2 Audley Square
Mayfair, London W1K
UK
Founded in 1994, THE COURSE offers art history lectures, opera and literature courses, guided museum visits and London walks.
This course will introduce the art and architecture of Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Java, Bali, Burma and Thailand. It will explore its sacred art, examine carvings, symbolism and iconography that express fundamental religious beliefs. Contemporary art will be shown in the form of painting, especially in Vietnam, influenced first by China then France during the colonial regime. A glimpse of colonial architecture in Indochina will enrich your understanding of the fusion of East and West and glorious weaving traditions will also feature throughout the region. A look at sacred dance will reveal exquisite rituals and dance dramas that have evolved and survived to reveal the soul of the people and the role of dance today.
BALI & JAVA: Buddhist Temples of Java and Hindu Dances of Bali
The wondrous carvings of the temples of Java, Borobudur and Prambanan, discovered by Sir Stamford Raffles, are inspiring. Borobodur (C8th) is an earthly manifestation of the Buddhist vision of the universe, covered with 1,460 narrative reliefs. Images of sacred dance were recreated and became part of court rituals, with representations in Bali of the Hindu epic the Ramayana.