Following this week’s brief superhero scandal about 7-minutes that were allegedly censored from the highly-anticipated comic book epic Avengers: Infinity War in Indonesia (fortunately the news turned out to be false), one of our country’s most creative comic book artists gave the film’s co-director and stars some very special gifts to let them know just how much Indonesia loves and appreciates their work.
Is Yuniarto specializes in blending elements of traditional Indonesian art and culture with modern comic style, as in his manga-like take on old-school komik wayang, Garudayana. But he has also done the reverse by rendering modern day superheroes in the style of ancient Indonesian wayang kulit (shadow puppets).
https://www.instagram.com/p/BEveDRQTDLH/?taken-by=is.yuniarto
Yuniarto’s incredibly cool superhero shadow puppet designs caught the eyes of Disney (which owns Marvel Studios) representatives, who decided to not only bring the Indonesian artist from Surabaya out to the recent Singaporean red carpet gala premier of Avengers: Infinity War, but also helped him produce some very special wayang kulit to present to some of the movie’s stars and co-director.
https://www.facebook.com/isyun/posts/10156078069494765
The video shows Yuniarto presenting his shadow puppet creations to co-director Joe Russo as well as stars Benedict Cumberbatch and Karen Gillan. He gives Cumberbatch a wayang version of his character, Dr. Strange, Gillan a version depicting her character Nebula (from the Guardians of the Galaxy series) and Russo a poster featuring shadow puppet versions of all of Infinity War’s major characters.
Yuniarto also explains a bit about the history and importance of wayang kulit in Indonesian culture and how it has been named a part of humanity’s “Intangible Cultural Heritage” by Unesco. All three recipients expressed how impressed they were with his creations, with Gillan declaring that hers was going up on her wall.
Here are a few more of Is Yuniarto’s super cool shadow puppet versions of pop culture characters. Check out his Instagram page for even more.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BfQQM49lCXj/?taken-by=is.yuniarto
https://www.instagram.com/p/BbwvF8alEqA/?taken-by=is.yuniarto
https://www.instagram.com/p/BTqCxEzFbcQ/?taken-by=is.yuniarto
https://www.instagram.com/p/BRxKam3Fq2i/?taken-by=is.yuniarto
