Asian Art Museum Storyteller Miriam Mills tells a scene from from the Rama epic (Ramayana) with the use of artworks in the Asian Art Museum's collection. Discover more fresh takes on this ageless tale in the exhibition, The Rama Epic: Hero, Heroine, Ally, Foe.
Asian Art Museum Storyteller, Miriam Mills, tells an excerpt from the Ramayana in the Southeast Asian galleries at the Asian Art Museum with the use of artworks from the museum's collection.
The demon king Ravana (Rawana), enemy of Rama, approx. 1950-1980. Indonesia; West Java. Wood, cloth, and mixed media. From The Mimi and John Herbert Collection, F2000.86.31.
The term for puppetry, wayang, comes from the Indonesian word for shadow bayang. Wayang kulit, shadow puppetry using figures made from water buffalo hide, is considered to be the oldest freestanding puppet form; the earliest references to it date from the 800s.
Students trace the movement of Hinduism, and one of its primary stories, the Story of Rama (The Ramayana), from India to Bali, Indonesia; discuss how stories change and are reinterpreted according to time and place; and make comparisons between characters in the Story of Rama and the film series Star Wars.
Join the Society for Asian Art as we explore the art of India and the Islamic world. As in past seasons, the Fall 2011 lecture series will feature prominent scholars and curators from across the country and showcase many treasures of the Asian Art Museum. An array of topics will be discussed, including the life and visual representation of the Buddha; Hindu gods and goddesses and the depiction of heavenly bodies; sacred architecture; Hindu epics; the diversity of South Asian religious practice and the rise of Islam across Asia; Mughals, maharajas, and manuscript paintings; and contemporary Indian art. This lecture series coincides with the beginning of a three-year training program for new Asian Art Museum docents.
A series of lectures wherein renowned scholars from across the Bay Area discuss the arts of South and West Asia.
For more than a thousand years Indonesians have used wayang theater as a method of addressing the conundrums of life. The lively puppet traditions of South and Southeast Asia have portrayed epic stories that shrank the cosmos down to a miniature world. The vast expanse of the earth could symbolically be reduced to the few feet of a puppet stage. The puppeteer’s lamp became the sun, throwing light on myriad creatures who, in their nobility or baseness, make up the world.
This lecture series, organized by the Society for Asian Art, explores narrative using Asian art—how myths, legends, histories and moral precepts have been transmitted through visual means. Topics range from sculptural reliefs and murals used to educate pilgrims at famous religious sites to works created primarily for entertainment. Contemporary storytelling is also addressed via lectures on Bollywood and manga produced by San Francisco's Henry Yoshitaka Kiama.
A demon (buta), 1993, by Duyeh. Indonesia; Cibiru, West Java. Wood, cloth, and mixed media. From the Mimi and John Herbert Collection, F2000.86.121.
