Designing Avant-Garde Fashion as Symbolism of Banyumasan Punakawan Clown Puppetry Inspired by Its Spiritual Values and Cultural Aesthetics

The development of wayang performing arts in Banyumasan in the modern era, is still preserved by the local community as a spiritual medium for socio-cultural practices such as wayang ruwat sukerta “ritual redemption / purification” and there are several other spiritual traditions that are still carried out by the Banyumas community today, in addition to entertainment and edification. The wayang characters who have Dagelaning Panguripan “hilarious healing energy” in the middle of the show's storyline are the four Punakawan comic characters: Semar, Gareng, Petruk, and Bawor. Serving as regional icons of the city in the Banyumas middle-Java region, such Punakawan puppet characters not only function as buffoon / clown entertainers in the wayang puppet show, but also as symbols of wisdom, simplicity, social commentary and criticism packaged in humor. This study aims to 1) Explore the meaning of symbolism, character and cultural values of the Punakawan clown puppetry in the study of Rupa-Aksara-Iswara “form-literature-divinity;” 2) Reinterpret the quartet Punakawan puppets into the visual design of Avantgarde fashion; 3) Analyze the design of avantgarde fashion based on the marketable desired design. Through qualitative methods of artistic creative theory, literary study and inspiration of Banyumasan puppet performances, this study focuses on the meaning and symbols of Punakawan, which are recreated into the visual form of Avantgarde fashion design. Thus, Banyumasan clowning puppetry manifest into marketable means of spiritual education and social reflection that remains relevant in the modern era.