Bali’s worlds of myths come alive at Spurlock Museum’s ‘Visions of the Unseen: Picturing Balinese Ceremony and Myth’. The exhibition features art work on loan or gifted by private individuals and professors collected over the last 50 years. It has been open since September 13 and will run until February 4.

Bali, a small island in Indonesia, is a predominantly Hindu island in a nation with a Muslim majority. The island is said to have over 50,000 temples, which are a mix of the Hindu and Buddhist cultures and are an integral part of Balinese society. The paintings in the exhibit mostly depict the two Hindu Epics, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, as well as old Javanese stories. A number of huge and intricate wooden sculptures are arranged around the room depicting different scenes from the Hindu Epics. Among these sculptures is a 9-foot tall carving depicting Yudhistra ascending to heaven, which was gifted to the Museum by John Garvey, professor emeritus of music.

In her opening talk on Friday, Laura J. Bellows, curator and visiting assistant professor in anthropology, alluded to the double entendre behind the title of the exhibition.

“We refer to artists’ depiction of two realms, a visible realm inhabited by humans and an invisible realm inhabited by gods, demons and other beings – as equally visible in these paintings,” Bellows said. “We also refer to our own ‘picturing’ within this exhibition of links we seek to explore between the mostly epic content of artworks and how these stories, and their recitation and performance, get woven into the texture of people’s daily and ritual lives and how they think about and comment on their lives.”

Director of education at Spurlock Museum Tandy Lacy said, “One of the interesting things is that with the exception of the ‘death of Ravana’, these are all pieces that are in our feature collections but they’re not in our galleries because they’re much too large to include.”

Lacy, who is also the coordinator of the exhibit, added that the exhibit would soon be available online and would therefore be visible long after the exhibit closes. A video kiosk on Bali will also open in November for the rest of the exhibition, she said.

In his opening speech last Friday, Clark Cunningham, curator and professor emeritus of anthropology, talked about the history of Bali and its arts, and its significance as the sole heir of a once widespread Hindu religious tradition in Southeast Asia.

The Balinese art exhibit adds an international component to the art events on campus. Related to this exhibition, Lacy said that there would be a traditional Balinese shadow puppet performance on Oct. 1 from 7-10 p.m. at Spurlock Museum. Nyoman Sumandhi, a master puppeteer or ‘dalang’ of Bali will be performing, with his sons providing musical accompaniment.