We are excited to offer a guided tour followed by a presentation for CAPE members featuring the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art exhibit “The Hum of Life: A Thousand and One Tales from Bali” on May 13, from 2:00 to 4:00p.m. Ellen Avril, Interim Director and the Judith H. Stoikov Curator of Asian Art at the Johnson Museum will guide the tour which will be followed by a presentation by Kaja McGowan, Associate Professor of the History of Art and Visual Studies.

Description: Long celebrated as an exotic locale, Bali is a tiny, predominantly Hindu island that teems with activity in the Indonesian archipelago. But its perpetual “hum of life” (senandung hidup) is not as orderly or harmonious as tourist literature would have us believe. The exhibit of Balinese paintings, textiles, shadow puppets, masks, and sculptures reveal a multitude of narratives, from Tantri’s imaginative tales to the heroics and moral lessons of the Hindu epics Ramayana and Mahabharata, to the gendered relationships, humor, and magic of local Indonesian stories. They also detail aspects of daily life in Bali in which storytelling, performance, and religious practice intertwine. Nearly three decades of collecting Balinese art at the Johnson Museum are celebrated in this exhibition. That collection has been made possible in large part by the unfolding history and reputation of Cornell’s Modern Indonesia Project, founded in the 1950s, and generous donations to the Museum from scholars of Southeast Asian studies, their families, and their students.