Nyoman brings shine to Balinese sculpture<\/p>\n
By Jean Couteau<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): No Indonesian sculptor commands as much public
\nattention as the 44-year-old, Balinese born, Bandung-based Nyoman
\nNuarta. When still a student, he won in 1977 the commission for
\nthe Proclamation Monument in Jakarta. As late as last October, he
\nsaw his proposal for the corner sculptures at the National
\nMonument coming in first place. He is also known for numerous
\nstate and private works as well as for his Garuda Wisnu Kencana
\nproject, a huge statue-cum-park to be built in the south of Bali,
\nthe construction of which will begin this December.<\/p>\n
Many would boast of these achievements. To Nyoman Nuarta,
\n\"they are just the means that allow me to finance my personal
\ncreations\" as he puts it meekly. To show he means it, he is
\nexhibiting his latest personal works between Nov. 28 and Dec. 7
\nat the Wisma Seni National exhibition hall in Gambir, Central
\nJakarta.<\/p>\n
Behind the artist's public, and sometimes controversial, image
\nwhat does this exhibition tell us about the man's artistic
\ncreativity, and furthermore, about the state of Indonesian
\nsculpture?<\/p>\n
Born in Bali, where everyone from childhood is involved in the
\nmaking of meaningful religious symbols, Nyoman Nuarta displays no
\ninclination towards abstraction. \"A work of art,\" he says, has to
\nbe understandable to common people. \"No highbrow, elitist avant-
\ngardism, but instead communion with the public through art works.
\nThat is exactly what exists already -- and this is no accident --
\nin his society of origin, Bali. Nuarta operates within a logic of
\ncontinuity. What he aims at is not to transform the esthetics of
\nhis society, after the \"modernist art\" fashion born in Europe,
\nbut only to adapt it to the needs of the modern world with the
\nuse of new techniques and a renewed message.<\/p>\n
Nyoman Nuarta demonstrates this progressive, albeit well-
\nrooted, creative spirit in his treatment of the form. Not only
\ndoes he display in his works, through his Balinese heritage, a
\ngreat familiarity with the world of man and nature, but he
\nsharpens it with an analytical knowledge gained during his years
\nat the Art Department of the Bandung Institute of Technology.
\nThus, when he asserts himself as a figurative artist, this is no
\nmere boast. He means it. He knows all the rules of naturalist
\nrepresentation, as in some of his works of human characters like
\nLa Madame. And this is this \"seriousness\" in his working of the
\nnaturalist form which gives him the liberty to modify it when
\nneeded for symbolic purposes.<\/p>\n
Nuarta's predilection for figuration doesn't strike one as
\nconventional, though. It is wrapped -- almost literally, at least
\nin his main works -- in the most stunning, innovative techniques,
\nand in particular his method of transparency in his materials. By
\nthis technique ploy, he completely transforms the volume and
\nsurface aspects of his works: the mass is holed out, and the
\nsurface, having lost the \"descriptive\" quality normally
\nassociated with realist figuration, becomes evocative of the
\n\"untold\", of a \"something\" which is beyond the world of mere
\nrepresentation. Realism, in this context, takes on a new meaning.
\nMany of the characters shown in this exhibition -- even though
\nnaturalistic on the outside -- give the impression of blending in
\nthe ethereal, in the non-being. Nuarta's technique, to that
\nextent, can be construed as a vehicle of his meditative, Hindu-
\nrooted mind-frame.<\/p>\n
And this is indeed in his symbolic works, rather than in his
\nmore outwardly realistic ones, here represented mainly by
\nsculptures of the animal world, that Nyoman Nuarta reveals
\nhimself at his best. Sin (Dosa), for example, perhaps the
\nmasterpiece of this exhibition, displays a woman literally
\n\"netted\" in mesh wire, with her hollowed, spread out body making
\none piece with the mesh-iron which is shrouding her. The
\nrecurrence in this work and others of \"grids\", \"barriers\" and
\n\"nets\" may be seen as variations on the theme of the helplessness
\nof man, thus ringing an almost existentialistic philosophical
\nnote, which is a surprise coming from such an extrovert and
\noptimistic character as Nuarta. In other works, such as Rush
\nHour, the same mood applies to the theme of modern life, looking
\nhere like an endless quest; the cyclist in the wind seems to rush
\nnowhere.<\/p>\n
Arguably Nyoman Nuarta's most regular and strongest
\nphilosophical inspiration originates from his Hindu past: Sapta
\nSukma, Metamorphosis, Typhoon Dance, Transfiguration and Menapak
\nSukma, all refer directly or indirectly to the theme of cosmic
\ntransience, a favorite of Hindu thought. Interestingly though,
\nfew Balinese would recognize the mark of their heritage in
\nNuarta's treatment of this theme. His is no traditionalist theme.
\nAlthough the spirit of his themes is rooted in the culture of his
\norigin, he never expresses it in an ethnic manner, the
\nunderstanding of which would be limited to the Balinese for
\niconographic reasons. On the contrary, he wraps it in such a way
\nthat it addresses everyone, Hindus and non-Hindus, Balinese and
\nnon-Balinese alike. In doing so he creates a symbolism which is
\ndistinctly his, while having at the same time a universal, human
\nand \"religious\" dimension. And he has no qualms about it. He does
\nnot see the symbolism of Balinese culture as consisting of a
\nready-made corpus of ethnic images inherited from the past -- as
\nmany Westerners would like to have it -- but rather as a core of
\nuniversal ideas and beliefs of which the forms of representation
\nhave to be constantly reinvented. In this context the fact that
\nhis works are not contemporary in the Western sense is not
\nrelevant. They are authentic.<\/p>\n
What Nyoman Nuarta demonstrates in this exhibition is that
\nIndonesian artists can be actors of the global art debate without
\nhaving to ape the mood and works of their Western counterparts.
\nArt works, after all, even and principally in our modern,
\nborderless societies, can retain a universal appeal only if they
\nare all anchored in the society which has given birth to them.<\/p>",
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