'Made Wianta's Evolution' rocks Tokyo Station Gallery

By Putu Wirata

DENPASAR (JP): Balinese artist Made Wianta, 51, is back to shock the overseas art community. Last year, he had an exhibition, Catur Yuga, in a museum in Basel, Switzerland, and since Oct. 10, through the end of the year, Wianta's works have been exhibited at the Tokyo Station Gallery.

This unique gallery was actually built in 1914 as a train station, and was once bombed by the United States army during World War II.

In his exhibition in Tokyo, titled Made Wianta's Evolution, Wianta exhibits a retrospective of hundreds of his works.

"I am personally pleased, this is something I am proud of because they (the organizers) handle everything professionally," Wianta commented.

What brought him to the Tokyo Station Gallery was the East Japan Railway Station and The Yomiuri Shimbun, a foundation which is funded by telecommunications company NTT Data Corporation.

Wianta was not only pleased, he was also touched, because exhibiting the evolution of his art is a demanding task. Wianta's works consist of hundreds of paintings, thousands of sketches and other works in various mediums.

These mediums include tissue paper, metal sheets, nails, roots, tree trunks and various other tridimensional art works, which, in order to display, requires intense patience and professionalism.

Preparations for the exhibition, handled by the Tokyo branch of the Cipta Budaya foundation and headed by Made Bandem, took more than three years. The Tokyo Station Gallery is an esteemed gallery which once hosted an exhibition of the works of Leonardo Da Vinci, including the famous Mona Lisa.

"This is the first time ever in my life, to have an exhibition with such a high-level of professionalism," Made said.

NTT Data, the main sponsor of the event, is an influential company in Japan's computing industry. However, aside from its high tech supremacy, NTT Data has begun to pay attention to the aesthetic world of arts and culture.

Why did NTT Data choose to sponsor Wianta? Dr. Shoji Yamasiro, an intellectual who is earnest about Balinese artwork, is impressed with Wianta's productivity and creativity. Shoji, who was involved in the collection of information regarding Wianta's works, noticed that Wianta is so dedicated that he never wastes time.

"He can work anywhere; in a toilet, on a train, in a waiting room and, obviously, in his studio", Shoji commented.

Wianta's works which are on display in the Tokyo Station Gallery depict the artist's journey. From the beginning of his career in the 1970s, what he calls the Karangasem Period, when Wianta painted on plain paper and cheap canvasses, he created his surrealistic works.

This was a trying period for Wianta, unable to afford proper canvases or paint. Yet, he never gave up.

"That was because the creative drive inside me can be expressed through any type of available medium," he explained. If all he had was paper and cloth, that would be enough to accommodate his creative drive.

During the 1980s, Wianta began to use proper canvases, painting dots all over the canvas. The theme for his "dot" paintings were often from nature: the moon, a mountain, a beach or a tree.

Still working in dots, Wianta began to paint geometric themes: triangles, squares, pentagons and his play on the perspectives of rooms. Soon, dots and geometric themes were not sufficient to express his creative drive, so Wianta began a period of expressionism.

Wianta began to create works of abstract expressionism, even surprising tridimensional works. He "dances" with a peeler made from metal, creating his work titled Worms. He shapes torsos from shards of stone and turns a hair clip into a composition which depicts boredom.

Once, in his home village of Apuan, Wianta composed a music accompaniment for dances taken from the concept of pengelamusan, which is an ironsmith's tool which creates hissing sounds when used. Another time, from the top of a steep cliff, Wianta threw out a ball of fire which flew like a meteorite, and, like a child, he was fascinated. It was these stories, and other like them, which made Yoshi Yamasiro decide to exhibit Wianta at the Tokyo Station Gallery.

The question now is whether Wianta's works can equal those of Leonardo Da Vinci's. The answer to that question is difficult, however, holding an exhibition where works of art such as the Mona Lisa once hung is something to be proud of. Especially since Wianta manage to sell six of his works for Rp 2 billion (US$250,000). A fantastic price for an Indonesian painter.