Gamelan
12 inches x 17 inches
Watercolor and graphite on paper
Signature date: 11.15.05
| Evolutionary dance of a sea bass skull and amphibian viscera entwined with a 48 million year old Green River fish fossil from the collection of The American Museum of Natural History. With the analogous presentation of time, objects leap from aqueous presence to calligraphic silhouette, in a composition redolent with the spatial aesthetics of Hiroshige's Edo period (1615-1868) woodblock print series Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido. Set to the music of the Gamelan orchestra accompanying Javanese shadow puppet theater, the linear invention conjures the Orientalism fueling the elaborate paper cutouts from Lotte Reinegger's 1927 silent German film, The Adventures of Prince Achmed. |
all text and images © Berwald Oriental Art and Julie Rauer
