Laila Dempster's portraits reveal hidden emotions
Mehru Jaffer, Contributor, Jakarta
Lovely Laila Dempster has come a long way from the first portrait she sketched, of Adolf Hitler on the wall of her nursery. Today she has little idea as to what inspired her to make a drawing of the German dictator. But then, she was just three years old then, nearly six decades ago.
She continues to paint portraits but mostly of Javanese women now, and is able to say exactly why she loves doing what she does. She likes people, she adds and as an artist finds the faces of women extremely intriguing. She looks upon the countenance of each person as the jewel, really, and the rest of the body simply as an accessory.
Laila is fascinated with faces that tell her tales both joyous and sad, of women who come across as docile and yet determined. She points to a picture of an eight-year-old girl saying that it was the curious depth in the expression on her face that reminded Laila of a sage from ancient times and inspired her to paint the child. Yet another portrait of the Javanese Princess reveals how young and pretty the model is although her limpid eyes express a kind of wistfulness that seems far beyond her years.
Mother and Child is a picture symbolic of all those who know what it is to receive. This is the ultimate human being who has surrendered herself to the never ending cycle of emptying herself out by constantly giving for she knows that is the only way she can continue to receive from the endless ocean of life.
The tenderness of the mother is highlighted by bathing the model in a shower of light, making her chiffon thin veil, also a covering for the infant, totally transparent as if due to her inflamed generosity.
There is so much of hope and hunger hidden behind the kohl- smeared eyes of the Muslim girl wrapped in a veil that the portrait inspires the viewer to wish fervently that time will not blow to the wind everything that the girl seems to look forward to in life. The Woman from East Java is physically beautiful but she also comes across as an untiring portrait of struggle and much courage. In the painting, she has her best foot forward and that is all that matters for the moment.
Just like nature's light breathes life into the real world, Laila too dilutes all the paint on her palette to create an illusion of maximum light on canvas in the hope of spotlighting the feelings of her subject.
Laila likes to bring out the being inside of the body. What is seen at first glance does not interest Laila as much as all that is hidden inside, all the strengths and weaknesses that even her model is not aware of.
Laila is inspired to work this way probably due to her belief in the latihan (spiritual exercise) as taught to her by RM Muhammad Subuh Sumohadiwidjojo, founder of the Subud Brotherhood and a Javanese nobleman familiar with the ways of mysticism.
Born in Venezuela to a family from the British Foreign Office, Laila had traveled all over the world before she came to Indonesia. In Barcelona, Alfredo Sisquella, the Spanish painter and friend of Picasso, was her neighbor. Her family moved from Spain to Singapore when Laila was 11 years old and she found herself fascinated by the faces of Malay women. She began a series of drawings of women always from the back with the hair tied in a knot and resting at the nape of the neck. The women were dressed in batik often carrying a baby in a gendong or a cloth sling. She returned to England to attend art school.
"By western standards I was urbane and refined. But once confronted with the gentle ways of the very subtle lifestyle here, I felt gauche," confessed Laila, adding that when she first arrived here in 1971, she felt like a white elephant. The realization caused her much pain at that time but instead of running back home she decided to stay and find out what the Javanese have which she did not.
That was 30 years ago. And Laila is still here continuing to bask in both the cultural and climatic warmth of this place, having found the answer to some of the secrets of life and still in search of many more. Last year Laila visited England, and family and friends in Spain. She went on a journey in search of her roots and to see if she could finally settle down to live the rest of her life in Europe.
"After spending much time and money I decided I could not," she says. Over the years she discovered that most people in Western societies have clogged their minds, covered up their feelings and hardened their hearts. This is no way to live, she says. So she will live and work here, a place where she feels far closer to herself than anywhere else in the world.
The exhibition of paintings by Laila Dempster continues until Nov. 11 at the JakArt Gallery, S. Widjojo Center, Jl. Sudirman Kav. 71 ground floor.