Specifications

• Height: 26 cm
• Material: wood, rattan
• Position: standing
• Gender: female
• Indigenous name: tamehembu

Provenance

Jacques Viot, collected in situ 1929; Emile Bouchard, Paris; Marcia and John Friede, New York; Bruce Frank Primitive Art, New York.

Publications

Greub, Suzanne (ed.)(1992), Art of Northwest New Guinea: from Geelvink Bay, Humboldt Bay and Lake Sentani, p. 92, fig. 53; Frank, Bruce, East of Borneo, catalogue Parcours des Mondes, Paris September 2019, nr. 33.

Ref.: Hoogerbrugge, Jac. (1967), Sentani-meer, mythe en ornament’ in Kultuurpatronen 9, 78-79.

Additional information

Tamehembu is the local name for knives; ‘tame’ means ‘brought by strangers’, ‘mehembu’ means ‘tool’. Larger items with a handle shaped in the form of a human figure were only in use for ceremonial purposes. (Hoogerbrugge 1967: 79)

Photo credits

Oren Eckhaus, New York