Sea Offerings, Wayang, and Me by Matthew Cohen

The Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry is pleased to present Sea Offerings, Wayang, and Me, a lecture-performance by UConn Puppet Arts Professor Dr. Matthew Cohen, with video by artist Ben Hagari. Artist and scholar Professor Matthew Isaac Cohen (also known as Kanda Buwana, “He Who Tells Stories of the World”) has been studying the art of puppetry in the Indonesian island of Java since 1988. In this documentary performance, he revisits a ritual drama which he studied and performed regularly early in his puppetry training: the misbegotten romance of a rice goddess and the diseased Budug Basu, performed with shadow-less shadow puppets and sponsored by fishing communities to ensure good fishing.  

Sea Offerings, Wayang, and Me combines mythic storytelling, magic, and dialogue with and about puppets with autobiographical commentary, ecological reflections, and documentary footage from coastal Java of miniature ships, a severed buffalo head made up as a woman, and the seascape. Attention is given to epistemological gaps and intercultural misunderstandings, dilemmas in cultural translation, and shared concerns about ecology, art, and spiritual values in the current moment of climate change, modernization, and globalization. Content warning: this show includes scenes of animal sacrifice, which may be upsetting to some. 

Admission to this event is free, but reservations are required. There will be open seating, first come, first served. Tickets may be reserved at bimp.ticketleap.com/sea-offerings.