Museum Displays Traditional ‘Dancing Shadows’ Puppets

The puppets dance, brawl, laugh and tumble, casting dramatic shadows through lacy pinpricks of light.

Known as the wayang kulit of Indonesia, these elaborately painted figures on water buffalo hide commemorate important life cycles, ceremonies and social events, spinning classical tales with shadows and light. Some gleam with gilt or brass, their articulated limbs set in motion by carved water buffalo horn.

“Dancing Shadows, Epic Tales: Wayang Kulit of Indonesia” opens at 1 p.m. Sunday in the Museum of International Folk Art. The show marks the first time the museum collection of about 220 –– purchased in 2007 from a renowned puppeteer –– has been shown publicly.

The MOIFA exhibit will include traditional gamelan music, video performances and a computer for exploring storylines and characters.

‘There are special rules — like if a character wears a crown, he can never go upside down,” curator Felicia Katz Harris said. “Unless he’s an ogre.”

“It’s a storytelling tradition that’s hundreds and hundreds of years old,” Katz Harris continued. “It started as a local tradition for ritual and ceremonial purposes. These epic stories came from India and were adapted to local tradition.”

At performances in palaces and villages, the puppeteer sits in front of a screen as a light streams behind him through thousands and thousands of tiny perforations. The size of a pin, they outline musculature, delineate strands of hair and sumptuous fabrics, as well as facial expressions.

“So on the other side, all you see are these really ornate shadows,” Katz Harris said.

The performances aren’t for children or for the impatient —–they typically last nine hours. Most of the stories center on the existential struggle between good and evil, right and wrong.

“If you had to boil it down to one word, it’s virtue,” Katz Harris said. “These stories teach virtue.

“There’s this comparison to the Greek tragedies,” she continued. “There’s this whole pantheon of gods.”

Puppet artists must follow stringent guidelines, punching the holes through the leather with a nail-like tool called a “tatah.” Dimensions can range from the size of a hand, soaring to as much as three feet high. Hundreds of characters sport unique personalities and lineages, often revealed through their costume and carriage. Shades of Hindu, Buddhism and Islam reveal themselves throughout the scripts.

“Java is very tolerant of different religions,” Katz Harris said. “By the time Islam really took hold (from 1200 to 1600), they were already such a part of Javanese culture they stayed. The Hindu gods are appreciated as cultural icons.”

Katz Harris spent three months researching and collecting the works in Indonesia.

“You can’t study Indonesian culture without learning about wayang kulit,” she said. “The more I would learn, the more I would learn I didn’t know. You literally can spend a lifetime studying this stuff.”

Embellished in gilt, with snakes, monkeys, leopards, peacocks and alligators rimming its frondlike shape, the “Kayon,” or tree of life, opens the program like a curtain as the puppeteer sweeps it across the stage. The critters frame an image of the high god Siva or Shiva.

All the puppets showcase the faces in profile with exaggerated features sometimes bordering on caricature. The tilt of a head reveals character: too high, and the person is considered arrogant or haughty. A slight tilt downward reveals elegance and humility. Bulging eyeballs mean this one’s nasty.

One puppeteer incorporates the silhouettes of George Bush and Saddam Hussein into a classical tale of the cost of war when two cousins battle over a kingdom.

Bush “wears an Iraq pendant because (the puppeteer) says that’s his obsession,” Katz Harris said.

Both figureheads dangle missiles from their pockets.

“George Bush chases Saddam like Tom chases Jerry,” Katz Harris said, quoting the puppeteer. “So you imagine this madcap scene.”

A figure of the god Kresna, more popularly known as Krishna, sports a black face, signaling strength. His crown and jewelry cement his royal status. A ferallike claw extends from the hand of the figure Bima, one of five brothers representing virtue and justice.

“They are very noble, but Bima is known for his thumbnail, which he uses as a weapon. He is very intimidating.”

Rama is the prince who later becomes a king through an Indian epic about the kidnapping of his wife Sinta or Sita.

The male puppets are always bare-chested; the women are covered.

Sinta “is very graceful, very refined,” Katz Harris said. “So her head is always bent low.

“Women play an important role and they’re well-respected.”

Puppeteers must master not only the intricate narratives, but perform all the distinctive voices, conduct the orchestra and manipulate the figures into action, weaving in jokes and current affairs commentary.

“This isn’t like the muppets,” Katz Harris said. “This is a very classical art form.”

If You Go

WHAT: “Dancing Shadows, Epic Tales: Wayang Kulit of Indonesia”
WHERE: Museum of International Folk Art, Museum Hill, 706 Camino Lejo
WHEN: 1-4 p.m. Sunday. Through March 10, 2010.
HOURS: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. Free 5-8 p.m. Fridays.
COST: School groups free. Children 16 and under free. New Mexico residents with ID free on Sundays. New Mexico resident seniors (60+) free Wednesdays. Museum Foundation members free. State veterans with 50 percent or greater disability free. Students with ID $1 discount. Single visit $9 for non-residents; $6 for New Mexico residents.
CONTACT: 476-1200 or www.moifa.org