Artist Made Gunawan takes on Ganesi with gusto
Adrian Smith, Contributor, Jakarta
Made Gunawan's playful, tranquil and optimistic oil paintings belie his deep-seated anxiety of what is going on around us and underscores his obsession with peace and reconciliation.
Exasperated and saddened by the "macho" culture that he sees behind much of the violence and social disharmony across the archipelago, Made has sought to transform a traditional symbol of knowledge and portray it in what he believes to be a balanced light.
On display at the exhibition Images of Ganesi, is 35 of Made's canvases painted in 2000 and 2001 that all feature "Ganesi", a feminized version of the Hindu elephant god of knowledge, Ganesa.
As Made sees it, development in intellectual knowledge does not guarantee the eradication of violence. In fact, as far as he is concerned, the greater the intellectual knowledge, the more violence is rationalized, which for him is "knowledge" at its most disturbing.
His paintings, on offer at between Rp 3 million and Rp 14 million, speak of a balance in knowledge that is drawn from both our masculine and feminine sides. For Made, macho means rational thinking, feminine means equalizing that through tolerance and reconciliation.
His artistic thinking can be attributed to his upbringing.
"As the youngest child in an artistic family, I was always close to the art world."
Born in Bali in 1973, the up-and-coming artist's father was a dalang wayang kulit (traditional shadow play puppeteer).
And that supportive background seems to have encouraged him to broaden his exploration into different art forms.
Educated at the school of fine arts in Denpasar, Bali, he has also tried his hand at dance, gamelan, sculpture and writing. But it is his painting that he has now decided to display.
His pastel-colored abstract oil paintings are full of Hindu symbolism, with frequent references of flowers and Ganesi in a variety of two-dimensional guises, sometimes appearing more than once, sometimes on her own.
"Ganesi's paintings are interesting because they hold many questions. Take Ganesi in White for example. Why is the flower drooping? What is the relationship between the flower and the Ganesi figure holding it? Why is the background full of empty ceramic vases?" said the manager of Hadiprana Gallery, Johanda Karihadi.
The answer to many of these questions lie in what Made sees as the bigger picture in Indonesia at the moment. The artist points out that the flower is drooping because it is not taken care of, the background vases are empty because they are waiting, hoping for new flowers.
But the wait seems far from over, as suggested by the title of another piece Waiting for Godot, which takes its name from the famous Samuel Beckett play.
And Made's personal favorite, Thinking, depicts a forlorn Ganesi bathed in shades of blue; a metaphor for what he sees as the sinking state of the nation.
"It reflects a people wondering 'Why are we suffering from the floods. What has happened to our country?' It is a representation of a society that is yearning for change while in the middle of a multidimensional crisis," he says.
Despite this underlying woe, Made's optimism is visually represented through a rainbow of subdued colors and the engaging playfulness of the paintings' characters. And as some of the titles suggest -- the Laughing series, Baby My Love, I Love This Flower, Flower of Friendship -- sadness doesn't get much of look in.
While the world is portrayed as going to pot, Made's paintings seem to speak in an engaging language of the need for a more enriching, sustainable approach as an alternative to the rationalization of violence, which he sees as the all too easy mainstay of human thinking.
The exhibition Images of Ganesi is on at Hadiprana Gallery, Mitra Hadiprana building, Jl. Kemang Raya No. 30, Jakarta until March 16. Tel. 7194715/6.