Eternal Faces

Eternal Faces is a series centred around the Javanese masked dance tradition of Topeng. In collaboration with mask makers, the project explores how this ancient art form persists within contemporary Indonesia bridging myth, memory, and modern life.

Deeply rooted in Indonesia’s cultural heritage, Topeng brings ancient Javanese stories to life through elaborately carved masks, choreographed movement and music. The most popular storyline is derived from the Panji tales, centred around the adventures and romance of Prince Panji and Princess Chandra Kirana, set in the 12th-century. That story is still told today. 

The series celebrates the artists and communities sustaining this tradition in East and Central Java. Created in collaboration with mask makers, dancers, and residents of Jabung, Tumpang, Jambuwer, Pakisaji, and Yogyakarta, the project explores how this ancient art form persists within contemporary Indonesia. By embedding the masks and performances within their social and environmental contexts, Eternal Faces reveals how cultural heritage coexists with modernity.

The masks act both as artefacts of ritual performance and active participants in the ongoing negotiation of memory, belonging, and imagination. The performances become a site where cultural memory and present reality intersect weaving ancient and everyday storytelling.  Reflecting on the story’s central themes of identity and transformation, and encapsulating the dualities of concealment and revelation, individuality and archetype.