Mythological images featured in Bali painter's new exhibit
Mythological images featured in Bali painter's new exhibit
JIMBARAN, Bali: Painter Astari Rasjid will hold her year-end
exhibition called Wings and Excursions at Ganesha Gallery in Four
Seasons Resort at Jimbaran Bay starting from Dec.11, 2000 through
Jan. 12, 2001.
Astari's works are blend of contemporary and traditional
elements as she said, "Contemporary lifestyle can benefit from
the mythology of goddesses who are appointed with the divine task
of guiding and transforming humans. My purpose is to re-invent
them as actualized images that touch upon today's issues."
Throughout her career, Astari has often depicted herself as a
Javanese bride, in search of her identity between the polarities
of traditional culture and the contemporary events engulfing a
nation struggling to discover its own identity and path.
In this series of paintings she has expanded her vision to
portray herself as a series of fragile winged goddesses also on
the path of self discovery. Her yearning for flight is a symbol
of the hope of liberation.
She also acknowledged the danger of failure so well expressed
in the myth of Icarus, whose exuberant yet presumptuous flight
resulted in death when his artificial wings melted in the rays of
sun.
Noble intentions with an undercurrent of fear are an essential
feature of Astari's work. Though superficially harmonious and
elegant this is most easily seen in her penchant to idealize her
features not to deceive but rather as a reflection of the
cultural obsession of the Javanese to achieve perfection in the
eyes of the community. In this she consciously treads a thin line
between the taboo of narcissism and self-deprecatory humor.
Her intricate, meditative compositions exude both deep
feelings and thoughts, but with a strong of sense of irony and
even helplessness.
This evident in Solitaire where she depicts herself of a
poised goddess in a red evening gown and bat-like wings
collecting frequent flyer points against a sumptuous background
of red and gold. While Solitaire and Shackled Cinderella, showing
a goddess burdened with too much excess baggage as a symbol of
materialism are modern goddesses.
Astari also draws inspiration from Indonesia's great
mythological past. Three of the most poignant paintings are Dewi
Sri, the pre-Hindu goddess of rice; Saraswati, the goddess of
knowledge and literature here depicted as a housewife and the
fearsome Dewi Durga, the goddess of destruction and
transformation.
The strength in Astari's compositions and her chosen subjects
lies foremost in her ability to balance dualistic opposites from
all planes of human and aesthetic experiences.
Through this ability to balance, she has touched upon the
fundamental aim of Balinese, Javanese and Indonesian culture--to
create and maintain balance and harmony on all planes of human
existence in the image of the celestial realms. (Ganesha Gallery)