STORY BY Carla Bianpoen PHOTOS BY Various Sources
Today, time seems to pass at a faster pace, and artists are roaring through a new age transcending the everyday whilst following an ever-wider horizon of imagination. Aided by ever-advancing new technologies and science and infused by new insights following the evolving spirit of the time, even the sky is unable to limit artistic prowess. Such is evident from the latest works as presented as follows:
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One of the most prolific artists of our time is Ni Putu Citra Sasmita. Born in Tabanan, Bali in 1990. A self-taught artist, who also studied physics and mathematics, and was a journalist for the Bali Post. Her works unravel the myths and misconceptions of Balinese art and culture, questioning a woman’s place in social hierarchy, seeking to upend normative gender construction. With infinite imagery, and endless knowledge of Balinese myths and legends, her transformative images, often considered bizarre and infused with some notions of antiquity are roaring from one art event to another, responding to invites from international biennales that include Sydney, Sao Paolo, Bangkok, Diriyah, Toronto and London. Soaring to the heights of ‘stardom’, she is an artist whose images may be always centred towards the correction of gender inequality in historical representations of her culture, whilst also poignantly touching on decolonisation and geographical positions. For some people the titling of her works that come under the umbrella of her ongoing TIMUR MERAH project, are lyrical and evoking a hint of great literary works, such as the ‘Garden of Earthy delights, Tree of Eden, Almanac of the Unknown, Divina Comedia, Rivers with no End’, and more.
Citra’s works range from painting to installations and poetry. She draws inspiration from the Balinese Kamasan tradition, utilising scrolls in a similar manner. However, instead of using a bamboo pen to outline her images, she employs alternative tools, such as a glass pen or tiny brushes. Her piece Phantasmagoria is typically painted on a long scroll, featuring a sequence of fantastical assemblages of real or imagined images.
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The island of the Gods, which was once a haven for the imagination of Western painters like Rudolf Bonnet, Walter Spies, Donald Friend, Theo Meier, Arie Smit, and Adrien-Jean Le Mayeur, now seems to undergo a totally different view in terms of new artistic prowess, as new advanced media art has hit the imagination of young emerging artists like, for instance, Jemana Murti ( b. 1997).
Jemana’s interest in new media art was sparked during his studies in Fine Art at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA) in Singapore. Upon returning to Bali, he developed his own innovative types and forms of advanced media, which he now uses to create his exciting oeuvre, showcased in venues such as Gajah Gallery in Jakarta and Singapore.
Whilst we have seen some of his works in scattered places, his first solo exhibition at Gajah Gallery titled ‘Digital Echoes of the Past’ rendered a comprehensive view of what these new inventions are all about. Deeply rooted in Balinese culture, Jemana’s greatest concern is how to preserve Balinese traditions and heritage, such as engravings, sculpture and wayang. He would go on a hunt in the kampung, he said, to find forlorn artifacts. First doing a 3D scan of his findings, he would later select to ‘distort’ with AI from which another selection would undergo a ‘re-birth’ using advanced technological software 3D- printed on fabric or polyester resins, or on Polyethile terephthalate glycol, or thermoplastic (PETG) he would use colours suggesting antique. Not only painting-like hangings, but sculptures and a gamelan set too are formed from such prints in colours of dark brown, rust, or a mixture with silver or other.
But nobody can miss the colour blue that Jemama says was inspired by the blue that usually emerges at an error in the Windows program in the computer. He then developed it to become the auspicious blue colour stimulating the senses in a way that we may perceive as indicating the now and the future.
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Ni Nyoman Sani (b. 1975 In Sanur, Bali) is also one of a kind. Soft spoken and deeply introverted, she first challenged patriarchal culture in society with artistic designs of refined women’s fashion the basic principles of which were grounded in Balinese cultural and philosophical tradition, denoting certain textile, colours, and feminine lines of elegance with bold strokes denoting an inner strength. Her interest also found meaning in photography, poetry and performance art.
As time went by, she evolved into the abstract, always including Balinese philosophy into her paintings that may be perceived like an act of meditation linking the macro and the micro cosmos, and stretching into the universal. This is evident in ‘Tranquillity’, her gold prize winning work in the prestigious UOB painting of the Year contest, 2023, where technology and the use of fluorescence added a contemporary note to the recollection of Bhuana Alit and Bhuana Agung philosophy. Litting up the pointed dots when the light goes down (switched off ) renders a fascinating experience.
New imaginations led into new explorations linking inner feeling (rasa) and personal spirit into a new series of contemporary art. The work ‘Seeds of Memory’ is a stirring account of delving into the life streaming Karma, that in popular language translates into ‘what goes around comes around’.
In a stroke of illumination by the changing cycle of the sun that renders another perspective at every moment of the sun rays, the work will change along with the movements of the sun and could be metaphorical of the ever-changing aspect of Karma.
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Devy Ferdianto (b.1968) is probably the only artist in Indonesia who has focussed his 30 years as an artist solely on printmaking. As he confesses, his creations reflect the intricate interplay between his inner thoughts and the external world. This often includes his imagination about the works of those he admires.
With an education and research that meandered from ITB. the Bandung Institute of Technology, to the Hochschule fuer Bildende Kuenste in Braunschweig, Germany, to the Canadian School for Non-Toxic Printmaking, his works include the most auspicious personalities. This is revealed by the series on for instance Raden Saleh Sjarif Boestaman, the first ‘modern’ painter from Indonesia (formerly the Dutch East Indies) whom he has imaged in digital print on aluminium. with several colours of turban, from violet, to red, green and orange. Frida Kahlo is featured in Devy’s series “She is Everywhere.” A Mexican painter, Kahlo is renowned for depicting her physical sufferings through surrealism. In this series, Devy portrays her as various well-known figures, including a queen and the painter Van Gogh, as well as a Balinese person in everyday life.
Surely Frida-Medusa showed the most imaginative. The persona of ancient Greece, generally described as a woman with living snakes in place of hair, had a special appeal to Devy. Whereas she is usually described as so hideous that anyone who looked at her would be turned to stone, Frida’s main features would remain the same, strong- wild and attractive.
Devy is however, more than just an artist of printmaking. He is also the owner of Devto Printing Institute in Bali, where he handles commissions, research, workshops, exhibitions and artist residences, exploring Indonesian printmaking, whilst informing of diverse techniques and styles. Here, renowned artists like FX Harsono and Agus Suwage create prints at Devfto, making their works accessible to a wider public at more affordable prices.
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Indah Arshad is well known as an artist whose prowess in technology, science and culture is in bringing together art, technology, science and culture and whose work The Ultimate Breath has found favour internationally. Her background in architecture and environmental technology makes her well suited as an artist attuned to contemporary issues, where identity within socio- political contexts transforms urban patterns, and changing global and regional climate patterns are matters of worldwide concern.
As a participant in the international art festival ‘Indonesia Bertutur,’ she was undoubtedly one of the most fascinating figures to observe. The overall theme of the exhibition circled around the subak, a traditional irrigation system special to Bali. It is a self-governing collective of farmers who share the limited resources of water and suppress pest by synchronising their planting agenda. Philosophically and culturally harking back to the Hindu concept of Tri Hita Karana, the balance in life is believed to lie in bringing together the realms of the spirit, the human world and nature.
Set up in the open air, the installation is titled AMRTA. The work uses a mechanical system with loT technology to measure real-time environmental data, for instance, of water, which at a certain pH level will let the bamboos strike into gamelan sounds. Similarly CO levels and earth temperature are measured to affect the motions and colours of dance of the image in the video on Calon Arang. At a certain water level of pH, water will strike the bamboos into motion into gamelan music, whilst CO levels and earth temperature will affect the movements of dance and colours in the video that is part of the installation.
Indah has used IoT technology, earlier in a work titled ‘Faith’, where the level of pollution in the river infuse the sound of ‘zikir’ meditation. Surely her exploration of the life-saving oxygen in her video installation ‘The Ultimate Breath’ (2022) already set the tone for her sublime and highly technical skill in engaging in intellectual forward thinking and linking advanced technology to ancient and ancestral wisdoms.