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Rosie H. Cook

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Asialink+AsiaSoc.23March(1)

2017 Asialink Arts Residency

Crazed Puppets 04  Crazed Puppets

bundengan-01 This is not a Kowangan

aptccarn5 #APTCCARN5

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I’m a huge fan of puppet master Kuo Chienfu 郭建甫, @kuochienfu who has so many skills — puppeteer, puppet maker, costume maker, researcher and teacher amongst others. He already featured several times on my Instagram in 2016 and 2017, and I was thrilled when he agreed to co-author a paper with me last year on conserving potehi costumes! At today’s conference he was discussing “From Fujian to Taiwan: the development of Taiwanese puppet theatre costumes after 1945”. This photo captures the changes in size, style and decoration, contrasting the much smaller Fujianese costume from the late 19th/early 20th century, with a much later Taiwanese model — featuring the bling, sequins, fluffy bright fur trim and bright colours, designed to entertain large crowds and show off the prowess of the puppeteer. #dressedtokill #embroidery #taiyuanpuppets #puppet #potehi #glovepuppet
Xu Juanjuan 許娟娟, Executive Director of the Xiao Xi Yuan Puppet Theatre Company, shows off the “bling bling” hallmarks of Taiwanese puppet costumes, which evolved out of a need to replicate the eye catching effect of gold embroidery after access was cut off to the Mainland and its skilled embroiderers. Gold couched thread was replaced by glittering sequins and glass, appliquéd designs, bold synthetic fabrics, and materials such as brightly coloured fake fur and metallic pleather. #dressedtokill #embroidery #taiyuanpuppets #potehi #bling
Miki Hanafusa introduced us to some of the delights and the challenges of caring for Japanese puppets and their costumes. Seen here is the back of a costume, with a slit for the puppeteer to manipulate the puppet’s structure beneath its robes. #dressedtokill #puppetcostume #japanesepuppet
Yang Yongzhi 楊永智 presented a hugely popular topic: “Comparative research on Taiwanese and Chinese Embroidery Books from the late 19th and early 20th century”. Embroidery pattern books ranged from cheap printed patterns that could be copied and even used to sew directly onto ground fabric, to luxury hand painted books handed down by matriarchs and used to commission embroidery from servants. Patterns were not only used for embroidery — sometimes they were replicated in painted or block printed textiles. Mr Yang also explored the permutations and evolutions of original drawings replicated in embroidery pattern books and designs — including this rather shocking evolution of Guan Yu, a famous 3rd century warrior and god, traditionally depicted with a red face, reimagined as a Father Christmas! #embroidery #dressedtokill #taiyuanpuppets
The first paper today was an absolutely fascinating piece of research by Robin Ruizendaal about the “Embroidery Ladies” who made the intricately decorated puppet costumes in Fujian. Embroidery was traditionally the primary source of income for women; pictured here are young girls in an orphanage, working on embroidery. The second slide is a sample of 19th century “orphan embroidery” — and a rare treat — the third slide is a picture of the back of the embroidery! #dressedtokill #taiyuanpuppets #potehi #embroidery #fujian
Dr Robin Ruizendaal introducing the speakers at the opening of the “Dressed to Kill: Puppet Costumes in East and Southeast Asia” Conference. This conference is the first of its kind, uniting puppet costume makers, performers, researchers and conservators — a broad panel of presenters today (including myself!). #taiyuanpuppets #potehi #textileconservation #dressedtokill
This morning my sister and I walked through a local cemetery which we had spotted from the bus. The majority (although not all) of the tombs are broken and neglected — some even vandalised, sadly — indicating a lack of tomb-sweeping despite the annual tradition, due perhaps to a lack of descendants or access. As seen in the last photo, the entire place was plastered with adverts offering 撿骨 services — “jian gu”, referring to bone-gathering, “a custom of Fujian and Taiwan in which a son recovers the bones of his deceased father from the grave and places them in an urn for permanent storage at a different location”. Hopefully this explains the abandoned appearance of the majority of the tombs!
One of my favourite things about working in Asia is the frequency with which I have to hop on the back of a scooter to find materials at the local markets 😂 #thisisconservation #taiwan #asia #scooter
Linked in my bio is an article written by talented musician, composer, collaborator and friend Bianca Gannon @bianca_gannon_music, which discusses not only her incredibly cool upcoming performances and collaborations, but also about our journey together on the #bundengan path, and reflections on the revitalisation of this Indonesian instrument. I really recommend reading, especially those in Melbourne who should catch her and @lukmanjrd’s upcoming show “The Sound of Shadows: Sugar Coated” at Melbourne Recital Centre on December 14th, as part of Mapping Melbourne — 50% of proceeds go to Lombok earthquake relief charities. #tsos #music
Can’t be trusted... I have been doing 10 minutes of stitching every evening (if wrists aren’t too sore) and then tonight... I got excited about using two new colours and did three hours without stopping 😓😓😓. Shoulders neck arms wrists all aching now. This is why I need to make sure I only stitch shortly before bed so I can’t keep going... #crossstitch
A million little gels this week, drawing out foxing stains and earning me the gratitude of the Paintings Department. I experimented with all kinds of weights and the best results were with wingnuts over Mylar, which provided just the right amount of pressure to maintain contact with the canvas without squishing water out of the gels. Grateful for my biopsy punch which allows me to bang out hundreds of tiny gels every day! #wolbersgels #conservator #thisisconservation #paintingsconservation
Making a tiny prototype for a giant banner conservation project. These clients are a temple committee of over 20 people, with quite specific (yet varied) demands, combined with a small budget and tight deadline (temple god birthdays can not wait!). Props like this help me communicate with community elders, since they primarily speak Taiwanese and my Mandarin has limits when it comes to explaining conservation principles! I’m proposing to secure the banner onto a padded board, under a colour-matched nylon net, which will also hold loose gold embroidery threads neatly in place — if they have funds for full restoration one day, the netting can be easily removed. The second photo has net over the bottom half, so they can see the slight colour shift. I threw this together with scraps of fabric and netting I had available — fortunately they kind of match! #textileconservation #textiles #conservator
Using washers as weights (on top of Mylar) for tiny gels. It’s hard to get enough contact between the surface and the gel, so I’m experimenting with washers where I can add weight in increments and keep an eye on the gel through the conveniently sized window! #wolbersgels #conservator #thisisconservation
James sent me these photos from Bama, Nigeria, which is famous for its intricately embroidered caps (although the best thread is sourced from France). The following is abridged from a voanews.com article: "It’s known by many names - fila, hula or yaudi. The distinctive cap is made by the Bama people of Nigeria's Borno State. The Bama people have been making their caps for hundreds of years, but Bama was nearly wiped out by Boko Haram. Bama native Dunoma Gambo fled to Maiduguri, where he now is part of a collective of internally displaced Bama people. They kept up their cultural tradition of sewing Bama caps after arriving in the state capital, and the collective has flourished. “I grew up and saw people sewing and that’s how I learned," Gambo says. "You will be practicing and you will make many mistakes, but with time, you will do it right. I’ve now been an expert in it for 12 years.” Each cap starts with a design template that is sketched by hand, using a ruler and colored markers. After the template, the sewing of the cap's base begins. The white centerpiece on the top goes on last. Depending on the number of layers in the design, a cap can take anywhere from two to five weeks to sew. Everything is done by hand."" #embroidery #bamacap #nigeria #bama
So since February things have gotten CRAZY with the #bundengan crew! #Repost @bundengan @bianca_gannon_music ・・・ "Bundengan is the coolest instrument in Indonesia!" says the man who knows more insanely cool Indonesian instruments than anyone, @auralarchipelago who's life work it is to seek them out and document them. If you're not in Wonosobo on Nov 26th, come to The Sound of Shadows on Dec 14th at Melbourne Recital Centre to check out this duck herder's cape and zither ☂️🎶 Also, obvs check out Palmer's blog @auralarchipelago #wib #whatisbundengan #thesoundofshadows #auralarchipelago #bundengan
Conservation in the field, caring for the spirits inside the instrument is a ritual which may take unexpected forms! #Repost @auralarchipelago ・・・ Ritual cleaning of the gamelan Sekaten instruments after the last afternoon session was over. They said they were going to “bathe” the instruments, so I was expecting a gentle dipping in sacred, fragrant water...instead they rubbed them down with some equally fragrant brass polish 😁 #gamelan #conservator #fieldconservation #intangibleculturalheritage
Sympatex Sandwich for breakfast today! We are gently relaxing the folded edges of this textile artwork so it can be mounted on a padded board for framing instead of wrapped around a very acidic piece of plywood (😬). Sympatex is similar to Gore-Tex fabric, which allows water vapour to travel through its barrier layer and gently humidify objects. It is also very precious (5,300NTD/$170USD for a 90cm length!) so we have to be ingenious to avoid cutting it if possible, and we save every scrap for reuse. #textileconservation #textiles #thisisconservation
That’s a lot of dirty polyurethane sponges, this bag is bigger than my head... we lost count after the first couple hundred, but we saved them all so we had a sense of how many we used. We did consider washing them but I already am cautious about PU sponges so not willing to reuse washed sponges. I hate the idea of these ending up in landfill but other than putting this bag in the recycling bin I haven’t been able to find information here in Taiwan on how to minimise the waste. I’m so grateful for each and every sponge we used though — we could not have completed this project on time without them! #textileconservation #conservatorproblems #sustainableconservation
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