Object of the Month - An Elema eharo mask
1st September 2024
It is easy to think of Oceanic art as being imbued with symbolism and ritual, and that is true of many objects. Other pieces, however, were created with the sole purpose of amusement.
The Elema people of the Papuan Gulf in south-east New Guinea had a well-established cycle of formal rituals, involving objects that were considered highly sacred. However, they also produced masks known as maea morava eharo, translating to ‘things of gladness’. These were designed to amuse and were worn twice during the long cycle of Heheve as a forerunner to more serious ceremonies. (Heheve was a ritualistic cycle designed to make peace with the wild spirits of the sea and the forest).
The masks offered a light relief to the cycle and often took a typical form of humorous archetypes – the sort of stock characters that would be found in another culture of the Italian commedia dell’arte. The wearers of the masks would usually be younger men invited from a neighbouring village. Upon dancing into the ceremony, they would have shredded coconut thrown at them by the host women; the aim being to overcome their seductive powers. Once the dancers were no longer considered a threat to the local female population an atmosphere of revelry would prevail.
The villagers used natural materials such as bark cloth and cane to create the masks – decorating them with vibrant pigments created from vegetable matter. Unlike the masks used for sacred ceremonies, the women were permitted to view their construction and there are no taboos or restrictions on either the making or the wearing of them.
The example in our Arts of Africa, Oceania and the Americas auction on 18th September is in remarkable condition and stands at over a metre tall. The striking red, black and white pigments remain vibrant and it would have cut a majestic figure when used as part of the Heheve cycle.
A number of eharo masks are in museum collections around the world and are highly prized by collectors. Lot 597 in our September auction sold for £7,560.
