(Private?) Museum of Cordilleran Sculptures, based in Banaue, Ifugao, Philippines.
Link goes to gallery of exhibits, presenting primarily photos of carvings in collection with brief descriptions and limited explanation. http://cordilleranmuseum.weebly.com/gallery-of-exhibits.html
Near the beginning is an old sculpture of an owl with a very small head.
Entitled: An Inherited Veneration of Owls
Description indicates the sculpture was of Eastern Samar origin. Visayan deity?
Excerpt:
Certain beliefs and imagery scared to the pagan terrace farmers in these mountains originated in the Philippine lowland or even overseas millennially distant in time. A fearful reverence for owls is one such tenet of the mountaineers' paganism.
In Ifugao these gnomish and unnerving birds have been venerated graphically by carving their heart-shaped facial outline on some of the tribal granary deities (Bulol).
In Ifugao, as elsewhere in the Philippines, the night cry of the owl near [someone's] home portends the imminent illness or death of someone in the family or the vicinity.
In one know Philippine lowland location the owl; from the prehispanic era until a few years ago; reigned as a God, one whose centuries' old image as alighted here before you in the form of a disturbing creature known as the Santo Kulago of the Guiuan; the owl saint of Guiuan.
Carved in that Eastern Samar City some 1400 kilometers southeast of Ifugao; Early in the Spanish epoch; of Molave, one of the hardest of native woods, the statue bears the feathered body of an owl combined with a much eroded human face and head, crowned blasphemously with a christian cross.
Mother and Child in Two Guises
The next set of images show carvings of mother and child, nurturing and in feeding. The images are described as being that of monkeys. It is uncertain if this interpretation originated from the Kalinga carver or is that of the private collector. Notice the strong owl-like features of the face in this particular image.
Very curious are Kalinga Chimeran carvings. Scroll about 3/4 of the way down the page.
Mission Statement is worth reading to understand context of the curator's intentions.
Excerpt from About Us section:
Our Dream
The Museum of Cordilleran Sculpture was founded by George and Candida Ida Schenk over 30 years ago. George Schenk is from Washington State, USA, is a renowned horticulturist and an award winning author of several books, such as The Complete Shade Gardner 1984, Moss Gardening 1997, Rock Gardens 1969 and Gardening with Friends 1992. Together with his wife Candida Ida Schenk, who is from Vancouver, Canada, they have made their home in Banaue to further their dream of preserving this incredible culture from extinction. George has become a specialist in the art of the peoples of the Philippine Cordillera and has made a documentary depicting the effects of the international market for these primitive carvings on the lives of these rice farmers and carvers. This documentary is available for viewing in DVD format.
What began as a small antique store in Intermuros, Makati, Manila over 3 decades ago has evolved into dream to preserve a culture that is slowly dying. Each time a piece of art sold to a private collector, it was a realization for the Schenks, that the Ifugao people were loosing a small piece of their culture. It would become a "private" treasured piece of art, available only to those who knew its' owner. It was with this knowledge that the store metamorphosed slowly into a collection of Cordilleras Art and the pieces that had been collected were no longer for sale but open for viewing to the public. The collection moved to its original roots, in Ifugao in the city of Banaue and opened its doors to the public. It is an institution devoted exclusively to the Cordilleras arts and culture. There are over 1,000 pieces in the collection of the Museum, ranging from large-scale, carved wooden Bululs, masks to smaller scale figures, textiles, utilitarian objects, and composite objects. These pieces are important as they preserve the religious and cultural legacy of the Ifugao people that is fast disappearing in a globalized world.
Our permanent exhibit features an extensive display of rare bulul idols; "(T)he bulul spirit images are fine examples of abstract art, for the Ifugao woodcarver expresses his feelings rather than attempts realistic representation. The distortion, as many observers want to call it, results from emphasis being placed on the quality of 'other worldliness' or the 'preternatur ."Alfredo Evangelista, National Museum of the Philippines, 1970s.
