2021, 296 pages, Edited by Jonathan Fogel, with contributions from Chris Boylan, Bruce Cree, Hubert Langmann, Kevin Patrick, and Jessica Lindsey Phillips. Sydney & Toronto: Boylan and Phillips. Reviewed by Noelle Rathmell-Stiels
Published just weeks after the comic book superhero, The Phantom, celebrated his 85th birthday, this new book will appeal to everyone interested in a unique art form from the Papua New Guinea highlands. The Phantom shields exhibited over the years at co-publisher Chris Boylan’s gallery at the Parcours des Mondes in Paris always garnered much interest and were often described as “cool” by the younger set. Over the last five to ten years the number of old and newly-created Phantom shields has increased significantly with even a website built to celebrate them (https://phantomwarshields.wordpress.com).
In the second half of the twentieth century, an artistic tradition arose in the Wahgi Valley of the highlands of Papua New Guinea of painting traditional war shields with the image of the comic book superhero, The Phantom. Created by Lee Falk in the United States in the mid-1930s, the character of The Phantom gained popularity with its first PNG publication in 1973 in Wantok, a Tok Pisin missionary newspaper, and has been serialised up until the present day in the Post Courier, PNG’s national newspaper. By the mid-1980s a resurgence of warfare in the New Guinea Highlands led to shields being brought out of storage where they had lain since the early 1950s, when the Australian colonial administration had suppressed most tribal fighting. This time, the intimidating image of The Man Who Cannot Dieappeared on many shields used in warfare. With the introduction of guns in the 1990s, wooden shields were no longer used in fighting; but foreigners became keen on collecting these shields as artworks.
These artworks are derived from some inexplicable intersection of the age-old warring traditions of one of the most remote cultural areas of the world and twentieth-century comic book illustration – a phenomenon that art historian N. F. Karlins referred to as ‘pop tribal’1. Though these appear to be curiously syncretic objects to the Western eye, to the people of the Wahgi Valley they hold deep meaning, derived from both the martial power of moral rectitude and the guidance of ancestral spirits.
This thoroughly-researched book features essays by a number of experts in the field, placing the shields within their historical, cultural, and cosmological contexts. A catalogue section illustrates over a hundred examples from museum and private collections across North America, Europe and Oceania. The full-page photos do justice to the graphical quality of these colourful artworks. The endnotes provide a wealth of references for readers intent on further exploration of the topic. For example, Natalie Wilson contributed a fascinating chapter in Bill Evans’s book, War Art & Ritual – Shields of the Pacific. Volume 2, Melanesia 2 which was reviewed in the Journal of the Oceanic Art Society in 2020.
Research for the book resulted in the identification of a number of different artists, distinguishable by their styles. Some of their names are known – the late Kaipei Ka of Banz township, Toby Wanik and John Wahgi. Other artists are referred to only by distinguishing characteristics: “The Ochre Painter”, or “The Confident Line Painter”. The catalogue section is arranged to show the relationships of the various shields within these stylistic groups.
The book can be purchased directly from Chris Boylan [email protected] for $120 + $20 postage within Australia.
1. Karlins, N. F. 2007. Pop Tribal: Review “Geometrics of Aggression: Shields of the New Guinea Highlands” exhibition Artnet 28 June 2007 http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/reviews/karlins/karlins6-28-07.asp
2. Evans, Bill. (editor) 2019. War Art & Ritual – Shields from the Pacific, Sydney:Bill Evans
Left: Noelle Rathmell-Stiels watching Bill Rathmell closely examining the book. Photograph: Margaret Cassidy.
Right: Di and Mick Kershaw examining a copy of Chris Boylan’s book. Photograph: Margaret Cassidy.