A Papuan Gulf spirit board, gope, Plank-like carvings with designs in low-relief are the best-known Art forms from the Gulf Province of Papua New Guinea. The oblong board's outline frames a stylized figure of red color with white features, powerful image of an ancestral spirit. Rhythm is created by the repetition all over the board of the same patterns originally taken from the head: mouth and nostrils. They are applied as independent design motifs and combined in such a way to give the impression of swaying, creating an absorbing and destabilizing effect, the spirit seems to literally inhabit the medium. The entire board can be twisted and new faces evocations emerge, the ancestral spirit evolves, appears everywhere, demonstrating the scope of its power. Provenance: from the collection of Keith St Cartmail, height 116 cm