Artist Statement: The word tatanua is applied both to a dance incorporated into the large-scale mortuary celebration and to the masks created for this dance. The word tatanu refers to the life principle aspect of the soul and the dance speaks of the continued capabilities of living males.
The dance is performed by a group, accompanied with prescribed tatanua music in the form of a male chorus. Traditionally, this exclusively male ritual was held out of the sight of women, but today women are allowed to view it.
The masks reflect the traditional appearance of these men. Records from the sailing bark, Coronet, out of New Bedford, describe the traders they met in 1838:
...the jair is cut close off on each side of the head and in the middle from the forehead to the nape of the neck it is allowed to grow about 1 inch broad and 2 inches high. This is thickly painted red and looks just like a cock's comb. Some had one side of the face painted white, the other a dark blue.
-From Assemblage of Spirits by Louise Lincoln
Tatanua
Ben Sisia
Papua New Guinea
Libba Village, Northern New Ireland
wood (Alstonia villosa), rattan frame, vegetable fibres, shell opercula, bark cloth, natural pigments
19" X 7" X 13"
1992
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