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Salihara puppet exhibit wanders beyond imaginative bounds
Jakarta’s Salihara cultural center holds an exhibition of puppets in all shapes and sizes that will let one’s imagination wander.
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Meditation on age: A visitor takes a photograph of the massive puppet ‘Boneka Abak’, from the Papermoon Puppet Theatre’s ‘The Translucence’ show. ‘Abak’ and puppets looms over ‘Bodies Without A Head’ (left), ‘Ojisan’ and ‘Obasan’ are featured in the ‘Kelana Boneka’ marionette and puppet exhibit, running until Sept. 4, 2022 at Salihara Arts Center in South Jakarta. (JP/Tunggul Wirajuda) (JP/Tunggul Wirajuda)
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akarta’s Salihara Arts Center holds an exhibition of puppets in all shapes and sizes that will let one’s imagination wander.
The large marionette stands in a corner of Galeri Salihara, looming over visitors and with its big bald head, looking like one of the trolls from the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit film trilogies. Called Boneka Abak and created by the Papermoon Puppet Theatre, a closer glance finds that the puppet has a more meditative expression instead of a menacing one.
According to curators Asikin Hasan, Herry Dlm and Hendromasto Prasetyo, the pupput “portrays an old [man], as seen by his distant gaze and wide, straight mouth”.
The impression of age is further emphasized by the bushy eyebrows and bulbous nose of Boneka Abak, which was part of the theatrical troupe’s The Translucence, performed in 2017 at Japan’s Museum of Art, Kochi.
Pushing boundaries
The giant marionette is now among the pieces featured in the “Kelana Boneka” (Wandering puppets) marionette and puppet exhibition at Salihara Arts Center in South Jakarta, as part of the Musim Seni Salihara: Berseni Kembali (Salihara art season: The arts return) series of events.
The dolls by Papermoon Puppet Theatre and other artists displayed in Kelana Boneka were all previously used in performances.
