The inspiration for Headhunt Revisited took shape in the 1920’s, when an intrepid American portrait artist, Caroline Mytinger, and her friend, Margaret Warner, traveled to Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands on a hunt to capture portraits of the indigenous peoples. Their four-year expedition resulted in 25 stunning paintings that depicted and preserved the culture of Melanesia in a way recorded by no other.
Eighty years later, photographer Michele Westmorland led her own expedition to Melanesia, retracing Caroline’s journey to share this rare visual evidence of a culture’s history. Michele and her team encountered descendants of four islanders featured in Caroline’s paintings, showing them significant links to their forgotten past and fostering a resurgence of cultural pride.
Today, Papua New Guinean artist, Jeffry Feeger offers his own interpretation of Caroline’s work, revealing both the cultural continuities and the dramatic changes that have occurred over the past 100 years.
Headhunt Revisited connects these artists in a story that is personal and universal, illustrating with painting, photography and filmmaking, that all forms of art are instrumental in communicating stories of culture and tradition.
