Dance Headdress

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Dance Headdress

Papua New Guinea, New Britain, Sulka People, circa 1880
Sculpture
Wood, fiber, bark strips, shell, cassowary feathers, and pigment
62 x 46 x 35 in. (157.48 x 116.84 x 88.9 cm)
Purchased with funds provided by the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation with additional funding by Jane and Terry Semel, the David Bohnett Foundation, Camilla Chandler Frost, Gayle and Edward P. Roski, and The Ahmanson Foundation (M.2008.66.5)
Not currently on public view

Provenance

Völkerkundliches Mission Museum, Wuppertal. Wayne Heathcote (b. 1943), New York, NY, sold to; Masco Corporation Collection, Livonia, MI, sold 2008 through; [Sotheby’s, New York, to]; LACMA.

Label

Gallery Label

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Gallery Label
This dancing figure is another form of the traditionally cone-shaped Sulka dance headdress. The double-sided headdress is made of bark strips and pithy fiber wrapped over a wood frame, with attached hands, feet, and breasts, all made of wood.

The headdress, originally more vibrant, has faded to its current pink color. Unique to Oceanic indigenous plants and minerals, particularly in this region of New Britain, the blues, greens, pinks, and yellows make Sulka art vibrant and more colorful than that of other Pacific cultures.

This headdress was made to accompany an equally colorful cloak costume and was intended for disposal after its use in ceremonial dances. These commemorations marked important social-passage celebrations, such as births, initiations, marriages, and the deaths of important members of society. Taking as long as six months to produce one, these headdresses were left out in the elements to decay after their one-time use. They were believed to bring dignity and ancestral spirit power to the wearer, because the figure was seen as a temporary resting place for spirits.

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Bibliography

  • Wardwell, Allen. Island Ancestors: Oceanic Art from the Masco Collection. [Seattle]: University of Washington Press, 1994.