the hollow plink of slit drums calls villagers to gather in ritual fashion.
The elaborate flourish of melodic piano keys draws listeners to
fashionable rituals.
The slit drum—lanky breadfruit timbers carved with totemic
facial features—represents a rite of passage to the indigenous New
Hebrides people and their ceremonial culture. It is said that when a man
accumulates enough wealth, represented by his herd of pigs, he pays for a
drum to be made and advances to a higher social status.
You will find no pigs—ducks perhaps, but no swine—beyond the
threshold.
But the incongruous pairing of the Vanuatu artifacts
with an 1854 rosewood low signature Steinway
box grand piano, yes, amid other juxtapositions at this
Joshua’s Landing contemporary waterfront home, a
repository for its residents’ eclectic collection of artifacts,
antiquities and fine art.
For the first time in their lives, the intrepid worldly
couple hired an architect, Kevin Pfirman, to create a
house, with the gallery at the center, that would showcase
their prized acquisitions amassed during decades
of living and traveling, in the continental U.S. and
abroad. The slit drums and Steinway range—like their
cultivated palate—from one extreme to the other.
Tribal masks and figures are displayed on pedestals on
48
WBM november 2011
A modern salon with
vaulted, cypress clad
ceilings, clerestory
windows and Cape Fear
Riverwood floors sets
the stage for a curious
collection of fine art and
artifacts collected during
decades of living and
traveling abroad.