Sepik People Art History Essay and Review

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Maximilian Friede AHT 216 12.9.2012 Words: 1648 Exhibition review The temporary exhibition “Haus tambaran” in the Museo delle Culture, Lugano is a wonderful exploration of a culture that seems so far away from our western culture. The Sepik is with its 1,126 kilometres the longest river in New Guinea. Many small villages surround its curvy waters with each of those villages containing a Haus tambaran in its centre. These traditional houses used to be the homes to men containing sacred objects such as representations of the Tambaran (ancestor’s spirits). The exhibition is displayed since 2009 and contains photographs by Dadi Wirz (1931-today) and Fred Gerrits (1933-today) displayed in three rooms all having their own theme: Landscape, Men and Art. Fred Gerrits, studied medicine in the Netherlands and settled in New Guinea where he met his wife Nel. Gerrits worked as a doctor for many years and started to love and collect art. In his later years, Fred worked for various health organisations. Dadi Wirz lives in Basel, Switzerland and was born in NewGuinea. Dadi Wirz’ father, Paul Wirz (1892-1955) was a famous anthropologist and passionate collector of oceanic artefacts. Dadi Wirz visited New Guinea a few times after Paul Wirz’ death in 1955 to photograph a world that lies according to Wirz at the “dawn of the world”. With his photographs he created an aesthetic tension longing for ethnographic humanness as much as values and emotion of individuals. His work has become an exploration mirroring the search for the self for Wirz who has always been standing in his famous father’s shadow. The photographs in the exhibition are dominated by beautiful landscapes and figurative compositions - a harmony between beautiful water and rainforest scenery and monumental structures characterized by its cultural significance. Dadi Wirz created a synthesis between nature and
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