Artists of different ethnicities join as one

Ahmad Solikhan, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta

Discussions in political and religious forums, as well as in the world of art, are nothing new.

But when these dialogs emerge from paintings by artists from two different ethnic groups, they become interesting, in terms of the varying development of art.

Visitors can appreciate this uniqueness at the painting exhibition Dialog Visual Dua Etnik (The visual dialog between two ethnic groups), to run until Jan. 30 at Jogja Fine Art Community gallery.

In their 19 paintings, four artists, Made Arya Palguna and I Nyoman Triarta, both from Bali, along with Aidis Sukri and Jumaldi Alfi, from Padang, depict the current fluctuating conditions in society. Their paintings also show great variation of expression.

These four young artists, all from different ethnic backgrounds, have been able to convey their dialogs through each of their paintings. However, the titles of the paintings seem to have been chosen hastily, with the simplistic use of certain idioms. This prevents the smooth flow of the dialog between the paintings displayed in the hall.

In visualizing their work, some of the paintings by the Balinese artists are stronger than the others on display, in terms of their brush strokes and definition of line, as well as the choice of colors.

This can be seen, for example, in one of Made Palguna's work -- a 100 x 120 cm mixed media on canvas -- titled Gopala Jaya (the name of a god from the Hindu epic, the Mahabharata), which depicts a bald woman, sitting cross-legged, in a transparent white cloth, her lips painted red, both ears extended to the side, the clear curves of her plump body and her two hands holding white champac flowers, which are in full bloom.

Behind the woman there are donkeys standing as if wishing to accompany her in unending meditation.

Made Palguna, who has exhibited his paintings in several countries, such as Singapore, the U.S. and Denmark, wishes to convey the specter of unending social suffering. Only through silence and prayers is it possible to achieve peace and serenity.

By contrast, in the 200 x 145 cm painting titled Terikat (Bound), I Nyoman Triarta attempts to capture the sadness of a corruptor being judged by the people. The man found guilty of corruption is depicted with the head of a boar, whose nose is pierced before he faces execution by the mob.

Paintings by I Nyoman Triarta, who once participated in a Philip Morris sponsored exhibition in the National Gallery, have quite strong expressionist lines and use dark colors in their visualization.

Aidis Syukri's painting Menuju Rumah Ideal (Toward an Ideal Home, 2002), measuring 127 x 90 cm, acrylic on canvas, depicts a head -- from the neck upward -- on a leaf, with eyes watching several houses on a snowy landscape dotted with Eskimo igloos. As a young painter, he uses dark colors to depicts unreal hopes, full of future rigidity and stagnation.

Another young painter, Jumaldi Alfi, in his painting Cukup (Enough, 2001), measuring 200 x 145 cm acrylic on canvas, visualizes his imagination in a very simple way, just by featuring a hand holding a stone on a bright red plane.

The painters, who currently live in Yogyakarta, have not shown many changes or development in their artwork. Each of them does not display any noticeable cultural domination because they seem to prefer to step back and see the reality of the environment at a distance, and not simply hark back to their ethnic roots.

This fine art exhibition is not a competition arena in which to find out the best artwork, but serves as a place for paintings to evoke dialog without it necessarily being translated by the painters. However, visitors and art lovers generally tend to gauge the quality of painters behind their works of art.

Sutanto, the owner of Mendut Gallery on the slope of Mt. Merapi, mentioned that, "Even without painters, Balinese society displays an artistic talent, but people in Padang may be unable to show their artistic abilities without painters".

Thus, Balinese painters are generally more skillful in painting than those from other regions because they grow up in an intrinsically artistic environment. But creativeness, imagination, visualization and the way of featuring expression are the main foundation of fine arts.

A similar remark to Sutanto's came from Gusti Raden Ayu (GRAy) Nurmagupita Suryokusumo, the second daughter of Sri Sultan Hamengku Buana X, who opened the exhibition.

She expressed her hope that the two ethnic groups in the exhibition room could at least provide separate colors for the rich cultural fabric that has emerged in Yogyakarta.

Hopefully, the exhibition organizers and fine arts practitioners will be able to fulfill GRAy Nurmagita's wish for artistic and cultural development, especially in Yogyakarta. The outstanding message is that it is necessary to find and hold dialog with painters of different ethnic groups, in order to enrich all of us.