Masks 2008

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While travelling in South-Eastern Asia - and more particularly in the Indonesian archipelago - Jos van den Berg collected ethnographics. A collection, which, among others, contains ancestral images, utensils, masks and shields. In 2004, he already painted canvases depicting the war shields of the primitive Citak people, who still live in close proximity to the Stone Age in the interior of Papua. He has also painted the ladders of the dozens of metres high tree huts of the Korowai who live in approximately the same area. The masks he collected come from different regions in Indonesia. For example, there are the spectacular Hudocq harvest masks of the Kenya from Kalimantan, masks of the cruel Batak from Sumatra, cheerful dancing masks (topeng) from Lombok, terrifying masks from Timor and touching tree trunk masks from the Sepik area in Papua New Guinea. During the past few years, Jos has occasionally made paintings in which a mask plays a dominant or more subdued role.

Masks are used for a large variety of ceremonies and rituals: during the planting and harvesting of rice, to frighten off demons and spirits, during marriage ceremonies and funerals, during dance performances and cheerful narratives. There are masks with terrifying rows of teeth and bulging eyes, there are gentle ones to console the children, there are masks intended to impress, masks that flirt with the girls and clownish masks.

Jos does not paint exact replicas of masks. He interprets, places them in a context through the colour of the backdrop, allows them to run on the canvas. He attempts to capture the atmosphere of a mask, without being coercive. No volcanoes or palm trees, no kampongs, sandy beaches or heroic events. Some masks lack taut lines; the eyes and mouth just have to fight it out on the canvas.

Things happen. The one mask has been roughly depicted on the canvas by using a palette knife in thick layers and with harsh scratching into the surface of the paint, the other has been painted in a more subtle way. Two masks from Sepik are provided with a body and now form a double portrait as though representing a bridal pair. The typical points of the Sepik masks reappear on the canvas in which he apparently uses the head of saxophonist Boris van der Lek. The childlike, wide sun mask with the golden cheeks is fantastic. A korwar with the characteristically broad nostrils is painted in a hushed or exuberant way. His experience of the masks depends on his mood. Nothing is left of the Bali mask but the mystical blue, the bulging eyes and white teeth as provocative stimuli. Four masks from Timor sneer at the viewer. Jos models by employing material in different techniques and his attempts are aimed at retaining the essence of a mask from a specific area. The bow tie underneath the Timor Mask is a bit naughty – suddenly it becomes a stern director. The intense black mask however, is quite a bit more friendly. In a similar way as the two masks become joyful in a cheerful setting.

Why masks?

Why not paint the faces of the people he came across remote areas? Why not simply the Papuas with their painted faces and pierced nasal septums who form beautiful silhouettes against the light? The pretty faces of children who wave goodbye from the remote Molukkan beaches? The spectacularly tattooed heads of the Dajaks in the interior of Kalimantan, or their women with their elongated earlobes? The proud warriors of Nias?

Because masks represent a sublimation of their culture. They add a little extra to the human appearance, extravagant, bizarre, exhorting power. Elevated above the mundane. In the way they are painted by Jos van den Berg in thick layers of paint they acquire a mystical life of their own, they are no longer rigid pieces of tooled wood, which were kept in sacred spaces by their original owners, or hang on the walls of their current owners as decoration in a modern interior design. They take on a life of their own in the paint. The viewer may see in it what he or she wants, may dream away to the areas where they were used, may feel the warm evenings and the sultry nights during which the masks were worn. The masks often represent powerful ancestors who have to keep demons and evil spirits at bay.

Not all of the paintings are so charming. And often the masks are neither. Jos attempts to portray the intensity of their use in combination with the forms. Magic plays an important role. The magic of peoples who live in an overwhelming natural environment, who are characterised by an animistic religion, even though nowadays they have a television with a parabola antenna. Children go to school, slender proas are equipped with powerful outboard engines. When night falls and the diesel generator stops providing energy, it becomes pitch-black. Everything becomes silent, except for the sounds of the forest.

The forest, the air and the water gain significance. People have respect for nature, the ancestors and the spirits. Fear for the enemy. Masks then play their crucial role. They are kept in the sacred place in the home, are hung from the thatched roof or from a doorpost, or seem to have been carelessly hidden in the corner of the hut. People know they are there. They feel protected by them and draw strength from them. These are the totems of their existence.

 

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Ethnographics, primitive art or tribal art?

Within the cultural anthropology - since after the Second World War the commonly used Dutch term for the field of science previously indicated as ethnology - ethnographics are viewed as an expression of the form and colour of ethnic groups. Ethnographics is also the umbrella term used by collectors and traders for objects derived from the tribal cultures in Oceania, Asia, America and Africa. Primitive people below the equator cherish their masks, weapons, shields and implements with ritual decorations. Often with strong forms and colours: pure ethnographics. Primitive art is actually a denigratory description: the creators did not produce their objects as a form of art but purely as implements, whether decorated or not. Westerners considered the creators to be 'primitive' - a view that is currently completely outdated. However, it is true that one creator is more talented than another, which may lead to the creator enjoying more respect within the tribe. Tribal art is certainly not an incorrect term when one considers that the expressions of the tribe have a special artistic visual language. The beautiful magazine about this subject, which is published in France, is justly called Tribal Art.