Erawan's retrospective: Forebodings come true

Erawan's retrospective: Forebodings come true

Carla Bianpoen, Contributor, Jakarta

Balinese artist Nyoman Erawan is no stranger to the world of art.
A painter who breaks the hegemony of certain trends, he is also
well known for his soul-stirring performance art, in which he is
not only the designer, performer and stage manager, but also an
artistic medium as he incredibly transforms himself into the
heart of the work.

He proved himself yet again on the night of Friday, May 2,
when he introduced his prolific, retrospective exhibition of 165
paintings and installations at the Bentara Budaya Jakarta in a
performance art, the theme of which is at the core of all his
creations: Destruction.

Bamboo installations, in the Balinese style used in
traditional ceremonies, stand to the left and right of the main
bamboo cage that holds an upside-down perahu, or boat, covered in
a white cloth. This is the stage where Erawan, clad like a priest
in white, sits on the floor to visualize his apprehension of a
world in shambles.

To the metallic spatter of falling maize kernels, rice and
marbles dropped on the gong in front, he smears a quid of white
sirih, or betel, in brusque movements over his face and head
until he is transformed into a masque with varying expressions of
anxiety, while the beating of the gong sounds out the chaos.

The performance is an acknowledgement of our disintegrating
world -- of age-old forebodings come true -- but is perhaps also
a signal of hope for a new, better life. Within each bamboo
structure is a spear pointing at the artist's face.

Erawan -- considered one of the foremost avant-garde artists
who, in the 1980s, dared to break with the conventional -- never
left the culture and tradition into which he was born, but he
does not recreate the arts of old, either.

An allegorical description of how he works would be something
like the following: While standing with his two feet planted
firmly on the ground, he pulls down dilapidated buildings and
erects new ones. Substantiating his obsession with destruction,
any artwork he begins, starts with some type of wreckage. Tearing
up the canvas, burning holes into it, or spattering paint on it
are just a few examples. Then he starts his new creation.

Erawan's explorations in art stems from the Hindu cycle of
life, which believes in reincarnation, says art observer Putu
Wirata Dwikarya.

Erawan explains that one can start at any point in the cycle,
of which birth is usually considered the beginning. For him,
however, it is death and destruction from which he emerges toward
new life and growth, a process that is called peleburan, or
dissolution, as in the process of fusion. Destruction intrigues
him greatly not only because of the awesomeness of it, which can
be interpreted as beauty, but also because of the inherent
warning that life is not eternal.

His explorations of life through death comes from the
overwhelming curiosity Erawan feels about Ngaben, the Balinese
cremation ceremony. Pomp and splendor is burned away in just a
single day. His fascination with, and inspiration from, death and
destruction is in actuality a pondering of life and its temporary
nature, and of how one should live to be reborn as a better
person in the next life.

Perhaps it is the crumbling state of the world, heading
towards total destruction at the end of all time, that spurs
Erawan on, who seems never to tire of visualizing doom.

A checkered black-and-white cloth, cosmic mountains, coins and
the colors of the cardinal directions are used to convey the idea
of eternal change, grounded in the Hindu concept of reincarnation
that offers chances for improvement in another life.

Initially, his curiosity was aroused by the broken or burnt
remains of Ngaben, which he integrated in his pieces such as in
Puing-Puing Ngaben (mixed media, 60 x 50 cm, 1983). Continuing in
his explorations, however, he proceeded to produce more abstract
pieces integrating Balinese iconography as an accent, as in
Pralaya Matra CIX (60 x 60 cm, 1998) or in Citra 40 (2000).

Erawan, according to art critic Mamanoor, has now moved on
from visualizing the destruction of the material world to the
resurrection of destruction into new forms, the Balinese process
of reincarnation within the mind. Throughout this process, he
continues to be intrigued by the beauty that destruction offers
before transcending into new life.

Surprisingly, he now incorporates human figures in the series
Nir Suara (2000) -- figures in upside-down positions, moaning or
wailing silently. Our current realities?

Erawan was born in 1958 in Banjar Dlodtangluk, in the village
of Sukawati, Gianyar, and studied at the Indonesian Arts
Institute in Yogyakarta. Aside from being an artist, he is also a
krama adat, a member of the Balinese village council responsible
for tradition and custom, and participates in rituals and
ceremonies, including the preparations for Ngaben.

Tension between the traditional and the modern in Bali appears
to have influenced the way he transforms the traditional.

The holder of various art awards, Erawan has exhibited widely.
He is regarded as one of Indonesia's foremost contemporary
installation and performance artists, staging new forms of
Balinese Hindu rituals with the central theme of creation out of
destruction, linking the organic and inorganic.

The exhibition catalog is descriptive and includes comments
from Mamanoor, Putu Wirata Dwikora and Arief B. Prasetyo on
Erawan's work.

Pralaya: Proses kehancuran dan kebangkitan
Retrospective Exhibition
By Nyoman Erawan
Bentara Budaya Jakarta
May 2 to May 12