Princess of Andalas - Madam Entjik

Through his graceful puppets clad in the country’s signature traditional fabrics, artisan Benny Adrianto showcases Indonesia’s cultural diversity.

Luxurious and graceful are the first impressions when looking at wayang golek, Sundanese three-dimensional wooden puppets, created by artisan Benny Adrianto.

Benny’s puppets, recently shown at the Interior and Craft exhibition in Jakarta, also come with a wooden rod that runs through the body to the head and sticks connected to the hands — just like the popular puppet character Si Cepot found in wayang golek performances.

Their dresses, however, are totally different.

Benny’s puppets have a glamorous look as if they are supermodels walking the runway or even movie stars on the red carpet.

A puppet worth Rp 30 million (US$2 255) that he named Princess of Solo, for example, is dressed in classic brown batik and gorgeous hand-woven cloth with real jewels, such as a pearl necklace with a silver antique brooch and an eye-popping crown attached with two pink rubies.  

Next to the Princess of Solo, there were two other sparkling puppets — Princess of Andalas and Madame Opera van Kedoengwoeni that comes with a price tag of Rp 15 million and Rp 45 million respectively.

“Three words represent my works. They are deconstructive, innovative and harmony,” said the 55-year-old artist, who named his medium-sized enterprise Djawa.

For him, dressing wayang golek with batik, tenun (woven fabric) or songket (gold-threaded woven fabric) is a way to celebrate the wealth of Indonesia’s traditional clothes.

Benny, whose father is Javanese and his mother is Sundanese, showcases the beauty and grandeur of batik that appears in a unique way when it is worn by wayang golek, which is a distinctive art form from West Jakarta.

In Indonesia, wayang itself, which UNESCO inscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2008, is the oldest-known storytelling method that aims to teach religious, ethical and moral values.

In Djawa, Benny, who comes from Magelang, Central Jakarta, collaborates with three batik makers from Pekalongan, Central Jakarta and three puppet makers in Yogyakarta and Bandung, West Jakarta.

Before founding Djawa in 1998, he worked as a computer programmer at an American urban planning company in Jakarta for over 10 years. He then resigned because it was not his passion.

After graduating from senior high school, Benny wanted to be a photographer, but his father, who was a soldier, did not agree with his choice of career because he thought it would not give him a bright future.   

“Do you want to be tukang foto keliling [mobile photographer]? My father asked me,” he recalled.

Benny said his father never forced his sons to be a soldier like him, but he wanted them to learn knowledge that would help them get decent work quickly. He then decided to major in informatics engineering at Budi Luhur University in Jakarta.

After fulfilling his father’s wish, he did what he really wanted to do: Being a photographer and batik maker.  

He fell in love with batik when observing the perseverance of batik makers who took months to paint batik patterns on mori fabrics with canting wax pens.

He met them when accompanying his father on a pilgrimage to his grandfather and grandmother’s graves in Yogyakarta when he was still young.  

In Djawa, he draws the motifs while three batik artisans, whom he hired from Pekalongan, paint them with the canting (spouted bowl) and dye them.

The motifs can be popular like parang and kawung or uncommon ones, such as the ornaments of custom homes.     

At first, he drew modern batik motives on mori fabrics. But, as time went by, he also used woven fabrics made from various materials, such as the fibers of wild orchid leaves from the Dayak people in East Kalimantan, pineapple fibers from Jepara, Central Jakarta, and fibers of rattan leaves from the Baduy Dalam tribe in Banten.

Benny, who recently spoke at business-to-business program Indonesia Regal Heritage at Oxford University in March this year to share his knowledge about the country’s heritage, started to dress wayang golek with Djawa’s textiles in 2010.   

“At that time, I thought about how to make wayang golek that can represent each region or province in Indonesia although there is no tradition of playing wayang golek there,” he said.

“For example, people in Palembang do not play wayang golek. But, we can make wayang golek wearing Palembang traditional attire.”  

He also designs the puppets’ faces, which he said imitates human faces as close as possible.

Benny produces at least 30 wayang golek with different dress designs a month.

Targeting high-end customers, he realizes his works are expensive because they are made of high-quality materials.

Benny said since the era of former Jakarta governor Fauzi Bowo, his wayang golek, clad in costumes of Betawi mask dancers with price tag of Rp 2.7 million, had been used as a souvenir given by the governor to his guests, especially those from other countries.

“People must be proud when they wear batik anywhere and anytime. If not us, then who [will conserve it]? If not now, then when?” he said.    

— Photos by A. Kurniawan Ulung

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