Oceania & Americas Artifacts

The Sepik River, in the wet season, and a potter’s hands are working the clay. The decorating, by custom, is left to the men.

Oceanic and Pre-Columbian artifacts bring the Pacific islands and the ancient Americas together. From Papua New Guinea come Aibom sago storage jars, decorated with the faces of pigs, birds and bush spirits, along with Sawos kamana sago bowls and the carved ceremonial bowls of Tami Island in the Huon Gulf. From the Americas come polychrome Coclé pottery from Panama, painted with fish, birds and human figures on cream grounds between about 150 BC and 800 AD, and Huari face-neck jars from Peru’s Ayacucho valley, made by probably the first centrally governed state of the Andes.

Earthenware, wood and pigment, the surfaces dry and matte from age. A Coclé bowl on a lacquered shelf or a Sepik jar beside a leather club chair gives a room a grounded voice.

Old, and in no hurry.