Yimam Figure, Upper Karawari River, East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea

The Yimam or Alamblak people of the upper Karawari River are known for their spirit figures, or yipwon, in which the human figure is radically reinvented, stylized and reduced to an almost two-dimensional plane. The present yipwon is notable for the large scale of its head and the remarkable finesse of the hooks, which draw the eye to the centre of the sculpture, where their thin, almost trembling tips almost converge at a single point, giving the composition a nervous energy. Henry Moore’s sculpture Three Points has often been compared to a yipwon, and in this example one can see the same crackling tension that Moore found in his work, where an almost electric spark of energy seems “to jump across the gap” between the points (Levine, With Henry Moore: The Artist at Work, London, 1978, p. 28).

The form around which the hooks converge “has been interpreted as the heart or soul of the yipwon protected by the hooked ribs, or as a cosmological device of stars around the moon or sun.” (Howarth, Myth and Magic: Art of the Sepik River, Papua New Guinea, Canberra, 2015, p. 205). Large yipwon such as this belonged to the whole clan and were kept in the men’s house, or in sacred caves reserved for religious ceremonies. Howarth writes that “the yipwon were consulted before hunting pigs, cassowary or other animals and also for war expeditions. Ritual steps were taken to make the yipwon spirit enter the carved figure, making it ‘alive’ through offerings of magical herbs, lime, the men’s saliva and even their own blood (yat) […] According to [Anthony] Forge the yipwon would speak through a sorcerer giving omens regarding hunting and warfare. It was believed that the spirit of the yipwon went ahead of the hunter or warrior and took their quarry’s spirit, making the pig, cassowary or human easy to be captured and slain.” (ibid.).