I recently came across this art show video (see below) of Christian Indonesian shadow puppets, or Wayang Wahyu. The puppets were created by Indonesian businessman and graduate student Baroto Murti Anindito and was first shown at Anindito's school, the University of Santo Tomas in Manilla, Philippines, from August 16 to September 21. The show is currently on display at the GSIS Museo ng Sining (Museum of Art) in Pasay City, Philippines through October 29th. The multimedia exhibition features some of the original shadow puppets done by Baroto, photographs and an audio-visual presentation that shows how the intricate puppets are made and how they are actually handled during an actual Wayang performance.
Wayang is an Indonesian form of shadow puppet theater that dates back to sometime during the first millenium A.D. Wayang Wahyu is a Catholic form of shadow theatre created in 1960 in central Java by Brother Timotheus L. Wignyosoebroto as a way to communicate the stories and ideas in the Bible. You can read more about Wayang Wahyu in a previous post of mine.
Photographs of some of the exhibit's 40 puppets can be seen here and here.
Last month I traveled to Hertfordshire, U.K., to attend the Arts in Mission 2011: Training for Cross-Cultural Ministry conference at All Nations Christian College (see my post here). Since that post, both a three-minute and six-minute video synopsis of the conference was posted online. Please check out the longer video below in order to get a better understanding of the conference's purpose, and an overview of the manual which we explored while there (it's due to be published in the fall of 2012).
Back in June Ariunaa, a Southeast Asian living in Mongolia, contacted me about an upcoming worship celebration in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia that took place in September (2011). Ariunaa had discovered some of my artwork, specifically this ceramic bowl called Risen Lord of Heaven and Earth. She explained that the celebration in Ulaanbaatar was commemorating 20 years of the Gospel in Mongolia, and that people from all over Mongolia would be attending. The event's worship leader had asked her to train a group of believers in using flags for worship; nine banners would be used during the celebration, and she wanted to know if they could adapt my bowl image for one of them. Of course, I quickly agreed!
I recently met Kristin Glaze at the the Arts in Mission 2011: Training for Cross-Cultural Ministry conference in the U.K. She is currently about half way through a two-year assignment in southern Africa, and has a BA and a MFA in art. Kristin's team has two branches: one is media-focused, reporting on missions stories for Christians mostly in the U.S.; the other does consulting regarding the use of oral communications and creative arts for field use.
I've been back at home for about a week, after having been out out of town for two weeks in September. I wanted to give a report on what I've been doing, since all of it related to arts and missions.
