Ceremonial Sculpture

Malagan Sculpture, Northern New Ireland, Acquired in 1912, Wood, Pigments, Turbo Shell, Operculums, Vegetable Fibers, 3 x 57 cm, Donated by A. Chauvelot, 71.1912.1.6

This horizontal sculpture is a representation of a male figure, standing on a crescent, which is a reference to the moon. Painted on either side of the central character are two circular motifs encrusted in their center with a tubo shell operculum, which are most likely thought of as "the eyes of the sun." Two serpents, with their teeth sunk into one another's tail, frame the whole. In New Ireland, when a member of the community dies, restrictions are placed on all of the deceased's property. To put an end to the mourning period centered around the deceased, and to lift restrictions that are a burden to the dead person's family, the deceased's relatives organize a big Malagan ceremony. All of this unfolds inside of an enclosed plot of land where, next to the deceased's tomb, a complex ensemble of vertical and horizontal sculptures are erected, which are this type of panel. This panel, which has been created for the occasion, is destroyed at ceremony's end. The sculpted and painted signs on this panel do not tell a story, but belong, by rights, to the family. They go back to the property rights that are handed down to the following generations at the time of these Malagan rituals.