Shul: Int'l experiment in installation and performance art
Shul: Int'l experiment in installation and performance art
By Jean Couteau
DENPASAR, Bali (JP): A challenging art experiment took place
in Bali (from April 6 to April 26 at Sika Gallery and April 9 to
April 23 at Gallery Sembilan): Shul, an international art event
by contemporary installation and performance artists. With Shul,
a Tibetan name for "imprint", Bali seems finally to be coming to
age as a platform of international art.
This was not the first time "international" encounters have
taken place on the island. Until recently, however, the word
"international" had, with regard to Bali, a connotation ill-
suited to the taste and action of contemporary artists. History
weighed heavily in the matter.
When Western artists settled in Bali in the 1930s it was, "in
the best case", to "teach the locals": Walter Spies and Rudolf
Bonnet "creating" the Pita Maha school of village artists in
Ubud. In the worst case, the Westerners fulfilled their exotic
dreams and sexual fantasies -- the effete boys and bare-breasted
women of international fame.
Some even married their models: Tarzan, Tintin and Gauguin
among the natives! And the myth is alas still alive! In the 1990s
at last, things started changing a little. "Cosmopolitan" artists
came to the island to create works beyond exotica, and some
started communicating on a equal footing with Balinese/Indonesian
partners.
A new mentality emerged. With many ups and downs, it is this
tendency which is now coming to fruition with the holding of
Shul: an artist event, the first installation show really created
in Bali "by artists", "for artists", in an atmosphere bereft of
the ambiguities of tourism and aimed at exposing the real
problems of the world. As the conceivers of Shul, motored by
Victoria Cattoni and Wayan Karja, announce in their manifesto:
"With Shul, we hope that as artists we can position ourselves to
be sensitive to the cultural, local, political shifts, however
small, and to find some new ground upon which to work
artistically and create a shared field of activity and dialogue."
They add that "it is our hope that Shul will set a precedent
for future collaborative installation projects in Bali, bringing
together artists from all backgrounds to explore new media and
concepts".
In the original concept, all the artists -- Wayan Karja
(Bali), the Sudamala Group (Bali), Victoria Cattoni (Australia),
Midori Hirota (Japan), Agoes Jolly (Jakarta), Michael Pinsky
(Scotland), Pande Ketut Taman (Bali), Hendrawan Riyanto (Java),
Cipung (Java) and Sigitas Staniunas (Lithuania) -- were to arrive
at least two weeks ahead of the event and create their works in a
collaborative exchange of ideas and materials.
This collaboration, however, didn't really materialize as the
budget, mostly self-financed by the artists, didn't allow for
such spare time. But the result achieved was nevertheless
impressive.
On the opening night at Sika Gallery, two performances drew
the most attention.
Hendrawan Riyanto and Cipung, sitting in front of a panel
drawn with colored lines representing the waves and feelings of
life, launched themselves into a long ritual wail calling down
among the humans, in sounds derived from the wayang puppet
master, the outer forces of the world.
Another impressive performance was Agoes Jolly's. Enmeshed in
a net full of fish, he slow shuffled forward, half-dancing half-
walking, in front of an imaginary outrigger made of colored
planks. A dramatic fisherman, he performed the slow upcoming end
of all sea life.
Victorial Cattoni provided the counterpoint to this
dramatization of the social. In slow, controlled gestures,
repetitively folding a kebaya (Indonesian blouse) and imprinting
floral patterns onto the ground, she underlined the ritualistic
role of the ordinary in life and ipso facto, enhanced it with a
poetic dimension.
On the poetic, meditative side was also a
painting/installation by the young Balinese painter Wayan Karja.
His work, made in collaboration with Hendrawan Riyanto,
represented an abstract version of the Balinese cosmic wheel or
Pangider-ider: a flat monochrome amber surface, with barely drawn
separations symbolizing the Pangider-ider. At the foot of the
painting, two Cili-shaped wooden pieces (symbols of the goddess
of rice) added an ecological connotation.
The last installation, by Pande Ketut Taman, was a flock of
wooden ducks accompanied by a clattering sound: the squeaking of
the ducks, real and symbolical. All in all, a very good show,
although in a somewhat cramped space.
The second evening, three days later at Gallery Sembilan,
was no less interesting.
Michael Pinsky presented a video criticism of the invasion of
daily life by all sorts of means of transportation: from stalls
on wheels to motorbikes, cars and trucks. By shooting his film in
exactly the same spot and shifting the images inside this natural
"stage", he skillfully managed to create on the screen the
impression of a continuum of vehicles.
Midori Hirota exhibited a tall, phallic shaped "pottery"
symbolizing both the cosmic mountain and the "Babel tower",
common home of modern Man. The Sudamala Group, founded by
students from the Denpasar ASTI School of Art, presented several
meshed wire figures in the throes of pain as their bodies are
transpierced by iron rods. Much of the attention of the public,
however, was caught by the multiple shows -- performance,
installation, paintings -- of Sigitas Staniunas.
His installation was a teepee made from local material. His
paintings featured eerily, outlandish romantic women in the mood
of the early 1800s. As for his installation, held under the
vrooming noise of helicopters, it represented the release of
balloons from the head of a youth and finished with a shadow map
of Indonesia. Indonesia's fate in a few images and gestures.
More could, and perhaps should be said of all these
performances and installations, now completed by a program of
seminars and artist forum encounters. But a general conclusion
has to be drawn.
Considering that these artists were brought together to Bali
without consideration of religion, nationality or political
ideology, one cannot but be happily surprised by what their
encounter has revealed. All these young men and women, be they
British, Japanese, Lithuanian or, of course, Indonesian, speak
about the same things: the balance of Man and Nature, human
brotherhood and peace. They are a ray of hope.
This is why, considering also the quality of the works and
performances presented, a single question has now to be answered:
when Shul II? Both Bali and Indonesia need a few more breezes of
fresh air.
The writer is an art critic and curator based in Denpasar