nose reveals a long neglected practice on Pentecost of nasal piercing, or it may be a vulgar caricature of people from adjacent islands who continued this practice into the early twentieth century.
Very little is actually known about the true purpose of chubwan as tradition associated with this mask ceased long ago. We can only speculate as to whether such masks were worn for public festivities or ritual events, although many believe that the masks were worn at events based on the association of men and yams. The wearing of this mask may have offered some form of spiritual protection—as is the case with masks from neighbouring Malakula Island, which were worn to protect the living from the spirits of the dead.
Regardless of the chubwan’s enigmatic function, the artist skilfully created a face that would frighten and intimidate. As Felix Speiser, a visitor to the area in 1910, noted in his book Ethnology of Vanuatu: ‘… such a face, seen in the semi-darkness of the forest by the light of flickering torches, must have had a frightful enough effect’.
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CoLLECTIoNS

Overmodeled Skull

Archives | Vanuatu

Overmodeled Skull

Vanuatu

Ancestor overmodeled skull

Bone, spider web, vegetable fiber, cloth, paint
First part of the 20th century
Height: 9 ¾ in. (25 cm)
Length: 9 ½ in. (24 cm)

Ex private collection, Netherlands
Ex Cornette de Saint-Cyr auction, Drouot,
Paris, June 2001, lot 104
Ex private collection, Paris

Vanuatu Ancestor skull 24 cm / Galerie Flak Sold
Ancestor skulls were revered in Melanesia. In Vanuatu, the worship of ancestors notably included the use and display of overmodelled skulls. The latter could be part of a rambaramp figure. The rambaramp is a funerary effigy of a high-ranking Vanuatu person. The effigy displayed the signs of the rank and initiation grades of the deceased. It appeared publicly during the funeral rituals, after which the skulls of high-ranking ancestors were preserved and placed in the roof of the men's house.

This cranial deformation shown here was common in Vanuatu. It was a matter of custom and aesthetics. When children were born, the skull was held firmly in place with wooden sticks and strips that compressed and stretched the skull as it grew.
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Anthropomorphic Figure

oceania | Vanuatu

Anthropomorphic Figure

Vanuatu

Possibly the top of a grade post

Carved wood
Early 20th century
Height: 36 ¼ in. (92 cm)

Ex collection Renaud Vanuxem, Paris
Ex private collection, France

Vanuatu Grade figure 92 cm / Galerie Flak Price on request
This sculpture was presumably the top of a post placed in front of the ceremonial houses and chief huts. Its shape is reminiscent of the iconography of the large grade figures made of fern wood.
As stated by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, much of the art of central and northern Vanuatu in the southwest Pacific is associated with grade rituals, a hierarchical series of initiations, each of which confers successively greater religious and political authority during life and in the realm of the dead. During the ceremonies, grade figures were erected on the dancing ground and served as temporary abode for the spirits associated with the grade.
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