"The ancestors watch over human activities, but are also connected with the larger workings of the cosmos."
Curator Eric Kjellgren on a towering slit gong from northern Vanuatu.
Throughout 2013, The Met invited curators from across the Museum to each talk about one artwork that changed the way they see the world. Each episode is interpreted by a Museum photographer.
Photography by Oi-Cheong Lee
Field recording courtesy of Eric Kjellgren, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Photographs and field recording courtesy of Eric Kjellgren, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Field recording courtesy of Eric Kjellgren, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The ancestor's voice emerges from the slit in the gong when it is played
"The ancestors, in a sense, are of the human world, watch over human activities, but are also connected with the larger workings of the cosmos."
Eric Kjellgren
2 min. watch
Contributors
Eric Kjellgren
Evelyn A. J. Hall and John A. Friede Associate Curator for Oceanic Art, Department of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas
Evelyn A. J. Hall and John A. Friede Associate Curator for Oceanic Art, Department of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas
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Art Mentioned
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Tin Mweleun
mid- to late 1960s