Indonesian Student Creates Wayang With Contemporary Style

Delft, The Netherlands, Sept 14 (Antara) - An Indonesian student in Strasbourg, France, has created Indonesian traditional puppets, called wayang in a contemporary style to increase attractiveness of the Indonesian cultural heritage and can keep it up with modern technology. "Indonesian wayang is very unique compared to those from other countries such as Thailand," Ismarini Indah Setyoningrum said here Sunday. However, according to her, wayang has no longer attracted much interest from the Indonesian younger generation compared to other entertainment products such as video games and the foreign films played in theaters. "I am afraid wayang would become extinct if no one preserves it," Ismarini said, adding that traditional wayang in contemporary style is the topic of research for her thesis at the University of Strasbourg to introduce the traditional puppets to the international community. She explained the uniqueness of the Indonesian puppet is not only in its form and character, but also the technique of its production that requires special art expertise. Indonesian puppet is made using a chisel and with this technique characters are formed on leather materials such as buffalo leather. When the puppets are illuminated, those holes inlay will display motifs of the characters. This is what makes the Indonesian puppet impress details, Ismarini said. "I want to keep this puppet making technique to remain existing," she said. In her research on Indonesian traditional puppets, or wayang, presented in contemporary media, Ismarini integrated them with a variety of modern technologies such as video animation; lighting and minimalist geometric style called the style initiated by a Dutch artist, Theo van Doesburg. According to her, combining traditional puppets with contemporary technologies and styles, will make wayang be more popular and acceptable among the young people. "The Ramayana characters I made as wayang, that I created in the style of `the style`, have been exhibited in Strasbourg city center, and many local people appreciated them," Ismarini said. In addition to adding a touch of modern art technologies and styles, he also made up a story with contemporary themes. "The stories of traditional puppets are usually taken from the story of Ramayana and Mahabharata. But in one of my works, my puppet characters follow the figures in Strasbourg with stories in French, " Ismarini said. She added, in order to make the puppets can be more widely accepted by both Indonesian and international communities, needs further research related to how the presentation of puppets and stories. "This study deals with the technique of manufacture, the materials used to make the puppets, and delivery methods covering stories, language and characters," she added.