Davina: A refreshing look at changes in Bali<\/p>\n
By Jean Couteau<\/p>\n
DENPASAR (JP): It has been seventy years now since Bali was
\ndiscovered by foreign painters. Their approach is usually
\naesthetic and exotic. They appropriate images of the island and
\nmake it an object of idyllic consumption: a paradise. They thus
\nprevent Bali -- or rather the visual discourse on Bali -- from
\nentering into modernity.<\/p>\n
Davina Stephens belongs to a new generation of painters which
\nis shaking this stilted image of the island. She never
\n'discovered' Bali. Bali was instead inbred in her.<\/p>\n
Born a New-Zealander and the daughter of a 'hippie' from the
\nhappy 70s, she spent the key years of her childhood, between 6
\nand 12, in Kuta, attending the ceremonies on the beach and going
\nto school with the young Balinese. She was thus shaped by the new
\nBali in the making.<\/p>\n
To her there was never real meaning in the word exoticism nor
\nwas there a perceived conflict between tradition and modernity.
\nThere is simply life and its changing ways and surroundings.<\/p>\n
This daughter of Kuta, this witness of the new, global Bali is
\nnow exhibiting her works for one month from Sept. 21 to Oct. 28
\nat the Ganesha Gallery of the Four Seasons Hotel in Jimbaran
\nBali. Golf courses and offerings, beach boys and Western
\ntourists, peddlers and coca-cola, she is presenting the Bali no
\none wants to see: the changing Bali.<\/p>\n
These observations have been made possible by Davina's
\nparticular mix of personal experience and talent. She has not
\nonly resided in Bali. She went to high-school in India before
\nstudying design in New York. She now regularly visits France
\nwhere she has held several exhibitions. Not yet thirty years old,
\nshe has no identity qualms.<\/p>\n
The world which was her childhood playground is now her home.
\nOne day she is drinking wine in a Parisian cafe and the following
\nday she is at the beach with Balinese friends before going to
\nIndia to attend a Kathakali. And she does this naturally, her
\ncuriosity being existential rather than abstract and
\nintellectual. She is a traveler and artist of a new, global world
\nwhich she not so much questions as grasps.<\/p>\n
This easy going approach to life inspires all of her works.
\nShe never wanted to 'express herself', within the framework of
\ncontemporary art. She started her career in a humble way, by
\nmaking textile designs, thus manipulating forms and colors
\nwithout having to deal with the avant-garde question: how to be
\nin the new.<\/p>\n
Her first paintings were inspired by the flowers, feathers and
\nother decorative objects she used to make her textiles. Then she
\nstarted painting cars, Harley Davidsons and other individual
\nobjects from her Kuta background, and suddenly, two years ago, it
\nwas the contrast and changes of the world around her which came
\nto the tip of her brush, first Bali, where she still spends much
\nof her time, then France, India, the States, and all of the
\nplaces she visits now and then.<\/p>\n
Davina paints spontaneously, from the heart, in a manner which
\nreminds us of Pop Art, neo-figuration, naive art and a gentle
\nCombas. She owes nothing to any of these though. If there is a
\ndebt it is indirect and it probably owes more to comic books and
\nthe flat colors of the Balinese Penestanan painters than to any
\nWestern artist or school.<\/p>\n
Davina's exhibit comprises both water colors and oil
\npaintings. She is by far much freer in the use of oil. Her water
\ncolor pieces are often drab-colored and tend to focus on
\ndecorative topics such as beach scenes and ceremonies.<\/p>\n
In her oil paintings, however, both the color and the theme
\ncome to life, and the composition is more complex: Paradise in
\nOne has side by side a golfer, a woman carrying offerings, a
\ntemple, a jumbo jet, and a Kuta sunset.<\/p>\n
All in one, thus, presents both the cliches and the reality,
\nmatter-of-factly, in a non judgmental way. Legian Beach Cottages
\nis more metaphorical: Two youths are seen surfing while a third
\none is drowning among objects of modern consumption: a mobile
\nphone, a water bottle etc. "Welcome to Bali" is a depiction of
\nthe island's daily reality: a temple with a warung coffee stall
\nin the background, two youths playing football in the middle, and
\na young surfer apparently trying to catch the attention of a
\nnearby Western woman.<\/p>\n
Davina's best work and, I hope, a preview of the future
\ndirection of her creativity, is a reflection on the fate of the
\nworld called Global Challenge, featuring, seen from above and in
\nlively colors, representatives of the main human groups gathered
\naround a table and gambling with money, religion, nature, drugs,
\netc.<\/p>\n
There is even a painting representing the former president
\nSoeharto on his Harley Davidson, together with Arafat, Habibie
\nand a Balinese priest, the latter two also riding a motorbike.
\nThe painting was made before the fall of Soeharto though.
\nTherefore it is non-committal.<\/p>\n
Davina is still just at the start of her career. The
\ncasualness of her unburdened nature adds to her strong, natural
\nsense of color and promises to make her a significant artist with
\nan original message.<\/p>\n
If there is something she should be wary of it is "naive art",
\nfor which there is an important market, and with which her manner
\nshows some similarity, both in the subjects chosen and in the
\nfinishing of the works.<\/p>\n
The artist is far from naive, however. She 'knows', even
\nthough it is intuitive, what she sees and represents. And what
\nshe sees with her open, spontaneous eyes is a transient,
\nmulticultural world in which people communicate with each other
\nmainly by exchanging 'things' or going places rather than by
\nexchanging ideas. She is an early witness to the coming of the
\npost-modern world.<\/p>\n
She also gives a truer depiction of present day Bali than all
\nof her Balinese contemporaries, most of whom, because they
\ncontinue seeing themselves through the eyes of tourists when they
\ndon't avoid figuration altogether, refuse to face the reality of
\ntheir changing island.<\/p>\n
Davina would be a good example to demonstrate that foreigners
\nstill have their say in Bali, if she were really' a foreigner. As
\nher life and works testify, she is as much a 'modern Balinese' as
\nany Balinese painter and peasant. She is the forerunner of a new,
\nmulticultural identity and art.<\/p>",
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