Wayan Sujana's maternal longings shape his paintings
Wayan Sujana's maternal longings shape his paintings
By Putu Wirata
DENPASAR, Bali (JP): The themes of women, their inner
exploration and their gender perspective are a major trend among
artists -- especially feminist ones.
Wayan Sujana, a graduate of the Denpasar Arts Institute
(STSI), sees women differently.
"My own personal view on women neither concerns gender
perspectives nor their sensuality," said Wayan Sujana, who was
born in Banjar Lepang, Klungkung, East Bali.
In his solo exhibition titled Perempuanku, (My woman) at
Vanessa Fine Arts Gallery in Ubud, Sujana has made female figures
his main subject matter, but his approach to them is different.
His longtime obsession with all things maternal is vividly
expressed on his canvases.
For Sujana, using women as his subject matter is very
personal. There have been many questions about the women -- what
kind of women, why these women -- who appear on his canvasses.
A mixed-media painting on canvas entitled Selamat Pagi
Perempuanku (Good Morning My Woman) delineates a beautiful woman
with well-rounded hips. Wearing an orange headband, she is
portrayed against a gloomy background expressing a moody and dark
atmosphere.
In a painting titled Terbelenggu, (Shackled), he symbolically
portrays a woman carrying a basket. Her tight skirt is slitted, a
depiction of Balinese women trapped within tradition and
modernity.
Sujana, however, is incapable of explaining his artistic and
thematic concepts. "It's a spontaneous expression," he said.
He admitted that he feels like he is releasing a heavy burden
when drawing female figures on canvas. "Like meditation, it
reaches a tranquility," he said. The rest, he adds, he really
doesn't understand.
Sometimes he tries to simplify a complicated concept in his
mind. The paintings called Perempuan Bermuka Celeng, (A Woman
with a Pig Face) Berguru pada Ganesha (Learning From Ganesha) and
Trying to Calm One's Self, are astounding works that show Sujana
taking on a wider subject than an obsession with a mother figure.
His mother died when Sujana was still a baby. A woman next
door kindly breast-fed the motherless Sujana and treated little
Sujana as her own son.
A tight emotional link between the woman and her foster son
developed. "I have always regarded her as my own mother and when
I realized she was not mine, I experienced a hollow feeling
inside," recalled Sujana.
For the last two to three years Sujana has automatically drawn
a woman's silhouette whenever he worked on a canvas. Sometimes
he has experimented with Balinese icons -- such as using bold
colors. He approaches Balinese philosophy in a contemporary way
-- in opposition to the mainstream abstract expressionism genre
adopted by his predecessors from the Sanggar Dewata Indonesia art
community, which has dominated the modern Balinese fine arts
world for the last 20 years.
Most artists grouped in Sanggar Dewata Indonesia use Balinese
symbols as a statements of their self-identity. Sujana, on the
other hand, tries to release himself from these collective
artistic and cultural values.
Cultural icons like garuda statues, temples and padma
(lotuses) are used to express his obsessions.
A women with loose hair like Queen Dirah with a gaping mouth,
gigantic tusks and bulging eyes reminds us of the visual
expressions of traditional artists, sculptors and masks makers.
From a sociological perspective, Sujana's works are a new form
of Balinese communal art.
Like Nyoman Gunarsa who explores Wayang Kamasan puppetry in
his pastel-colored paintings, Sujana's inspirations could be
derived from female demons, or even the sensuality and beauty of
Balinese women that is always portrayed in traditional Balinese
paintings and sculptures.