Title
Sorcery pot
early 20th century-mid 20th century
collected 1965
Artist
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Details
- Place where the work was made
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Porapora River
→
East Sepik Province
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Papua New Guinea
- Cultural origin
- probably Abu people
- Dates
- early 20th century-mid 20th century
collected 1965 - Media categories
- Ceramic , Ceremonial object , Sculpture
- Materials used
- earthenware, coiled and chip-carved
- Dimensions
- 28.0 cm height; 16.0 cm diameter
- Credit
- Purchased 1965
- Location
- Not on display
- Accession number
- 423.1994
- Copyright
- Artist information
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attrib. Abu people
Works in the collection
- Share
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About
Little is known about the pottery traditions of the Porapora. Margaret Tuckson and Patricia May noted in their book 'The traditional pottery of Papua New Guinea', that the former priest of the Catholic Mission of the Divine Word, Marienberg, Father Lehner, believed pots such as this were used to store sacred objects used in sorcery, or to brew ritual potions to smear on objects.
[entry from Exhibition Guide for 'Melanesian art: redux', 2018, cat no 30]
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Exhibition history
Shown in 2 exhibitions
Sospen Graun: traditional pottery of Papua New Guinea, Djamu Gallery, Sydney, 04 Mar 2000–28 Aug 2000
Melanesian art: redux, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 17 Nov 2018–17 Feb 2019
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Bibliography
Referenced in 2 publications
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Margaret Tuckson and Patricia May, The traditional pottery of Papua New Guinea, 'East and West Sepik Provinces', pg. 208-325, Kensington, 1982, 250, 251 (illus.). figure no. 9.72
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Margaret Tuckson, Pottery in Australia [vol. 5, no. 1], 'Pottery in New Guinea', pg. 9-16, Turramurra, May 1966, between pg.16-17 (illus.).
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