Published in 'Motives Artisticos Timorenses e a sua integracao', Ruy Cinatti , 1987, ill. 41. Provenance Gallerie Zwiep, 1990-2001 and Private Dutch collection. An Ancestor Couple

East Timor, Belu, Balibó, pair of wood ancestor figures, ai tos, H. 175 and 155 cm.

On the island of Timor in the east of the Indonesian Archipelago wooden sculpture was sparsely developed in comparison with the eastern neighbouring islands of the southeastern Moluccas where ancestor statues were abound. In Central Timor however, where the Belu live, statues were carved to venerate the distant founding ancestors. Locally they are referred to as ai tos, which literally means ‘hardwood’, though items made of stone share the same name. Timor cultures are characterised by a dual cosmological system in general with a division between heaven and earth, respectively perceived as male and female, on a macrocosmic level and an earthly system of male and female world to which certain objects pertain. As a pair of distant, probably founding ancestors they were venerated to procure well-being and fertility.

The present pair of ancestor figures were photographed by Ruy Cinatti in situ outside the village of Balibó in East Timor near the border with West Timor between 1947 and 1962, which gives this pair – rare for pieces supposedly hailing from the Tetum - a solid provenance. In the original setting the statues stood in the ground surrounded by boulders and stones in a wooden construction covered with palm leaves, in a – according to Cinatti – sacred bush. For veneration purposes the heads of the se remote ancestors were originally topped by a stone slab providing a stable ground for offerings, in this case on Chinese ceramic dishes. Contrary to most angular ai tos found in the Tetum area this pair of sculptures is quite articulate with expressive heart-shaped faces and detailed torsos. The male figure originally wore a beard of human hair tufts which were inserted in the drilled holes above the mouth and on the chin. Both faces have dark coloured glass inset eyes which bestows them a contemplative gaze. Special are the bands of deeply engraved geometrical patterns which were originally filled with chalk that is still visible in some grooves. These age-old patterns are similar to the designs found in certain Timorese ceremonial textiles. To our knowledge the same ornaments, heart-shaped face and drilled holes is found on only one other published example which was formerly in the collection of the Barbier-Mueller Museum, Geneva, and is now in the Quai Branly Jacques Chirac Museum in Paris. Prov.: Willem Zwiep, Amsterdam, 1990 -2001; Private Dutch collection

Publ. Cinatti, Ruy (1987) Motivos Artísticos Timorenses e a sua integração, ill. 41. Ref.: Barbier, Jean Paul (1984), Indonesian Primitive Art, plate 46. (photograph Pierre-Alain Ferrazzini)

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