I don't lecture very often these days. I quit my job as a lecturer a few years ago and found myself doing more work as a model, I just slipped into it. But being an academic is for life, it is a mind set, you don't forget what you know and can always brush up on a topic and update it.
So when I was asked by the curators of the British Museum, who knew me in my previous incarnation as art and performance historian, whether I wanted to give a gallery talk in connection with their new exhibition on the shadow theatre of Southeast Asia, at first I dithered, then I said yes, why not? It was only a gallery talk, after all, not a research seminar. I did not wish to give a guided tour of the exhibition, that would have been redundant. I chose to talk about the interconnection between shadow theatre and the visual arts. I focused mostly on Indonesia as this was my stomping ground when I was a researcher, my specialty used to be the arts of classical Java. I went back to Indonesia last year, incidentally, donning again my academic hat and doing research on Indonesian fashion, for which I was awarded a fellowship.
Inevitably in my talk I ended up discussing fashion. Some Indonesian designers, like Ghea Panggabean, have created whole collections inspired by the shadow puppets, known in Indonesia as wayang and the gallery talk seemed the right context to mention it.
I enjoyed giving that talk. I was worried at first but once I began everything was fine. I had a very keen group with me and I almost went overtime. Almost.
In preparation for the talk I went to see the exhibition twice and discovered some newer books that helped me in the task. One of them was A history of the world in 100 objects by Neil MacGregor, former director of the British Museum. There is in the book an entry on the character Bimo, one of the puppets used in the shadow theatre and I referred to it, even brought the book along to show it to my audience.
The book |
The 100 objects |
This morning I read about Shiva and Parvati from Orissa. I know that sculptural composition very well, I have been to see it many times. It's a shame it cannot be viewed at the moment as the South and Southeast Asian galleries are being renovated and will open again to the public only in November 2017, a year from now.
It is an image showing the divine couple in a moment of affection, charged with eroticism. For Hindus god is both male and female and, as MacGregor says, one of the central insights of Hinduism is that "God may best be conceived not as a single isolated spirit but as a joyous loving couple and that physical love is not evidence of fallen humanity but an essential part of the divine".
Holding a luxury accessory. Photo: Rankin for Hunger 11. Hand model: me |
Meanwhile I am proud to announce that my hand can be seen in Hunger 11 holding a luxury accessory in the photo taken by Rankin, who is also interviewed in the piece "Outside In" pp. 468
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