Nicknamed a "hook figure," this type of sculpture was carved by the Arambak people of Papua New Guinea. When anthropologist Anthony Forge studied among the 700 remaining Arambak in 1960, he saw the forms being kept in a men's house where they were decorated with offerings of food and other substances to aid in the fertility of crops and hunting. When he persisted in asking if the hook system might be regarded as a phallus, the elders basically answered, "No comment." Other sources describe the hook above the head as a feather, the center hooks as ribs, with the heart in the middle.
Wood and pigment
64 1/4 x 6 1/2 x 2in. (163.2 x 16.5 x 5.1cm)
Gift of Katherine White and the Boeing Company
81.17.1463
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.
