The Mary Spedding Milliken Memorial Collection, Gift of William Mathewson Milliken · The Cleveland Museum of Art
Image: public domain (CC0) · Museum record & image source ↗

Melanesia, Papua New Guinea, Huon Gulf, Tami Islands, 19th century · 1800s

Bowl

Creator not recorded by the museum

Date: 1800s
Medium: painted wood
Dimensions: Overall: 9.9 x 40.3 x 17.4 cm (3 7/8 x 15 7/8 x 6 7/8 in.)
Country / context: Papua New Guinea
Movement / tradition: Oceanic arts
Collection: The Cleveland Museum of Art
Pathway: Oceanic arts ↗

FROM THE MUSEUM

The people of the Tami Islands manufactured canoes, house beams, drums, bowls, lime spatulas, and neckrests using tools such as stone axes, bamboo knives, tree-bear teeth, and pig, cassowary, and dog bones. Tami bowls were carved from the hard wood of the azalea and decorated with patterns that vary from deep etching to high relief. Many bowls were blackened with a graphite compound and highly polished. Decorative patterns were owned by specific families, and could not be used by other carvers.

Collection text · The Cleveland Museum of Art · CC0

A MOMENT TO LOOK

Start with what you can see: shapes, surface, colour and scale. How might the listed materials affect the way this object was made and experienced?

Looking prompt · an invitation to observe, not a historical interpretation.

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