Memorial Figure (uli, selambungin lorong type)circa 1900

On view:

Geffen Galleries, Navigating Pacific Asia

Carved wood figure painted in white, brick red, and dark brown, with a conical headdress, open-mouth grimace, and inlaid eyes, standing within a rectangular open frame

Carved wood figure mounted on a dark rectangular base, shown in three-quarter view, with a tall conical headdress decorated with polychrome geometric patterns in red, blue, and cream. The standing form holds a staff and features a detailed face with painted markings, layered regalia, and worn polychrome surface revealing natural wood tones.

Unknown, Memorial Figure (uli, selambungin lorong type)

Title: Memorial Figure (uli, selambungin lorong type)
Place Made: Papua New Guinea, New Ireland Province
Date Made: circa 1900
Medium: Wood, shell inlay, fiber, and pigment
Dimensions: 52 1/2 x 16 x 15 1/2 in. (133.35 x 40.64 x 39.97 cm)
Credit Line: 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
Accession Number: M.2008.66.3
Classification: Sculpture
Collecting Area: Art of the Pacific
Curatorial Notes: Gallery Label
The hermaphroditic uli, or memorial figure, is used to represent the deceased male chiefs in funerary rites. This uli was used in the more mountainous and isolated interior of the island of New Ireland. Here, a larger carved central standing figure is flanked by a smaller figure on each side. The central figure is painted red, white, and black and is wearing the traditional clothing associated with mourning: a headpiece and wrist and ankle ornaments. The figure is carved with a beard and has black paint on the face in typical war designs. The hands are raised above the two side figures, while other prominent features of the figure stand out because of their unique pairing—visible male genitals and breasts. The breasts could represent the importance of fertility and the duty of the chiefs to provide for and protect women and families, while the phallus represents male power. This hermaphrodite theme is common in the costumes men wore during ceremonial dances, on which breasts were attached.
This figure was used during complex funeral ceremonies that included dances and feasts of pigs that had been brought for the occasion. Huts were constructed specifically for the display of the newly carved uli, along with older uli that were repainted for reuse. Painted skulls of the deceased were ritually presented to the uli sculptures, which represented ancestral power.
Provenance: Linden Museum, Stuttgart. John Alan Friede (b. 1938), New York, NY. Wayne Heathcote (b. 1943), New York, NY, sold to; Masco Corporation Collection, Livonia, MI, sold 2008 through; [Sotheby’s, New York, to]; LACMA.
Selected Bibliography: Wardwell, Allen. Island Ancestors: Oceanic Art from the Masco Collection. [Seattle]: University of Washington Press, 1994.
Muchnic, Suzanne. LACMA So Far: Portrait of a Museum in the Making. San Marino, California: Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, 2015.

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February 21, 2014

Memorial Figure (uli, selambungin lorong type)circa 1900

On view:

Geffen Galleries, Navigating Pacific Asia

Title: Memorial Figure (uli, selambungin lorong type)
Place Made: Papua New Guinea, New Ireland Province
Date Made: circa 1900
Medium: Wood, shell inlay, fiber, and pigment
Dimensions: 52 1/2 x 16 x 15 1/2 in. (133.35 x 40.64 x 39.97 cm)
Credit Line: 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
Accession Number: M.2008.66.3
Classification: Sculpture
Collecting Area: Art of the Pacific
Curatorial Notes: Gallery Label
The hermaphroditic uli, or memorial figure, is used to represent the deceased male chiefs in funerary rites. This uli was used in the more mountainous and isolated interior of the island of New Ireland. Here, a larger carved central standing figure is flanked by a smaller figure on each side. The central figure is painted red, white, and black and is wearing the traditional clothing associated with mourning: a headpiece and wrist and ankle ornaments. The figure is carved with a beard and has black paint on the face in typical war designs. The hands are raised above the two side figures, while other prominent features of the figure stand out because of their unique pairing—visible male genitals and breasts. The breasts could represent the importance of fertility and the duty of the chiefs to provide for and protect women and families, while the phallus represents male power. This hermaphrodite theme is common in the costumes men wore during ceremonial dances, on which breasts were attached.
This figure was used during complex funeral ceremonies that included dances and feasts of pigs that had been brought for the occasion. Huts were constructed specifically for the display of the newly carved uli, along with older uli that were repainted for reuse. Painted skulls of the deceased were ritually presented to the uli sculptures, which represented ancestral power.
Provenance: Linden Museum, Stuttgart. John Alan Friede (b. 1938), New York, NY. Wayne Heathcote (b. 1943), New York, NY, sold to; Masco Corporation Collection, Livonia, MI, sold 2008 through; [Sotheby’s, New York, to]; LACMA.
Selected Bibliography: Wardwell, Allen. Island Ancestors: Oceanic Art from the Masco Collection. [Seattle]: University of Washington Press, 1994.
Muchnic, Suzanne. LACMA So Far: Portrait of a Museum in the Making. San Marino, California: Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, 2015.

Related Unframed

This Weekend at LACMA: Hacienda Heights Art+Film Lab Opening, Musical Performance by Smoke and Mirrors, the Afterlife of Piet Mondrian, and Much More!

February 21, 2014