Hung upside down, this bat was once suspended over a dance ground among other figures, with masks and headdresses also in attendance. It is made out of the fibrous trunk of a tree fern coated with a clay-like mixture of vegetable paste. The use of fernwood to make sculpture is a practice unique to people living on Vanuatu, located to the south of New Guinea, and north of Fiji. During a performance, enormous slit-gong instruments offered booming accompaniment. Whether the bat was cast as an evil or helpful character is still unknown.
Fernwood, dung, and fiber
15 1/2 x 30 1/4 x 16 in. (39.37 x 76.84 x 40.64 cm)
Gift of Katherine White and the Boeing Company
81.17.1437
Not currently on view
Resources
Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, The Untold Story, November 14, 2003 - November 14, 2004
Seattle Art Museum respectfully acknowledges that we are on Indigenous land, the traditional territories of the Coast Salish people. We honor our ongoing connection to these communities past, present, and future.
