Activism--Traditional and Contemporary Artforms
Social Activism in the Traditional Indonesian Shadow Puppet Plays
Social activism has a long history in Indonesian arts, even predating the time of Indonesia's independence from the various colonial occupations it has suffered. The most obvious way that social activism manifests itself in Indonesian traditional arts is through the Panakawan, or clown scenes, that occur in the second and middle acts of the wayang kulit shadow puppet theater.
Wayang Kulit: a Brief Overview
The wayang kulit, or shadow puppet show is a ritualistic play that typically lasts anywhere from 4 to 9 hours, and occurs in three acts, the introduction, the Panakawan, and the battle. scenes respectively. The first act sets up the premise of the drama and introduces the main characters, and the third act consists of the very climactic battle scene. These two acts are narrated in the language of kawi, or an ancient form of the Javanese language that is reserved for the highest castes, sultans and holy people, and is used extensively in Javanese sastra, or literary forms. The point is that only the gods, holy people and kings can directly communicate with each other, but the audience usually knows the general outline of the plot, as all the stories are based from the Ramayana, or the Mahabarata stories, both originating in ancient India and brought over to the region during the reign of the Majapahit empire from the first or second century, A.D. to the sixteenth century A. D. (Holt, p. 4).
Semar, the People's Mentor and Hero
The second act of the play is centered through the use of the Panakawan characters led by the portly and extremely wise Semar... According to Clare Holt in "Art in Indonesia: Communities and Change",
"Semar is not only loved, but revered and regarded by some of the most sacred figure of the whole kotak, or wayang set. He appears on the screen precisely at midnight, preceeded by the gara-gara(sic)... (goro- goro), ""ominous manifestation (chaos)," when danger is greatest, the distress of his master the deepest, and when help is essential....some writers of the wayang conjecture that Semar and his sons are..'the people" not otherwise represented in the palace heirarchies. They are the voice of the simple village folk, with all their strength, misery, and wisdom. Without them a princely master is unthinkable without their support, advice, and succor, he may be lost....Whether deity or deified symbol of the people, Semar combines his role of servant-mentor with that of a mediator between his masters and the gods. (Holt, p 145)."
References: Holt, Clare, Art in Indonesia: Communities and Change, Cornell University Press, Ithaca 1967.
Social Commentary and Activism in Indonesian Contemporary Arts
Heri Dono's Wayang
"Heri Dono's work reflects and comments on what he sees happening in the society around him. He believes it is the role of artists to inquire and reflect, to point out injustices, stupidity, paradoxes, and violence. In fact art has been one of the few vehicles for doing this in the past. Heri has managed to go under the radar of censorship using visual symbolism, while creating works in which he referred to controversial and even dangerous contemporary issues.
Dono is profoundly influenced by the Wayang Shadow puppet theatre and has studied it for several years with Sukasman, an innovative dalang in Yogyakarta. Of course the Wayang has always been a powerful educative and communicative tool in Indonesia."
"A taste for the fantastic has played a central part in the myths of the Ramayana and Mahabarata which are the source of the traditional Wayang stories but they have been enjoyed and re-interpreted as satirical glosses on the present as well as for themselves. Dono has departed from tradition in constructing his own pseudo-traditional stories which make a more pointed comment on the present. In The Drunkenness of Semar, for example, the performance he presented in Oxford, Dono examined in a playful, but powerful way, the impact of modernisation and militarism on a developing society. The performance took place as a MOMA2 project at Freud's Arts Cafe, Walton Street, Oxford on 10th December 1995.
The character Semar - which ostensibly means a guru (teacher) and God of the Javanese religion - also plays the role of a joker or jester. But there are other levels of parody which are typical of Javanese literary and artistic forms of expression: through the cartoon-like invention of Supersemar (a parody of Superman) this figure is keyed back through a word play to the Batak acronym for the Decree of 12th March 1966: the date of the military coup by which the existing President Suharto replaced President Sukarno - the founder of the Indonesian Republic. Traditional Javanese myths, recent political history and American cartoons are brought together in a single word, each reference signifying a different power base, interest, order, and way of looking at the world."
The following is an exerpt from an interview with Heri Dono found on Dartmouth University's server at the time of first authoring this page back in 2006 (web reference no longer available in 2008)...
"HD: In the Indonesian tradition, dance, theatre, or wayang kulit (Javanese shadow play), the Punakawan (clown-servants) are very important for criticizing and making fun of the high levels of society. Like in Ketoprak (Javanese folk theater) or Sri Mulat (form of Javanese popular, comic folk theater), there are jokers, and they are central to the drama.
LP: And do you try to be a Punakawan?
HD: Something like that, yes.
LP: Which of the Punakawan are you?
HD: I don't identify with a specific Punakawan, but to criticize something in the context of my artwork, I need a way to make jokes."
Other links to Heri Dono's work:
http://www.javafred.net/rd_cb_17.htm
No.e's Own Experiments in the World of Wayang
Wayang Hip Hop
Directed by no.e Parker, music by no.e and Rie Watanabe, Kedai Kebun Forum, Yogyakarta, Java
A collaborative project consisting of paper cut out characters based loosely on wayang animals... this is a continuing project that has been performed in Kedai Kebun, Yogya Java, as a dub between traditional Javanese singing, Balinese grenteng (bamboo xylophone) playing, the narrator/dalang rapping in Sundanese(west javanese), English, and Indonesian languages, using elements of psychedelic lightshow, and hip hop sampling/ dj live mixing. This project will evolve further with the collaboration of TeMBi, Javanese cultural center/musuem. The main aim of the project is to educate village children about the earth consciousness and conserving her limited resources in a growing consumer and waste-based economy...
"Damar Wulan: the Grasscutter Who Would be King"
Directed by Kathy Foley, Media Design by no.e Parker.
Description: Exploration of the basic wayang character types and digital media design for theatrical performance on the UCSC Theater Division's Second Stage, Spring 2006.
Semar's Dream: performance installation, digital media, video footage shot in Indonesia, textiles, bamboo. March 2006
The original version of this piece was developed as a digital media design for Kathy foley's production of "Damar Wulan the Grasscutter who Would be King"--performed on the UCSC theater division's second stage-- a traditional javanese story of the good and rightful heir to the throne conquering the evil forces that have gained control of it. This incarnation of it is my first exploration into the concept of performance installation. The character who appears is the wise and flatulent Sabda palon, an earthly incarnation of wisnu, and servant to the would be king, Damar Wulan. I have adapted my design into a short video, complete with a soundtrack made of ambient gamelan, Javanese sound scape recordings, and cutups of actual Javanese shadow puppet plays. When there is not a performance going on in the space, it transforms into a chamber filled with my visions shot during my two year stay in Java and Bali.
Gratitude to professor Kathy Foley, Alan Tolefson of the UCSC scene shop, and Sean Mc Candless.
"Incarnations of Vishnu"
Directed by Kathy Foley, Media Design by no.e Parker. UCSC Second Stage, Fall 2006.
"Before Becoming Buddha"
Directed by Kathy Foley, Media Design by no.e Parker. UCSC Main Stage, Spring 2007.