Asep Sunandar - Contemporary Master
I later came to make the acquaintance of Asep Sunandar, an extremely popular wayang golek artist in his late 40's. Asep specializes in augmenting the traditional Ramayana dramaturgy of the plays he performs with his own highly original and irreverent brand of contemporary satire and comedy. His puppet plays are so popular that they are a staple of radio programming in Western Java. He reminded me of Ernie Kovacs, and even without interpreters and a common language, we managed to make a strong personal connection.
Asep’s house was like a performing arts Grand Central Station with a gamelan rehearsal taking place in the dining room, fish frying and steam billowing in the kitchen, and exquisite puppet head carving in progress on the back porch. Asep would survey his domain, cigarette in hand.
He seemed to be having a wonderful time demonstrating the various puppets – most traditional, but one in particular that is his trademark alter ego and totally his own invention.He would answer my questions clearly and humbly, giving appreciative credit to the influence of American cartoons and silent movie comedy (as I had suspected) on many of his innovations. I was lucky that he was scheduled to give a major performance while I was in Bandung – like most shadow puppet performances, a five-hour or so all nighter – and he invited me to attend as part of his entourage.
I spent several days at Asep's observing the carving and absorbing as much as I could about technique from him and the dalangs among the crowd of retainers in his household. It was hard to keep track of just how many artists were in this houseful of people. Asep has twelve children, the oldest of whom is following in Asep’s footsteps. Asep’s brother also lives there with his seven children, plus there were servants, musicians, singers, carvers and other relations, including many women carrying babies. It is very like an institution with people coming and going as Asep rules the roost. All the children add to the atmosphere. One of the smaller ones has taken to hanging around my neck when I am sitting on the floor.
Everyone treated me as someone who belonged in this setting. Asep approved of my sketches and told others that I was really good (at what, I’m not certain!), but we obviously connected thanks to our very similar senses of humor. Even with the language barrier, we bonded. Much of my time at Asep's I observed him carving and began to carve my own puppet. It eventually became the rowing puppet in "Archipelago."
The
day arrived for Asep’s big performance. He and I and a hoard of
performers and children piled into a van and drove more than five hours
to Indramayu, an austere Islamic university where the performance, commemorating
the university’s anniversary, would take place before a huge crowd
in a new performing arts space.
The long trip was made longer when we came upon a fallen tree that halted traffic on the narrow road in both directions. There was nothing for the held-up drivers to do but to take turns hacking away at the huge tree to clear the road. I got a sense of Asep’s celebrity when he modestly took his turn and was recognized by most of the crowd.
When we arrived at the university, the security personnel perceived me as a foreigner and isolated me from the rest of Asep’s troupe to interrogate me politely before the performance. Finally, it was time for the performance, and I entered the auditorium with Asep, as part of his entourage of musicians and assistants. The performance lasted four hours without an interval.
Backing Asep up were two female singers, eight instrumentalists, and two assistants who kept track of the puppets and handed them to him during the show. It was wonderful to see Asep performing in high gear, and I took the same delight as the rest of the audience in his antic comedy and satire. This was a wonderful climax to my two and a half month Asian puppet experience.
