Mask Museum...

Went on a wee field trip to the Setia Darma House of Mask and Puppets in Mas. It houses a massive collection of masks and puppets from Indonesia, and parts of Asia and Africa. The collection was initiated by Javanese businessmen Hadi Sunyoto, a man with an appreciation and enthusiasm for mask and puppets.

The museum is off the main road from Mas, nestled in an isolated clearing between the banana trees and dragonflies. The collection is held in a group of traditional imported Javanese houses, quite different to the Bali complexes (beautiful slabs of teak wood, massive open spaces, and motifs of pinapples everywhere). Each of the buildings had a different group of Topeng (mask) or Wayan (puppet).


This one housed most of the Topeng Bali...


The museum itself has a brilliant photo gallery of the masks online here.

The recent trend in Bali is to finish masks with gloss paint. It is remarkable how smooth they are, most look like they have been cast in plastic. You forget that these have been carved with very basic hand tools, not a bandsaw/jigsaw in sight, some carvers even choosing to use sandpaper sparingly (the traditional eqivalent is a matted bamboo which smooths the surface). I prefer the matte or 'ceramic' finish, which is more common in traditional practice.

Anyway, here are some of my favorites...

Sidhakarya Putih (the embodiement of Success. Danced at the end of a Topeng Pag performance)...


Sempati...


Sangut...


Bedahulu Putih...

This one is an older Balinese mask, Bondres (clown) Bungut Linggah. The description of this guy is hilarious...

"Mask of Bungut Linggah (wide mouth) this depicts public who like aimlessly, pretend busy but doesn't know what be do and love to affront the friend"


This Javanese mask reminds me of Yellow Bastard from Sin City...


Check the likeness (and maybe add some Klingon)...


Jiweng (sawo gletak) from Lenggeran, Wonosobo. A comic character (if you hadn't guessed)...


Here is one of the leather commedia masks made by Newman (I'm going to his studio/gallery on Sunday). He's from the states, is married to a Balinese woman, and lives here most of the time. Check out his online gallery here (and if you want me to buy one for you, sent me a message. And some cash). From what I understand he learnt some of his craft from Italy. I looooove the Capitano...

These are some of the Japanese masks from the Noh tradition, although I suspect they were carved by a Balinese craftsman. I know that both Anom and Nyoman have travelled to Japan to teach and learn some Japanese techniques (the carving is similar, the painting is different).


Nothing beats a good penis-nose-ball-sack-chin combo in a mask...


And then some of the puppets (but not before meeting some celebrities)...


Here is a set of the Wayan Kulit (Balinese puppets)...

Detail of the characters...


They are made out of animal hide, punched with different shaped stamp to create patterns, and then painted...


Here are a set of Wayan Kulit, the Christian edition. The characters (Jesus, disciples, etc) essentially match the Balinese architypes, and given that the Wayan Kulit narrative is taken from a religious epic (the Ramayana) I imagine it translates quite well in performance. Would love to see a passage of the Bible performed shaddow puppet styles.


These are the Javanese rod puppets, they are very different to the Balinese ones...


Here are some more contemporary designs (I imagine matched with contemporary narratives, although I am yet to watch a Javanese puppet show)...


I'm no expert, but if living in my old Newtown flat is anything to go by, the heat and humidity would make most of the artifacts here deteriorate considerably (mould is such a problem in Bali), there doesn't seem to be a temperature measure/gage in any of the rooms, so hopefully an upgrade in the close future will aid in preserving and prolonging their shelf life.

Now, off I go to 'pretend busy' and 'affront the friend'.

Shadow Puppets...

Tonight I went to a Wayan Kulit (shadow puppet) show, performed by Wayan Mardika at his family home in Sukawati. He was commissioned to perform by a group of American sociology students. He invited us to come along as some of the people I am staying with are studying with him (on the Dell’Arte program). Suffice to say this group of sociology students were awkward and weirded out that we gate crashed their little private show. Pffft. Anyway.

Wayan Kulit uses one puppeteer (called the dalang, and who also does all the voices), with a couple of assistance (passing him the correct puppets and keeping the fire alight), and a gamelan who accompany the action. It’s hot work- he sits directly under the flame, which is attached to his microphone (a modern addition). Mardika would have learnt his practice through generations of study i.e. his father, his father’s father. His younger brother is currently studying at the university/art college, in order to become a ‘certified puppet master’. The notion of these sorts of schools is somewhat controversial, given that the practice which was traditionally passed down through family/a master craftsman (in an apprenticeship style) is now being taught conventionally in a Westernised institution.

Here is the stage set-up...

Even thought the story was [unnecessarily] told to us [by a obnoxious American woman who thinks she owns Bali because she lives here and is married to a Balinese man], it was difficult to follow, despite the fact there were parts in English. The narrative followed excerpts from either the Ramayana or Mahabharata. It had gambling, killing animals, nymphs with womanly powers, and the Jack Black/John Candy character (fat comic man). The two servant/clown characters spoke in English. It was quite funny, they commented and apologized about how bad their English was, and made some great jokes about finding an American wife, and hamburgers.

Giraffe sequence...

Moose/deer sequence...

A giant bird...

Some naughty horny monkeys...

Some even hornier rabbits...

The fellowship...

During the performance, the family dog got on stage and sat down in the middle. He hung out for a bit, then left in his own time. No one seemed to mind.

Going behind the scenes was where you saw the magic.

You got to see the master working his craft, the gamelan attentive to his moves, and the quick changes between scenes. They don’t mind you wandering around the back to check it out. I must admit, although the imagery of the shadow puppetry is beautiful and dynamic, I much preferred watching the mechanics of the show from the sidelines.



Such a wet evening! Fingers crossed it stops for tomorrow.