Asian Transformations in Action - Api-fellowships.org

84 INTERMINGLING OF CONTINUITY AND DISCONTINUITYhis colleagues. He has also taught his children the artof manipulating puppets as he hopes to develop thetradition in his family. Master wayang maker BapakBambang trains students in the art of making puppets,not only by teaching them the rudiments of makingthe puppet but also the process of conceptualizing andcreating distinct qualities for familiar puppet characters.He has written his dissertation on the conceptualizationprocess of puppets for the wayang, integrating hisexposure to Muslim culture and his Catholic religion inhis motifs. In Butuh village, south of Surakarta, a villageknown for crafting wayang puppets for their livelihood,the skill is shared by members of the community andtransferred from one generation to the next as a sourceof livelihood for the family. Business seems good asevidenced by the quality of houses that families havebeen able to put up through their wayang business.Traditional wayang artists who perform the wayangkulit also need to study traditional dance movements asthese are also the source of the movements made by thepuppets in the wayang kulit. The same movement canbe seen in the dance numbers performed in the wayangorang (literally “human puppets”); thus, traditionaland contemporary performers share the same skills inmounting a production. A number of contemporaryartists make video documentations of their performancesand works, others keep records of their scripts, andothers write books and undertake higher educationstudies in order to write theoretical papers and studiesof their work. Eko Subriyanto, one of the more popularcontemporary artists, has trained in traditional danceunder Bapak Pramardi of the ISI Surakarta and MbakEly Lutan of Jakarta. His performances center onevolving new themes and metaphors which commenton contemporary issues. Invitations to festivals,exhibitions and work abroad have provided the impetusfor contemporary artists like him to film their worksso that they maybe screened by international festivalcommittees for possible inclusion in arts festivals.Mugiyono Kasido, a leading dance theater artist, takesvideos to document his work during rehearsals so thathe can monitor the extent of the work that has beenachieved in his rehearsals and performances; likewise,the videos also serve as samplers for festivals and otherart events which can open opportunities for sharingand income generation for the artists, who rely on theirartistic work for artistic and personal sustenance. SlametGundono, one of the more popular dramatists, drawsfrom traditional metaphors and transforms them intocontemporary theater pieces which he puts into videoform. Dalang Enthus Susmono draws from traditionalwayang and infuses contemporary characters into hispuppets. He makes it a point to write about his worksand takes video recordings of his performances.Most of the teachers of the ISI started their artisticcareer at an early age. They realize how important itis to have a formal education so that they can betterunderstand their craft. Most artists become teachers andcreate teaching modules and materials for their studentsand protégées. They are also required to write abouttheir work and provide the library with copies of theirpapers. Their being teachers at the ISI is a clear synthesisof their experience as artists. A number of books havebeen written to raise the practice of the wayang intotheory. Samples of these include Pakeliran Seni: WayangPurwa (2007) by Dr. Slamet Suparno, which deals withthe philosophy and dynamics of the wayang, and theBuku Petunjuk Praktikum Pakeliran Gaya Surakarta, ahandbook on the principles of the wayang kulit preparedby the faculty of the Pedalangan of ISI-Surakarta. Videorecordings of performances of faculty members of thePedalangan are also made available for researchers.At the ISI-Surakarta, wayang kulit performances arecollected and kept by a team of videographers. Thevideo library of the Wisma Seni (Cultural Center) alsohouses a collection of video recordings in Betamax and/or VCD format on performances held at the WismaSeni campus. Most of these recordings are in Javaneseor Bahasa and well-annotated by the staff.Theater criticism and sharing of comments aboutartists’ work facilitates the artists’ need for feedbackand validation. Venues for this exchange range fromsimple and friendly exchanges of ideas over tea toformal discussions in scheduled meetings attended byinterested artists. The more formal criticism sessionsare recorded by the local videographers. Performancereviews are also published in the local language althoughthere are limited publications for this in Surakarta. Anumber of books by foreign researchers have also beenwritten about the wayang. Central Javanese culture hasbeen a favorite topic for a number of Western culturalresearchers and anthropologists. Local researchers havealso taken an interest in writing about their own cultureand relating this to their craft as artists. Well-knownartists such as Sardono and Lutan regularly conductresearch among local communities to enhance theircreative work and engage the communities in artisticactivities.Pendopo or large performance halls are availableon the ISI-Surakarta grounds and provide a goodperformance venue for artists who would like to sharetheir experiments with the public. Rehearsals andperformances can be viewed for free and have thusbecome venues for exchange and interactions amongAsian Transformations in ActionThe Work of the 2006/2007 API Fellows