ASMAT Bis Pole Seattle art Northwest Territory

Northwest Territory

the two hollowed wood pieces held together with natural fiber cord lashings

I was wiped out and barely remembered being driven up island to Tofino where my friend Steven motored us to the sliver of granite in the Pacific Ocean named Wickaninnish Island

CHAPTER 14

it seems to be hard to place in a normal person’s home

ASMAT Bis Pole Seattle art Northwest TerritoryAsmat Ancestor Pole, Bis or Bisj Pole, carved wood, pigment, organic material, 14 ft H The Asmat honored their dead with feasts and rituals, which both commemorated the deceased and reminded the living to avenge their deaths. The towering Asmat "bis" poles were made for these funeral feasts. The basic form of the bis is an openwork pole incorporating several ancestor figures and a winglike projection that represents the pole's phallus. In Asmat