Ben Hunter: Voyage Dans La Nuit

VOYAGE DANS LA NUIT: APPUIS-TÊTE D’AFRIQUE ET D’OCÉANIE BEN HUNTER PARCOURS DES MONDES 2018

VOYAGE DANS LA NUIT: APPUIS-TÊTE D’AFRIQUE ET D’OCÉANIE For the 2018 Parcours des Mondes I am presenting an extensive and diverse collection of headrests (appuis-tête) from Africa and Oceania. Built up over a number of years, it includes the classic architectural forms from East and Southern Africa as well as zoomorphic and anthropomorphic forms from African and Melanesia. There are several absolute treasures, rarities that offer just a glimpse of their origin to assist in the research of their cultural grouping.

I have always been drawn to headrests on multiple levels, I guess at first it was due to accessibility while I was living in South Africa. It started with Zulu headrests that were being field collected and brought back to Johannesburg and Cape Town, along with with wooden milk pails and spoons. After that there were afternoons in the Johannesburg Art Gallery, being intrigued and inspired by the incredible variety of southern African headrests in the Brenthurst and Jaques collections. So the journey began.

At that time I was making excursions into the Kaokoveld in northern Namibia, Uganda, the north of Kenya home to the Pokot, Turkana and Samburu amongst others, the Omo valley in southern Ethiopia and up into northern Ethiopia and Eritrea.

This is where I field collected my first headrests, some of which are included in this collection, namely those from the Karamojong, Pokot, Turkana, Hamar and a very rare example from the Beja. The form of the Beja headrest is particularly interesting, as it bears a close resemblance to a multi-pillared headrest from Egypt, excavated from Tomb 816, El-Assasif, Thebes, believed to date from the Middle Kingdom ca. 2030–1802 B.C., which is now in the The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY.

This catalogue shows a small selection of the headrests that will be exhibited.

The Tsonga and Shona headrests pictured in this catalogue are a selection of the exceptional and rare southern African examples that are part of the exhibition.

The Shona mutsago (headrest) on page 12 – 13 is one of only two that I have found images of, the other being in the British Museum. A line drawing of this same mutsago can be found in Anitra Nettleton’s superb book, African Dream Machines.

What differentiates these two from the main body of Shona and Tsonga ‘pillar’ headrests is the shape of the bulbous base and boat like platform, while being devoid of any lugs or carving on the top surface.

The lovely anthropomorphic Nsapo headrest I was lucky enough to find in a small, refined collection in London. It appears to be by the same hand as one in the British Museum, and another is in the Jerome L. Joss collection. The Joss Nsapo was collected around the turn of the century, so one assumes this one was carved around the same time possibly by an apprentice in the workshop of the ‘Master of Beneki’.

These and the rest of the collection will be on display for Parcours des Mondes at 7 rue Visconti, Paris 75006, and it would be a pleasure to welcome you there in person so you can hold them and allow me to tell you more of the tales behind these superb headrests.

SANTA CRUZ, SOLOMON ISLANDS Tukule Wood, pigments 13.6 x 29.5cm 19th – early 20th century Ex. Sydney & Marjorie Musgrove, Auckland

SHONA, MOZAMBIQUE

Wood 14.5 x 13cm 19th century Collected in the 1930s by a Scottish gentleman

MONGO, D.R. OF CONGO Wood 16 x 15.5cm 19th century Ex. Sewart Kennedy, London

BEJA, ERITREA

Wood 14.5cm x 13.3cm 20th century Collected at a goat market just outside of Teseney, Eitrea, 1996

POKOT, KENYA

Wood, aluminium inlay 16.6 x 13.5cm 20th century Collected in between Kisima and Maralal, Kenya, 1996

HIMBA, NAMIBIA

Wood, earth 16.7 x 13.6cm 20th century Collected in the Koakoveld, 1994

LUBA, D.R. OF CONGO

Musamo Wood 12 x 15cm 19th century Ex. Marc Felix, collection no. FC96

TSONGA, ZIMBABWE

Anthropomorphic Wood 11 x 84.5cm 19th century Ex. private collection, Sweden

MURSI OR BODI (ME’EN), ETHIOPIA

Wood, leather 16.3 x 21cm 20th century Collected in Jinka village, Omo, Ethiopia, 1996

HEMBA, D.R. OF CONGO

Mambwe style - the ‘long face’ style Wood 14 x 14cm 20th century Ex. Rut van Caelenbergh, Brussels

TAMI, HUON GULF, PAPUA NEW GUINEA Wood, natural pigments 13 x 13.5cm 19th – early 20th century Ex. Jonathan O’Marah, Cheshire, England

FIJIAN, FIJI ARCHIPELAGO Kalimasi Wood 15 x 56cm 19th century Ex. Abe & Paula Rosen, New York

SHONA, ZIMBABWE Mutsago Wood 15 x 18.4cm 19th century

KARAMAJONG, UGANDA Ekicolon Wood, leather 15.5 x 19.5cm 20th century Ex. Sewart Kennedy, London

KORWAR, IRIAN JAYA

Wood, lime 17.5 x 16.5cm 19th – early 20th century Ex. Loed van Bussel, Amsterdam

TSONGA, ZIMBABWE Chidani Zoomorphic Wood 16.1 x 16.6cm 19th century

TSONGA, ZIMBABWE

Xikhigelo, Chidani Wood 15.2 x 20cm 19th century Ex. private collection, U.S.A.

NSAPO, BENEKI-SONGYE, D.R. OF CONGO Wood 15 x 16cm 19th – early 20th century Ex. Christiaan R Truter, CBE, London, Curator of the Winston Churchill War Rooms

NGOMBE, D.R. OF CONGO

Wood 16 x 15.5cm 19th century Ex. Hardy collection, Cadier en Keer, The Netherlands Sold by Loed v. Bussel 1964

YAKA, D.R. OF CONGO

Anthropomorphic Wood 15 x 12.5cm 19th century Ex. Christiaan R Truter, CBE, London, Curator of the Winston Churchill War Rooms

NORTH COAST, POSSIBLY BEACH-ARAPESH BETWEEN AITAPE AND WEWAK, PAPUA NEW GUINEA Wood, natural pigments 18 x 45cm 19th – early 20th century Ex. Michael Hamson, LA