Village artists show continuous flow of creativity

I Wayan Juniartha ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Sanur   |  Thu, 11/19/2009 10:22 AM  |  Surfing Bali

Carving nature: The great white monkey warrior Hanoman of the Ramayana epic inspired I Ketut Muja, one of the most respected sculptors of Singapadu, when he created The Hero root-carving.

Whereas most exhibitions these days display the works of a solo artist or bring together many creative talents sharing a similar esthetic ideology, the fine arts exhibition at Sanur’s Griya Santrian Gallery has gone down a very different path.

Titled “Singapadu: A Village Creates Itself”, the exhibit centers on Singapadu, a small village 15 kilometers northeast of Denpasar, Bali.

All of the participating artists come from the surrounding area, still a haven of peace with its towering trees, eyes-soothing green rice fields, rustic temples and mazes of dirt roads.

For decades, this village has been acknowledged as one of the island’s main tourist destinations. The Barong Kunti Sraya performance, featuring the mythical lion-like Barong and hordes of entranced, bare-breasted men stabbing themselves with kris daggers, and the beautiful padas stone statues, are two of the most popular icons of this village.

Yet, the exhibit underlines an often forgotten fact about this place; that it gave birth to generations of creative and committed artists.

Modern touch: Bleu self-portrait, a more contemporary artwork created by Ni Nyo-man Sani, hangs besides more traditional Singapadu art at the exhibition.

Organized by the Association of Singapadu Artists, the exhibit features the works of 58 talented individuals from many art disciplines; painters, sculptors, carvers, photographers and puppet-makers. The artists span several generations of Singapadu creative minds, with the oldest — who participated in the exhibit posthumously — born in 1890 and the youngest in 1989.

To a large extent, the exhibit is a visual record of the fine art development in Singapadu as well as the peaks of its esthetic achievements.

Prof. I Wayan Dibia, noted choreographer and one of the brightest minds of Singapadu, stated that mask making was probably the first esthetic activity the Singapadu people fell in love with.

“Mask-making and mask dance performance have existed in this village for centuries. Later on, the Singapadu people started delving into sculpting and painting,” he said.

The development of arts in Singapadu, Dibia noted, could not be separated from the influence of the local royal family at Puri (Palace) Singapadu. The Singapadu people believe that Ida Cokorda Api, a ruler of that palace in ancient times, was the creator of the mask dance drama performance.

Members of the royal family, he stressed, have not only played a pivotal role as the generous patrons of the arts but also as accomplished creators of art themselves. The descendants of Ida Cokorda Api — the late Cokorda Oka Tublen and Cokorda Raka Tisnu — rose to prominence as excellent mask makers, whose services are widely sought by traditional communities in Bali.

But strong traditional roots have not trapped the Singapadu artists inside a paralyzing cage of cultural chauvinism. Dibia underlined how the Singapadu artists have always embraced outside influences and new developments.

“One of the finest example of this spirit of cultural exploration and open-mindedness is the story of two brothers, I Wayan Pugeg of Sengguan and I Ketut Muja of Mukti hamlet,” he said.

In the early 1970s, Pugeg and Muja, two skilled mask makers, decided to explore sculpting. They left Singapadu to learn from two realist sculptors, I Wayan Komplit and I Made Rondin of Penatih village.

“Later on, they used the knowledge they acquired from their teachers to create their own style,” Dibia stated, adding that the ability to combine their traditional roots with outside influences to create a new style has always been the strong point of Singapadu artists.

Pugeg and Muja experimented with abandoned roots of trees, carving esthetic forms without disrupting the natural shapes of the trees, thus, giving birth to the art of root carving that gained a huge following in Singapadu.

The exhibition stood out for its ability to preserve the traditional heritage and at the same time enrich it with carefully selected and adapted elements brought by modern influences.

In the most prominent side of the exhibit hall stood Arjuna Tapa a root-sculpting masterpiece created by I Wayan Pugeg, the founder of the root-sculpting movement, in 1980. It represents Balinese traditional art in all its splendor; inspired by Hindu epic, and so elaborately carved that each nook and cranny holds a surprise.

Next to the sculpture, paintings created by the youngest breed of Singapadu artists, who were trained in modern schools, embrace contemporary values and speak about modern issues. From Sugantika’s Managing the Mind, a composition of meandering drawing upon receipts and invoices from numerous shops and banks, to Sani’s  Bleu self-portrait, the modern artworks are free from obvious reference to the traditional roots of their creators.

Yet, there is nothing strange, nothing alien, in that coming together of the traditional and modern. It is as if they are all belonged to the same group and were meant to stand side by side.

“Probably because they are all different symbols of a similar endeavor; a continuous search for a fulfilling esthetic, which has been carried out in our village forever,” Dibia noted.

— Photos by I Wayan Juniartha


Singapadu: A Village Creates Itself

A Fine Arts Exhibition
Oct. 30-Dec. 15, 2009
Griya Santrian Gallery
Jl. Danau Tamblingan 47, Sanur
Phone: 0361288181

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