A special art exhibition at this year’s Indonesia Update

Indonesia Update
Indonesia Update

Alongside this year’s conference program, we’re delighted to feature a small exhibition brought to us by ANU Honorary Professor George Quinn, with illustrations by Jakarta-based artist Melissa Sunjaya inspired by Prince Diponegoro’s autobiography, the Babad Diponegoro.

A small team of translators is collaborating with leading historian of 19th-century Java Peter Carey to translate Prince Diponegoro’s autobiography, the Babad Diponegoro, from Javanese into fluently readable English. The project is supported by Jakarta-based artist Melissa Sunjaya through her artisanal brand, tulisan.com. ANU Honorary Professor George Quinn has completed translation of the first five cantos (pupuh) of the Babad.

Diponegoro dictated his autobiography to scribes between 1831 and 1832 while imprisoned in Manado after the Java War (1825–1830). The first 14 pupuh present an often racy and sometimes humorous account of the legendary beginnings of Islam in Java in the 15th and 16th centuries. They provide vivid glimpses of the cultural and religious determinants that moulded Diponegoro’s resolve during the Java War.

Melissa Sunjaya has illustrated some of the characters and incidents from the first pupuh in a series of wall hangings that will be on display during the Indonesia Update, 18–19 September at ANU.

Another reason to join us for this year’s Indonesia Update: Islamic diversity in Indonesia.

 

View Honorary Professor George Quinn's work here: 

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