Mexican artist Polin explores eastern philosophy

Mehru Jaffer, Contributor, Jakarta

For Marisa Polin, moving from Mexico to the Netherlands was interesting enough. But two years ago, when she first visited Indonesia, the Mexican painter was transported, quite literally, into another world.

"There is a large Indonesian community in my neighborhood. Indonesian food is almost the national cuisine of Holland. So I presumed I knew a little about Indonesia, but nothing prepared me for what I experienced once I actually got here," Marisa said, as she prepared to open her first exhibition in Jakarta.

"I instantly fell in love with all the smiling faces around me," says Marisa, who feels that back home if you smile it is often suspected that you want something.

She does appreciate the hardworking, practical ways of the western world, but after being with people here and visiting temples and mosques she feels that there is much more to life than efficiency and material success alone.

What that is, she hopes, will be revealed when she follows in the footsteps of Miguel Covarrubias to Bali. Covarrubias was a Mexican painter and anthropologist who lived in Bali for three years in the 1930s and has left his impressions and sketches in a fascinating book called Island of Bali.

Marisa is now in the middle of reading that book and is also looking forward to finding out for herself what the magic of Bali is all about.

It was two years ago that Marisa came on a seven-day flying visit to Jakarta, Bandung and Yogyakarta.

"It was not a planned trip. I had read nothing before coming. I just followed my husband who came here for work," Marisa smiles.

She recalls that even during that short stay she could sense the thrill of being in the midst of so much diversity, as compared to most western societies, which are very orderly and uniform.

She is unable to get over the fact that two magnificent monuments pay homage to two different religions at Borobudur and at Prambanan temple complex. The first one is a Buddhist temple and the other devoted to the Hindu deities, Brahma, Shiva and Vishnu. Both have stood beside each other almost on the same premises for centuries. She finds this entire reality quite amazing and very inspiring.

Marisa likes to think that this is due to the extremely tolerant temperament of people here. She is amazed at the number of ethnic groups living in this country and practicing their own languages and cultures. When societies become too homogenized they rob themselves of the spice of life, she feels, adding that monotony is uninspiring.

As a Mexican, she regrets that Spanish conquerors had to destroy an entire civilization of native Indians before they could make South America their new home. She prefers to build upon the past, instead of trying to wipe away memories, which she believes is not possible anyway.

While it is possible to physically destroy people and places, something more intangible, like memories and influences, continue to live with us and haunt us.

She tingled with so many sensations after her Indonesian visit that she titled her series of paintings Senses. For two years, she has painted nothing but senses in all its various nuance and meanings.

Now she is so satiated from exploring the word that the series will finally be laid to rest with The Last Sense, the title of the exhibition she has brought with her to Jakarta, comprising 54 works of acrylic on paper.

The extreme excitement and exhaustion of the last two years has perhaps inspired her to give the traditionally vertical figures a break and to work with horizontal lines.

In her work, some faces are in a deep, almost Buddha-like repose. Asked if she was trying to capture the different moods of the Buddha from Borobudur temple, Marisa said she does not recall making a conscious attempt to do so.

She gets the feeling that people here are still in touch with nature and the earth. Even before she came here her work was full of color and the desire to figure out the relationship between heaven and earth, which was probably inspired by the fertility folk tales of the native Indian community of Mexico.

She is interested in knowing what her roots are and who her ancestors were, perhaps because she is continuously on the move.

Born and brought up in Mexico she is married to a Dutchman and they live in The Hague. She now plans to spend a few weeks in Bali.

During her talk with the Post, Marisa spoke to her five-year- old son Gabriel in three different languages (Spanish, Dutch and English) answering all his queries patiently but also requesting him not to interrupt her.

Wherever she is, she tries to make herself at home. She feels the best way to continue being close to the place where you grew up is to be far away from it.

The eastern way of life has also taught her the virtue of patience and that the "time is money" motto does not always work. While here, she feels that it is OK to wait. She has observed how each task seems to have its own momentum.

Above all, that death is not the end of life. Thinking philosophically helped her to overcome the death of her father and the birth of Gabriel made her accept that death and birth are all part of life.

The physical and psychological effect of migration is another topic that she likes to play with. Her conclusion is that each one of us is a traveler and in a permanent state of nostalgia. Those like her, move from one place to another but others travel in time.

Marisa has a very graphic way of putting this thought on paper by superimposing drawings one upon the other sometimes creating a sense of depth and at other times creating a very flat effect, just like the tug and pull of time on life.

Colors are what stand out in her work and after her visit to Central Java, there are glimpses now of typical dyes used in the batik of Yogyakarta. Her painting, Me, is also enlarged to include many more dimensions and a variety of moods. It is a matter of great curiosity now to find out what Marisa will put on paper after her month long sojourn in Bali?

The Last Sense will be open to the public at La Casa de Mexico, Jl. Panglima Polim III No. 1-3, Kebayoran Baru, South Jakarta until May 12 daily from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.