Uli figures
Uli figures (also nalik figures) are wooden sculptures that were at the center of cultic life in the central part of the island of New Ireland . They are among the most famous works of art of New Ireland, the German under the name of New Ireland from 1885 to 1899 under the administration of New Guinea's Company stood, 1899-1914 part of the colony German New Guinea was and now one of Papua New Guinea belongs. A total of around 250 Uli figures are known from museum holdings and private collections.
Origin and history
The sculptures were discovered by collectors and explorers between the end of the 19th century and 1930 in their region of origin, the area of the Madak language group on the Lelet Plateau in the northern part of Central New Ireland, and brought to Europe and America respectively . The Uli sculptures were associated with various other cults and practices such as sexual permissiveness , circumcision of the initiated boys, over-modeled ceremonial skulls , and probably headhunting as well .
The cults and sexual freedom associated with the Uli figures were fought by the missionaries , the Uli rites disappeared in the first decades of the 20th century.
description
Uli possibly means: "paint white". The sculptures, which are carved from one piece and are 1.40 to two meters in size, are characterized by white painting and compact body shapes. A massive body with short, stocky legs and a large head, crowned by an ornate crest, symbolizing spirituality, with sharply cut facial features and a broad beard characterize the vast majority of the figures. In the vigorous beings with the grim faces, all differences that can be grasped in conceptual categories seem to have dissolved. Whether they express anger or joy is as uncertain as the question of their gender. They are mostly hermaphrodites with pronounced female breasts and male genitals . The masculine traits represent the physical strength required to protect the kinship clan. The female breasts symbolize fertility and the duty to nourish the group. The figures symbolize the power and strength a clan leader had to have in order to assert his claim to leadership. Since the ideal leader should be strong and aggressive as well as nurturing and caring, the dual sex nature of the Uli characters is explained. The Uli sculptures are characterized by the smaller cult figures that are added to the main figure on the shoulders, in front of the stomach or under the feet, which duplicate the larger figure.
The German anthropologist Augustin Krämer , who took part in several collection and research expeditions to German New Guinea in the early 20th century, as well as other, older scientific sources, took the view that the Uli figures represent mythical ancestors and deceased male heads.
Today it is assumed that the sculptures combine female and male characteristics into a symbolic representation of the life energy passed on through the maternal and paternal line and the male and female aspects necessary for the continued existence of society. However, they were not made for a specific ancestor.
Comparative research on the shape of the Uli figures reveal eleven or twelve basic styles. The lembankákat lakós type describes a Uli figure that stands on a second, much smaller figure lying on its stomach and curved upwards. A legend associated with this Uli-type tells of Sokokau from the village of Paranu, who climbed on his child Liu to take the eggs from the Avensik bird's nest and crushed his child in the process. By standing on another figure and being carried by it, some sculptures represent the moon as the embodiment of female fertility and male regenerative power. In the sculptures of the selambungin lorong type, there is another, smaller figure on each shoulder of the Uli figure. The lembankakat egilampe type refers to figures that place their hands on the stomach as a symbol of well-being.
Uli cult
The figures were used in the context of extensive memorial celebrations, where the sculptures were exhibited, among other things, as roof attachments or as groups of two or three in small conical huts. The residents of neighboring villages brought their Uli figures with them to the festivals of the cult. They were not redesigned for every celebration, but carefully stored and revived by painting. The costly ceremonies, which required several years of preparation, consisted of a series of individual festivals that dragged on for years. Dances and celebratory meals dominated public events, while the ritual activities were largely performed in secret. Rites of passage from life to another, invisible existence were celebrated. The men took on the role of nourishing normally assigned to women in the broadest sense and represented their role with the help of artificial breasts and “female” bast skirts. After the feast of the dead, the figures were kept wrapped in the ceremonial houses. Often they were also sold on to other islanders who had to hold a funeral service.
reception
The works of art from New Ireland inspired and influenced many Western artists towards the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, for example German Expressionists such as Emil Nolde . Nolde's painting “Still life with wooden figure” was exhibited in the Folkwang Museum in Hagen and later in Essen together with Uli figures. André Breton wrote in his poem “Uli”: “Sure you are a great God…. you fear, you enchant ”.
Uli figures in museums and private collections
Uli figures can be found in ethnological collections around the world. The Ethnological Museum Berlin is showing two Uli figures in the permanent exhibition "South Seas". A figure collected by Franz Boluminski , who was station manager and district administrator of North Neumecklenburg from 1900, was inventoried in 1908 in the Linden Museum in Stuttgart . The works of art came into the collection of the Museum Folkwang through the mediation of the painter Emil Nolde, who traveled to the South Seas in 1913 as part of the “ Medical-Demographic German New Guinea Expedition ” .
literature
- Brigitte Derlon: De mémoire et d'oubli: anthropologie des objets malanggan de Nouvelle-Irlande. CNRS Éditions / Éditions de la Maison des sciences de l'homme, [no location] 1997, ISBN 2-7351-0752-3 , p. 111 ( direct link to page 111 in the Google book search).
- Philip C. Gifford: The Iconology of the Uli Figure of Central New Ireland. Dissertation, New York, Columbia University 1974: 219 (number 64).
- Michael Gunn: Ritual Arts of Oceania: New Ireland. Skira editore, Milan 1997, ISBN 88-8118-207-6 , pp. 37-63.
- Michael Gunn, Pierre-Alain Ferrazzini: Ritual Arts of Oceania, New Ireland. In: Collections of the Barbier-Mueller Museum , Skira International Corporation, [no location] 2005.
- Gerhard Peekel: Uli and Ulifeier or from the moon cult on New Mecklenburg. Archive for Anthropology, Volume 23, Braunschweig 1932, pp. 41–75.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Uli figure from Central New Ireland Imagery - Africa, Oceania and the Modern Age, January 25, 2009 - June 28, 2009, exhibition by the Fondation Beyeler in Riehen near Basel
- ^ Ethnologue, Languages of the World: Madak, A language of Papua New Guinea
- ↑ no author information: Figure (uli), Mandak-Barak area, Lelet Plateau, Central New Ireland Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History . The Metropolitan Museum of Art , New York
- ↑ a b c d e Yvonne Mensching: A masterpiece of “South Sea Art” ( memento of the original from September 7, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Museum portal Berlin
- ↑ a b Niklas Maak: (October 2, 2007) Südseekunst in Dahlem, The man with the tropical helmet Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung No. 229, Frankfurt 2007 p. 43
- ^ Claudia Kuhland: Uli figure in the Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum, Cologne
- ↑ no author details: Uli figure in the Übersee-Museum Bremen ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ no author information : Uli sculptures ( memento of the original from July 25, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. State Museum of Ethnology, Munich, Circle of Friends
- ↑ Brigitte Derlon: De mémoire et d'oubli: anthropologie des objets malanggan de Nouvelle-Irlande , CNRS Éditions / Éditions de la Maison des sciences de l'homme , 1997, ISBN 2-7351-0752-3 , p. 111
- ↑ a b no author's name: Figure (Uli) , Typ lembankakat lakos , Brooklyn Museum , Collections, Arts of the Pacific Islands
- ↑ no information on the author: Männliche Figur, nalik, 18./19. Century. ( Memento of the original from September 14, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Beyeler Foundation
- ↑ no author information : Uli figure of the type selambungin lorong . Los Angeles County Museum of Art
- ^ A b Mario von Lüttichau: Uli figure of the lembankákat ëgilámpe Museum Folkwang type
- ↑ No author's name: Uli from the ethnological collection of the Julius Riemer Museum Wittenberg Museum of City History, Natural History and Ethnology "Julius Riemer", Lutherstadt Wittenberg
- ^ Museum Folkwang Essen: Emil Nolde - Still life with wooden figure , Kulturstiftung der Länder, Patrimonia No. 91, Berlin 1995
- ^ André Breton: Uli Association Atelier André Breton
