Elema bird mask. Oceania, Papua New Guinea, ca. 1960.

Elema bird mask. Oceania, Papua New Guinea, ca. 1960.
Woven and braided plant fiber, pigments and clay.
Provenance: Ricardo Ostalé Collection; collected in the field by George J. Craig (Peru, 1930-Australia, 2024).
In good condition, with wear and alterations typical of organic materials, in accordance with its age, ceremonial use and ethnographic nature.
Measurements: 100 x 51 cm.

Bird mask of the Elema people, made of woven and braided vegetable fiber, with application of pigments and clay. The piece presents an elevated and vertical structure, topped by a long upper appendix, and a frontal face of intense expressiveness, with circular eyes, prominent nose, toothed mouth and lateral extensions as wings.

The decoration in white, black and red accentuates the ritual character of the mask and reinforces its powerful scenic presence. The circular base of braided fiber suggests its conception as an object to be carried or activated in ceremonies, where volume, color, movement and visual transformation played an essential role.

The Elema people, settled in the area of the Gulf of Papua, developed a rich tradition of ceremonial masks linked to ancestral beings, spirits and totemic entities. In this piece, the reference to the bird is combined with a strong formal abstraction, resulting in a piece of great plastic intensity and evident ritual dimension.