WAYANG KULIT
INDONESIAN SHADOW PUPPETS

Condition reports are on individual pages. All are leather. Some have exceptionally nicely crafted handles and control rods, others do not. On some the paint is intact, on others some paint has flaked off and is fragile. All except for 5, 6, 12, 13 and 14 have two moveable arms. The puppets can take many positions so the height is from the top of the puppet to the bottom of the central handle.

"Wayang is a generic term denoting traditional theatre in Indonesia. There is no evidence that wayang existed before the first century CE, after Hinduism and Buddhism were brought to Southeast Asia. This leads to the hypothesis that the art was imported from either India or China, both of which have a long tradition of shadow puppetry and theatre in general. Jivan Pani has argued that wayang developed from two arts of Odisha in Eastern India, the Ravana Chhaya puppet theatre and the Chhau dance.[3] However, there very well may have been indigenous storytelling traditions that had a profound impact on the development of the traditional puppet theatre.

Wayang kulit, or shadow puppets, are without a doubt the best known of the Indonesian wayang. Kulit means skin, and refers to the leather construction of the puppets that are carefully chiselled with very fine tools and supported with carefully shaped buffalo horn handles and control rods. The stories are usually drawn from the Hindu epics the Ramayana, the Mahabharata or from the Serat Menak

The handwork involved in making a wayang kulit figure that is suitable for a performance takes several weeks, with the artists working together in groups. They start from master models (typically on paper) which are traced out onto skin or parchment, providing the figures with an outline and with indications of any holes that will need to be cut (such as for the mouth or eyes). The figures are then smoothed, usually with a glass bottle, and primed. The structure is inspected and eventually the details are worked through. A further smoothing follows before individual painting, which is undertaken by yet another craftsman. Finally, the movable parts (upper arms, lower arms with hands and the associated sticks for manipulation) mounted on the body, which has a central staff by which it is held."

----Wikipedia

GO TO GROTESQUES EXHIBITION PAGE

GO TO OCEANIC ART PAGE

MJM110816