Alcheringa Gallery
665 Fort Street
Victoria, BC, Canada
TEL: (250) 383-8224
FAX: (250) 383-9399
email alcheringa
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Joseph Timbin
Suaru (Iatmul)
Palembei Village, Middle Sepik River,
The village of Palembei, blessed with great natural beauty, is also graced with two haus tambarans, a wealth of mastercarvers, and a number of young men learning the art. Joseph Timbin feels great pride that he heads a family of skilled carvers. Out of his family of five girls and six boys, Otto, Francis and Michael are already established mastercarvers; a younger son, says Joseph, is "up and coming."
In his own youth, Joseph Timbin was away from the village for several years as Kujingini, a Catholic mission school in the Wosera area. He returned to Palembei Village at age 15.
Joseph learned to carve from his own father, a mastercarver named Tapu. Joseph's talent and skills are wide-ranging, encompassing bothlarge and small sculptures from major ceremonial headdresses to delicately painted lime containers.
He has a mwai mask in the National Museum in Port Moresby, and another piece in a museum in Canberra, Australia. His work is in the collection of the Hon. Peter Bater in Madang, Papua New Guinea, as well as in other private collections in Australia, the United States, Germany, and Canada.
Joseph died in 2003.
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