A Fine New Guinea Gope Spirit Board, Giobari Island Papuan Gulf Area Papua New Guinea

A Fine New Guinea Gope Spirit Board, Giobari Island Papuan Gulf Area Papua New Guinea

This beautifully carved Spirit Board Gope is from Goaribari Island (also spelled Giobari) and is at the delta of the Kikori and Omati Rivers  in the Papuan Gulf Area on the South Coast of Papua New Guinea

Gope or “Spirit Boards ”  are the embodiment of powerful spirits that represent each clan.  No two Gope boards are the same, sometimes they are made from the sides of old canoes which provide a ready-made flat shape to carve the Gope boards from.

In the past, the primary focus of religious and artistic life in the region was on powerful spirits (imunu). Each imunu typically was associated with a specific location in the landscape, rivers, or sea, and was linked to the specific clan within whose territory it dwelt.
Papuan Gulf wood sculpture was primarily two-dimensional, consisting of board-like carvings and figures with designs in low relief. The signature art form was the spirit board, an oblong plank-like object known variously as a gope, koi, or hohao, depending on the region in which it was made. Each served as a dwelling place for an individual imunu, whose image appears on it. Villages formerly had large communal men’s houses divided into cubicles, each allotted to a particular clan or sub clan. Every cubicle contained a clan shrine, which housed the spirit boards, figures, human and animal skulls, and other sacred objects associated with the
clan’s various imunu.

In pre-European contact times, the Papuan Gulf people made huge ceremonial houses with peaked roofs called Ravi , this is where the Gope Boards and other types of ceremonial objects were kept safe & secret from the uninitiated.  Gope boards were often kept on shrines that had boars’ skulls and human skulls from headhunting placed around them on racks. Gope boards are one of the most recognizable artworks from the Island of New Guinea. The Papuan Gulf people had complex ceremonial cycles that took sometimes a decade to complete.  There are many art styles in the Papuan Gulf stretching from the Elema area in the east to the Bamu area in the west, they are also neighbors of the Gogodala & Marind Anim people who live on both sides of the border that splits the island between Papua New Guinea and West Papua Indonesia.   This Gope Ancestor Board would date from the 1960’s or earlier. This Gope Board shows the genius of the Giobari Island artists, he was not constrained by the size or the shape of the wood, the oversized head, and the small body work to the great visual effect.

Provenance: The Todd Barlin Collection of New Guinea Oceanic Art 

I first went to Papua New Guinea in 1985 for an adventure & what I found was that I really enjoyed being with the people of New Guinea, over the next 38 years I spent extensive time spent collecting and documenting traditional art & ceremonies in remote areas of Papua New Guinea & West Papua, The Solomon Islands & Vanuatu & the other Pacific Islands countries. During these travels, I made major collections of New Guinea & Oceanic Art for major Museums and Public Art Galleries

I was honoured by being in the prestigious Louvre Museum Magazine for the collections I made for The Museum of African & Oceanic Art Paris in1996 (now the Musee Quai Branly) for the exhibition “Asmat et Mimika d’ Irian Jaya April 1996 At THE MUSEE NATIONAL des ARTS D’AFRIQUE et d’ OCEANIE, Paris

See all of the links & photos in my new EXHIBITIONS GALLERY and there is the link to the article in the prestigious Louvre Magazine 1996

I have artwork for Museums & Art Galleries but also for collectors at every stage of their collecting. I want to encourage people to explore the fine art of New Guinea & West Papua and the Pacific Islands and to be able to see and touch the artworks in a relaxed and friendly manner in my Sydney Gallery.  I would like to invite you to visit my gallery and see the artworks in person and also look at my website www.oceanicartsaustralia.com  where there are many Galleries & Sub Galleries to explore.

My Gallery of nearly 40 years is the last physical gallery in Sydney that specialises in New Guinea & Oceanic Art. Sydney is just a couple hours’ flight to New Guinea & the Pacific Islands where all of these amazing artworks came from, Australia’s closest neighbours. 

INQUIRE HERE

If you have a similar “object” for sale please contact me for the best price and honest advice by a Government approved valuer 

To see many more rare items and the finest masterpieces, please make an appointment with us to visit the gallery.

For all inquiries, please contact us.