Welcome to Accessories to Ceremony. This show is unusual for us in two ways: first, all the included works play a role in ritual and daily life in their respective cultures (from Papua New Guinea's Sepik, Trobriand Islands, New Ireland, & Tabar Islands); second, this collection spans much of the gallery's history, including its first years of working with Papua New Guinea artists, when we unfortunately followed the standard museum practice of inconsistently crediting individual aboriginal artists. We feel that the creators of the unattributed pieces included in this exhibition would want their work to be shown anyway, so we present it here, with apologies and thanks, beside the work of artists with whom we've worked in recent decades.
Included are a selection of instruments used for music and communication; weapons and tools, including ceremonial apparatus associated with the grinding, seasoning, and ingestion of betel nut; a dance mask, a child's toy, food and salt storage vessels, brideprice shells and jewellery, and an architectural adornment. Most of these pieces are fashioned in a very particular regional style; for comparison, we've included some pieces with the same function from different areas. As usual, we welcome questions and comments about this work.
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