Art of the Solomon Islands in the British Museum
Art of the Solomon Islands in the British Museum
Curated by Steven G. Alpert
For August, Art of the Ancestors highlights well-conceived objects fashioned with purpose from the artistic canon of the Solomon Islands. To the East of New Guinea, the Solomon Islands consist of six large islands, a further forty smaller islands, and many idyllic atolls and islets. The capital, Honiara, is located on Guadalcanal Island, the other five large islands being New.Georgia, Choiseul, Santa Isabel, Malaita, and San Cristobal. To the Southeast are the Santa Cruz Islands. Bougainville and the Buka Islands form the northern part of the Solomon Archipelago and overlap into Papua New Guinea.
The borders of what are now the Solomon Islands were created by competing German, French, and British colonial interests between 1886 and 1899. A British Protectorate was proclaimed there in 1893 and remained in place until 1978 when the Solomon Islands became an independent nation.
The artworks featured below are both conserved and stewarded by the British Museum. Detailed provenances and well-kept notations on various items from this region are relatively rare, and their presence and availability dramatically enrich our understanding of the traditional cultures deriving from these islands. This group of objects is nothing less than revelatory regarding the beauty of the finest items in conjunction with a profusion of valuable documentation. (The online collection of the British Museum lists 8,727 entries under the Solomon Islands.)
The vast majority of Solomon Islands material in the collection dates from the second half of the 19th through the 1st half of the 20th century. There was a further disgorgement of cultural products just before and during World War II, as many of the islands were directly or peripherally in the war zone. In recent decades, there has also been an ongoing discussion of what constitutes a traditional ritual item in the continuum of a 'living culture' compared to other forms of 'revivalism,' where the intent is to create beautiful items for sale. This, in turn, makes the Solomon Islands an intriguing area for immersion, connoisseurship, study, and further appreciation. The region's finest traditional creations, whether for personal adornment, ritual display, war canoes, men's houses, communal structures, or ancestral shrines, illustrate artistry where pride of creation and exacting craftsmanship are often convergent and still exist.
To celebrate one's status and honor the ancestors, to revel in the aftermath of successful raids, large feasting platters, bowls, pudding plates, cups, and so forth, were carefully made and kept in men's houses and where the village's war canoes were stored. To distinguish themselves and project the status of an individual or the men's house's martial exploits, many of these ceremonial items were inlaid with carefully cut and shaped inlays of mother-of-pearl. While such utilitarian pieces are numerous, several of the finer examples from the British Museum, as seen here, include a magnificent portrait cup and an early bowl, as well as bowls with distinctive inlays.
As a culture of panoply and display, particularly in the western Solomon Islands, the use of inlays to make something shimmer or be emboldened accentuated both virtue and fierceness. This can be seen in a wide array of other items of material culture ranging from those used as personal adornments, such as combs and large spooled earrings, to ceremonial and chiefly batons, shields, and ancestral figures. Illustrated below is a magnificent shield from New Georgia or Guadalcanal. These were called kinumbekubere, which means 'inscribed shield.' They represent a rare type of shield which were traded or exchanged as prestige objects or perhaps displayed or paraded in processions by paramount chiefs. In the realm of statuary, a well-rendered inlaid 19th-century statue of a man holding a fish is reproduced from the Roviana Lagoon, New Georgia.
The most iconic inlaid items are the nguzu nguzu (musu musu or toto isu) or figureheads that once adorned the islands' famous war canoes. These are generally half torsos with poised raised arms that are either touching or holding a bird or a human head. They were lashed above the waterline on the impressive curving prows of great vessels. There are many legends about their creation, but one that always struck home is that these carvings were the protectors or 'eyes' of the war canoe. As 'living' talismans, they helped ensure successful raids and homeward returns. Once an important item associated with headhunting, the nguzu nguzu can be seen in contemporary renderings in art, in traditional and modern forms, as well as gracing the nation's one-dollar coin first minted in 2012. From the British Museum collection, we are featuring three of their many fine canoe prow ornaments. Two are inlaid with shell; a third is a simple but evocative example.
Just as the reflective shell was artfully used on black-colored wood, ornaments shone magnificently against the islander's skin. Such an intelligent use of contrasts made both creations and humans vibrate with vitality and profound beauty. In the Solomon Islands, not only was mother-of-pearl shell utilized, but polished pieces from the carapace of sea turtles and the varied use of sections of giant clam or tridacna gigas shell were also worked by indigenous craftsmen. Tridacna can be seen as the superb central component in a 'money-ring' necklace or bakeha. It was also employed as the background to display, stabilize, and radiate turtle shell cutouts for dala and other ornaments. One such large medallion from Choiseul Island is illustrated below. These adornments are similar to what is often referred to in the broader region as kap-kap and were worn in former times upon one's head. Another common use of tridacna is in cutout plaques or barava, traditionally used to decorate skull houses and mortuary sites to honor one's ancestors.
Floats and protective figures often mediate or merge with the world of the sea and its creatures, such as sharks, with humans. In a carving from San Cristobal, a dangerous sea spirit was carved as a protective gable ornament for a canoe house, or it was possibly affixed to the door to a chief's house. It was intended to ward off all manners of malevolency. The museum's notes on this twenty-eight-inch-tall figure state that wild spirits could travel on rainbows and were capable of shooting people as if arrows had pierced them. Fishermen, it was said, had to be alert for rainbows in 'sun showers and waterspouts — both signs that the sea spirits were present.'
The British Museum also has a number of fine figures from the Santa Cruz islands, including well-rendered munge dukna statues of tutelary male deities that were arrayed on house altars or in men's houses. Dukna were adorned and propitiated for good outcomes and abundant blessings. Three marvelous examples are reproduced below. In contrast to the area's finely rendered human figures, simple abstractions and elegant designs appear on clubs, personal adornments, and the neck rest illustrated below, which reminds one of the best neck pillows from Polynesia, given its grace, execution, and warm patination.
The British Museum's aggregation of material culture from the Solomon Islands is breathtaking and filled with many surprises, both for the casual voyager and the well-informed seeker.
— Steven G. Alpert, founder of Art of the Ancestors
1
Wooden Bowl with Human Face
Early 20th century
Wood, pearlshell
Bequeathed by Rev David Lloyd Francis
Donated through Mrs J M K Carver, 1992
Oc1992,02.2
2
Wooden Food Bowl
Wood
Field collected by Sir Cuthbert Edgar Peek
Purchased from Sir Wilfred Peek, 1926
Oc1926,-.79
3
Wooden Bowl in the Form of a Human Head
Wood, pearlshell
From Sir Arthur Charles Hamilton Gordon, 1st Baron Stanmore
Oc1972,Q.60
4
Shield with Anthropomorphic Figure |
Lave Kinumbekubere
Late 19th century
Vine, resin, pearlshell, rattan
Donated by the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, 1954
Oc1954,06.197
5
Male Figure Holding a Fish
19th century, pre-1893
Wood, pearlshell
Field collected by Admiral Edward Henry Meggs Davis
Purchased from Edward Gerrard & Sons, 1904
Oc1904,0621.12
6
Canoe Prow Ornament
Wood, pearlshell
Donated by Henry Christy, 1860-1869
Oc.1659
7
Canoe Prow Ornament
Wood, shell
Found unnumbered in the Department's collections; date and means of acquisition unknown.
Oc1937,0315.38
8
Canoe Prow Ornament
Wood, pearlshell
Donated by Charles M Woodford, 1927
Oc1927,-.113
9
Stone Fretwork Carving
19th century
Tridacna shell
Purchased from Charles M Woodford, 1915
Oc1915,-.27
10
Dala Ornament
19th century
Tridacna shell, turtle-shell
Field collected by Cohn
Donated by Irene Marguerite Beasley, 1944
Previously owned by Harry Geoffrey Beasley
Oc1944,02.1799
11
Money-Ring Pendant | Bakiha
Tridacna shell, turtle-shell, glass, dolphin tooth, fiber
Purchased from Charles M Woodford, 1915
Oc1915,-.61
12
Dukna Figure
Wood, fiber
Donated by Irene Marguerite Beasley, 1944
Previously owned by Harry Geoffrey Beasley
Oc1944,02.1175
13
Dukna Figure
Wood, leaf, bark fiber, turtle-shell
Donated by Irene Marguerite Beasley, 1944
Previously owned by Harry Geoffrey Beasley
Oc1944,02.1176
14
Figurative Sea Spirit Door Ornament
19th century, before 1893
Wood, feather
Field collected by Admiral Edward Henry Meggs Davis
Purchased from Edward Gerrard & Sons, 1904
Oc1904,0621.14
15
Male Figure
19th century, before 1877
Wood, pearlshell
Field collected by R G Whitfield
Purchased from Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks, 1877
Oc,+.436.d
16
Crescent Moon Dance Shield or Baton | Koka
Late 19th century
Made by Bougainville
Wood, chalk
Donated by Rear-Adm G Hand, 1900
Oc1900,-.65
17
Figurative Lime-Flask or Box
Wood, pearlshell
Previously owned by Adm Sir Henry Mangles Denham and William Bragge
Purchased from William Wareham, 1882
Funded by Christy Fund
Oc,Bh.22
18
Figurative Canoe Ornament
19th century, before 1877
Wood, shell, cowrie shell
Field collected by R G Whitfield
Donated by Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks, 1877
Oc,+.436.c
19
Fish Shaped Coffin
19th century, before 1891
Wood, bone
Field collected by Admiral Edward Henry Meggs Davis
Purchased by Edward Gerrard & Sons, 1904
Oc1904,0621.13
20
Fishing Float surmounted by a Sea-Spirit Figure
19th century, pre-1865
Wood, stone
Donated by Julius Lucius Brenchley, 1870
Oc.6317
21
Shark-Man Lime Spatula
19th century, before about 1910
Bone
Donated by Mrs W G Ivens, 1940
Previously owned by Rev Walter George Ivens
Oc1940,03.18
22
Wooden Bowl with Frigate-Bird Design
Wood, pearlshell
Donated by Mrs W G Ivens, 1940
Previously owned by Rev Walter George Ivens
Oc1940,03.3
23
Zoomorphic Wooden Bowl
19th century, before 1872
Wood, pearlshell
Donated by Charles Frederick Wood, 1872
Oc.7632
24
Seated Dukna Figure
Wood, fiber
Donated by Irene Marguerite Beasley, 1944
Previously owned by Harry Geoffrey Beasley
Oc1944,02.1170
25
Wooden Pillar surmounted by a Seated Figure
Wood
Donated by Irene Marguerite Beasley, 1944
Previously owned by Harry Geoffrey Beasley
Oc1944,02.1182
26
Dukna Figure
Turtle-shell, coin seed, fiber, wood, shell
Donated by Irene Marguerite Beasley, 1944
Previously owned by Harry Geoffrey Beasley
Oc1944,02.1169
27
Wooden Head Rest in the Form of a Bird
Wood
Purchased from Canterbury Royal Museum, 1961
Oc1961,03.1
All artworks and images presented in this feature are the property of the British Museum.
© The Trustees of the British Museum