Wall panelling

The gabled fronts of the Abelam people's men's houses near the Sepik River in New Guinea are made from a variety of these palm leaf paintings. They are usually present only as individual elements in Western museums, so that the full impact of the overall artwork is weakened. Displayed here is one of the beings from the hereafter that symbolises the inner world of the men's house as a place of the otherworldly and the spiritual.