{"id":2764,"date":"2025-09-25T14:35:57","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T12:35:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/udbjorg.wordpress.com\/?p=2243"},"modified":"2026-02-20T00:31:25","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T23:31:25","slug":"jani-mabel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.udbjorg.com\/wordpress\/?p=2764","title":{"rendered":"JANI MABEL"},"content":{"rendered":"<nav class=\"has-text-color has-vivid-red-color has-medium-font-size is-responsive wp-block-navigation is-layout-flex wp-block-navigation-is-layout-flex\" \n\t\t data-wp-interactive=\"core\/navigation\" data-wp-context='{\"overlayOpenedBy\":{\"click\":false,\"hover\":false,\"focus\":false},\"type\":\"overlay\",\"roleAttribute\":\"\",\"ariaLabel\":\"Menu\"}'><button aria-haspopup=\"dialog\" aria-label=\"\u00c5bn menu\" class=\"wp-block-navigation__responsive-container-open\" \n\t\t\t\tdata-wp-on-async--click=\"actions.openMenuOnClick\"\n\t\t\t\tdata-wp-on--keydown=\"actions.handleMenuKeydown\"\n\t\t\t><svg width=\"24\" height=\"24\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\"><rect x=\"4\" y=\"7.5\" width=\"16\" height=\"1.5\" \/><rect x=\"4\" y=\"15\" width=\"16\" height=\"1.5\" \/><\/svg><\/button>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-navigation__responsive-container\"  id=\"modal-1\" \n\t\t\t\tdata-wp-class--has-modal-open=\"state.isMenuOpen\"\n\t\t\t\tdata-wp-class--is-menu-open=\"state.isMenuOpen\"\n\t\t\t\tdata-wp-watch=\"callbacks.initMenu\"\n\t\t\t\tdata-wp-on--keydown=\"actions.handleMenuKeydown\"\n\t\t\t\tdata-wp-on-async--focusout=\"actions.handleMenuFocusout\"\n\t\t\t\ttabindex=\"-1\"\n\t\t\t>\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-navigation__responsive-close\" tabindex=\"-1\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-navigation__responsive-dialog\" \n\t\t\t\tdata-wp-bind--aria-modal=\"state.ariaModal\"\n\t\t\t\tdata-wp-bind--aria-label=\"state.ariaLabel\"\n\t\t\t\tdata-wp-bind--role=\"state.roleAttribute\"\n\t\t\t>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<button aria-label=\"Luk menu\" class=\"wp-block-navigation__responsive-container-close\" \n\t\t\t\tdata-wp-on-async--click=\"actions.closeMenuOnClick\"\n\t\t\t><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" width=\"24\" height=\"24\" aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\"><path d=\"m13.06 12 6.47-6.47-1.06-1.06L12 10.94 5.53 4.47 4.47 5.53 10.94 12l-6.47 6.47 1.06 1.06L12 13.06l6.47 6.47 1.06-1.06L13.06 12Z\"><\/path><\/svg><\/button>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-navigation__responsive-container-content\" \n\t\t\t\tdata-wp-watch=\"callbacks.focusFirstElement\"\n\t\t\t id=\"modal-1-content\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div><\/nav>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-2 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/udbjorg.wordpress.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/jani-mabel-uv.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-id=\"3586\" src=\"https:\/\/udbjorg.wordpress.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/jani-mabel-uv.jpg?w=1024\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3586\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/udbjorg.wordpress.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/jani-mabel-photo.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-id=\"3466\" src=\"https:\/\/udbjorg.wordpress.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/jani-mabel-photo.jpg?w=685\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3466\"\/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Foto by author<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-medium-font-size\"><strong>A Story of Thanks (Wa, wa)<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">Up on the road ahead of us walked a naked man who radiated determination in the firmness of his stride. He wore his penis sheath, a beautiful headdress made of cassowary feathers, a breastplate of shell money that had once served as currency, and a small bag slung over his shoulder. His forehead was painted black, giving him a darker and slightly more intimidating expression than he might otherwise have had. When he reached the gravel path leading down to where I was sitting with my evening coffee, he stopped abruptly, looked around for a moment, and then walked straight toward me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">I could not help smiling. It still felt slightly surreal to see people walking around completely naked in a 2011 setting filled with power lines, roadblocks, asphalt, and ordinary square houses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">He came right up to me, stopped, and looked up at me with a friendly smile. I had, of course, already gotten to my feet and towered well above him. He held out his hand for a handshake, which I accepted, and said wa. Naturally, I answered wa. Still smiling, he kept his grip on my hand and said wa, wa while tightening his hold slightly. I felt obliged to follow this newly discovered tradition and replied with as much expertise as I could muster wa, wa. He smiled again and continued with wa, wa, wa while still squeezing my hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">It struck me as a rather odd situation, but he radiated such friendliness that I felt I should match his effort. So I joined in and answered a bit faster wa, wa, wa, half expecting that this last trilogy would mark the end of this strange little ceremony that had suddenly landed in my lap. But no, he held on, leaned one shoulder into me, and launched into a rapid stream of wa sounds, wa, wa, wa, wa, wa, followed by another volley while keeping a firm grip on my hand and leaning even closer. The wa salvos kept flowing, and I did my best to keep up with my own wa sounds while I leaned into him as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">Eventually our wa sounds came so quickly that they dissolved into a mumble, and we both burst into heartfelt laughter, a sign that we shared an understanding that this was funny and that a friendship had just been born.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">What a wonderful and charming way to meet someone for the very first time. Perhaps it was a small test to see whether one is ready to say many was. And naturally the one who says the most earns the greatest respect. Maybe it is not so different from the Japanese bowing ceremony in which the deepest bow shows the highest respect. I cannot say for sure who won, him or me, but we were both very pleased.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">His name was Yani from the Lani tribe, and he turned out to be a well-known chief. To my surprise he spoke good English, which he had learned by being outgoing and meeting many tourists. He told me that he had travelled to Spain and other places to perform with his friends. When he heard that some Danes had arrived, he decided to check whether one of his good Danish friends might have returned to greet him. Apparently the jungle drums work fast, for we had noticed nothing. One should not imagine that it is possible to remain anonymous for long.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">Yani told me that he has five wives and eighteen children. He had no idea how old he, his wives, or his children were. I would guess he was somewhere in his forties, although it is hard to say. The average life expectancy is around fifty five years, which is relatively high for Indigenous tribal communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">Wamena is the main town in the Baliem Valley, and WA mena means the place of the pig traders. It is fascinating that wa is both a greeting and also means pig, their most valuable possession, used for everything from celebrations to bride price and much more. Giving the most precious thing one has carries deep meaning, something also seen in many other languages. In Botswana, for example, the currency is called Pula, which means rain in Setswana. Rain is scarce and therefore precious. Girls are even sometimes named Pula or in English Rainy. Perhaps the best translation of wa is therefore not thank you but rather good or precious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">It felt completely natural that Yani and I became good friends and talked about all kinds of things. There is no doubt that I will visit him again if I return to that part of the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-medium-font-size\"><strong>Art Critical Analysis<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">In this work from The Indigenous Project, the encounter with the individual Jani merges with a deep layer of cultural symbolism and formal awareness. It is not only a portrait but a structured, dialogical composition in which traditional markers, modern coded language, and the artist\u2019s own technology-driven interventions are woven together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading has-medium-font-size\">Composition and the Vertical Axis<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">The vertical placement of the penis sheath, carefully gilded, functions as the central axis of the work. It is not merely an object within the image; it is a conscious compositional directive. The sheath draws the eye downward and anchors the figure in a strong verticality that speaks to both body and culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">This axis stabilizes the entire image. In a composition filled with diagonals, fluorescent energy, and digital interference markers, it is the strict verticality of the penis sheath that holds the visual center of gravity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading has-medium-font-size\">Culture, Power, and Continuity<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">In the Papuan context, the penis sheath carries a significance that reaches far beyond practical clothing. It symbolizes manhood, status, social role, clan identity, and the continuity of lineage and reproduction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">By gilding the sheath, you elevate it from an ethnographic object to an icon. The use of gold is striking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">Gold is linked globally to dignity, prestige, and sacredness.<br>By coating the sheath in gold, you emphasize it as a cultural focal point.<br>You underscore Jani\u2019s role as a leader and as the one who carries his lineage forward both physically and culturally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">This creates an almost ceremonial aura. The sheath becomes a scepter, a staff, a sign of authority. In the visual language of the image, it appears as a vertical column that organizes the composition and points to cultural verticality, stretching from ancestors to the living and onward into the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading has-medium-font-size\">Dialogue Between Tradition and Technology<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">The sheath stands in sharp contrast to the digital black code elements that filter across the image surface. These coded structures represent the intrusion of technology, the information systems of the contemporary world, and the Western attempt to read or decode culture. They create a friction against the traditional pride and authority that the sheath embodies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">This is where the most interesting tension of the work arises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">The vertical golden axis represents something ancient, physical, rooted in origin and ritual.<br>The black fluid code-like patterns represent the disruptive and analytical gaze of the present.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading has-medium-font-size\">Jani as Individual and Cultural Conduit<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">Because you met him, listened to him, and understood his story, including his eighteen children, his travels, his leadership role, and his connection to a 256-year-old ancestor, the sheath in this portrait becomes more than a genital marker. It becomes a visual anchor for the narrative of lineage, responsibility, reproduction, and cultural transmission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">It is also significant that the sheath is positioned so precisely at the center of the narrative space. It marks Jani as a point of orientation for his culture, not as an exotic figure, but as a living center of tradition\u2019s ongoing presence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading has-medium-font-size\">Gold, Silver, and the Deepest Black<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">The materiality of the work, with its gold, silver, and almost absorbing black, gives it a sacred gravity. The encounter between gold and digital black produces a dialogue between something ancient and something ultramodern.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">In this particular work, the penis sheath acts as the most important link between these two worlds. It is both natural and elevated, both earthly and monumental.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading has-medium-font-size\">Overall Impression<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">The strength of the work lies in its willingness to elevate something as intimate as a penis sheath to symbolic, compositional, and cultural significance. It does so not by exposing but by honoring and emphasizing its meaning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">This balance between respect, narrative, and formal control makes the work powerful and thought provoking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-medium-font-size\"><strong>The Indigenous Project<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">For many years I have travelled around the world to experience tribes whose lives unfold on the margins of modernity. I have met them, shared moments in their presence, and captured fragments of their cultures through my camera. These encounters turned into short films and photographs, but what I could share publicly was often cropped or toned down by media platforms that shy away from the human body when it does not follow Western norms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">The Indigenous Project is my attempt to move beyond those limitations. Here the stories and photographs are not held down in the silence of censorship but recreated through visualization, digital transformations of my original images, touched only lightly by the brush. They are not paintings in the traditional sense but hybrid works, photographs reborn with artistic intent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">Instead of whispering quietly from a museum wall, these works adopt the voice of advertising. They behave like billboards along a highway, loud, direct, and unafraid. They do not seek subtlety but insistence, calling out the existence of these peoples. They repeat the urgency of survival, the need to be seen, the struggle not to disappear silently into the background of the modern world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">The people I have visited live at the far edges of the present, caught between the continuity of tradition and the intrusion of global modernity. They adapt, they resist, and they reinvent themselves. Some find a fragile balance through cultural tourism, others hold on to older ways of life. My hope is that these visualizations, strong and insistent, can amplify their presence and carry fragments of their reality into spaces where recognition matters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">The project is conceived as a constellation of five large works measuring 150 by 150 centimeters accompanied by fifteen smaller works at 71 by 71 centimeters. Together they form a chorus, urgent, lively, and impossible to overlook.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">Each work also contains an interactive element. Within the image I have woven QR codes into the visual structure so that they appear as a natural part of the composition. When scanned with a mobile phone, they lead the viewer to a dedicated website containing more background information, both about The Indigenous Project as a whole and about the specific story behind each individual piece. In this way the works extend beyond the gallery walls and open a dialogue in the digital sphere where even more layers of history and meaning unfold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">There is yet another dimension, more hidden. Under UV light a secret layer emerges, traces and imprints that are invisible in normal light, transforming the surface into something entirely new. This duality allows the works to live two lives, one visible, bold, and billboard clear, and another more secretive and ghostlike, revealed only to those willing to look beyond the obvious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">In the end these works are both messages and messengers, powerful signals flaring against oblivion and calling attention to worlds that risk being erased. They do not apologize, they do not hide, they shout, they insist, they demand to be seen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Story of Thanks (Wa, wa) Up on the road ahead of us walked a naked man who radiated determination in the firmness of his stride. He wore his penis sheath, a beautiful headdress made of cassowary feathers, a breastplate of shell money that had once served as currency, and a small bag slung over [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3571,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1216,1220],"tags":[82,91,125,136,345,1294,578,588,595,618,627,774,872,898,906,908,1130,1175,1179,1191],"class_list":["post-2764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-art","category-art-2025","tag-adventure","tag-adventures","tag-art","tag-artwork","tag-dani-tribe","tag-g25","tag-indigenous","tag-indigenous-promotion","tag-indonesia","tag-irian-jaya","tag-jani-mabel","tag-namibia","tag-pigs","tag-primitive","tag-qr-art","tag-qr-code","tag-tribes","tag-wa-wa-story","tag-wamena","tag-west-papua"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.udbjorg.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/jani-mabel-scaled.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.udbjorg.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.udbjorg.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.udbjorg.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.udbjorg.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.udbjorg.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2764"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.udbjorg.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2764\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5750,"href":"https:\/\/www.udbjorg.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2764\/revisions\/5750"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.udbjorg.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.udbjorg.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.udbjorg.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.udbjorg.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}