Dewa Ngakan Ardana: Peeling back the layers to reveal the self
Carla Bianpoen, Contributor, Jakarta
Still life painting as a pictorial genre has traditionally been considered a minor form of artistic expression and invention.
But Dewa Ngakan Ardana's paintings of garlic onions in the CP Open Biennale at Galeri Nasional here testify to its genuine significance as a vehicle of artistic expression.
Derived from the Dutch word "stilleven" coined to describe a new genre at the beginning of the 17th century, still life is a tradition associated with the Northern European schools. Consisting of fruit, flowers or daily household objects, still life once appeared in a supporting role to the bigger picture of human action, in many instances clumped as "women's work', itself denoting the low status of women in society.
A closer look at the visual renderings of inanimate objects reveals that they carry significant messages and have a life of their own. It is not surprising that from the century's first decade to the present day, from Pablo Picasso and Hendri Matisse through to Cindy Sherman and Charles Ray, artists of many schools have found a vital opportunity for invention in the still life.
For Balinese artist Dewa, the garlic appearing on his canvas have nothing, and yet everything, to do with what used to be called women's work. Isn't garlic one of the most popular spices in the world, particularly in Eastern cuisine.
Garlic fills every little corner of his home, including his studio. They are, in a sense, his daily bread. No, not as in garlic bread served with the best vintage wine. Far from it -- it is this humble but celebrated herb that sustains his life, and his mother's, also a garlic seller, and supports his aspirations.
For, from 2 a.m. to 6 a.m. every day, Dewa is a garlic seller in the Badung market.
In the marketplace, the herbs that travel with him in the darkness of the night are a commodity commanding a fluctuating price. When Dewa returns home, he carries with him a wad of cash to support his family.
After catching two hours of sleep, the garlic seller becomes an art student at the Indonesia Fine Arts Institute in Denpasar, where he spends the day studying how to express himself on canvas.
His paintings at the CP Biennale show the onion evolving from a photo-realistic image to the various stages of maturing, and also where his imagery takes him. The meticulous details of the inner layers are unfolded in a manner that reveal the artist's intense relationship with the onion.
Set against a blue or white background, Ardana's cloves of garlic are not laid on the table, as in a classic still life painting. Instead, they are suspended in the air, "flying" to a point revealed only to the artist's inner eye.
Garlic has always been part of his life, yet one may wonder why he only started serious exploration one year ago. He was born a Brahman, who in the Hindu Balinese tradition is supposed to deal with spiritual matters. He tried his hand at religious painting, but apparently found it incompatible with his inner feelings.
Dewa finally came to the conclusion that it was the simple onion that was closest to his existence as a man. It gave him a better sense of the cosmic mystique that he had missed in the other themes he tried before.
As Dewa's scope of imagery evolves with the fine-tuning of inner senses and the advancement of his painterly skills, it would not be surprising if the simple cloves of garlic become a metaphor for issues touching the soul.
----------------------- CP Open Biennale Jakarta Galeri Nasional Jl. Medan Merdeka Timur, Central Jakarta (opposite Gambir railway station) Sept. 4 - Oct. 3, 2003 Open daily except Mondays www.cp-foundation.org --------------------------------
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