Leigh Mackay reports: Despite Australia's proximity to Indonesia, it rarely sees exhibitions of the archipelago's rich and diverse tribal arts of the quality seen at Nomadic Rug Traders' show between 27 November and 24 December 2004. The exhibits ranged from a solid and capacious Batak hombong (chest) with twin singha (stylised lion heads) to fine ikat cloths and delicate gold mamuli pendants from Sumba. Sydney's Nomadic Rug Traders is an oriental rug dealership of international standard, and proprietors Ross and Irene Langlands have long cultivated an interest in the aesthetic crossover between rugs and tribal artefacts. The carvings, metalwork, jewellery, textiles and other pieces they had chosen for their exhibition had a direct aesthetic appeal, were in good condition and belonged to genres that connoisseurs would recognise from major international collections.
As if to warn visitors they were entering an unfamiliar world of ancestor worship and headhunter traditions, the gallery centre was dominated by a trio of old wooden hampatong from Kalimantan (2). These roughly life-sized ancestor figures typically guarded the compounds of Dayak villages against evil spirits. Bleached ghostly grey by sun and rain, these brooding, stylised sentinels possessed a powerful "Heart of Darkness" quality. A somewhat homier example of Dayak culture was a sturdy baby-carrier, decorated geometrically with coloured glass beadwork and hung with bear's claws, boar's tusks, cowrie shells and metal bells to protect the infant from evil influences.
Several striking pieces by the Torajans of Sulewesi included a 2.35m tall wooden katik - a carved stylised hen's head with huge circular eye atop a gracefully curving neck. Its incised, interlacing patterns probably originated in the Buddhist-Hindu and Islamic cultures that have swept across the Indonesian islands over the centuries. Katiks projected from the facade of the gabled houses of Torajan chiefs.
The major attention-getters included several striking 19th century ana deo wooden statuettes from Flores. One piece from Bijawa, probably 19th century, was darkly weathered with a slightly encrusted patina and a rounded bald head with blue beads for eyes (Pic "Bijawa Ana deo"). Seated atop a metre high post in typical squatting position with hands on knees, this ancestral figure is said to have guarded the entrance to the ceremonial headquarters of the Raja's lineage; its rigid stance and intense gaze suggested a stubborn determination not to budge. A set of three magisterial ana deo of the Lio peoples of Flores displayed distinctly archaic features: smooth, bulging heads and block-like bodies on thick, slightly bent legs. Because they had been attached to rafters indoors, they had an attractively smooth, almost honeyed patina despite their age (3).
An impressive 2.40m Flores shrine post was deeply engraved with thick spirals over what looked like broad radiating lines (4, with Ross Langlands). The design was strongly reminiscent of certain Celtic motifs, although related designs occur in Central Asian "animal art." In this post we were no doubt witnessing distant cross-cultural influences.
The many smaller objects included several Timorese spoons of buffalo horn with exquisitely filigreed handles; four-pronged ceremonial combs with decorated handles in the shape of a stylised bird, and elaborately-beaded betal bags, from the Atoni people of central Timor (6); and a set of tuka - flat, loop-shaped gold pendants reminiscent of ancient Egyptian forms - from Flores and Alor.
Amongst the ceremonial textiles were a large and striking Flores sarong, a wedding gift from the bride's family, dyed in wide bands of indigo and rust-red in ikat technique (Pic 3, left, on wall behind hampatong). A lau pahuda, a woman's sarong worn only by Sumba royalty, displayed a striking red background that set off traditional Sumba supplementary weft patterns in yellow (2, centre, wall).
Some starkly decorative warrior regalia once worn by the Atoni people of central Timor attracted much attention: belts hung with long cotton strips woven in kilim technique and segmented in bright blues, reds and yellows. The most striking was a pilu salif - a belt hung with ten 70 cm-long coloured kilim strips. These warriors had style.
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