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John Gollings (Australian b. 1944), New Guinea Suite, 1973-74
by:
Gael Newton
This work is from the National Gallery of Australia's recent acquisition of John Gollings New Guinea Suite, photographs of Papua New Guinean 1973-74 annual cultural shows called sing sings, that dramatically capture traditional songs, music and dance, ceremonial clothing and body decorations. Gollings, an architecture student turned professional photographer, acting on suggestions by his former lecturer Professor Neville Quarry, went to Papua New Guinea to photograph the dance styles and body decorations at sing sings. Gollings stayed with parents of Quarrys Papuan students, seeing their preparations and travelling with them to the shows.
The shows are an artificial construct of Australian patrol officers in the 1950s, as a method of integration and pacification. They continue to be massive, well attended events. The theatricality and vitality of ancient cultural practices manifest in the performances inspired Gollings. Using an array of camera and film technologies he imparted an edgy, expressive and interpretive character to images rather than detailed ethnographic reportage.
Melpa people have a patrilineal culture, living in highlands villages separated by valleys and steep mountain ridges. Communication between villages developed through yodelling requests, directions, commands and challenges, yodelled back and forth by men across a ravine or a ridge, without visual contact, using vantage points such as atop the men's houses, captured by Gollings. Traditional items displayed include men's wigs of human hair, elaborate headdresses decorated with feathers and shells, body painting using local dyes mixed with pig fat, pig tusk jewellery, holding stone axes and digging sticks.
The quest for an interpretative, animated and dramatic realisation would shape Gollings subsequent career, almost four decades of photographing ancient and modern architecture across Australia, Asia and America. Sally Ingletons documentary, John Gollings Eye for Architecture launched at the Melbourne International Film Festival in August. |
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