EmotionAction

Learning the Voices of the Wayang...

Kundang teacher Kang Ega gave a demonstration in his car on our return from a traditional Sundanese wedding he was playing at. Voices: Rahawana, Gatotkaca, Cepot, Rama, Cinta

The Ninth Month

Last month was Ramadan. Performances were scares, bars and nightclub closed their doors for a month of praying and fasting. Fortunately some friends we had made still had some soirees and culture to entertainment and amaze with. A visit to the mesmerizing Kawah Putih, an apple green sulphur crater volcano, a Sundanese wedding, contemporary and traditional music performances and our very own debut of Sundanese song Euis Bandung...

At The Common Room, a platform for experimentation and creative collaboration, Karingding Attack; a Sundanese bamboo and heavy metal band....
Common Room activities conclude a vast sphere, starting from documenting and exploring phenomena, ideas, models and new concept born from multidisciplinary approaches in the field of visual arts, design, urban architecture, music, fashion, literature, media arts, network culture, as well as ongoing research & development on urban culture and urban ecology.


Karingding Attack at The Common Room

Euis Bandung

Another participant and I were selected to perform a boy/girl traditional Sundanese duet pop song in a breaking of the fast event one Friday evening. It was a truly surreal experience...the crowd whistled and cheered to see us dressed up in costume, singing in local dialect a song we had 4 days to learn!! Since the event we decided to make a pop music video, with the hope of becoming the next viral phenomenon in Bandung !!!

Blue Sunda at Motekar art centre

A nine year old boy sings a Sundanese song to his lost father and mother in pentatonic tone scale accompanied by kechapi at a full moon performance in Bandung.

Worlds of endless invention...

Philipe Genty, Désirs parade 1986

Philippe Genty's theatre is a blend of dance, music, puppetry and magic. In this refined world that recalls the poetry of Magritte paintings, scenes follow in succession as in a dream. There isn't just one story, there are thousands, and each spectator has his or her own.






James Thiérrée, La Veillée des Abysses 2007

Acrobat and clown, poet and magician - James Thiérrée creates a world of endless invention, which allows your imagination to soar. Acknowledged as one of today's greatest, and most creative, contemporary circus performers.




Jan Švankmajer, Punch and Judy 1966

Jan Švankmajer is a czech surrealist artist and filmmaker. His work spans several media. Švankmajer has gained a reputation over several decades for his distinctive use of stop-motion technique, and his ability to make surreal, nightmarish and yet somehow funny pictures. Švankmajer's trademarks include very exaggerated sounds, often creating a very strange effect in all eating scenes. He often uses fast-motion sequences when people walk or interact. His movies often involve inanimate objects being brought to life through stop-motion in a dark and disturbing nature.

Dealing with the whole animal

“For me the most interesting thing about wayang is that it really gives you the whole picture. There may be some other art form that is more comprehensive, but I don’t think so. I feel that in other performing arts people touch only on the trunk or the tail of the elephant, but when I am doing wayang I am pushed into dealing with the whole animal.”

“What builds in me as I work with the wayang is a kind of awe that I had no inkling of when I first chose this topic. I suppose Shakespeare is held up within the Western canon, but his plays end. They do not have the same deeply embedded place within a larger philosophical, religious, and cultural framework.

The wayang never ends. It just goes deeper and deeper because there have been so many generations of puppet masters. Often when I am performing I feel that I am not the puppet master. I am the puppet being held by all the puppet masters of the past under the power of some kind of ancient force that is trying to awaken me.”

Kathy Foley, American dalang.

Rama & Rahwana fight from faith brandon on Vimeo.

Rahwana dance from faith brandon on Vimeo.