Jonny Tiscareno
Professor Winnie Wong
ARTHIST 196T
26 October 2016
Tiscareno 1
Spirit figure, kakame
Gulf Province, Gulf of Papua, Lower Wai-i
River, Gope area, Karati village
19th-early 20th century
Mangrove root and pigment
Spirit Figure
The de Young museum is home to one of the most diverse and significant art collections
in the western United States. Currently the de Young’s collection exceeds 27,000 works of art
and is renowned for its holdings in American art of all periods, including painting, sculpture,
decorative arts, and works on paper; the art of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas; and costumes
and textiles representing a wide variety of Eastern and Western traditions. Given this brief
synopsis of the museum, I would like to discuss various rhetorical strategies that the de Young
Museum uses to transform a spirit figure, located in the Art of New Guinea gallery, into a
striking piece of art. The museum is astute in its naming and classification of the work while
simultaneously shrewd in the way it takes advantage of its space and the manner in which its
objects are organized. Apart from the naming, classification, space and organization, the museum
has a dynamic lighting throughout both floors which transform this spirit figure into an
important, advanced piece of art.
In Arthur C. Danto’s essay Artifact and Art, he makes the claim that “Artifacts have
primarily the status of tools, of instruments or at least of objects of use.” Tools, or objects of use,
are always given defined names. For example, a device that delivers a blow to an object is called
a hammer, and a device used for boring holes in various materials is called a drill. So, the de
Young Museum is careful when it leaves the spirit figure nameless, in essence, Untitled. This
helps the piece become an object of detached aesthetic scrutiny, allowing the work to speak for
itself instead of filling the role of a predefined tool. Although there is not a name for the spirit
figure, the museum provides a label with some interesting information.
German scientist Thomas Schultze-Westrum collected the spirit figure in 1966 in
a village located at the Delta of the Fly River on New Guinea’s South coast. This
swampy, saltwater delta is home to mangrove trees and roots that are a source for spirit
