Neckrest, Tami Islands, Huon Gulf, Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea

This exceptional neckrest illustrates the consummate virtuosity and imagination of the Tami artist who created it in the late 19^th century. The inventiveness of these artists was remarked upon by European observers; Richard Neuhauss, who was in New Guinea from 1908-1910 – two or three years after this neckrest was collected – wrote that “the extent to which these carvings differ from one another is quite amazing; it seems that each artist deliberately avoids copying items that already exist.” (Neuhauss, Deutsch Neu-Guinea, Berlin, 1911, vol. 1, p. 249).

Here the neck support or “pillow” is supported by an openwork structure composed of two parallel, parabolic curves, buttressed at the centre and resting on the heads of two caryatid figures, which are representations of ancestral spirits known as kani, or balum-kani (Biró, cited in Bodrogi, Art in North-East New Guinea, Budapest, 1961, p. 70). Their long, mask-like faces project out and away from their elongated torsos, which are bent back at an acute angle, and their thrusting, acrobatic posture is further accentuated by the placement of the arms, which are pulled back and away from the body. The overall effect is one of supple lightness, and an airy, open feel.