Waryadi goes bananas in his collages

Waryadi goes bananas in his collages

By Singgir Kartana

YOGYAKARTA (JP): Every cloud has a silver lining, so the age-
old adage goes. Waryadi, 72, who hails from Tanon village,
Colomadu, Surakarta, Central Java, found it to be true.

Had it not been for him tripping on a bunch of bananas, his
creativity would have remained latent and he would not be known
as, and recognized by the Indonesian Museum of Records (MURI) as,
Indonesia's first and only artist using the trunk and stems of
the banana plant as his main material.

"It was only by chance that I became interested in turning the
stems of a banana bunch into collages. One day in 1970 I tripped
over one. I picked it up and observed it closely. To my surprise,
I found the color and the texture forming something like a
painting. It immediately struck me that I could use them to make
a collage, he said.

Waryadi, born in Surakarta on June 4, 1928, began to paint
when he was in elementary school. Later he joined the Indonesian
Military (TNI) and in 1947 was assigned as an information
staffer. There, he got along well with fellow staffers, most of
whom were artists of some renown such as Suromo, Surono, Piek
Sapto Hoedoyo, Ooq Dukut Hendronoto and Srihadi. His experience
with them encouraged Waryadi to tap his gift for painting
further.

"Early in my career as a painter I used to paint human
figures. I cannot do this easily now because old age has impaired
my sight," he said with a smile.

Waryadi, who now owns his own arts workshop called Widoro
Kandang, once tried to make collages out of rice plant stems,
rice chaff, rice grains, calendar paper and broken pieces of
glass. Yet this technique fell by the wayside because it did not
satisfy him as fully as collages using the banana tree.

The trunk of banana tree is cheap. Indeed, it is close to
being worthless. However, in Waryadi's hands, it can be turned
into a collage no less attractive than an oil painting.

The texture and the color are very carefully arranged while
the accuracy and details of the pieces which form the collages
are close to perfect. At a glance, his collages never give
themselves away as being made of bits of the banana tree. Some
people can even be led to believe that they are oil paintings.

The dominant color in Waryadi's collages is the natural color
of the trunk of a banana plant -- cream with faint black streaks.
Waryadi never uses extra paint, believing that the natural color
of the trunk is much better than paint.

To date he has come up with some 50 collages, most of which
feature scenery. Some depict Borobudur and Prambanan temples,
while others show animals. His penchant for depicting scenery and
animals is attributable to his great love of Mother Nature.
Before devoting himself to collages, Waryadi's hobby was hiking
in the mountains.

Before he creates his collages, he first sketches a design in
chalk on a piece of plywood. Then he applies glue evenly all over
the surface of the board. This done, he places the stems of
banana bunches or banana leaves on the board to form a
background. Then he chooses parts of the banana tree trunk with
particular textures and colors. He places these parts on the
plywood board to cover the sketch that he has made.

While making a collage, Waryadi is often struck with ideas to
improve his creation. Sometimes, therefore, he has to remove the
pieces that have been glued to the board because they no longer
fit with his imagination. In short, he allows himself free reign
in experimenting with imaginative ideas.

Two years ago, for example, he discovered a way to incorporate
three dimensions into his collages. One of those which features
this technique is called Pohon Tumbang, Falling Tree. In this
collage, he placed the dried stems of a banana plant on the board
without bothering to put them in a particular arrangement. The
result is that the collage looks more like a piece of engraving.

Waryadi considers making these distinctive collages a special
challenge, not only creatively, but also when finding the right
materials. He only uses the trunk of the tree which produces the
squarish banana generally known as the kepok.

Only the dry trunk of a yellow kepok banana tree may be
collected. You cannot use a wet one and dry it under the sun. The
result will not be good, he says. Waryadi often has to travel far
to find the right material. Not infrequently, he goes up Bengawan
Solo River and even to Madiun in East Java in search of the
kepok.

Though aware that collage is still regarded as a craft rather
than an art, Waryadi never hesitates to display his works. He has
done so, either individually or jointly, a number of times
already. From June 7 through to June 14, 2000 he had his own
exhibition at Bentara Budaya Yogyakarta. Uniquely, in each
exhibition, Waryadi demonstrates how he makes his collages. No
wonder his exhibitions are always well-attended.

As a form of artistic expression, a collage needs not only
imaginative capability but also a high decree of accuracy and
perseverance. As technical skills are of paramount importance in
making a piece of collage, there is a tendency to classify
collage-making as a craft. This may be the reason why collages do
not usually provoke the interest of arts observers and critics.
Perhaps as a consequence we are yet to see a collage masterpiece.

There are other collage artists in the country, such as Cak
Kandar, who uses chicken feathers, and Soekanto, who uses
ceramics, but their popularity is short-lived compared with
artists producing other kinds of art.

There is indeed only a small space allotted for collages amid
the wave of modern and contemporary arts that has swamped
artists, art observers, art enthusiasts and art galleries alike.
Can Waryadi make his way into this world at all? Only time will
tell.