2001.268.McD Standing figure | DMA Staging Content Management System

GENERAL DESCRIPTION

In Island Southeast Asia, wood sculpture rarely survives in its original setting for more than one or two hundred years. In the late 20th century, however, objects emerged in Kalimantan, in the Indonesian area of the island of Borneo, that seemed to be considerably earlier, deserving of the stylistic designation archaic. They were associated with rivers, with water and mud, an environment that both preserved them and modified them. This figure is one of those sculptures. The indigenous peoples who have lived in this region more recently have erected imposing figural sculptures at the edges of fields, on the banks of streams, at crossroads, and close to the longhouse. The figures serve to guard and protect the community from all manner of evil. This archaic sculpture probably served a similar purpose.

Adapted from

"Standing figure," in Dallas Museum of Art: A Guide to the Collection, ed. Bonnie Pitman (Dallas: Dallas Museum of Art; New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2012), 114.

NOTES

Catalogue essays

Standing guardian figure (tepatung)

Borneo: The Island-Its Peoples

Development of the Dallas Museum of Art's Indonesian Collection

McDermott Art Fund

Artist/designers

Cultures

Geography

Island Southeast Asia

Process/materials

Historical periods

Individuals

Subject terms

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WEB RESOURCES

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FUN FACTS

TEACHING IDEAS

RULES

apply to objects where number equals 2001.268.McD

General Description

In Island Southeast Asia, wood sculpture rarely survives in its original setting for more than one or two hundred years. In the late 20th century, however, objects emerged in Kalimantan, in the Indonesian area of the island of Borneo, that seemed to be considerably earlier, deserving of the stylistic designation archaic. They were associated with rivers, with water and mud, an environment that both preserved them and modified them. This figure is one of those sculptures. The indigenous peoples who have lived in this region more recently have erected imposing figural sculptures at the edges of fields, on the banks of streams, at crossroads, and close to the longhouse. The figures serve to guard and protect the community from all manner of evil. This archaic sculpture probably served a similar purpose.