Girl With Gun?

Dani people, 20x10 inches, oil on canvas, 2024

I'm quite pleased with this painting of a Dani woman from the Baliem Valley of Western Papua. The area was once a colony of the Netherlands called Dutch Papua New Guinea. It became part of Indonesia in 1962. Indonesia became independent in 1949 in the aftermath of the Japanese occupying the islands during WWII. I was born in the Netherlands in 1964; Papua was the most fearsome of the Dutch colonies, and when I was young the territory was used by parents to strike fear in the heart of their children. It worked, cannibalism seemed the most gruesome humanity had to offer at the time (my parents didn't teach me that the dropping of the atomic bomb was way scarier.) This woman, mischievously smiling, represents all of that history. What is she hiding? Does she carry a knife behind her back. It reminds me of a painting by Ronald Ophuis Girl With Gun from 2011.
 

After Ian (anarchy)

Cover of Les Dani de Nouvelle Guinee, Vol. 1 (r) and 2 (l)

Hurricane Ian has been highly disruptive in many aspects of life. Today marks two weeks since it struck just a little north from where I am. Unlike some others I know, I was lucky and only had to deal with a foot of water in my studio and fallen trees. I only got back to work in my studio three days ago. The result above, is based on the cover images of two French research recordings, Volumes 1 and 2 from Les Dani de Nouvelle Guinee. [CRAVA/nordsud music, 2001] A track from each volume is listed in the Top 100 this year. I'll be more specific in a moment but now I'd like to write a few words about my experience with Ian. I learned something about myself these past two weeks, and this is that I'm fairly conservative; I don't like the lawlessness observed since Ian struck; I don't like anarchy. Growing up in the punk-rock era I always applauded the idea of anarchy. Anarchy was leftist revolution, so I thought, but now I see the world reversed. Now that some parts of 70s/80s ideologies have been accomplished, revolutionary ideas have shifted to the right in an effort to undo these accomplishments. I don't like it at all! Regardless of political leaning I see that humanity, in the context of hierarchies, is anarchy at heart. 

As far away from the realities of the aftermath of a natural disaster in the US, is the music of the Dani people of the Western New Guinea (Irian Jaya) province of the Republic of Indonesia. The two volumes of Les Dani de Nouvelle Guinee are filled to the max with gems of ethnographic recordings. From Volume 1 comes, like last year, Cour D’amour, Air Doux, Tiom, a beautiful example of polyphonic singing by men and women, and from Volume 2 Live beetle jew's harp, where a live (and buzzing) beetle is attached to a wooden splinter and is used like a jew's harp. I am mesmerized by this instrument both for its aesthetic charm and the concept of the extension of the human voice by using a live animal. However beautiful the music, it was not the main objective of the three researchers who compiled the cds, but came to study the traditional making and trading of salt. The three anthropologists are Anne-Marie and Pierre Petrequin, and Olivier Weller. Weller was also the photographer on the expedition and I assume he is responsible for the source images for the above painting that appeared on the cover of the cds. I did not paint Olivier Weller but did put Anne-Marie and Pierre Petrequin together in a double portrait. 

Pierre and Anne-Marie Petrequin

Back to States and to the time when the punk-rock atmosphere was still imbuing the minds of young people with ideals of equality, freedom, and other such good things. Pere Ubu came of age during the same period I did too. Mostly active in the 80s the band was a regular high-achieving band in my Top 100 lists of the 90s and both Laughing and Waiting for Mary had been listed during that decade. Laughing, in the classic line-up that I've painted: Tom Herman; Tony Maimome; Allen Ravenstein; Scott Krauss; and David Thomas, is from The Modern Dance [Plan 9, 1978] while Waiting for Mary is a recording from the live TV show Night Music [NBC, 1988-1990] hosted by David Sanborn. In the performance, from 1989, Tom Herman had been replaced by Jim Jones and Chris Cutler, and the band is backed by a slew of renown musicians including Sanborn himself, and Debbie Harry of Blondie.

David Thomas; Scott Krauss; Tom Herman of Pere Ubu

Tony Maimone; Allen Ravenstine of Pere Ubu

There's one more painting that's somewhat new that I need to display and talk about, even though I already did so in the context of the 100 Faces from the Top 100 2022 preview painting from earlier this year. First I'll copy what I wrote on May 11th about the people portrayed: "The record Musica Sveciae: Fornnordiska Klanger means a lot to me as I'm interested in prehistoric art and the origin of music. Professor Cajsa Lund, who produced the record, and her collaborator Äke Egevad are professionals who research bot interests and use archaeological evidence to reconstruct sounds from the prehistoric era. Two tracks from the album are listed in the top 100: the sound of a bull-roarer and a performance on the Kantflöjter (flute)." Only one painting will suffice for the two tracks since there are no other individuals I know of associated with the two works of music-archaeology.

Äke Egevad/Cajsa Lund

Family First

Cover image from "Les Dani de Nouvelle Guinee, Vol. 2"

The world of ethnomusicology is no longer (and hasn't been for a long time) a field primarily occupied by a handful of adventurous men. As academic practices have shifted from being observers to being  participants for lengthy spells of time, ethnographers, anthropologists, musicologists, and others, travel with their families to go live among the cultures being researched. An added bonus of taken the family along is that of access to ceremonies restricted to one gender only, especially in societies that are strongly stratified. Another bonus is that when contacting the most remote peoples, a family will be perceived as peaceful visitors, while a company of men only can be perceived as a threat. Anne-Marie, and Pierre Petrequin visited, recorded, and lived among the Dani of Western Guinea in Indonesia. Some of their recordings were collected on four disks called Les Dani de Nouvelle Guinee. Two recordings, one from Volume 1, and one from Volume 2, are listed in this year's top 100.

Anne-Marie and Pierre Petrequin

Traditional music among distant cultures is often a family affair. With no television, computer, or radio available, families make music for entertainment (or so it seems.) Below are portraits of Irina Khritoroforovna Kolegova and Anna Vasilevna Kolegova. The two perform several tracks together on Kamtchaka:Tambours De Danse De L'extreme-orient Sibérien recorded by Henri Lecomte. I've painted both Anna and Irina Kolegova twice before. Read here to learn more about their recordings.

Anna and Irina Kolegova

In 1923, four of the six children, Paco, Ezequiel, Pepe, and Elisa, of Dr. Francisco Aguilar, created a lute quartet: Cuarteto Aguilar. From Murcia, Spain, the four made a name for themselves until the Spanish Civil War ended their career. The worked with the composer Manuel de Falla, and are pictured in a photo together with Igor Stravinsky. The tune Fiesta Mora en Tanger appears on an LP from the Secret Museum of Mankind series who are, after a lengthy hiatus, compiling new collections again.

Paco and Elise Aguilar

There are plenty of examples of lovers working together in the field of popular music. Caetano Veloso and Gal Costa are an example. The Top 100 2022 features the track Relance, written by Veloso and sung by Costa. (Edit: Despite some cozy pictures together, I don't see evidence the two were lovers. I guess the musicians of "Tropicalismo" were one big family.)

Caetano Veloso and Gal Costa

Family is on my mind a lot these days as I travel back and forth from the US to the Netherlands where my mother is battling a serious illness. Here's her portrait too:

Tonnie van Boekel

 

Les Dani de Nouvelle Guinée

Dani woman with children
14 x 11 inches, oil and acrylic on canvas, 2019

The Dani who live in the western (Indonesian) part of New Guinea are known for their appearances. Men wear penis sheaths that are quite long and pointy. The sheaths look vicious but I assume they function the opposite way as it keeps men from getting an erection and therefore discourages the idea of sexual intercourse. Women, when losing a dear one cut off a digit of one of their fingers, a painful way to mourn but it helps mourning I suppose. The oldest paintings known in the world are those of hand stencils found in Sulawesi, Indonesia and in Spain. Some fingers in these hand stencils have digits missing. Due to the same tradition of mourning? It is well established that many early hands were the hands of women. Were they the first artists? The French publisher NordSud compiled four discs with the music of the Dani. The most surprising tracks are a number of examples of throat singing, adding yet another geographic location this age old tradition is still being practiced.