Close Window

Made Suwita

The artistry of I Made Suwita has been featured in Newsday.

"Om Suwastiastu (Balinese greeting meaning hope God shower grace upon you)!

My name is Made Suwita, I was born in Batuan Gianyar, Bali in 1973. My parents are artists; my father is mask carver while my mother is mask painter. My parents always motivated me to study making puppet. I learned puppet making when I was just an elementary student. In the beginning, I carved cartoons. In 1982, seeing other artworks became a comparative study, to improve my knowledge of art.

"It is most interesting when we complete the process from the beginning until the end. Carving the puppets, painting them, and performing with them in puppet shows on stage is a complete process in artistic expression, which I enjoy very much. The puppeteer in Bali is called 'dalang.' Puppet play is performed as part of ceremony, education, and entertainment, which is inherited from ancient times by our ancestors as the oldest cultural heritage in Indonesia. There are a little bit difference between Javanese and Balinese puppet characters. The Javanese puppet characters are slimmer than Balinese ones. In Java, the performance involved several singers called 'sinden' and gamelan players. The show takes place all night long. While in Bali, the puppeteer is the singer with two or four 'gender' gamelan players. The theme is Ramayana, and Mahabharata epic from India.

"The materials for making the puppet are cowhide, coffee wood, and acrylic paint. The process is started with sketching the scrapped leather, carving, painting, and at last setting the coffee stick. I have performed the show as an exhibition at NIKKO HOTEL, and LE MERIDIEN HOTEL.

"Novica has done a great help for the artists in Bali and it is a fortune to cooperate with Novica for art and cultural promotion via Internet."