Hoa Hakananai'a Easter Island statue
A History of the World in 100 Objects
Hoa Hakananiaia
Hoa Hakananiaia is a rare combination of physical mass and evocative potency. He was probably made around the year 1200 and was almost certainly made to house an ancestral spirit. For the sculptor, Serrantini Karu, this is the essence of sculpture. Every sculptor, since Rhoda, has looked to primitive sculpture because all the unnecessary elements are removed. Anything that is left in is what stresses the power of the stone. We are down to the essence. Its size, its simplicity, its monumentality and its placement.
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