Java Masken

Java-Masken

The Encoded Cirebon Mask

In The Encoded Cirebon Mask: Materiality, Flow, and Meaning along Java’s Islamic Northwest Coast, Laurie Margot Ross situates masks and masked dancing in the Cirebon region of Java (Indonesia) as an original expression of Islam. This is a different view from that of many scholars, who argue that canonical prohibitions on fashioning idols and imagery prove that masks are mere relics of indigenous beliefs that Muslim travelers could not eradicate. Making use of archives, oral histories, and the performing objects themselves, Ross traces the mask’s trajectory from a popular entertainment in Cirebon—once a portal of global exchange—to a stimulus for establishing a deeper connection to God in late colonial Java, and eventual links to nationalism in post-independence Indonesia.

Masks of the World

Informative pictorial survey of many authentic cover-ups worn around the world over a wide range of historical periods. Images of a Kwakiutl dance mask of wood and skin from British Columbia, a terra cotta mask from ancient Athens, an 18th-century porcelain Harlequin mask, a Javanese demon's mask of wood, a cloth mask embroidered with pearls from Cameroon, and many more. Invaluable to anthropologists and theatrical groups; of great interest to art lovers.