Asmat bisj poles
twentieth century
A group of tall carved poles rises in the half-light like a stand of trees, each one a column of figures stacked on each other's shoulders, with an openwork wing of carving projecting at the top. These are bisj poles of the Asmat people, who live in the mangrove swamps of southwestern New Guinea. Each figure represents a named person who had recently died, and the poles were carved for a feast at which the living promised to avenge those deaths. The projecting wing at the top, carved from a root of the tree, is a phallic emblem of the strength and fertility of the ancestors.
The Asmat carve a single mangrove tree upside down, so that the root flange becomes the crown of the pole, and the figures are cut with stone or shell tools and later with iron, then painted with white lime, red ochre and black charcoal. Look at the squatting figures with bent knees and elbows, the hornbill and praying mantis motifs that stand for headhunting, and the rough vigour of the surfaces. The poles were made for a single feast and then, their purpose served, left to rot in the sago groves so that their power would pass into the palms that fed the village. Museums hold them only because collectors took them after the ceremonies.
The Asmat were among the last peoples of New Guinea to meet outsiders, and their art became famous in the 1960s, in part through the collecting trip of Michael Rockefeller, who disappeared on the Asmat coast in 1961. The museum's poles were collected in the twentieth century from villages such as Jow. Displayed together in the Oceania section, they make one of the most dramatic sights on the plateau, and they are a reminder that much of what looks like sculpture here was made to be used once and released.
Did You Know? The poles were meant to be left to rot in the sago groves after the feast, so their power could pass into the palms that fed the village.
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