Quicksilver strength marks the angular choreography of the minister of war. A servant mocks his mistress with a belch. The king expresses command with eloquent stillness. A master at giving life to a countenance of wood, the actor makes his masks breathe, sweat, and cry. The audience responds with awe and laughter to a performance that links them to their ancestors in a whirl of color, sound, and emotion.
Masks are dense with meaning.
Their fixed expressions are charged with significance that does not lend itself to simple analysis. It is impossible to understand a mask without examining the person who wears it, the gestures that give it life, the audience that responds to it, and the tree from which it was carved. But in the context of performance, the mask becomes the center of a complex web of intersecting forces. In Bali the mask is a mediator between opposing worlds. Past and present, kings and servants, spirit and flesh are all blended into a popular entertainment event that revolves around the masks.