Big auction of Asmat woodcarving bodes well

By Gus Kairupan

JAKARTA (JP): "Going once..., going twice...", followed by a deafening roar in unison accompanied by stomping of, say, a hundred feet (that's 50 people at a conservative guess) and a storm of applause... "SOLD!"

The artist steps forward with the item for which bidding had gone up to Rp 1.5 million. Excitement reigns in the packed and sweltering community hall where the art auction takes place, as each bid, especially those that raise the price by at least Rp 100,000, is greeted with applause and shouts.

The town's inhabitants had every reason to shout and applaud -- after all, proceeds from the auction came to Rp80 million, or more than double the proceeds from last year's auction.

This is Agats, the main town in the region of the Asmat tribe on the southeast coast of Irian Jaya, and the auction, the 16th and largest, continues to be the major event in the Asmat calendar of activities.

Minister of Education and Culture Wardiman Djojonegoro inaugurated this year's auction on October 12, Other officials under his ministry included Director General for Culture Edi Sediawati, Secretary of the Directorate General for Culture Nunus Supardi and Director for Vocational Middle Level Education Jorlin Pakpahan.

Attendance at the auction was part of a two-week program sponsored by Freeport Indonesia for a large group of members from various foundations and NGO's, such as Yayasan Sejati's Soedarpo Sastrosatomo and his wife, prominent economist Mari Pangestu, and anthropologist Dea Sudarman. Members of Yayasan Asmat included former speaker of the legislature, Kharis Suhud, and former social affairs minister, Haryati Soebadio.

The history of attainment of fame is rife with "thanks to" or "if not for".

Mozart achieved his stature thanks to the continuing (if not altogether felicitous) efforts of his father, and if not for Walter Spies, Bali's kecak dance would not have taken the spectacular shape of today. Now what about the art of the Asmat?

Among those who have been instrumental in the awakening of interest and appreciation of Asmat art are Dr. Gunter Konrad and his wife Ursula of the Berlin Museum, who for more than a quarter century have not allowed one year to go by without a visit to this, one of the most difficult-to-reach areas of the world.

But samples of the art had already been introduced before in the U.S., albeit through the tragic fate suffered by Michael Rockefeller when he disappeared on his second visit to the area in 1960. Rockefeller gathered an immense collection of artifacts on his first visit to Irian Jaya and took them back home.

Irian Jaya art forms are also a major component in Freeport Indonesia's social development program. During the late 1980s, the company sponsored a major exhibition and demonstration of arts of Irian Jaya that was part of the year-long Indonesian Arts Festival in the U.S.

Asmat art was an important feature of this event. In connection with the Agats auction this year, the company brought in 12 woodcarvers from the Komoro tribe to exchange ideas with the Asmat artists.

This itself is a rare occurrence if you consider that meetings between the two tribes were usually marked by warfare rather than art. Despite the more than 30 years exposure, Asmat art is recent enough to merit a place of its own in the world of art, or so Gunter and Ursula Konrad say.

"It is a new and modern art," said Ursula, who added that she and her husband were doing all they could to establish Asmat art as a new category.

Artistic expression of the Asmat is manifested in such items as ceremonial wear, dance costumes and masks.

The most durable objects are the wood carvings which range from towering totems to tiny objects, and depict the myriad aspects of life under the Asmat sun.

Fishermen, hunting parties, men and women engaged in refining sago, the people's main source of food.

Shields of all sizes, some too large to be handled with ease and obviously for decorating purposes.

None, even the totems that are carved in memory of newly- deceased persons, are items that serve as icons or permanent objects of veneration.

This does not mean that the Asmat are devoid of spirituality. The totem-like carvings feature in rituals related to death, but once the rituals are over they are considered to have served the purpose and "are placed in a dusun sago (literally a hamlet of sago trees), and the spirits inside would then move into the trees, thus ensuring a plentiful harvest and the continued welfare of the people", said father Alphonse Sowada, the priest who has lived among the Asmat for some 30 years.

But people everywhere, even among those who have reached a higher level of advancement, have been known to attach magical power -- positive and negative -- to particular objects, from rabbit's feet to the Hope diamond.

A personal friend who combines the typical down-to-earthiness of an Aussie (he is one) with a passion for collecting objets d'art, wouldn't buy a keris Javanese dagger if you paid him.

So it seems natural that the Asmat, too, imbue at least some of the objects they make with spiritual value.

I asked the boatman (speedboat, that is) about the significance of the carvings I saw on the bows of two traditional proas, and was told that "they're only decorations".

But you can bet your bottom rupiah that their purpose is to ward off supernatural nasties that inhabit the depths, just as figureheads on antique ships sprang from an ancient custom to have a carved monster on the bow in order to keep evil spirits away -- to say nothing of dragon boats.

The Asmat aren't really very different from everybody else, are they?

Men only

An aspect that stands out, and one that would no doubt raise the hackles of feminists around the world, is that the Asmat women are considered incapable of artistic expression.

"I raised the question once," Ursula Konrad said, "and the response I got in return was a look of shock and the answer `oh no, women can't do that'. But of course this does not mean that they aren't capable of artistic expression."

But this is only one aspect of Asmat life, and it is no indication that women are second-class citizens.

In fact, they have the major role in occasions of spiritual significance; men may be carrying out the actions but they must defer to the decision of women when it comes to procedural matters at such events.

In day-to-day affairs, a man may do the fishing, but a woman could be steering the proa; refining of sago is carried out by both, with the man hacking out the rough stuff, while the woman runs water through it and collects the meal.

But there is something revealing even in the most ordinary of circumstances, such as a man and wife walking together side by side going to or coming back from, say, the market, a fishing trip, whatever.

At least outwardly it reveals Asmat women having a more assertive role compared to that of their sisters in some very progressive countries, where they are still required to walk a step or two behind their men.

It may well be that women will come into their own in arts. As far as I could observe in two all too short days, women are capable of artistic expression which so far appears to be confined to adding decorations such as tassels and feathers to bags, baskets, grass skirts, etc. The women also seem to have a talent for painting which is something quite new.

Color (mostly black, white, brown, terra cotta) is used but only to enhance carvings, not to depict figures or scenes on a surface. However, a beginning has been made.

Convinced that women have as much artistic talents as the men, Ursula Konrad introduced the art of painting but has been careful not to impose her own perceptions vis-a-vis art on the women.

She gave them squares of woven grass to paint on, and the results were encouraging.

Konrad then decided to add more zest by acquainting the women with the use of watercolors.

"That brought on paintings that were a riot of colors," she said, "so I made some suggestions about the application of colors.

That was all. I never tell them what and how they should paint."

It is not inconceivable that shouts of "going once... going twice" will one day ring out as much for paintings by women as they do now for woodcarvings by men.