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African and Oceanic Art from the Barbier-Mueller Museum, Geneva: A Legacy of Collecting
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Funerary Figure (Kulap)
Southern New Ireland, 19th century
Limestone, fiber; H: 29 1/2 in. (75 cm)
Provenance: Collected in New Ireland, ca. 1890; Augustus H. L. F. Pitt-rivers, Pitt Rivers Museum, Farnham, Dorset, 1898; [W. D. Webster, London, before 1900]; Stella Pitt-Rivers; John Hewett, London; [Mathias Komor, New York, 1977], Barbier-Mueller collection, since 1977
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Created exclusively in the southern region of the island of New Ireland, kulap figures depicted individuals who had recently died. The figures served as temporary abodes for the spirits of the dead, which might otherwise wander, harming the living. Carved from soft, chalk-like limestone, kulap were made by carvers living near the stone quarries in the Rossel Mountains. When an individual died, a male relative traveled to the mountains and acquired a kulap to bring back to the village. There it was erected, along with other kulap, in a funerary shrine set up inside a ceremonial building surrounded by an enclosure. Only men could view the kulap display, although women often assembled outside the compound to mourn their lost relatives. After an appropriate period of time, the figures were secretly removed by the men and destroyed or, at times during the colonial period, sold to Westerners. See a kulap figure in the Met's collection.
See the Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History to learn more about New Ireland.
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