Made Sukadana, fresh talent in Indonesian fine arts

By Ipong Purnama Sidhi

JAKARTA (JP): Large format canvasses filled with spontaneous brush strokes and energetic ensembles of lines currently occupy the National Museum's exhibition room in Central Jakarta.

I Made Sukadana, a promising young painter, is exhibiting more than 20 works in a solo exhibition entitled Titi Ugal Agil that has enthralled local art experts and art lovers alike, ensuring a critical and commercial success.

This phenomenon is interesting amid the current climate in the fine art world, marked by uncontrolled prices and an elaborate trade network. Art collectors are aggressively chasing "newcomers" and young talents whose works are highly artistic and commercially viable. Made is one of their targets. These collectors understand perfectly the present map of the Indonesian art market.

Made's works, according to many collectors, are 'digestible' and easily understood by the market, yet Made's skills and talents are unquestionable.

Made's achievements lie in his mastery of technique and his talented skill in organizing a myriad of fine art elements into one superb composition. He has an impressively capable of modifying and improvising lines and colors in each of his works.

He always carefully calculates all of the materials used in his compositions, balancing subjects and background, as well as shapes and colors.

Made is clever in the well-ordered and appropriate arrangement of his subjects. His brush strokes are thick and heavy, especially when he uses color and creates light lines in contour objects.

On his canvasses, Made frequently creates spontaneous splashes of oil, adopting the art of batik-making techniques. Combined with oil-trickle, splash, and scrape, the batik painting technique has enriched Made's art works.

In the process of artistic creations, Made mostly relies on his natural instinct to express his freedom of mind. He possesses strong intuition mixed with emotion and sometimes wild imagination, reflected in his dynamic language of pictures and symbols.

Almost all of his works depict idiosyncratic and frightening scenes, often inspired by Hindu Bali's philosophy and mythology. The Balinese metaphors, symbols and drawings are manifested in Barong (mythical dragon-like creature) shapes.

Made also adopts themes from the Ramayana and Mahabharata epics, such as Arjuna Wiwaha, Ramayana, Srikandi Tanding, Karna Tanding and many others.

Made is very familiar with these themes and eloquently expresses them in many of his artworks. In works titled Jatayu Rahwana, or Kebenaran dalam Bara Api (The Truth in Blaze), Made portrays a scene in which Sinta, Rama's wife in the Ramayana, is burned. In both works, Made employs vigorous scraping techniques, creating incredibly powerful pictures.

In Karno Tanding, The Fight of Karno, he concentrates on detail, a reminder of traditional Balinese paintings which are usually occupied with numerous figures and backgrounds. The way he represents the detail tends to be so decorative.

He is fond of dark and heavy colors, creating magical and mysterious atmospheres as manifestations of the Balinese cosmological concepts -- microcosm and macrocosm.

One of his most interesting works is Titi Ugal Agil, which was selected as the title of his current exhibition. Here, Made is inspired by the Kamasan painting style, on the ceiling of Kertagosa ( Hall of Justice) in Klungkung Royal Palace, East Bali.

The painting symbolically illustrates the fate of humankind, which is determined only by a narrow bridge standing on the edge razors.

The painting has received wide criticism and is the artist's most contemplative work. Through this painting, Made is trying to reexplore Balinese people's beliefs concerning myths and religion. The people believe that a bridge can take a person to a dignified life, providing that he or she walks across it cautiously and is able to overcome all distractions.

Another of Made's works, Karno Tanding, measures an astonishing 2 meters x 5 meters.

For this young artist, it is important not to excessively exploit the same colors, techniques and styles, in order to avoid creating monotonous works. With his talent and skill, it is expected that he will be able to create even greater and more mature works in the future.

The current exhibition run through until April 25.

The writer is a curator at Graha Bentara Budaya.