Dancing figures are often represented on Elema spirit boards. The ancestral spirit is said to enter the hohao using the navel motif as a portal. Here the figure is animated in dance and also suggests renewal as it appears to give birth to a creature that is depicted around the navel.

Provenance:
Sotheby’s New York, Private Sale, 2010
John Friede, New York
Mark Groudine, Seattle
Scott Rodolitz, New York
Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois
Chapman collection

Publishing History:
Douglas Newton. Art of the Papuan Gulf. New York: The Museum of Primitive Art, 1961: fig. 243.

Primitive Art in the Collections of the Art Institute of Chicago. Chicago: the Art Institute 1965: figure 79.