Southwest Bay, Malekula Island, Vanuatu
Circa 1930
Cane, palm fiber, pandanus, overmodeled clay, red ocher, charcoal, white lime, boar's tusks
Height: 27½ in (70 cm)
Provenance: Field collected in 1963 by Nicolai Michoutouchkine; American East Coast private collection
Temes or temes nevimbur refers to a category of ritual objects — masks, puppets, and dance staffs — used in the Nimangki secret society initiation ceremonies of Malekula Island, where they were deployed to represent powerful spirits and enact mythological narratives. These masks were constructed over a complex armature of cane and palm fiber, the face overmodeled in clay and painted with natural pigments, and were worn or displayed during ceremonies that marked the progression of initiates through successive grades of the Nimangki system. Nicolai Michoutouchkine, who field-collected this mask in 1963, was a French-Russian artist who spent decades in Vanuatu and became one of the most significant documentarians of Malekula ceremonial culture.
The mask presents a pair of ancestral faces painted in red ocher, black charcoal, and white lime, adorned with boar's tusks at the lower register. The upper portion is constructed from interwoven pandanus fibers that would originally have secured a display of cockerel feathers, now absent. The overall assembly — cane frame, overmodeled face, painted surface, and tusk adornments — remains largely intact, the materials coherent and the pigments well-preserved.
We ship free anywhere in the world, fully insured, packed by hand.
Southwest Bay, Malekula Island, Vanuatu
Circa 1930
Cane, palm fiber, pandanus, overmodeled clay, red ocher, charcoal, white lime, boar's tusks
Height: 27½ in (70 cm)
Provenance: Field collected in 1963 by Nicolai Michoutouchkine; American East Coast private collection
Temes or temes nevimbur refers to a category of ritual objects — masks, puppets, and dance staffs — used in the Nimangki secret society initiation ceremonies of Malekula Island, where they were deployed to represent powerful spirits and enact mythological narratives. These masks were constructed over a complex armature of cane and palm fiber, the face overmodeled in clay and painted with natural pigments, and were worn or displayed during ceremonies that marked the progression of initiates through successive grades of the Nimangki system. Nicolai Michoutouchkine, who field-collected this mask in 1963, was a French-Russian artist who spent decades in Vanuatu and became one of the most significant documentarians of Malekula ceremonial culture.
The mask presents a pair of ancestral faces painted in red ocher, black charcoal, and white lime, adorned with boar's tusks at the lower register. The upper portion is constructed from interwoven pandanus fibers that would originally have secured a display of cockerel feathers, now absent. The overall assembly — cane frame, overmodeled face, painted surface, and tusk adornments — remains largely intact, the materials coherent and the pigments well-preserved.
We ship free anywhere in the world, fully insured, packed by hand.
