Image: Jumaadi

Perahu-Perahu

Contemporary Asian Australian Performance

Jumaadi (Co-Director/Principal Artist) is an Indonesian born, Sydney-based artist working across mediums, including drawing, painting, installation and performance. Jumaadi has exhibited and performed his work in museums, galleries and performance spaces in Australia and around the world. He has won several major awards and been invited to participate in major exhibitions including Jakarta Biennale 2011, Moscow Biennale 2013, David Roberts Art Foundation in London, Art Gallery of New South Wales, the National Gallery of Australia, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia. He represented Australia in the Gwangju Biennale in South Korea.

His practice is informed by personal experience as well as the political and aesthetic lineages of his homeland, including wayang kulit, a tradition of shadow plays from Java and Bali. Some of his most recognisable works are large scale painting on cloth, sculpting small and large scales of buffalo hide, and performing shadow theatre.

Michael Toisuta (Co-Director/Musical Director) is an Indonesian-Australian sound designer and composer who grew up in Central Java and is now based in Sydney. He has worked internationally in theatre, dance, film and video art installations.

He was a co-writer on Stan Original and Screentime Australia series Bali (2002) and sound designer on Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (Sydney Theatre Company) for which he won a Sydney Theatre Award in 2022. His credits as composer/sound designer include Ate Lovia (Kwento/Red Line) and Top Coat (Sydney Theatre Company), White Pearl (National Theatre of Parramatta), Made in America (TerryandTheCuz), The Sugar House (Belvoir), Island of Shadows (Mosman Art Gallery) and Richard 3 (Bell Shakespeare). He has sound designed video art installations such as Habitat 2018 (Asia Pacific Triennial 2018) and Habitat 2017 (Art Gallery of NSW). He has also composed/sound designed multiple short films.

    ABOUT THE PROJECT

    Perahu-Perahu is a contemporary shadow play with music by Jumaadi and Michael Toisuta.

    Stunning imagery and live music turn the traditional art form of wayang kulit on its head as internationally renowned Indonesian-Australian visual artist Jumaadi meets award winning designer Michael Toisuta’s composition. A unique group of seven artists reinvigorate the shadow play for a contemporary audience.

    Perahu-Perahu, which means “boats” in Indonesian, explores the precarious relationship between humans and the sea. Inspired by the history of travel across the waters separating Indonesia and Australia, Perahu-Perahu is a surreal and magical adventure into bizarre encounters, triumph and peril. Traversing themes of migration, colonisation and trade, the work speaks volumes without many words at all, remaining accessible to audiences across cultures with language as no barrier.

    Immersing audiences in an exquisite world of images crafted from hundreds of intricate cut-outs, and compositions blending traditional and contemporary music, this satirical and playful new performance work is a captivating fusion of old and new.

    Contemporary Asian Australian Performance is the producing company for this work. CAAP is Australia’s only performing arts company with a remit for producing, developing and enabling Asian Australian works and artists to reach main stages nationally. Through highly valued productions and initiatives, CAAP is regarded as a crucial catalyst for change in an ongoing shift to greater cultural diversity and inclusiveness in the arts. We provide the scaffolding for Asian Australian artists to thrive in a more equitable and representative industry. In all that we do, we work to transform the Australian performing arts landscape.

    Session Times
    PROFILE: Here’s What We Made
    Thursday 8 June

    CONTACT

    Sandi Woo
    sandi@caap.org.au