Made Wianta [1949, Bali (Indonesia)]

1. Made Wianta [1949, Bali (Indonesia)]

2. http://www.baliselection.com/balimap.html http://www.i-love-china.net/map-of-indonesia/ • Ubud • Sanur Wianta’s Bali • Population: 3,891,000 (2010), • 92.29% are Balinese Hinduism (2000) • Most of the remainder follow Islam Bali is home to most of Indonesia's small Hindu minority. It is renowned for its highly developed arts, including traditional and modern dance, sculpture, painting, leather, metalwork and music. But been the largest tourist destination in Indonesia, there was great fear within Balinese society that traditional Balinese culture and the Balinese identity might be pushed to extinction.

3. http://www.clairebrownrealty.com/rice-location.htm Who is he? Apuan • http://www.baliselection.com/balimap.html • Born on 20 Dec 1949 in the village of Apuan, Tabanan, Bali • Exhibited at Venice Biennale in 2003 • A multi-modal artist. He works with poetry, painting, installation and performance art • Strong sense of environmental awareness and social & cultural responsibility (esp. towards Balinese culture) • Fascinated by the works of Dali and Klee (developed his own Surrealism) Lake Bratan in Bedugul Bali http://explore-id.blogspot.com/2010/07/lake-bratan-in-bedugul-bali.html http://www.fotopedia.com/items/6nf9pniglhbor-Aeum9U44yKE http://getahead.rediff.com/slide-show/2009/jun/30/slide-show-1-travel-bali-the-island-of-the-gods.htm

4. Traditional Balinese Painting • Traditional Balinese painting was understood as a form of prayer, if not to the Gods, then to the local palace, perceived as an embodiment of the holy. Artists would thus labor at the palace to demonstrate their loyalty to the king, or work at the temple to demonstrate their loyalty to the religious community.  • As in traditional dance and wayang kulit puppetry the classical paintings acted as a morality play portraying both good and evil behavior. Heroic figures were usually on the right side and evil ones placed on the left. The Ramayana and Mahabharata, both classic Hindu epics, were the main themes for the paintings.

5. Traditional Balinese Painting • The theme of traditional Ubud paintings was around the wayang, including stories of the gods and popular folk stories. Most importantly, this art was an expression of the community. Artists never signed their work, and they were always proud if their students copied their work. To have their work imitated meant they had attained the status of a guru, the highest honor for a Balinese. • This collective nuance has thus become a kind of mainstream within the local art world, the point from which local artists depart and the point at which they converge. It is also the cause for lack of change and innovation among Balinese painters.  Artists have remained loyal to their collective styles, in spite of the input of scores of foreign artists from Java, Lombok, Europe and America upon their works. 

6. Traditional Balinese Painting • The colors were muted in the traditional paintings but that changed with the advent of Ubud style paintings. Famous European artists such as Walter Spies and Rudolf Bonnet, who lived in Bali in the 1930's introduced vibrant colors, painting single scenes rather than narrative stories and paintings of people from everyday life rather than religious, heroic figures. In the 1960's Dutch artist Arie Smit encouraged and instructed many budding artists and created a naive style of genre painting called "Young Artists". Today, these famous styles have evolved and are exhibited in the museums and galleries throughout the island. Oleg Tambulilingan, by Anak Agung Gede Sobrat. Courtesy of Bali Bangkit

7. Wianta’s Art Philosophical Overview: • Life as Total Artwork – he sets out from this point to seek harmony • Wianta’s works are results of his attempts in producing a harmony that he feels is missing in reality. This harmony may be missing because of the Balinese culture’s resistance to change. Balinese culture is resistant to change because (i) it is very strong and (ii) there is fear of the loss of Balinese identity. • To Wianta, harmony is missing in reality as a result of the following opposing forces: (i) Tradition/customs (Balinese) vs contemporary/modern, (ii) local (Balinese) vs foreign, (iii) local (Balinese) vs global, (iv) permanence vs change and (v) religious (Balinese Hinduism) vs secular

8. Wianta’s Art Philosophical Overview (cont’d): • Therefore, through his Art, Wianta advocates reconciling and evolving with instead of rejecting the unfamiliar, the new, the foreign and the strange • Also, Wianta does not want to be trapped in Balinese Orientalism. He has lain bare the ghosts of his Balinese subconscious. • “Everything is part of everything.” • Calls himself Balinese artist and citizen of the world

9. Wianta’s Art Background to Wianta’s Artisitic Philosophy: • Born into a Hindu family and married to an influential Javanese Muslim lady, Wianta has learned that religion can create conflicts and he therefore prefers philosophy • Violence: 1965-Indonesia military took action against communists • As a young man, he saw how people were killed or severely wounded. • By the early 90s, Made had become a mature artist whose concern for social and political issues had grown to such a level that he felt an inner compulsion to act and begin supporting victims of violence, natural catastrophes and epidemics.

10. Wianta’s Art Background to Wianta’s Artisitic Philosophy (con’td): • Wianta faces the conflict of defining the Self freely but still requires society for that definition. – torn as he is between the communal values in Bali and intense desire for self-determination. • Peace or harmony is necessary for the Balinese. The Baliness crave for the state of quietness they crave in this Island of theGods. • Progress towards a more advanced stage wherein the lust for power and desire to impose ideas or achieve prosperity through violence must disappear. • Violence as a meeting point between desire and destruction. • His philosophy of peace also reflects the limits of life space and the power of human ideas.

11. Reconciling Seemingly Opposites • “There is no need to talk about God, as God is always there – in ourselves.” • His “action” paintings have roots in dance & calligraphy influenced by Japanese writing signs • Ritual-like (“sakti” means “energy”) • Believes in the self as responsible, creatively competent individual • His modernity is determined by Buddhist & existential philosophy

12. Made & Contemporary Art • Real abundance of culture in daily life • Constantly experimenting, trying to push abstraction into a new dimension • His artworks pay attention to form, aesthetics, rhythm & movement & tackle global & essential subject matter & above, challenge the viewer by freshness &inventiveness.

13. Change as a Permanent System • Asian cyclical concept of time – no fracture between tradition and modernity • His works have no clearly recognizable start or ending • Change in his work always directed forwards.

14. On Religion • Does not identify himself with one true religion & philosophy of life acknowledges the worth of every human being. • Global symbols such as crosses, triangles, swastikas and mandalas.

15. Secular Themes • Openness to other cultures • Not only interested in possibilities offered by Science but fascinated by processes leading to scientific discoveries & new technologies • Technology is not an end in itself

16. Modernity & Universality • Looks for the fundamental & elementary in all aspects of the visible & tangible world • Zero, the void “sunya” is the ultimate way of thought, the real knowledge which supercedes all time-bound opposites • The individual as the storage room of images • Presents an alternative aesthetic universe, warning of dangers of a collapsing vital & cultural environment

17. Wianta’s Art Specifics: • His contribution to the development of art in Bali is his tendency to leave out all realistic figurative representation while emphasizing the concept of space, patterned repetition and the strength of colour which show a structure akin to Bali which is fresh, glamorous and bright. • In Wianta’s works, geometric shapes are filled in using “sigar mangsi” (colour gradation) technique of Balinese painting.

18. Wianta’s Art Specifics (cont’d): • Some of his paintings may be described as Balinese Hindu abstract expressionism • His calligraphy is inspired by various writings from the East which is then combined with repetition of dots • In his installation work Made Wianta seems to make a pilgramage through space and time, beyond the consciousness of form and events. Wianta always tries to say the unsayable from the hidden piles of reality.

19. Wianta’s Artistic Phases • Karangasem period (went to Karangasem in East Bali after short stay in Yogyakarta 1978)1978-84 (impressed by ethnic motifs) • Dot period 1985-90 (Batik, beads & decorative patterns in Asean art & Balinese ceremonies & temple decorations) • Quadrangle period 1987-90 (devoted to geometry) • Triangle period 1988-94 (dominating triangles in compositions) • Assembling period 1990 (dynamic works of acrylic on plywood) • Calligraphy period 1987-1999 (Zen-inspired) • Mixed media period 1992-present • Installations 1995 –present (Deconstruction of the urban landscape )

20. 2 components of Wianta’s Artistic Phases • Modern – rooted in 20th Century, content is cosmic & universal • Postmodern – feature the interaction between man, nature, information & technology

21. 2 components of Wianta’s Artistic Phases • Modern – rooted in 20th Century, content is cosmic & universal • Postmodern – feature the interaction between man, nature, information & technology

24. Karangasem period 1978-84 • Wanted to have it out with a basic element – meeting earth in her virginal forms • Designed his personal motifs • Transcended his own environment • -spirits & demons of his dreams & obsessions– surreally lyrical, representational imagery, in very ‘differently Balinese’ images, sensitive and mysterious, with strength of point and line • Started to develop a formal language by reacting strongly to simple forms & structures

27. Dot period 1985-90 • Characterised by multiple use of colour dots which shine like glittering jewels • Like pointilism found in work of French Impressionists • Dots arranged in decorative geometrical structures

31. Quadrangle period 1987-90 • Squares & rectangles dominate & allow him to experiment with structures, colour & space • Translating his ideas of repetition and balance

36. Triangle period 1988-94 • Representations of cosmological order in Hindu religion

37. Dot toTriangle Period late1980s-early 1990s In the late ’80s and early ’90s, Wianta used optical effects derived from combinations of square, triangular and even circular shapes, superimposed with layers of lines in colours of differing graduation. These works revealed an organization of design in which line and colour were carefully measured. In his ‘Archetypes’ series, Wianta has felt the need “to return to my roots” by painting mature variations of these cubic, linear and rectangular compositions. “These forms” he asserts, “are the elemental building blocks that distinguish man from nature.” Archetypes

38. From Ornamental to Architectural • Core artistic material in the cultural traditions of Bali is infused with ornamentation, decoration and this passion is clearly on display in the work of Wianta • Offers a new dimension to the meaning of ornamentation • Wianta’s work reminds us of Piet Mondrian’s Broadway Boogie Woogie (1942-43) in so far as Wianta also creates a three-dimensional architectural space. • Whereas Mondrian was abstracting the physical space of New York, the architectural spaces of Wianta tend more towards an abstraction of cultural values, representing the dynamism of life in Bali, Indonesia and the world.– in his collage of symbols

39. From Architectural to Spiritual • Circle/triangle/square = geometrical or symbolic signs • He transposes the vital energy, soul & spirit of these forms into the visible world • His paintings bear titles related to spatial & time orders • Colour starts to play a very special role in his architectonic paintings • (Logically, he started to link 2 legendary Balinese traditions through a new modern concept: kesanggingan or painting and keudagian or architecture. Both traditions are characterised by the fact that their best examples have always been created upon the basis of systematic natural connections & religious concepts. In Bali, there is no distinction between sacral & the profane: transitions are smooth.

40. Summary of the above works • He is an artist who, continually for many years, has been building up an artistic, cultural and philosophical experience based on the observation of elemental nature, of basic structures and "architectural" forms of spatial order. • In his imaginary world the elemental, the original, the core of all things are in the centre: "In order to be as close to truth as possible one has to get to the bottom of things. This is the only way I can ask the really existential questions and transpose them with artistic means into aesthetic models."

41. Interpretations of the above works • Uses color and form on canvas. • Colours and various geometric forms, conveying emotions and a deep sense of spirituality. • Influenced by Japanese brush painting and infused his calligraphy works with signs and symbols expressing his relationship to the forces of nature • His intuitive reactions to the phenomena of the world around him are reflected in diverse installation works • During his early career, Wianta studied the Balinese classical wayang style of painting from master artists in Kamasan, Klungkung. His drawings of Balinese spirits and creatures has novel, peculiar and personalized shapes. When he used colours, the works were similar in structure to his drawings but did not have figurative elements. Instead, he began painting in a kind of abstraction that systematically used small dots of colour with a mixture of linear contours and flat surfaces. Then he went on to create geometrical constructions that combined spontaneous calligraphic strokes. His work is represented in the collection of The Neka Museum in Ubud Bali. He also does installations and performance art to convey his concerns about social and cultural change.

43. Assembling period 1990 • Series of rhythmic forms with vibrant colours against monochrome backgrounds • Focused on contrasts between dimension & space • Deconstruction plays a major role

50. Calligraphy period 1987-1999 • Range from carefully controlled style to the dynamic, ink-splattering style of great Zen calligraphers • Analogous to music or nature • Dances around his canvas & moves in body in a dynamic way • Represents icons of a higher universal culture rather than icons of mass culture • Represents the depths of virtual space using optical effects derived from combinations of square, triangular, even circular shapes, superimposed with layers of lines in colors of differing gradation • Borrowed pre-existing material: drawings, writing, music, culturally meaningful signifiers, all as references to form to be deconstructed and remade into other, different forms. • Each work becomes a text open to interpretation, an elemental sign or set of signs, becomes itself. • It could be that there is an empty bubble devoid of meaning within and this may well be the place where we find a mere fragment of a reflection that will itself visit our thoughts.