Originally from the Torres Strait, where Aboriginal art developed in a very different way from the rest of the Australian continent, Ken Thaiday is a master of the ceremonial art of his region, where masks and dance ornaments occupy a central place. Inspired by Maori traditions and influences from New Guinea, his work combines wood, feathers and articulated elements to create spectacular ‘dance machines’. This ceremonial headdress is a perfect example. It is a large-format version of the ‘dancing machines’ that are attached to the heads of dancers during ritual ceremonies.

It represents Beizam, the Hammerhead Shark, the sacred symbol of law and order of which Ken is the symbolic representative. He explains that his work is both a social and personal religious act, since the shark is his totem and symbolises for him the whole of indigenous nature. The complexity of the mechanism used to articulate the different parts of this exceptional mask is striking.