Spirit Boards of the Papuan Gulf at the British Museum
Spirit Boards of the Papuan Gulf at the British Museum
Curated by Steven G. Alpert
Aesthetically synonymous with the trove of artworks from the Papuan Gulf region of New Guinea are carved and painted spirit boards. These boards are not merely decorated panels per se but spiritually charged representations that depict diverse spirits, mythological or ancestral-like figures, in a myriad of related but highly individualized representations. Known universally as gope boards (this term is taken from communities living along the Wapo and Era rivers), spirit boards are also referred to in the literature as hohao by the Elema people or kwoi or koi by groups living in the Purari Delta.
Spirit boards were considered important ceremonial items. Their designs were owned by individual clans and inherited by patrilineal groups. Boards of various functions were numinous, kept in shrines or along the partitions, separating the sleeping areas for initiated men of the same clan. In an era before incandescent light, spirit boards, with their off-setting color schemes and finely cut bold designs on their obverse side, played a prominent visual, connective-linguistic, and spiritual role in men's houses where they functioned as 'protectors' and 'advisors.'
The influential vigor of these boards empowered their keepers within and beyond the realm of the men's house. They were invoked on headhunting, raids for stalking game, or keeping any and all potentially malevolent forces at bay. It is of interest that the planks for spirit boards were often fashioned from the gunwales and freeboards of canoes. In poetical, and in real terms, good and bad fortune, conquest or demise, traveled via the water. Like the water, spirit boards evoke and speak to generational continuity, ritual fulfillment, and personal responsibility within the matrix of the clan.
The first Papuan spirit boards began to enter foreign European and Australian collections in the latter part of the 19th century. They survive in significant numbers and are still made today. We are fortunate this month to present a small aggregation of antique spirit boards from the British Museum. This group makes a statement not only for the boards' easily accessible aesthetic power but also for each board's attending online documentation.
Of the twelve spirit boards illustrated here, one entered the museum in 1892, with the remainder being accessioned before the onset of the First World War; save three examples that were donated in 1936. A few of the spirit boards have related cognates in diverse global museum and private collections. In contrast, others are breathtaking reminders of just how inventive and impression-making a metier this was for artists from an earlier time.
The first board stands out for its rare use of an entire figure with cutout legs. Everything here speaks of motion, layered movement, and male fertility that is linked to the genesis of a five-pointed starburst around the figure's navel. The story is untold, but it spans many generations of mythological and ancestral connectivity and seems, like many of these boards, oddly fresh and still communicative.
Attendant stories and ownership of designs were handed down. A generation separates this first figure from one collected in 1936, though they clearly share similar stylistic attributes. These boards are followed by two rather unusual spirit boards for their depictions of a serpentine life form, while the other is centered around a sizeable anthropomorphic creature, perhaps a crocodile. Both entered the museum in 1906 and in their liner notes, it's stated that they were collected on the Purari. In this same vein of excellence, one that is among the finest early examples presented here, is a board whose patterning is actually quite common. In this version, the entire design vibrates and bellows like a basso profundo with its deep, radiant 'eyes' centered around a large anthropomorphic face. The face's umbilical-like body merges with the outer whole to encircle and magnify the board's content. This particular piece was collected by the redoubtable missionary James Chalmers, who spent nearly thirty years evangelizing in New Guinea and the South Seas (1866-1895).
Like the first spirit board, a last favorite is unusual for its full frontal figure adorned with dancing regalia. It is another early Chalmers collected piece that dates back to the 19th century. These are reminders of the surprises residing in museum vaults and depots that await discovery. There is a considerable amount of literature on Papuan spirit boards from pre and post-war publications of notables like Alfred Haddon, Paul Wirz, and Douglas Newton, among many others. Of later publications of merit, there is the article Papuan Gulf Spirit Boards and Detecting Social Boundaries: A Preliminary Investigation by James Rhoads and Virginia Lee-Webb's fine catalog Embodied Spirits: Gope Boards from the Papuan Gulf.
— Steven G. Alpert, founder of Art of the Ancestors
1
Figurative Spirit Board
Wood, pigments, cane?
Field Collection by Rev James Chalmers
Purchased from Clarke Robinson & Co in 1914
Oc1914,0418.41
2
Spirit Board
Wood, pigments, fiber, feather
Donated by Walter Edward Guinness,
1st Baron Moyne in 1936
Oc1936,0720.1
3
Ceremonial Board
Wood, fiber, pigments
Made by Elema?
On the reverse written in pencil: 'Purari'
Donated by Dr Walter Mersh Strong in 1906
Oc1906,-.16
4
Spirit Board
19th century — early 20th century
Wood, pigments
Made by I'ai
Field Collection by Maj William Cooke Daniels
Acquired during the Daniels Ethnographical Expedition to British New Guinea 1903-1904
Donated by Prof Charles Gabriel Seligman in 1906
Oc1906,1013.4
5
Spirit Board
Wood, pigments
Found in Kaipuravi?
Donated by Dr Walter Mersh Strong in 1907
Oc1907,-.106
6
Ceremonial Board
Wood, pigments
Found in Purari
Field Collection by Rev James Chalmers
Purchased from Clarke Robinson & Co in 1914
Oc1914,0418.35
7
Ceremonial Board
Wood, pigments
Found in Purari
Field Collection by Rev James Chalmers
Purchased from Clarke Robinson & Co in 1914
Oc1914,0418.34
8
Spirit Board
Wood, pigments
Donated by Walter Edward Guinness,
1st Baron Moyne in 1936
Oc1936,0720.11
9
Spirit Board
Wood, pigments
Donated by Walter Edward Guinness, 1st Baron Moyne in 1936
Oc1936,0720.8
10
Ceremonial Board
Wood, fiber, pigments
Made by Elema?
Donated by Dr Walter Mersh Strong in 1906
Oc1906,-.17
11
Spirit Board
19th century before 1892
Wood, fiber, pigments
Made by Maripo?
Donated by Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks in 1892
Purchased through Stevens Auction Rooms Ltd
Oc,+.5799
12
Figurative Spirit Board
Wood, pigments, vegetable fiber, lime
Field Collection by Rev James Chalmers
Purchased from Clarke Robinson & Co in 1914
Oc1914,0418.42
All artworks and images presented in this feature are the property of the British Museum.
© The Trustees of the British Museum