THE CAVES OF KARAWARI

Description

Catalogue of the first exhibition about sculpture “Karawari” Sepik with a presentation and quality of Bill Viola photographs that make a publication quite exceptional. – In 1968, with the publication of Professor Eike Haberland: “The Caves of Karawari” over a hundred figures in brackets old and eroded, the extraordinary aspect, burst on the collective consciousness of Western collectors of Oceanic art. For the first time the outside world had a chance to see dozens of intricately carved hook figures who stood about a meter or more in height. These figures were discovered in caves and rock shelters between the rocky hills of the upper river Korewori, a tributary of the Sepik means. What makes this discovery all the more extraordinary for the world of art was the fact that the inhabitants of the region Korewori (or Karawari) were not gardeners and intensive fishing as latmul peoples and Chambri but were primarily hunter-gatherers who ate in the forest, rivers and hills to find food. The whole population was about 200 and was tiny in comparison with populations of traditional arts Sepik best known peoples Iatmul, Sawos and Chambri each of which had large villages and all were over 10000. residents of Korewori meet in small settlements or villages including some houses presided over by a bigger house, that of men worship (tambaran haus). They have long had some small taro gardens, but as most of the Sepik region of their main food is sago palm cultivated that requires one of the less intensive forms of agriculture.