Are these women or men?
The Huli in the Middle
Dua Samson, 2023
Acryllic on canvas, 35х56.5
Mount Hagen, Papua New Guinea
Acryllic on canvas, 35х56.5
Mount Hagen, Papua New Guinea
How does the traveller see it?
(Fragment of a post from a Facebook page)
I found myself asking that question as I examined this painting by Papua artist Dua Samson.
When I was buying the work, their breasts left me no reason to doubt. But I started questioning things when the framed canvas was placed in my office. These are women from the tribes Orokaiva (Chimbu Province), Huli and Enga. That’s what the guide told me when I was buying the painting.
Translator’s note: “huli” sounds like a word in Russian which means “what the fuck” or “how the fuck”. So the title of this painting, “The Huli in the Middle”, could also read as “What the fuck is in the middle”.
Why these particular tribes, I inquired.
People buy them, he replied.
But the Huli people though… they are also called the “Wigmen”, since it’s known that their men wear hats of hair. By this logic, the figure in the middle should be a man, while the figure to his right is a Chimbu woman with red flowers on her head; I saw these once in a dance. The figure to his left, meanwhile, is that a man or a woman? That remained an open question. I grilled the guide once more and according to him, it’s a man from Enga, while the Huli figure in the middle is a woman; she’s just wearing a man’s wig for the beauty of it.
What do you think?
When I was buying the work, their breasts left me no reason to doubt. But I started questioning things when the framed canvas was placed in my office. These are women from the tribes Orokaiva (Chimbu Province), Huli and Enga. That’s what the guide told me when I was buying the painting.
Translator’s note: “huli” sounds like a word in Russian which means “what the fuck” or “how the fuck”. So the title of this painting, “The Huli in the Middle”, could also read as “What the fuck is in the middle”.
Why these particular tribes, I inquired.
People buy them, he replied.
But the Huli people though… they are also called the “Wigmen”, since it’s known that their men wear hats of hair. By this logic, the figure in the middle should be a man, while the figure to his right is a Chimbu woman with red flowers on her head; I saw these once in a dance. The figure to his left, meanwhile, is that a man or a woman? That remained an open question. I grilled the guide once more and according to him, it’s a man from Enga, while the Huli figure in the middle is a woman; she’s just wearing a man’s wig for the beauty of it.
What do you think?
And what do you think?