History bag
2014
Medium
earth pigments and digital print on tapa (barkcloth), seeds, fibre string
Measurements
74.6 × 41.4 × 4.1 cm
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased, Victorian Foundation for Living Australian Artists, 2015
© Naup Waup Artist
Gallery location
The Ancient World
Level 2, NGV International
About this work
Naup Waup’s History bag explores how Indigenous people have often been viewed in the Western world, with little understanding of the complexities of their cultures. The photograph on the front, taken by missionaries working in Papua New Guinea during the 1930s, is seen by Waup as representing only the surface layer of his people, without their spiritual essence. The tapa element of this work recalls the first tapa bag made by Waup’s people many generations before, which also symbolises the womb. By honouring these customary objects while reimagining them through digital printing, Waup challenges exoticised representations of indigenous people and reasserts the spiritual and cultural significance that lies beneath such images.
Artwork Details
Place/s of Execution
Melbourne, Victoria
Accession Number
2015.13
Departments
Oceanic Costumes and Textiles / Pacific Art