Wianta, Balinese universal artist

Tarko Sudiarno, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta

Made Wianta looked restless to his friends gathered one evening at the Santika Hotel's coffee shop in Yogyakarta. It seemed that there was something on his mind that wanted to come out.

The intimacy and warmth shown by his colleagues, such as cultural observer Sindunata, painter Hendro Suseno, Hari Budiono of Bentara Budaya cultural house, Sisca of Basis magazine and writer Saut Situmorang, failed to ease his restlessness.

Wianta, a Balinese artist, stood up, picked up a black marking pen and approached his friend Arahmaiani. Wianta wrote the words "One face, one line" on her forehead.

It was a single-line poem that suddenly jumped into his mind and he could not resist the temptation to write it down on the only thing available -- Arahmaiani's forehead.

"We have known each other for quite a long time. When we were younger we were both hippies on Kuta beach. We would chat, drink and enjoy the sunset on the beach together without even knowing each other's name. It was only a long time later, when I saw her installation works, that I realized she also was an artist," said Wianta, explaining why he chose her face to write the verse.

His friends understand that every once in awhile, like that night, he will have bursts of inspiration and this one had to be expressed right away. That was why, he reluctantly explained, he chose the forehead of his friend as the medium of his art work that particular night.

"We met here some time ago, and I caught a similarity in our faces that night. That's why I felt like writing a poem to represent our meeting. A get-together like that is a rare occurrence in Bali," said Wianta, whose paintings are on display in various museums and art galleries in many countries.

As a versatile artist, Wianta can never feel peace when an idea or inspiration comes to him. He will use any medium available to express the idea. He has written hundreds of poems since 1970 in almost every kind of medium, and it is difficult sometimes to judge whether it is a work of art such as a painting or an installation work, or just simply a poem.

Sometimes while he is in the bathroom, he can write his poems easily and comfortably on a piece of toilet tissue. On other occasions, his poems are written on air tickets, bus tickets, performance programs, ashtrays, cigarette wrappers and any other item immediately at his disposal.

He said there was no special time that he would write down his poems. On nearly every occasion when his ideas hit him he immediately creates his works. He will use any opportunity -- whether flying on a plane, going to the bank, accompanying his wife shopping, going to the barber or tending a child in hospital.

Two collections of his poems have been published out of the hundreds of poems he has written. His first book, titled Matches that Burn A Fridge, which was edited by noted poet Afrizal Malna, presents the poems he wrote between 1979 and 1995. His second collection, titled 2 1/2 Minutes, compiles his poems from 1996 and 2000.

Although he has written hundreds of poems, Wianta does not want to be called a poet.

"For me, a label is not important. I'm not a poet, but an artist," he told The Jakarta Post.

Wianta is not only a poet or a painter. He is a universal artist as described in the book, Made Wianta - Universal Balinese Artist, published by Times Editions and written by Marc Bollansee and Urs Ramseyer.

Art work is not confined only to painting a canvas or putting words down on paper. Wianta uses every medium to express his ideas. Various works have been done through a natural medium, such as the sea, rocks on the beach, trees in a forest, rivers or rice fields.

In December 1999 on Padang Galak Beach in Sanur, Bali, Wianta held a spectacular event titled Art and Peace. This performance art, involving 2,000 high school students, was marked with the unfurling of a large, white cotton banner displaying various messages of peace in different languages.

The two-kilometer-long banner was dropped from a helicopter. For that project, Wianta forked out Rp 1 billion from his own pocket. He happily spent this huge amount of money for the sake of peace on Earth. At that time, he was restless and worried about the violence, murders and riots occurring in Indonesia.

Just like the time he wrote One face, one line on Arahmaiani's forehead, Wianta is an artist that cannot sit still. He is always overwhelmed with a restlessness to create his works.

Perhaps it was upbringing that influenced his life as an artist. He was born on Dec. 20, 1949 in Apuan village, Tabanan regency, Bali. His small environment was very close to Balinese customs and traditions.

During his childhood, Wianta was prepared to become a Balinese Hindu priest to replace his father, a Pemangku in the local temple. So he learned the prayers and ritual preparations in addition to Balinese customary art.

As a boy, Wianta danced the traditional Baris, and joined Drama Gong. Thanks to this conducive environment, his talents for painting and poem writing thrived while he was living in a village on the slope of Mount Lesung.

Unfortunately, he was not satisfied with what he learned from his parents and his environment. When he was a junior high school student, he rebelled against the establishment.

"When I entered adolescence, I left home and explored things I was not allowed to before. I tried everything and broke every rule. I didn't care if what I was doing was wrong or not. I just wanted to do what I had never done before. They (parents) stopped me from getting too close to fire, so I tried to hold it in my hands," said Wianta, a graduate of the Indonesian Fine Arts Academy (ISI) in Yogyakarta.

As a universal artist with many of his works earning him fame and now in the hands of international art collectors, Wianta remains an artist with an unquenchable desire to create. He always wants to create new dances, poems, paintings or installation works.

His mind will always keep ticking while his hands tremble with excitement when inspiration hits, like what happened that night with Arahmaiani. Fortunately, at that time he was moved to write only on her forehead, and not on another part of her body.