Balinese artist combines cultural icons
By Putu Wirata
DENPASAR, Bali (JP): The 32-year rule of the New Order government is remembered as a regime which would not tolerate ideas different from its own.
Bali-born artist D. Chandra Kirana is showing the beauty of cultural pluralism with 23 paintings exhibited at the Chedi Gallery, Ubud, from June 26 through Aug. 31.
Chandra, 55, presents a pluralistic canvas: Balinese ancient artifacts, the sacred Tenganan cloth, Sumba ikat, Javanese batik and Chinese ceramics are harmoniously displayed together.
"From my childhood, I have admired the color composition commonly found in Balinese cultural symbols, like the offerings, sarongs, statues and objects in religious rituals," said Chandra, who was born in Bali in 1944 and began painting as a senior high school student.
On graduating from senior high school, he started a career as a professional photographer while he sharpened his painting talent.
When he was a photographer, he used to travel to places in Bali and would collect objects of artistic value. His studio in Denpasar is decorated with wooden statues, Tenganan clothes, antique cases from Madura and a great variety of China.
In the exhibition, the collections are arranged in an artistic composition that he calls "Still Life". A reddish mythological lion called Red Lion, 1997, a 50 cm by 71 cm water color, is placed next to a edelweis in a dark blue vase. In the background is a piece of checkered green-brown cloth and a piece of Sumba cloth with animal and leaf motifs.
Meanwhile, Crimson Clusters (water color, 1999, 56 cm by 76 cm), features a Javanese shadow puppet figure, a bunch of red flowers in a brown vase, a piece of Javanese batik cloth with photograph-like meticulous details, a ceramic bottle with a rooster on top and a piece of red-purple-gold checkered cloth.
In passing, Chandra's works are only to please the eye. The various objects appear as if fixed in a flat plain. The main attraction is the color composition. The motifs of woven cloths and artifacts placed on the canvas represent blends of various cultures: Arabic, Dutch, Chinese, as featured in some works.
Symbols in his work depict cultural correlation. The symbols take the forms of various animals: pig, rabbit, goat etc., which symbolize human characters according to an individual's birth date or shio in Chinese culture. For example, someone whose shio is turtle is believed to enjoy longevity.
The flying lion, deer or Kresna -- a character in Javanese leather puppet mythology -- are important in the highly popular Balinese Hindu mythology.
"I put the symbols from various cultures and arrange them to create harmony," Chandra said of the underlying philosophy about his works.
In any place where harmony is put above anything else, there is no cultural domination or repression, he said.
Still Life is the result of Chandra's long cultural contemplation. His past time as a professional photographer led him to develop a sensitivity about objects he photographed: Balinese weddings, wayang wong dancers, legong dancers.
In his photography, the objects were documented realistically, but in his paintings, they were deformed: slim bodies and closed eyes. Chandra says figures in his works have their eyes closed just to show that they were "nobody".
The figures created with acrylic and water color on canvas and silk have earned Chandra a reputation as a great artist of details.
The golden crown and the colorful attire that a bride or a legong dancer wears appear more elegant in his paintings than they do in real life.
The deformed figures seem to stand in an illusive plain with statues, reliefs, clothes and leaves in the background.
This is Chandra's first solo exhibition. In 1986, he took part in a group exhibition at the Bali Cultural Park. His works have been collected by the Singapore National Museum, the Neka Museum in Bali and the Rudana Museum in Ubud.